#434 - Are Sequel Prequels Equal?

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

A whole bundle of good stories, telling tales from the point of view of villains, and we kick off our reading of A Master of Djinn by P. Djèli Clark.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/64860897
http://swordandlaser.com/home/2022/4/...
https://soundcloud.com/swordandlaser/...

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

And we lost the video because of Riverside FM losing Tom.

[Joanna]

As for more symphatethic Sauron: it had been done, but is hard to find thanks to the Tolkien Estate. See The Last Ringbearer.

[Trike]

Veronica wrote: "And we lost the video because of Riverside FM losing Tom."

Did Riverside trace its steps and look in the last place it remembered it put Tom? Check the couch cushions.

[Chris K.]

Jacqueline Carey's Sundering duology (Banewreaker and Godslayer) is told from the perspective of the supposed bad guys.

[TRP]

Veronica was trying to remember a book series with a couple of guys in a fantasy setting, one of whom is an elf.

I think she was thinking of former "Sword" pick Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

[Shad]

Excellent point Tom about being a little wary about comparisons to 2020. Pandemic restrictions would have restricted access to libraries, which could have had an impact on ban requests.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Tom points to three novellas by the author but only one is one of the three prequel novellas to the novel. Ring Shout and The Black Gods Drums are good but have nothing to do with Master of Djinn. Sorry Tom.

[Veronica, Supreme Sword]

TRP wrote: "Veronica was trying to remember a book series with a couple of guys in a fantasy setting, one of whom is an elf.

I think she was thinking of former "Sword" pick Theft of Swords by ..."

Did Jim bleep out the thing? I guess not lol

[Jan]

I am not a fan of of Max Landis but I vaguely remember that he talked at one time about "flipping the premise" and thereby creating completely different stories.

And the example he used was this cop who was betrayed by his mentor who then abducted the cop's pregnant wife. Years later the evil mentor returns, but it turns out the cop's kids survived and were hidden away from him and now his mentor, son and daughter fight him. He manages to kill the mentor, but the kids are continuing to fight him and so on...

I feel that's a very interesting idea. Shift genre, flip the premise and you have completely new story,

[Jan]

Which makes me kinda think: Is "Blade Runner" a flipped premise? Because normally if you have the robots who are used as slave soldiers who manage to escape and then are hunted down by a government killer - we would normally be on the side of the robots not the killer, right? ;-)

[Iain]

You can’t blame Rob for Rivers of London. He just has the good taste to support the Nomination

[John (Taloni)]

And the next book in the series is out tooooo-DAY!

[Trike]

Re: Iceland

Veronica and Mark are clearly experiencing a hyperlocalized Mandela effect.

[Rob, Roberator]

Iain wrote: "You can’t blame Rob for Rivers of London. He just has the good taste to support the Nomination"

Yeah. I think Veronica has come to believe that I've been nominating Rivers of London since Theft of Swords finally won.

However I've actually been nominating The Lives of Tao,

I have been supporting Rivers of London though and I did suggest to Veronica that if it lost again this year she should make it a dictatorial pick instead. So maybe that's why.

[Mark]

Trike wrote: "Re: Iceland

Veronica and Mark are clearly experiencing a hyperlocalized Mandela effect."

Yes, it's also known as Twitter

[Mark]

The Icelandic April 1 tweet by Veronica replying to Mary Robinette

https://twitter.com/Veronica/status/1...

[Mark]

I figured Veronica would discuss an Iceland Worldcon with Tom, so when I saw another tweet by Mary Robinette the next day, pointing out that she posted on April Fool's, I sent a tweet to @SwordandLaser asking if they had been Rikrolsoned, because I was. I missed the next livestream podcast where Iceland was discussed. Stuff happens on Twitter.

[John (Taloni)]

I get that it's an April Fool's joke, but I would consider going to an Iceland Worldcon. Reykjavik in 2025!

[Iain]

John (Taloni) wrote: "I get that it's an April Fool's joke, but I would consider going to an Iceland Worldcon. Reykjavik in 2025!"

There are major problems with using an international event as an April Fool's joke. I got the tweet on April 2nd... Seemed eminently sensible (the 2032 date should have been a red flag though).

[Tamahome]

I think Donaldson's Gap series is from the bad guys point of view.

[Tom, Supreme Laser]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Tom points to three novellas by the author but only one is one of the three prequel novellas to the novel. Ring Shout and The Black Gods Drums are good but have nothing to do with Master of Djinn. ..."

oops. Sorry about that. Thanks for the info.

[John]

You can find the The Last Ringbearer on the Internet archive here

https://archive.org/details/TheLastRi...