Discussing Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive. com Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states Everyone treats summer like it owes you happiness, long days, pool parties, your best life on a loop. So what does it mean when you feel worse? The summer blues are real. It's why summer is one of the busiest stretches of the year for people starting therapy. Grow Thrapapy is here for all the moments when you decide you want more, more support support, more clarity, more tools GroO connects you with thousands of high quality licensed therapists across the US, offering both virtual and in person sessions, nights and weekends. The therapist you want takes your insurance on G. Gro accepts over one hundred twenty five insurance plans. Sessions average twenty one dollars with insurance and some pay as little as zero dollars depending on their plan Visit growthapy d. com slash ACast today to get started. That's growthapy dot com slash ACast growtherapy d. com slash ACast Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plans Hi, this is the Rbberator. you can support my Mad Grab for Power and the Sord and Laser podcast by going to patreon. com slash sword and laser Hey everyone weelcome to the Sword Laser. I'm Vonica Bamont. and I'm Tom Merritt Sword and Laser is a book cllub, but it's so much more. We bring you author interviews, news from the world of science fiction and fantasy, and awesome discussions from fans just like you. But mostly we talk about food Someone's talking about Brandon Sanderson. Jason and other folks are talking about Brandon Sanderson in the live chat right now and real fast, I just want to cover this. Okay. I found a really interesting that What's the what's the is it is it the Way of Kings? What's the first book? What's like his the first book in the u Cosmere Not a lantress. Yes, W of Kings. Okay. So W of Kings is on just like hit the best seller list for the first time ever.. And it's been out for a really, really, really long time Obviously. goodood for Brandon Sanderson finally making it. You want to know why No yes, I do. whyy Book Tk hm And specifically a lot of Romantasy readers while it is not a romanticy series is u They are recommending it to to folks also Um, because it's so good And so a bunch of new people are discovering Brandon Sanderson for the first time. And even though he says that it's not his best novel or that you don't necessarily have to read it in that order It is like typically the one that is listed as like the first to read chronologically. And so it just has become like the gateway, the entryway into the cosmere And so now it is Yeah Back on it is on the bestseller list for the first time in its published history which is pretty cool Tomahome also says that wind and Truth just came out. So that's probably also another reason people are getting into the series for the first time, potentially So I think yeah I think it's that's kind of cool. So I just saw him post a TikTok about that the other day and I was like, oh, that's that's like sword and laser worthy. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it definitely is I You are eating No guri ramen with an egg H I'm not eating it now. I ate it already, but that's what I ate. That's what I had because I needed something quick And Noguri is like a seafood flavored ramen So a little little little seafood flavor, some dried vegetables,ur there. boom, boom, boom the is the egg, the turf I guess, yeah, that's surf d. the egg Well That's kind of sad. the egg never got to grow up to turf. Um I am drinking mulled wine. And green tea But notone in the same cup, None in the same cup now At the same time Yes. It's basically like a like a little bit of a speedball here. Okay. I guess you could think of it that way. Yeah. No I don't think of it that way at all Kids ask parents or maybe parents ask your kids. I don't know. I made some molded wine the other night because I love mlded wine. Mlded wine' so good Yle is upon us in just a couple days. And so it was like Yeah time to bust out the mlded wine. And then Ryan, my husband, was making some green tea before he went out for a meeting And he's like, do you want my, do you want my Green tea, what do you called like second soak or something like You know, you That sounds so gross I don't know why. better than other phrases that could have been used, but And so now I have a slightly diluted green tea leftovers. Yeah, get little antioxidant balancing it add a little mold wine I still remember making molded wine, I think at a New Year's party at your house in San Francisco. Oh yeah, years ago. Yeah Well, my gift to everybody this year for all the people around town that I interact with are simimmer pot O nice. So a simimmer pot, arere you familiar with the simmer pot? Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah So it's like triried oranges and Dar Anis and clove and cozy smells. furly fur sprigs and stuff like that. So yeah, you need just simmer it in a pot and makes your house smell nice. Do not eat it. It's winter popy, basically. Yes, it's winter popery. That's a very good one. Yeah It's a good way of putting it. All right Shall we jump into Z Qick burns? With both feet. Aurmaod Rob, AKA the Rberator, has refreshed the Sordenlazer sururvey. It's a few short questions to help him and us get to understand who's listening? Who are you? Maybe it'll help you discover something about yourself. So take it, won't you? You can find it in the show notes at swordenlazer dot com or go to sword andlazer dot com and click the word survey I added it to the the navigation So you you might want to do it it is it is it for the podcast listeners? Is it for the The forum members? Is there any particular type of cohort of sort laser Europe Prouct manager The reason I'm asking So what is the cal The reason I don't know. R problems are we trying to solve here? customer I refreshed the survey. Could you tell people about it? And I said sure. That's that's kind of as far as it went I need to double click on this survey a little bit the question I'm asking, the reason I'm asking this question is because all right, so Mark says Mark says The survey is aimed at disiscord and Goodreads users. That's actually great, and I will tell you why because I was planning on just messaging all of the Goodreads users to ask them to take the survey which is maybe a little spammy, but I think will help get us a little more. But if it was just for podcast listeners, I would do that. No No I think Rob did in the note that he sends out to Goodreads folks. Oh my God. you know what? Between Rob and Tasy Dave, like they both deserve to come at me right now for like not paying attention to things because Tasy Dave was like, you know Chat GPT just pulled all that data from the survey from the statistics I p Yeah like a while ago. And yes, I did know that because I fed it to Chat GPT as a data as a source, but I was hoping it would contextualize it with additional information instead of just regurgitating basasically the exact Yes, Domino. It's exactly like SNL stats, just like Spotify and Spotify apppp That's exactly what I intended it for it to be like. U But it's, you know, just didn't do a great job. but Tassy Dave did a great job. Tassy Dave always does a good job. So does Robert Rater Indeed. Thank you again for all of your unpaid labor. It's pid in love and gratitude Definitely, defefinitely as much love and gratitude as we can muster and trust. I feel weird now. All right, moving on. Tryke says a Christmas miracle. Alan Moore actually approves of an adaptation of his book. first time in my career, Alan Moore says, I'm genuinely excited and enthusiastic about a work of mine, one that I own and believe be could work marvelously in a different medium, being adapted for the screen. All right, where have we got? What book? Oh, it's in the deadline link. Colin Calllendnder's playlayground nabs Alan Moore's fantasy book, The Great w as part of genre expansion The Great win is newest according to Tomahome. so that's That's helpful maybe written withith an ear for potentially becoming an adaptation, who knows Yeah Look at that. Mabbe Allan Moore softening in his Not old age, but as the years go by. Don't people tend to get moreity with time? Some people do, yeah, no, Some people do. Tamahome does. Tamahome says My body is green with excitement. Stehven Spielberg to helelm Old Man's War. What Aaptation. This accord to Fictionhorizon. com. So I don't know how how much I didn't dig into this much but apparently Fiction Horizon believes Steven Spielberg is set to direct a film adaptation of John Skalzy Wait, so this is Conjecture or U or heard it on the grapevine? I don't know I'm looking at a stateated as fact Okay. Oh, let's see. IMDB has it in IMDB newews But they're just pulling from the fiction Who this was pulled from someone's patreon? Yeah who we don't al right, we don't know this person either Yeah. He says he's a reporter, but I don't Steven Spielberg might be doing old man's work. what is what I amm willing to say And wouldn't that be fun Skalz, all right, so Skalzy, according to numerous folks here in the live chat say that Skalzy did not confirm Skullzy, I think, according to Crochet Chrissie, said If it actually happened, he'd let you know. And Jason Reed said Skullzy said not to believe anything until he says otherwise. Okay, that tells me that it's possible. But it's not inked could still not ready. So he doesn't want Yeah. and it could be one of those things wherere like, well, you know, I'm thinking about it. I really like the idea. Let me run let me run it by my lawyers, you know, whatever, right? So it's it's It's definitely something that could just evaporate There's probably some reality behind it Yeah, fingers crossed. would that would be amazing. I would love that m Old manan's War is great, Sculsy's great. All right, and speaking of crochet Chrissie The Good Reads Choice Award winners have been announced and we'll go into our typical categories so for we'll start with romanticy because I feel like we're covering a lot of romanticy House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Mass. whichich is the eighth Good Reads Choice Award. Seraees Crazy would have guessed crazy So that is not that not third that it's undeserved or anything, but not a big shocker there we all would That's the third novel in Crescent City U For fantasy, we've got somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klon. Swhere Beating out popular authors that we know and love, like Lee Bardugo U let's see else else Oh, Robert Jackson Bennett T. King Fisher, Veronica Roth, tons of authors that we've checked out before. Love Grossmen And then for science fiction The Ministry of Time. by Kele Bradley which is not a book I'm familiar with But I would love to check out. That's very cool It's a British Cambodian author, Kayleen Bradley based in London And ministry of Time is about what would happen if you wondered What it would be like to fall in love with a nineteenth century polar explorer Fascinating. All right I was thinking of going with for the January pick I was thinking of going with this splinter of time Is that right? now I'm now Everybody was making sppllinter of the mind's eyes jokes and now they act Spllinter in the sky. I was thinking of going with Spllinter in the sky. And I still would like to read that This is making me, I like a time travel story. so this is making me think like, h maybe the mininistry of time Fascinating and fascinating See if there's let's do young adult fantasy See see if there's anything. Oh, nice, ruthless vows by Rebecca Ross, which I read That's the sequel to last year's winner, Ruthless Vows. Oh, sorry Uh, it the th that was, um, What was the name of the first book U I can picture it in my head and it's going to drive me crazy. Hold on You kick on Rebecca Ross' Divine rivals. Thank you. crochet, Chrissie. I saw I found it as soon as you said it to. Um, I did not think ruthless vows was as good as divine rivals. I thought it was actually much not Is good I really like to find rivals though Um Very cool Good readach Choice winners, always always an exciting exciting competition and I always find new authors that way too. Seth pointed out in the New York Times that Amal El Matar has picked the best science fiction and fantasy of the year U justust in case you can't click the link, Seth, let us know what those selections were The Book of loveove, Rakesesfall, in universes, the melancholy of untold story, the practice the Horizon in the chain. ordia. The mercy of Gods, those beyond the wall, the tainted cup and long live evil Okay. Very cool Another great list of things to add to my TV part that I'll never have E end of your list time, ladies and gentlemen No It's happening. All right, includluding from Tke The twenty twenty four edition of NPR's Books We Love is out So let's take a look over there. For some reason I can't click on this link. Long Lve Eil is also There we go. that list Yeahah. Sarah J. Mass, House of Flame and Jadow Very cool Murakami city and its uncertain walls Startest Grail by you make Kit this A And yeah, I think I do want to read this TJ Klun book. I've heard so many good things about it. It's the sequel to house in the Cerulean Sea, which I thought was just Excellent. Yeah, I really likeed houseing this reallyancy. NPR clearly using Squarespace because I used to do this exact same thing where I'd just slap a bunch of book covers up there and it would end up in the same weird like Unjustified. like gallery kind of format, gallery style For sure the weird gallery wall U Licorice says u Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped I skipped Seth Seth says pererhaps you're tired of best book lists. Sorry. I like seeing LitHub's list of best book covers each year. That's good. They poll designers and there isn't much agreement this year, but the overall winner is the creepy covers for the reissue of Jeff Vandermr's Southern Reach tririlogy, which I thought already had really good covers so that's kind of cool that they still went and redid them Yeah and the new covers are are very cool. Not that I had any problem with the old covers, but yeah, they're they're pretty cool I cannot unfortunately see any of these covers because it's only loading the ads on this page and not loadning the actual images. Ke scroll it St stand there and says the fl list. Yeah, these these annihilation Southern reach Oes are crazy looking. they are really good And then yes, Licorish said Booker Prize winning Obital by Samantha Harvey has been serialized by BBC radio According to the author, it is not science fiction, but space realism. Given that literary authors often use the term magical realism to distinguish their work from fantasy, that sounds like an interesting distinction to separate the book from genre fiction. Regardless, I read the book and if you like literary fiction, it's pretty good. And anybody can listen to the radio series at the BBC's website. Very cool All right, well, thank you to everybody for submitting bestest of book lists this month. Yeah for the first season, right? 'is the season indeed. Maybe we should start doing an end of your list of like it's not a bad idea. suuperlatives for the books we read over the last year. Do you think we'll remember to do it next year? Well, we could do it in time for the next episode. We could do it at the beginning of next year is what you're saying. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. No we could. And maybe that that's like, okay, everybody else got their booklist out too early. Here we are. We waited until the year to beited until the real end we could do a true best to All right, I like it Are we gonna remember to do it, though? No happen? Maybe, it might. I have a confession. Yes, Veronica Thank you. Thank you My confession is this, I'm embarrassed Episode five hundred I said on the show Wouldn't it funny if I got Skalzy on the show? Yeah and So what did I do I reached out to John Skalsi, right? And I wrote him a little thing and I said, Hey We'd love to have you on the five hundredth episode. L you're kind of a meme on the show. you're, you know, Whatever. I said a lot of nice things. R. I wrote it well. it was good He responded, That sounds great please just email This person will get it set up. Okay I never emailed them You did that before the five hundredth episode. Yes Yes Yes I just totally Blew it. I blew it. I blew it and I want to tell you defefinitely need to have him on and say and make up a reason why whatever episode number it is is a way better episode than five Yeah Oh, everyone in chat is so bad at me right now. I deserve that. I deserve that If we had him on The five hundred fifth episode, we could just say, it's our fifth five hundredth episode Oh boy, wouldouldn't that be like episode like twenty five hundred or something No, no. I'm saying we could say, oh, I guess it'd be sixth, but we could say, you know, it's we've been doing multiple parts of our five hundredth episode We'll just wait for a thousand. Okay, that seems more reasonable. Yeah I'll reach out to the person. I'll reach out to Reach out to the person. Yeah reach. We haven't done an author interview in a long time. I know. And the only time we talked to Skalszy was at Comicon Uh, and it was kind of rushed because it was at that place Oh We've never had them on really on the show then. I know Well, yeah, we had them on the show because we recorded it and we put it out put it out. We put put it out are you my son A you my small child? Yes.ess same thing. We put it out as an episode. But it was, you know, it was an event. So there was a hard stop and lots of noise Yeah, it'd be nice to be in a more relaxed situation Okay, I I do my best All right, well let's jump into Bary Your Sword, which is our feedback from the audience I feel better now. That's good. I'm blad off my chest. and Jon feels better too says, it's great fun to listen to you reminiscing, makes me look back as well I am old And my memory is fuzzy, but I feel I am with Sword and Laser since the geek and Sundry days, but I started contributing from time to time with the Hogfather Read By the way Is there a statistic who contributed the most quick burns Asking for a friend Nice. Very cool. I feel like from just like pure time wise It's got to be Oh gosh,.ere's Daradara Daradara was strong for a long time. Yeah, it was a long run U Strike has stri Cke is like a base, you know, he's like in baseball terms it'd be like a base hitter singles hitter consistent Maybe not mayaybe not hitting home runs all the time. Sometimes he is, but he's always hitting, you know Yeah. All right, Andrike says that's what I'm trying.'t stke out now And then Scott says, I feel like vaginal fantasy started before Geek and Sundry was founded. Okay, so context, I used to do another book podcast, video show It called Vaginal Fantasy with a few other lovely ladies and we covered seexy sci fi fantasy basically, which we called vaginal fantasy after Felicia's invention of the genre. This was pre the romanticy kind of ad time. A little ahe of its time and we covered more than just fantasy Um And sos that's the context here. We stopped doing the show During the pandemic, I think, I believe, maybe a little bit before that Anyho So Scott says, and it was through Vaginal Fantasy that I first encountered Veronica and heard about Sword and Lazer. I started listening to the podcast sometime around then. I enjoy hearing people talk about books and related stuff. I didn't actually try to read along with either Vaginal Fantasy or SNL. I kept reading the way I always had Sometimes there was an overlap, though not on the same schedule. Other times not, and that was fine. I still enjoyed listening It's only been recently I decided to actually read the selections when selected and actively participate in the discussions. So I've been lurking forever and am more actively involved very recently. That's cool. That's great. that' Scott. Thank you. That's very cool. And then there's a second yeah, Tazy Dave has the actual statistic He says Vagal Fantasy started in january twenty twelve Heanundry was founded and pitched to YouTube in twenty eleven Sword and Laser became part of it in march, twenty twelve And Keeekincendory was officially launched April second. twenty twelve. Okay, so it was founded and pitched to YouTube in twenty eleven We joined in twenty twelve And it was launched on april second And then Sword and Laser had their first video on the network in april twenty twelve Got it. All right So they're kind of co cooincidental Yeah Beeacon Sundry was already on its way before Faginal fantasy started Yeah So did we have a question about whether which came first Keekin suundry or vaginal sc? Be we gotot laser came before both of them just to be clear for Telines. We've been around since two thousand seven. No, no. The question is at the top of Sott's email Okay. I feel like vaginal fantasy started before Geek and Sundry was founded And ye that is not correct the way you phrased it But it is correct that vaginal fantasy started before Geek and Sundry was launched Guess ' vaginal fantasy started to our first Episode came out sounds like january twenty twelve And Geegan Sundry was officially launched april second, twenty twelve So I think that's a reasonable Do you disagree? you say it was founded No The founded date? No, I think Sean Lookkeyook points out that twenty twelve was a hell of a year for geeks. There you go. That's true. And speaking of vaginal fantasy, the club did Bintenty by Neti Akoraor in january twenty eighteen. So V was probably mixing up her book clubs. Anyway, we were talking about the book Here's a link to the Vegital fantasy episode. Oh my God Why did we pick Bintty for vaginal fantasy? I don't remember it. being like our normal Yeah vaginal fantasy pickics, I could be wrong. Maybe we were going for something a little more literary Although I'm willing to be wrong there. U So that's cool. Okaykay. nice I love that o, and Trake Tungsten also emailed to say the same thing that we picked it for vaginal Fantasy. So I want to give him him kudos for reaching out through a different medium to say the same All right, Taszy Dave Veronica and Tom You didn't realize that Chat GPT pinched all of the statistics and information from our very own wiki. Yes, I know I covered this already, okay Alright, I know you did. Okay Um, But we did have a question. He said, you asked about the combined host choice for book selection. In the early days of the choices, they were often made on the fly, on the podcast via mutual agreement after a discussion on what to choose I also use it as a catch all if whoever chose the book isn't made clear, as it wasn't always early on. It was correct in that Anathem was started on Day of release, but missed that we also started a dance with dragons on its day of release as well The two Asian countries, I'm sorry, the two Asian author stat is correct. It only includes official books and citizens of Asian countries One Q eighty four was an alt, and most of the Asian authors were citizens of non Asian countries, specifically US, Canada, etcetera We have read sixteen authors of Asian ancestry, seven male, eight female, and one non binary One Chinese, one Korean, ten American, three Canadian, and one British. Thank you. This is why Cassie Dave will never lose his job as much. He never rememember that one Q eight four was an alt It just felt like you imagine we talked to eighty four being an alt when it is like eight hundred pages long? And I read it. I remember reading it on audiobook, walking Sawyer through the hills in Sonoma or Marin, I guess, where we lived U I remember us talking about it a lot I even remember like comparing it to a bathtub because I enjoyed just enjoyed soaking in the literary words. was soaking reference U yeah, it was an all. I wonder what we read the same month that we were able to do both books Jonathan Livingstads. Becauseuse I I listened to it. Flatland Tom Home says it was a thirty three to thirty six hour read Um, yeah, I remember it being byy far the longest audiobook I ever I think I ever listened to And it was good, it was good For sure. Yeahah H TRP it was mentioned in the podcast that we haven't done any nineteenth century sci fi fantasy. I made a large list of Victorian novels for my booktube channel back in October Uh, and We said we didn't do any nineteenth century, but we did Frankenein And I know we knew that we did anyyway. I didn't cover obvious choices like Jules Verne and H.D Wells and George McDonald, but found eight books that might be of interest. Samuel Butler, Erowan from eighteen seventy two, F Antsy, vice versa, A lesson to Fathers, Father and son swap bodies eighteen eighty two, Edin Abbotts's Fatland, eighteen eighty four, Richard Jeffries after London or Wild England, an early example of postal opation Apocalyptic fiction after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, eighteen eighty five Edward Bellamy looking backward. a man from eighteen eighty seven wakes up in the year two thousand Brom Stoker' Dracula, Ll. Frank Bombs the Witter's third of Oz MPe The Purple Cloud, a volcano in Indonesia emits a poisonous purple cloud killing everyone in its path the sole survivor was on an Arctic Clearly the purple cloud spreads. Yeah Clearly Siler Also that was nineteen oh one. So twentieth century, sorry Crochet Chrisie just said, Oh God, my dog just farted. pooisonous cloud here too Yeah and only those in the Arctics didn't smell. Wait Also someone said that someone in the someone somewhere said that we also read Dracula I don't think we read Dracula We don't know what we read. There We don't know There's too many books Too many b Too many books U We read Dracula as an alt with one Q eight four No, we did not. No, I No I am so gullible. You will I will believe the number of books I have read and forgotten are untold at this point. Untold numbers. I just just looked up what book was picked along with one Q eight four. main pick was Illantress by Brandon Sanders He's everywhere. He's everywhere it's so funny All right. Let's talk about the book of the month discussion or I guess we're Kaking it off U No, I thought we kicked it off last. Did we o Okay but maybe we did. Oh no, we did. We announced it last episode. Okay. ye. Well, then I didn't do a very good job of picking conversations about this book because I felt like we were still too early in the discussion process. So we'll do a full wrap up on the episode that we're going to be recording in the new yearar But I did want to talk about Scott This was Scott M.'s discussion over un goodreads about the word ata So Scott says the book briefing mentions some of the complexity behind the word aota and that Nedia Coraphor was working to reclaim it I wanted to share her post on it Her post includes a non spoilery excerpt from A cota Warrior, that's the second book that recounts an experience Sonny had in her childhood in America And the blog post is called the word aota and the pain behind it Scott goes on to say, I'm white in the US. so I don't have any personal connection or experience of the specific source of marginalization behind that word. But the vivid and detailed scene Sonny recounts was a gut punch on multiple levels. But I don't want to shift the conversation away from the specific effort to reclaim a term blog post, he says provides more context to the choice to use the word in the title of her books And I think it's a great blog post and it's a great excerpt And I think interestingly as well Um, What was I gonna say The the I don't know if you mentioned this in the book briefing and apologies if you did, but the UK version of the novel has a different title and a different cover and the UKake title is what Sonny Saw in the Flame And the cover is apparently also quite Like it makes the book look like it's for a younger even audience which I find surprising because there is a lot of discussion of like child trauma and children being hurt in the novel itself, notothing Nothing, Well, no, it is a little bit graphic. It's very brief. so I think You know, it's it's I'm not trying to give too much of a trigger warning here. but It is it is interesting that they chose to that word was too offensive for The UK audience, according to the publishers, but not the content of the novel. I guess it's it's like what where's the distinction there? I wonder. Yeah, but that's that's pretty tyibpical. U titles get a lot more attention than content because you see a title on the shelf. you don't see the inside. Um It's not the same, but it's similar to renaming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone because they were worried that no one in the US. knew what a philosopher's stone was. So so they they changed it to the sorcerer's stone, obbviously for very different reasons, right? But But it's It's how a title is going to be used to market the book. So there are different standards and different reactions to titles. Um I guess the word Aata is more frequently used in the UK and therefore more people would know what it is and would react to it before they knew what the purpose was behind using the word there. Whereas in the United States, This is introducing that word to the majority of the people Yeah. I wish I had read this blog post before I started reading the book just because the context is very moving as to why F chose to use that word. It was because she had a very personal experience, you know, perhaps multiple times during her life, but in particular one instance that kind of drove her into this place of wanting to reclaim it and wanting to put it out there and be in people's faces. And she says it really came from a place of like anger And she just wanted to own it and just kind of did it and it just kind of cameame the title of the series and You know, I Kudos to her. I think that's a that's a really powerful statement and also being able to claim that that rage and be able to have some ownership over it is is pretty amazing Are you done O you still reading? Oh, God, I thought you went with my like monologue. Oh no, no, sorry, No. I realized that cles. Are you done? No. Are you done with the book? Are you still reading? Are you still the b? I'm still reading it. Yeahah yeah. I'm in the I'm doing the audio book and I'm moreore than halfway, yeah And what made me want to ask that was, you know, how are you feeling that that carries out parts that you've read so far Um I don't know if that has been like achieved yet at the stage that I'm in in the book. I think Sonny is still very if'm if I'm understanding the question right I feel like Sunny is still very much in the finding herself phase and still very uncomfortable in her own literal and spiritual skin, I guess you could say. And so but I feel like That'll probably come later maybe in a woman. Yeah, yeah. I I started the book and and was not worry. Wried is not the word. I was thinking because was I was like, well, this is the kind of book it's going to be based on the first chapter, right? And I was like, this is fine. I'm sure I'll enjoy it The farther I went, the more I enjoyed it And and that that I think is the sign of a really good a really good book where you're like, this is fine at the beginning, right? You don't want to have a revulsion or a negative reaction and I didn't getting better. I'm like, well, this is a little better if I Well, now I'm really interested. Well, that's really cool. Oh, that's interesting And I enjoyed it and enjoyed it and my enjoyment built. Most people I saw in our Dcord did not have that experience U and There was there was a pretty good discussion about some people feeling like, well, it's just a Harry Potter trope It's just a school. It's just a school trope. Yeah I didn't really I don't really get that vibe. I don't I think of h And I asked I asked and I asked it a good faith. I'm like, do you a Wizard of Earthie trope out of it. Do you get a Wizard of Eartha trope out Its more out of Harry Potter and the person who the person who responded to that question said No, I don't feel like this is similar to Wizard of Eartha. I feel like it is like Harry Potter I don't see it You know And your mileage may vary other than in the very broadest strokes They are young people learning magic in a u you know and having teachers. likeike it really feels almost more like more magiciany than ye, Harry Potter. Also G's entire cultural context is totally different This is not, you know, British private school snobbery meets classism. this this is an entirely different story in that way. Yeahbe it's only like there is a sports relationship later, but Go go ahead, I'm sorry Yeah, it's not like quiditch or anything. you know, it's right. Yeah. And yeah, And I definitely see some of the parallels. and I can see somebody saying, well, yeah, but it is all about class and it is all about you know the relationships and privilege. And I'm like, yeah, but in an entirely different way. And in a way that I feel like helped me get a perspective that I wouldn't get otherwise, whereereas Harry Potter felt like for me, a very familiar perspective. Like, o yeah, I've read a ton of Jane Austen. I've read Charles Dickens. like I get what the roots of this are I don't have a conversant with the roots of Nigerian folklore. So so this was really this is really wonderful to me to be able to even get, you know, a hazy glimpse of that I did have the one bit of frustration in the beginning, which was I just wanted Sunny to be a little more open to the things that were being presented to her. as they were happening, like at first she was a little bit ' I guess I'm just putting it in my perspective where if someone presented me with Oh by the way, magic is real and also you may be magical. And also we're gonna teach you how to do this spells. I'd be like Yes finally Yes. But of course my lived experience is very different from hers, so she was a little bit. and also there's more like cultural baggage with like being perceived as having powers or being a witch or having anything like that. That's another interesting difference right there. Yeah Yeah. because Harry Potter doesn't get a choice so much. I mean, I guess he kind of does, but he snaps at it, right? He's like, heck, yeah, get me out of these hateful Dursleys. That's not the situation that Sonny's in Tsy love anyyway Yeah, even if they are kind of brothers but brothers. Yeah, but she's not like Oer brotherers in a slightly patriarchal household Very patriarchal household. so yeah.