Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

There is nothing wrong with your podcaster. Do not attempt to adjust the feed. We are controlling the bitstream. We control the encoding. We can mispronounce names, we can consume alcoholic beverages. For the next half hour we will, control all that you read and discuss. Go to patreon dot com slash sword and laser to pledge support . Hey everyone, welcome to the Sword and Laser. I'm Veronica Belmont. And I'm Dom Merritt. Sword and Lazer is a book club, but it's so much more. We bring you author interviews, news from the world of science fiction and fantasy, and of course awesome discussions from fans just like you. Oh , my friends it is good to be back with you again to talk about the sci fi s and the fantasies . Oh yes , oh yes and we are even gonna have an early wrap up for you this month. What ? Which is very exciting yes we do to travel circumstances from the tom end of the world . Actually, I'm traveling too next week. Although that doesn't interfere with the recording I was going to say if I wasn't traveling, that wouldn't have been a problem . Tomahomey says it's a premature wrap up. Thank you. Thank you for that. I will be laying hints , heavy, heavy hints about what I'm going to pick for the next book in Novem because I I'm traveling, we won't have another episode for three weeks . Four weeks. Slackers over here. Yeah, we're gonna be slackers. And so I will I will pretend like I'm not telling you the pick yet , but I'm totally going to make it obvious what the pick is. You haven't told me yet. Those of you who have been in the thread on discord probably already can figure it out. Oh, really? No, I haven't been in Discord. I forgot to check it recently. Mah I've been very, very like demeanor careful. But I've been like now that I have a working personal laptop, my work and personal lives are very, very split. So I don't even have like personal email on my work laptop . So Ryan will be like, We are selling our house. And so he's like, did you get that doc sign? And I'm like, What docs? He's like, it's on the email and I'm like, I don't see email. I have eighty seven unread work emails right now. I don't have time to look at other emails . You know how I know you're like in full work mode ? You respond to my text messages quickly and efficiently . I do have messages on my computer because with a toddler running around the planet I need to have like instant access in case anything like important happens at school or with my husband. So when you were working, you would not respond to my message as quickly. But then when you did, it was like, oh, sure, do, you know, now it's like immediately , yes , yes, which is all I need, frankly, I'm not complaining. You good for you good for recording tonight? Yes, yes . Hand clap . Done. Good to go. Yeah to go. Well, you need. I really do appreciate Tom and I have a really good system going where every day he makes sure that I know that the recording is happening and then every night he sends the recording link, which is the same link every week , but it's my signal to know he that's in the room ready to go signal. Yeah. So we have our we have our non verbal communication styles that the podcast happen. sixteen or seventeen years or wh longatever it is this point . All right, let us let us jump into the what are we gnawing, Tom? What do you what did you snack on today? We just made ponko crusted chicken sandwiches . So it sounds good . Take a chicken breast with some mayonnaise and then ponko crumbs . You cook that up so it's nice and crispy and then you put it on a bun and then eat it like a sandwich. I've never heard I always say I've said penko , but penko sounds better. I have no idea which of us is correct. All right, so they're Japanese breadcrumbs. Yeah. I'm from the east coast of the United States, so I tend to do very what is that a like flat a flat panco, panco? Painco? Well, he says paint cover but I've trained myself out of it . And so I can sound more sophisticated. Pong Pongo Pongo. I think I just assume because it's Japanese that Japan Japan doesn't really have a lot of flat A's . They have a lot of os though . And so you might be right. Yeah, but yeah, I have no idea if that. Anyway, delicious best bread crumbs anywhere. Yeah, make improve anything. I put some on my I made baked mac and cheese last night . Pepenco breadcrumbs. Yeah, perfect. Perfect medium for those crumbs. Speaking of Japan actually , I am drinking Japanese whiskey right now. What are you drinking? I'm drinking the Aniga coffee grain Japanese whiskey, which is my favorite Japanese whiskey. I had that for the first time when I was in Japan and I was expecting it to be like a coffee flavored whisky, which it is especially no, but I then was not disappointed in any way with how it did taste because it's amazing. Yeah, it' its's definitely my favorite . Goes down smooth for sure . All right, let us jump into the brief but valuable quick burns. Tomahome , let us know about a rolling stone article about Harlan Ellison's new collection of short fiction. And no, Harlan Ellison did not come back from the dead . It just took fifty years. Yes, took fifty years for the necromancy to take hold . It's a long spell, okay? I didn't have all the reagents. There's like, according to Rolling Stone, there are seventeen hundred short stories and ten thousand stories left behind. I'm sorry, ten thousand ? Yeah . ten thousand stories left behind to be told again and again by those who outlive you. Ah, that may be just a metaphor ical thing now when I'm looking at it, but seventeen hundred short stories, that's a lot to wade through. So even that's a lot. Yeah , yeah. Well, that's cool. Hopefully his estate is reaping reaping the benefits of that. And Mark says and I thought the series was ended, Richard Kadri announces on Instagram that he is working on a new Sandman Slim novel Lucky Number thirteen . And in fact, Richard Cadri said, I know you all thought and I thought, what did he say? After thinking I was done writing about a certain dead man, the secret project I'm working on is a news and then slim novel. So I think Richard is among the people who are surprised . Well, you know, sometimes it just comes to you, right? Yeah . If that's if the inspiration hits, you've got a new story to tell with a long, long beloved character, just go for it. I know a lot of authors say that the characters sometimes just do things on their own. In this case it decided to write a book . That was who said that? I feel like we had I know that is a common thing to say, but I feel like that came from the Sanderson podcast. Say that? Or maybe he did. Someone said that and I feel like they said it on our show. Yeah. And now I can't remember who said it when we talked to him . Maybe . That tracks . Skullsy? Sere says maybe Skully. He says everything, Sere . Batman also eats french fries and makes like horrific burritos. You know, I was going to say puts french fries in burritos, but that's not weird. That's just a California burrito. Yeah . But he does weird things with burritos. Not that kind of weird . Just like weird combinations. Unholy things with burritos. That's better. That makes more sense. I don't know if it's that better . Count Zero Or pointed out that according to an excerpt from a new book about the history of Blizzard , the gaming franchise, not the drink by Jason Schreer . Andy Weir worked at Blizzard . Spoiler, he got fired from Blizzard after complaining about not getting paid for overtime . I don't think I ever knew that . Yeah. The Andy Weir worked at Blizzard. There's an excerpt from the book and it basically says, you know, they're talking about Blizzard's work environment of stay lay, crunch heavy, very, very typical amongst gaming companies, right ? It's not specific to Blizzard, but they were talking about that. And then I don't know anything about that. No, of course you wouldn't. One programmer tells Schreer that after he complained about not getting paid for overtime, he became, quote, the target of endless bullying around the office. He began to be dismissed, derided, or simply ignored , and then eventually was fired and then eventually wrote The Martian and now is glad that he wrote the Martian. Hey, I saw the I know this isn't book related, but I did see some early early shots, I think, paparazzi shots of what's his face, Ryan Gosling on the set of the not the project Hill Mary . Oh , Ryan Gosling. I didn't did we talk about that? I don't remember Gosling being associated attached to that. Okay. I didn't know that either. Nice. Yeah, his job is his job is space. Andy, thank you. That took you. No, no, Ryan Gosling 'cause his ken, his job is beach, but now his job is space. His job is space. I did not get that. You were about to give me credit just because I almost gave you credit because you laughed 'cause you know I was saying something funny you just weren't sure what yet. No, because I trust that what you say is funny Oh, I appreciate you. Thank you. Sandra says, highly recommend this PBS doc on YouTube about Judy Lyndell Ray, yes, that Del Ray , who shaped science fiction? Several SNL read authors make an appearance like L MocisM aster Boujold . Yeah, I think awesome. I think it's a great story. I haven't watched the entire thing, but I did kind of punch through it to get the flavor and it is going to be as entertaining for the average shield to watch for the interviews because just as I was punching, you know, skipping through , I was like, oh, look at that person and that person. Oh, wait, we know that person, oh, that's what that person looked like. It was an all star cast of people being interviewed. And of course, you're going to learn the story of Judy Lynn Delray, which is an amazing story and helps shape science fiction. You know, she was friends with what's that guy's name, Asimov something? You know , folks like that. So in case anyone didn't get the reference, Del Ray is in the book publisher, Del Ray, who is a very prolific publisher of science fiction novels. Well, yeah, one of the most important early publishers of sci fi sure. Yeah . All right, well thanks to everybody for submitting some quick burns this week and now we will jump into Bar Your Sword, which is our feedback from the audience. There was a great thread in our discord kicked off by Crochet Chrissy who said, I don't remember which thread we were talking about DNF due to narrators, but OMG , I may have found one I will DNF . Spoiler she doesn't assistant to the villain is very, very annoying to me in the first minute. I don't even know how to explain it, but it's like she's doing a weird inflection at the end of every sentence . Why ? It's giving Shatner vibes. Looking at the audible reviews, I'm not alone in thinking the pacing is weird . Then later on LOL OMG, this book is weird. This is not what I was expecting. I may keep on LOL. He's too hot for her to be scared of. You just can't kill people and be pretty. It's confusing then in Crochet Chrissy's own voice, girl, you gonna die or get really satisfied? Maybe both. Hopefully not in that order . Do I need to read this? Possibly. This is in my wheel house. Licorice writes, I like my murders like I like my coffee hot and not scary to which Chrissy writes LOL Dark bitter and hot enough to scald me But did she stop reading? No Says, I am now inappropriately angry with my family for forcing me to do things and taking me away from my book. Get your own food and whatnot family and then confirmed today that she did indeed finish the book and the family was fed. So all is well . Okay . So crochet Chrissy is in the chat right now, so I have to ask them in real time . So you stuck with the audiobook , correct? So the audiobook was not so horrific that you were unable. Yes, okay. So she continued listening to the audiobook because I could imagine if the audio book is if you're like vibing, yeah, she got used to it, I similarly have now gotten used to so the thread kind of started when I was talking about Zodiac Academy, which I am now on book four of , which is ridiculous. I'm just like burning through this series very quickly. And the male narrator is the husband of the female narrator or brother and sister, not sure, haven't looked into the dynamics, but they share the same last name. Okay , and they're listed as like, I don't know, Anne and Bob Beaumont or whatever it is. Where I came up with that. That's a weird name . Anyway, yeah. So they're obviously together . And the man goes so hard on one of the characters , like so over the top, like he's supposed to be an intimidating guy , but the way he reads it is like wow, this is gonna be good . I can't do it She's gonna do it, folks. I should just play a section of it. Can you? That would be that section though. Like that's that's the tough part. Can you find the part y? Find the mister Hard character guy. Yeah, hold on. I'm gonna have to first I have to bookmark my place. So I've set my place so I don't lose it . And then I know it's convenient the way I'm gonna be able to find it. While you do that, I'll just let people know because we didn't have this in the QuickBurns, new Kindles out . So there is now a color screen Kindle for dollar two hundred and forty nine dollars . They did updates to the regular Kindle and the paperwhite and the Scribe as well. So you might want to check those out . The updates are not that huge with those, but new color Kindle. So E Ink , you can still get weeks of battery life , but you get color, especially if you're looking at comics and stuff like that. It's pretty cool. one hundred and fifty p i for color, three hundred pi for the Botano. All right, I got it. Are you ready? Yep. Okay . I brought us back to King's Hollow, riding on the energy of the stars as the star dust swept us away from the cliff and my father and the horrors that had happened there. The Vaga twins appeared in front of me as my feet no hole. I don't know, it's just like the horror I r Hohm it's definitely and this is four books in, so he's chilled out . He's yeah, it is that no, it's at one point three speed. Thank you for noticing. Yeah, it's it's so it's like really he's real intense at first all the male characters sounded the same too. He's like he's like finding I feel like he's found his pace a little bit he's found his pace here and then Pat said yeah yo we're gonna do it Yeah we're gonna rage almost. It was yeah, it was very jarring at first because the first book had no male voice . Like she would the female narrator would do the male voices as well . And then they introduced the male voice character in the second book and that was like that was kind of a brain explosion. It was like, what is happening? Like because now they all sound different. And it's not the difference there is a dramat ization version, but I'm not reading the dramatization version. This is not it. Yeah . So anyway, it was it was I understand how you can get used to a voice over time as well . There's been certain books that we've listened to that I did not love the narrators at first but then came around to it. I know some people had an issue with the narration for the last book pick for the The desperate glory for Glory. Thank you. Yeah . I didn't mind it though. I thought the narration was fine with that one. That one didn't bother me, but I think I understood where people were coming from , I for one love the narration for a night in the lone's of October. Oh yeah, I ended up just adoring that person. Good with accents . So when he's doing the count or an English accent versus American accent, which he does for stuff , just really well, really, really well done. Let's make sure that you may say Tom's an idiot . How that's a horrible accent, but they sounded good to me. I thought they were great. Yeah, I thought they were really well done. I don't really have much to add to that, frankly. I just remember being very impressed by I mean, there's so many different accents. I know . The telling part for me was like when we were reading some desperate glory, I was doing the audiobook and was like, yeah, it's fine. And then when we were doing this, I was like, oh no, this is good. I'm enjoying this narr ation. And I think that's telling of like maybe that previous narration wasn't bad, but it did not make me praise the narration the way I have this month. It's cozy, says Soray. That's exactly right . Yeah. I actually really what I kind of liked Jack's accent , like the accent he did for Jack because it sounded to me like Jason Statham. Oh , I wonder if that's like Jason Statham is that accent cockney ass you know that kind of cockneesque accent. Yeah, that Jacker Ripper . Yeah. So I dug back 'cause I'm a huge Jason Stath am fan. I don't know if you guys know that about me. I love Jason Statham. Now you do. Now you 're out to love. I will watch the worst of his movies. He's like a beekeeper. Yes . A tama away and Trochet Chrisie also at the same time as us er my God That's so fun. It's a little That movie was terrible. Yeah, I still loved it. It's a great terrible though. It's a good terrible. That's a good terrible. It's a wonderful terrible. Let's talk more spoilery about night and lonesome October in a minute , but I wanted to again let folks know that we will not be doing another show until november thirteenth because I'ming travel . So I will announce the bookpick on Patreon like we always do. So patrons get the official announcement first, but I did run by my idea in the discord. So some of you may suspect what I'm going to pick , but Veronica, it's not fair to announce it too early before we've announced it to the patrons. So I'm just going to leave a hint, okay? Are you gonna say the hint or do people have to go to discourse? I'm wearing one of the hints, but you can't people can't see that Seriously? And if you know You'll probably have a pretty good idea on what it is. So that is just that's not even a hint. It's a hint that kinda hangs in the air like bricks don't . Yeah , it's a hint that hangs in the air. Yeah, like bricks don't. I've never heard that phrase before. Oh, you will when you read next month's day. What is that? Is that in the Don't remember that . I have read this book . I have not read this book since I was seventeen. I think really? Oh wow. Potentially. Yeah, I don't know. I reread it. Hold up. I can picture where I was . No, I think I read it again in my twenties . I want to say . So I think I have or did I listen to the audiook?o I might b have listened to the audio book. The audio book is read by Stephen Fry . Oh wow. I might do that. The one I got was. So there might be my do that there. There's also radio scripts, which, you know, if you've read it before and you want a different take, there's that idea . I picked this book up in the in a Walden books at the Champagne Mall when we were dropping my sister off for college in nineteen eighty four , I just went up on a shelf and saw it and was like, oh, I don't know. Looks good And then I think I think I read it like nine times that year because I liked it so much. Longtime listeners will remember that I have mentioned on previous episodes, I'm sure , I'm sure at some point in our long, long history that I quoted this book in my senior year book . Yep. Anyway, tell you what it is . That remains a secret . But that's the November pick. Don't panic. We'll tell you at the right time . Yep . All right, let's jump into our spoiler y wrap up of A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelasni . And technically, you should only be halfway through this book right now unless you've decided to read ahead. Apologies to those who are reading it in real time, which is a chapter a day because each chapter is one day in October . Come back and listen to this at the end of October , but we are going to be spoilery now. Yes., we are All right, so Night in the Looms of October by Roger Zillasne , I really enjoyed this a lot more even than I thought I was going to and it just gave me the constant like giggles , like but also kind of like cozy giggles, I guess . Like recognizing characters and the fact that snuff is a dog and we got to see it through a dog's eye view, which is gonna be the first thread we talk about. It's all the way through. It's a great perspective from the dog, for sure . Yeah. Oh Mantis is bailing because she's not done yet. So she's peacing out. Also long . Yeah, yeah. There's a Peace and Al side quest in identifying all the characters because they are referred to obliquely as the great detective or the doctor, the good doctor or so the count and you have to be like, oh, wait, I think that's yep, that's definitely . Well, I did, I did save this. I added this to the show notes. And so we can talk about it now just because it'll give us a little more context for the rest of the discussion. So this is from the Wikipedia page. The various players during the game depicted in the book are typical archetypal, sorry, characters from the Victorian era gothic fiction. So Jack the Ripper, only ever referred to as Jack, Dracula, the Count, and the Wolfman, known as Larry Talbot, the film character's name, all make appearances. So I didn't know that 'cause I had never seen that film . I obviously assumed. I think I've seen the film but did not remember the name Larry Talbot. It did not stick out for me. So that was a good thing. Got it. Yeah. In addition, there is a witch, crazy Jill, just a general witch, I guess, no, no particular witch, a clergyman , Vikar Roberts a druid. Vicker, sorry, Vicker. I even listen to the audio book and I still mispronounced it. A Druid Cohen . Victor Frankenstein , Frankenstein, sorry. Goodness here. Frankenstein . Sherlock Holmes, the Great Detective, a mad monk Rustoff, apparently modeled after a Resputin. That one was easy. Yeah. And grave robbers or hermetic occulus , occultists. Oh my god. God, this whiskey is going right to my occulus Occultists . Morris and Mc Cab , who are based either on real life grave robber's birk and hair or a reference to a real hermetic at the time, McGregor Mathers . These are great references. The only one that really confused me was Rostov because I'm like, well, that's clearly Rosputin. Why is it Rostov ? And maybe there's another explanation, or maybe it's just we, you know , we basically fudged the identity or something. But yeah, wait, why so are you confused about that? Well, 'cause we never hear Sherlock Holmes name. It's always the great detective, right? True. Yeah. So it's not like he was the great detective and then later called Me Sheryl Berskenstein Sherman , you know, whereas Rustov is like close to Russbutin but not Rusputin. So I was like, why has that one got a name? Even Larry Talbot has the right name. So anyway, yeah, I don't know, either. Maybe Rostov is an alternate name for Resputin that I'm just unaware of. Yeah . And then of course we have Snuff, the dog , grey milk, the cat , and a number of other familiars and partners to the general openers and closers of this event , those who we learn throughout the course of the novel either plotting or trying to prevent the opening of a gate or a portal that will usher in the old gods or the old ones , so , you know, specifically Cthulhu and the monsters of that era . And yeah, so that's and half the half the fun is figuring out who's on your team and who's not and who's playing by the rules and who's stepping on toes and who's crossing others. And it all comes down eventually to a dog and a cat just doing their thing. Yeah. Dogs, cats, plot ting together . Plotting together . What a crazy world we live in. Dogs and cats plotting together to save this timeline. Yeah, it's a wonderfully co zy breed . The openers and closers thing is so slowly revealed . Right. Like what does that mean , you know? Yeah, well in the end I, assum ed, even though it's never really explained, is that the openers want to open the portal and the closers want to keep it closed. But yes, yeah. And it's unclear , like there's no like one is good and one is well the openers are kind of bad in a way obviously it depends on where you stand like anything else right the closers or the openers or the heroes of their own story but yeah, yours I think you're supposed to think, well, the openers want to unleash monsters on the world and the closers are trying to stop that . But the closers also like the count , I thought this was really funny. The count turns out to be a closer because he's like, I like the world the way it is. Things are pretty easy for me. Yeah. Like I don't have to worry about it. Like I don't want to mess up a good thing I've got going here. I'm not a good guy, but I like the way things are. Yeah. But openers, as Crochet Chrissy points out in the chat, they just look, they just want change. They just want change. Change. Yeah . My God . Yeah, and they're still like, I mean, Jack the Ripper still killing people. Like Jack is still out there. And that makes you feel like snuff, like, so snuff is still complicit. So his name's Snuff . Yeah . Like he's out there killing people . I mean, they're a little Dexter like , you know, I only kill when necessary . No, that's not what Dexter's all about. Dexter has a code . I just set off blossom here the video challenge because I had audio recording. But yeah, Veronica's balloons are going off. I kind of did like a Richard Nixon like TV I'm not a crook. I'm not a killer. I'm not Jack the Ripper and Balloons exploded from my stomach. You're right. It's different. It's different than Dexter, but it's also not like they're just killing willy nilly . Yeah . Yeah, ye,ah well you don,'t know what he's doing in the off season. I suppose outside of October, anything could be happening. Good point. I had this like funny idea in the back of my head that they were just gonna like play baseball, like beyond to separate teams and like on the mount ain. That's enough . You have the opener in a bullpin game where you the starter's not supposed to be a closer and you're closer and closer have been around for years. So , right. So that was that was in the back yeah, just likeilight Tw crochet Chrissy, that's right. Just like the Twilight game. Yep . So Ruth has a thread called A Dog's Eye View, where she says, This book has an unusual narrator for a non children's book A Dog, although he's not your usual mutt. There are also many other animal characters, including a cat, a rat, a snake, a squirrel, a bat, and an owl, as most of the players in this mysterious game have animal companions of some sort , except for Larry Talbot, who is his own best friend . This might seem a little gimmicky at first, but I find it very enjoyable getting a different perspective on the events as they unfold. Snuff often notices and remark s upon smells, which gives him abilities humans lack to identify drugged meat and see through disguises. While some of the other animals also have special abilities like being able to fly and track the count, or scare off a police horse. I also like the way the game isn't over explained. We don't need to know all the details to be able to follow the story and snuff doesn't provide them. I can't help thinking that a human narrator would need to describe things in more depth in order to sound convincing, and that would spoil things a bit. In any case, I think the unusual narrator gives this book a special charm. What does everyone else think? Who's your favorite animal companion apart from snuff . Yeah, I'm with you , Ruth . I loved the familiars of all of our players. It also had a little bit of a golden compass feel for sure. , and the fact that, you know, when they get separated , it causes depression in the animal . And yeah, I think I think Ruth hit on something I hadn't thought of that snuff being snuff means you as a reader forgive a lot of things because hey, he's a dog. I'm not gonna expect a dog to know all these things about humans . And that allows you to dole out the mystery slowly and not have to explain the game and not have to explain what an opener and closer is. But Zelazni does a great job of never making you feel like something was left out. Like eventually gives you all the pieces you need to understand what's going on and it's really a brilliant trick . Yeah, Scott mentions in this thread that he likes the dynamic between Snuff and Gray Malk whose Jill's familiar . And I really got the sense that it was almost like a romance . Like I don't want to put vibes where maybe there aren't vibes, but I feel like there was a there is a there is a kind of romance. It could be an and, you know, in a platonic romance , but there's definitely, there's definitely chemistry . Chemistry, that's a good word for it. Yeah. Very, very a lot of chemistry. And I think that was cute that it felt like Jack and Jill , you know, they went up the hill. Oh yeah, right. And then there that made me laugh at the end. That was a really cute little piece at the end hadn't occurred to me that. Yeah, very, very cozy . Who yeah, who is your my favorite familiar ? I liked I liked the rat that just kind of like involved himself Yeah, actually everyone to think he was part of the game. Who's like, well, this the was game hung out Bobo or something like that . I can't remember all the animals' names. Bubo, Bubo? That's right. It was a play on plague. Bubonic. Oh my gosh, it didn't even occur to me until the second. Yeah . Ah , Veronica Dang. Well, I can't get 'em all. I can't win them all. But the rat was really cute. I liked him. And I liked the bat also. Yeah. He was funny. He the whole the whole thing was good The was it the raven? I can't remember the raven's name now. Who was like Albino Raven? Yeah, yeah. I would like an albino Raven waiting for an Edgar Allen Poe situation to show up, but it didn't need to . So it didn't . Yeah, I feel like I didn't get enough of the Frankenstein situation, sorry, Frankenstein Frankness . Really? I thought that was just the right amount because it would have been too much to have that I think it could have risked taking over the story . Oh, interesting . Hm . I wanted to know more about Owen the Druid two before he got murdered. Yeah, Owen didn't play much. I could have used more Owen. With Frankenstein's monster , Frankenstein's monster with Frankenstein's gotcha ever I feel like he's not a player. And we all are going to know that he's not a player because he's the monster. It's the duck. He actually was he actually the familiar though? Kind of, right? Because Bubo was supposed to be their familiar , but he wasn't really the monster is the familiar . And and yeah, that could end up being too complicated. So I liked that they kind of kept it at a distance. Also, the good doctor in Mary Shelley's novel is not as fully fleshed out as the monster Good one, Tom. Thanks . All right, and Melanie says , this was what we were referencing earlier, so a chapter a day, read along. And I just liked some of the comments in this thread because some people have been going through the process of reading a chapter a day, though they are very short . So to do that, you have to have an immense amount of restraint in order, especially if you're enjoying the book to keep up with the one chapter a day per day kind of situation. Especially there's some short chapters in there, right? That's what I just said. Yeah, like the first chapter is like a couple of paragraphs. It's really not much . So she says the traditional way to read this book is one chapter a day as the chapters are each a day in October. Here is a space for daily comments, no spoilers for any days beyond the current calendar date. PS you are actually one day behind because the first chapter is a pre October prologue. Yeah . So traditionally you read that on september thirtieth if you're really I liked Scott's one on october first, making the rounds, the thing in the circle, the thing's in the mirror, the thing in the steamer trunk, the thing in the wardrobe. Work work . It's true. He's got like snuff has all his rounds. Yeah. He takes it very seriously and I appreciate that. And you know he pees during the round. He talks about peeing. Yeah . That's just part of pooping. He does talk about peeing. Well, you know, he poops too. We all do. Yeah . I'm trying to see if there's any other good I mean there's lots of good things about the good doctor chapter six wherein never trust a cat anyway. All they're good for is stringing tennis rackets . Wait, what does that mean? Did they use cat what? No, that's just a that didn't happen. They were just saying that's all they're good for. And then it turns out, oh, they're gonna be best friends. Well, that's nice. There was a lot of professional what's the word I'm looking for professional responses respect yeah, respect for each other for for being in the game across those divides . Bobo , Bubo . Anyhoe? Should we move on to are these comments from Discord or emails? These are from Discord , yes. So A Tans writes, I finished the book, loved every minute of it. Obviously, I recognized some characters from elsewhere, Jack the Count, the Good Doctor, the Great Detective, Larry Talbot. I assume the vicar is a new character , so does anyone recognize the other players, Owen, Rostov Morris Macab ill ? Jill? Yeah, I think we covered that a little bit already . But that was fun in real time to figure those out because I didn't I didn't read that ahead . So I didn't know. They all just kind of popped up and I got to figure it out as time went on. Well done, recognizing Larry Talbot there, A Talents. Good job. Yeah , I definitely did not. That was way beyond my knowledge. Okay, I'm learning in real time that cat gut tennis strings is a thing. And I am not happy about it. I know I did not I just said I didn't know about that . Yeah Why of all animals cats? It's like they're different. Pig skin for a football used to be made of pig skin. It's not anymore. But m thatakes sense because most people , many people eat pig, so you would need a use for the other body parts, but are people going around? Oh , they do talk about skinning cats, don't they? Foreside? Another thing that you're tight things . Okay , anyway, gross . That's I mean, when the cat comes to a quiet, peaceful, natural death, what else are you gonna do? Make a tennis racket. Make a ten, make a tennis racket. So they can move that out for the first time . Okay , I'm getting too much information now. Prior to that to the invention of plastics and other synthetics . We had to use what we had as a species . I get it. No, we don't need to go on to this thread, Scott M. says Rastoff's Appellation as the Mad Mad Monk made me think of Rasputin. Yep. Owen seems a generic druid. It's mentioned Jill is a new player, stereotypical witch character. And I think Zelasni picked her name specifically so he could write the bit at the end. Yeah, absolutely right . I was kept trying to figure out like who's Jill? What famous Jill witch am I not remembering? And at the end, I was like, oh not there isn't one . I'm not missing anything. Yeah, that's interesting because like is there a famous witch of that time period because you need it to fit into the Victorian Victorian area because otherwise you could think maybe Lady Macbeth or like something like earlier, I guess in Shakes peare Edwardian ? It is not. It is Elizabeth . Elizabethan, thank you. So still too early, obviously . Yeah, I can't think of any other famous people who would be referred to as famous witches from that era . Yeah that weren't invented in modern times, you know? None that I know of. And then Jason Reeds said, according to the book Wikipsedia article, Morris McCab might be based on a pair of infamous murders slash grave robbers who killed a bunch of people in Scotland, then dug them up after burial to sell to some doctor who in turn used them for dissection. Great. So we touched on that earlier. In Scotland they don't use Catgut for the tennis rackets . Were you just like googling this in real time? No, I just made that up. That last part. Oh , they use people gut people gut. I see what you did there. They're called they're called lime gut strings . It feels racist. I'm not sure how it just does. Yeah, it does. Yeah. All right . So as Tom mentioned, thank you everybody for submitting comments about this very, very cozy book string . I hope he's laughing at his own joke of dimestingsr in the ch at. Lime strings. Oh God. I lost my train of thought now. This was a fun pick. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween . Halloween's coming up. Have a safe doom. And happy Halloween , do all the spooky things . Go out and enjoy when the veil is thinnest between worlds. Enjoy the spooky . The spoopy, spooky season, my favorite season for somebody who doesn't like scary movies. Still my favorite season. So weird. I like Cozy Man. I like Cozy Halloween. Yeah. Perfect. This book was perfect for you . It was, it really was . And our next show will be November thirteenth because of travel. So stay tuned. We'll be coming in strong with a kickoff and ketchup, I guess. Yeah. With the next book pick. Keep an eye on the Patreon and the Discord to find out where your towel is. Yep . And our show is currently entirely funded by you, our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back us. If you want to help support the show, you can head to patreon. com sl swashord and laser . You can also support the show by buying books through our links. Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at sword and laser. com slash pics . Our email address is feedback at Sword and Lazer. We are on Instagram X and Macedon at Sword and Laser and all of our discussions happen over on goodreads dot com slash sword and laser or on our discord . We will see you next time. Or me some of that old Jenks spirit. 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