Analyzing Themes and Author Background

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That's growtherraapy dot com slash Acast growrtherraapy. com slash ACast Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance pl Queen Carvania stood haled by the morning sun army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana. 'was a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it. Tonight, we feasted An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana Pick up these mly N the final Frontier. These are the discussions of the podcast Sword and Lazer, Its continuing mission to explore strange new science fiction and fantasy novels, to seek out new characters and new beverages, to boldly read where no one has read before go to patreon. com slash swword and laser to join the mission. Hey everyone, weelcome to The Sword and Lazer. I'm Vonica Belmont. and I'm J Merritt. Sword in 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 awesome discussions from fans just like you Hi, Veronica. what a great new year it is. Happy New Year. Tom. Are safe? Are you openkay?? Yes, yes. I am safe. Eone. I'm in Los Angeles and I'm perfectly safe. We just watched the community fire meeting for our area and things are looking good There's a, you know, they're they're And no BS. It's the fire department. So they're like, we're not out of danger, but there are no flames. We're making progress on building lines and pushing the fire back and all of that. So we had a very nerve wracking night Friday night when things were starting to move towards us, but they never got near us And we are extremely lucky and fine. Not everyone we know is. and we've had friends and family lose their houses. a lot of people pulling together and helping out. and So it's, you know, fingers crossed. if they can beat this down in the next week as the weather is turning around tonight were're out of red flag territory until That earliest, I think next Tay or Tuesday is when the Santa An' come back. They're not coming back nearly as strong as they were last week though But they ye know, we got some time. Weve got some time to clamp down I'm super, super glad you're safe. and I hope everyone in the audience is safe and Yeah, it's a really scary time. and I'm so sorry for everybody who's been impacted by this and I did try to use it as my excuse to get Tom up to Canada for a few minutes I mean Friday we might have you know, we had various routes planned on Friday, but thankfully, we didn't have to use any Yeah, as Tomahome says, fire is banned in Canada. It's not allowed I wish that were true. I know, we do as well, honestly. Like I was talking to a friend of mine who lives down there and I was like, yeah, I mean we where it's way too damp here now because we've had a La Nina year. so it's been a just a inssane amount of rain and precipitation, but that just means more brush that will be growing in the spring, which means more dry stuff to burn in August, September. Well That's what happened here. We had the fires in twenty eighteen Um And we haven't had any since and we had the hurricane. So there's been lots of water and lots of growing things and then it got really dry. so Um, it's not great Um But I have to say, like my neighbors, my friends, people I talk to on the street, you know all the other dog owners in the neighborhood. Like everybody is fairly positive today Today is the day that everybody's finally feeling like, okay, yeah, well I think we're turning the corner no one's despairing. it's, you know I think all cities are strong when they are faced with this kind of thing. I can't think of a city that collapsed and' like they were like, well, we give up But but I, you know, it is it is to see the strength of the community and people pulling together and everything And you know, honestly, like I the I was upset and stressed but the first time I really like broke down and started sobbing was seeing And maybe this is super lame you know, whatever. the the fire trucks from North Northern California driving down. like it just that that like just broke me and then seeing the water, like the bombers from Canada and Mexic and from' sending them British Columbia. You're welcome. That was you. Yeah and the firefighters coming up from Mexico and just, you know, the response from all of our neighbors and in countries and if it, you know, it sucks when these tragic moments are the cause of such unity, but it's also very comforting that we can come together as people and you know, get each other's backs in spite of all of the political turmoil or otherwise in the world. So it's great an opportunity to remind yourself what's real and what's not What makes you mad because you read it on a screen and what is actually happening in real life? U I felt that particularly as we went from you know, last Tuesday U Eileen and I getting a lot of our information from social media as many people do and feeling very upset, misinformed and panicked to Friday when we really needed real information turning to local news. which when things are happening now, local news doesn't need to fill time with BS stories, you know, that are meant to scare you about the detergent in your closet. They get out on the street and they tell you what's actually happening at the moment. And so big, big props to KTLA and KCal, which were the two stations that I watched for doing a fantastic job Uh, that night And then watch Duty, the app, nonprofit that is run by a lot of ex first responders, firefighters, emergency responders, keeping us up to date. We have been glued to that all week. And that's where we found the links directly to Calfire's YouTube channel, where you could watch the actual firefighter briefings in the morning and see what they were telling the crews as they went on shift whereere they were doing these community meetings every evening where they would take Q and A from chat and tell people like, this is what we're doing on this line. this is where we're moving with this. And once you get that real information from people who have a vested interest in informing you, not scaring you and not making you feel better, but just telling you like this is what's happening. When you get that unfiltered information, it makes a world a difference. Once we started doing that, we really calmed down and felt more informed. And I think in general, with people like, you know, when you look at all of those people helping each other like like you're talking about, it shows like that's what humans really do. I mean, we don't get along all the time. We have we have disputes When push comes to shove, we help each other. And all that BS that you see on social media and all those things are like, well, they think this and they're against us is just it's just nothing. And it's not worth your time Yeah Well, again So happy, you're safe. And ye, sorry for getting up on my soapbox there. No, no, you're right. I mean, you've been in the thick of this and you are super tuned into the online discourse as well. so you get to see really both sides of it in many ways and can see that huge divide in reality. Yeah that's a good perspective to have, I think, an unfortunate one that you had to have. But yeah, won't be the last of these kinds of things either. so, you know So can I come down to LA in August? or Yeah, sure. Okay. You're always looking. Your room is ready. My room. Oh, I do have a room. I love my room. withith my crok and Kipe Bobble head. Yes., they're still there. All right, well, what do you what do you gnawing through all of this matter? Yeah. So this evening well we get we get those Tvala meals that we heat up in the smart oven and we love them.id deliveries the deliveries continue? I caner They canceled them. They canceled Monday delivery from this week and they canceled next Monday's delivery. Oh. Does It probably does It probably does. I don't want to be that guy, but I'm like, I don't know. if FedEx is still delivering, Amazon is still delivering, they use a gig working delivery system. Okay. And I think that's why That makes sense. Yeah Yeahah, exactly. So I'm sure there's a legitimacy, but I was like, man, the one thing we need right now is food to make it home Come on. I have to say just to interject, The funniest slash, saddest story that I heard from this past week was a woman on TikTok, who was scheduled to go in for a colonoscopy. And she called the doctor's office that day and it was like, and it was like one of the bad days, right? Yeah in LA And she was like, so do we have to do I have to come in? And they're like, Ohh, we're open. Everyone's here. Yeah, you gott to still come in. She's like, okay So she went in And she got the drink that you have to drink before your colon ostopy. which heres essenty blows you out like you Can out like you poop a lot Yeah. and Went home, took her took her drink And thirty minutes later got the evacuation call one for her of the day. Yeah. so she u didid not have a good night. didid not have a good night. Not so at all. Wow Yeah, yeah. So that was that was I was like Things can always be worse. Things can Things should be bad, but things can get worse. So ye. ye. there's always somebody well, there's one person who has it worse than everybody else at any given moment, I suppose, by math. But for most of us, there's always somebody who has it worse than you do. Tue that. All right. and I mushroom chicken. Yeahader iss mushroom chicken. Weushroom chick Tader Joe's mushroom chicken. We made some brown rice, cooked up the mushroom chicken. It's really good. I think I'm starting to like it more than the orange chicken from Trader Joe's. The orrange chicken is great But it's basically fried chicken. It's like chicken nuggets. Whereas the mushroom chicken has no breading. It's a little healthier. It's got lots of veggies and tastes really good Nice. I had lentil lasagna. My food delivery service has continued U as expected. Yeah. so I made lentil lasagna tonight and it was u it was Good. Yeahah, it was pretty good Yeah, it's it sounds good. We made lasagna earlier this week, actually, Eileen was like, o, I want to make lasagna. so we made we made we I think it was beef regular old beef lasagna, yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. tast All right Let's talk about some sci fi and fantasy 'ause that's what this podcast is about. And we'll start with the quick Burns Jen pointed out that Audible has a new ad about what speed you listen at? I mean, the ad's for audible, right? But it's a bunch of celebrities, like famous people criticizing you for listening to R Ridait. This is raid Bait and it worked on me. Yeah Exactly. No, it's meant to get you upset because it's a bunch of people being judgy and saying, yeah, I don't know about one ax. like you better check your privilege with your one ax. like if you, I don't want to say you're a psychopath, but then there's like two people. Bol and Yang was one of them who are like, no, no, it's okay. I go more than more than one X. I think Bo and Yang made a joke about one point eight round up to two, but But yeah, mostly it's trying to shame you for listening to your audio books at more than one. I don't like it. Tom, do you did you get your wrap up for Audible And if so, how many hours did you listen to this year? ' I know exactly how many I listen to I'm sure I did. You did And I have no recollection of anything that was in it because I went to CES since I got it. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah'. Maybe I can find it. hold on. I think it's still in there easy. Yeah, yeah, it's still in there. Okay. Okay. let me see. two hundred forty five hours and fifty two minutes H amateur twenty two titles and longest stretch was eight hours and thirty seven minutes of listening on june sixth. Okay, you beat me on the stretch Yeah, I don'tember listening that long in a row. That's crazy. Like how what would you even be doing for wereere you flying to South Korea? No not on june sixth that wouldn't have been though I don't know what I was doing I listened to u F four hundred and forty four hours listen to more books than I do. four hundred and forty four hours. titles thirty two titles. That's only ten more books, but they must have been longer My longest stretch was five hours and six minutes on march seventh. Yeah Um four hundred and for That's so funny. Tomahome, you're the second person to ask me if Wind and Truth was one of those titles. No, it wasn't. I did not listen to any Brandon Sanderson this year actually. But that's very funny that you said that because a friend of mine also pinged to me and asked about Wind and Truth specifically Um The longest, the longest book I read was Kingdom of Ash Sarah J Mass at thirty three hours and eleven minutes. And the shortest book I read was Hitchhikers's Guide at five hours and fifty one minutes. Sword of Kagan was my longest twenty four hours My shortest was a Christmas carol, which I listened to this year instead of reading Nice. I mean I read I want more stats though. I feel like I didn't get enough stats A lot more data. Yeah Give me more data I love this stuff. Um me I should read Rebecca Yaros in twenty twenty five Well, the new book is coming out. Yeah But you're not caught up, are you? You've not re I haven't read on Flame. No. So I guess I need to do that first Yeah. Yeah. Scott M. apparently listened to seven hundred plus hours last year. Heang, Scott. I feel like I could have done more. like I feel like I could have There's even more hours in the day that I could be reading But yeah, I'm averaging between like twenty five to forty hours a month Right now How do not listen to podcasts That's why ero podcasts d I'm listening to probably twenty five to thirty hours of podcast a week That's ye you. This is how you're messing up your stats, man. My pocket up your stats are pretty good. Yeah, But my auds stats aren't So anyway, I resent this comment. The reason I'm able to do this much is because I am listening at one and a half speed That's about the max I'll go at. Let's to bring this all back around. That is about the max I'll go out comfortably. I rarely go faster than that unless I'm reallyally trying to finish something for like the podcast, for example. Um, so that's that's why. I, um, I used to listen to the audiobook at two X after the first of the month for the swword and laser pick to make sure that I finished it in time So I would listen at one X, you know, let we announce a book pick, let's say on, you know, january twentieth I would listen at one X until the thirty first And then on the first, I would up it to two X to make sure I got done, you know before the month ended I have found that unnecessary I That was back when I I don't know if I just didn't have time for audio books or something, but I was, you know, I was having a hard time making sure I got things done in time to discuss them at the end of the month. I have found that that is not a problem anymore. So I listen to Audible at one x Um I don't shame anyone for listening faster, but I do I do listen to audible stuff at One X because I don't want to miss stuff And I was finding I was missing stuff when I was listening faster However, at pocketcasts, I listen at three X. For podcasts For podcasts, yeah Yeah You know, I used to be very anti that for podcasts and I have changed my mind on everything I don't think I could have listened to Mistry of Time at One x because the gaps in the audio recording were too long. Too many pauses Do you mean? Yeah, it was kind of like that. Yeah, but It was kind of like it was a little bit like that and it drove me There's some pause there's some pausing going on in that way. It was that I was not a fan of that editing. Anyh Um Moving on. Mark says the twenty twenty five Philip K Dick Award nominees are announced, including a couple of Sword and Lazer authors City of Dancing Gargoyles by Tara Campbell, Santa Fe Writers Project. Your Utopia Stories by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Her Times aggent by Brenda Penado G. com Practice the Horizon in the Chain by Sophia Samatar Tour. com Alien Clay by Adrian Chchakovsky, Orbit and triangulum. by Sabudana. Oh. Oh Jay Rudney. Oh, that was good That was good. I don't know if it's right I like it, I like it by Rosarian Publishing First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, april eighteenth, twenty twenty five Nor West Con forty seven Yeah. I'm happy Bora Chung got a work in the Philip K. Dick Awardard feel good about that. Yeah We touched on this just a second ago, but Onic Storm, the third book in the What is it called the series? I want to say the fourth wing series, but it's not the fourth wing series. It's the immperium. The Iperan series, Iperyan series It's coming out january twenty first, january twenty first. You have till you have six days from the time I'm recording this to make sure you're all caught up and ready for the third in the series Yeah, I'm definitely gonna I finish this month's book pick. so I've got I'll have like you know, nine days or so before I could really Dive in. get I think I can get the book finished very quickly. So lookingooking forward to that Very cool and then Oh, that's yours. Go ahead. It's fine. Yeah, Mark says there's a virtual discussion of comomfort Reads with KJ Charles, T. Kingfisher, Malkca Older, and Martha Wells this Sunday, january nineteenth, free to attend at loyaltybookstores dot com slash comfort reads two. That is the numerica number two That sounds spony, but they've got a great discussion. But you don't have to be at the bookstore because you can watch it online. That's right. I think that's super cool. I would love to.. love to attie too Oh, yeah For sure, I'm not actually familiar with KJ Charles, but everyone else I'm very familiar with. I want to go to this bookstore Where is this bookstore? I'll fly there Will you really? No, I won't. It's in Washington DC. Dang, I should too far. If it was Washington state A little bit easier for me to get I could just hop right over. Yeah KJ Charles spent twenty years as an editor in British publishing before fleeing the scene to become a full time novelist, writing historical romance, fantasy, and mystery She has written some thirty novels and her books have been translated into eight languages. Very cool Nice and test I would love to listen to that U Well, that's it, that's actually it for quQuick Burns. It is a, you know, early slow start to the year. People have got a lot of stuff going on. so Uh not too much to cover right now. People are just getting rolling in twenty twenty five U But if you want to contribute to Qick Burns, you can do so over on Good Reads or in our Discord. which we now have linked from the website You can join it. And hop on. Yep. It's in the about us section Rob suggested that I make a link for it in the navigation And I'm going to do that But at least it's there in the Avado section. Very good, very good Well, now it is time for Bear your sword, which is our feedback from the audience. Stephven wrote being in Thailand now, I get to celebrate three New Year's. I'm already done with twenty twenty five. I get the Chinese newew Ye Year of the snake on january twenty ninth And then in April, I get the Thai New Year, which is a week long water fight with super soakers in the street.. don't we get to do anything like that. That's amazing Uh, yeah, man. They know how to celebrate in Thailand. I want to do that. Yeah I haven't even taken a vacation in like ten years Yeah feels like That's super cool. Congratulations, Stehven. You won You're waiting New Year's. Good job. Yes Strike says, Interesting that Veronica mentioned wanting to use twinkly lights as decoration because last week I mentioned something similar to Mrs. Trike. We have faux wooden rafters in our ceiling, and I said that we could wrap remote controlled battery powered LEDs around them for movie watching ambiance and immediately ran into the issue of how to get twelve feet up to install them and then change batteries. It did send me down the rabbit hole of looking at decorating with fairy lights that isn't Christmasy or college dorm Oh, that's Tom. You noted that. Oh, Tom says How they Yeah No, that's just a note to myself to not forget that these pictures are unrealistically clean. Like your house is ridiculously clean, Drike. Are they AI? Are you real Do that house That house is immaculate My guess is that, well, we know he has we know they have dogs Not they couldnt tell by those pictures. I don't see a hair anywhere They's very lovely house is what I'm trying to say I am yes, I agree. also. I am drowning in dog ha and I don't know what to do. It is becoming an untenable situation. I have to vacuum every day. pretty much. Why I want to maintain my sandwer than there used to be I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I know. I've been thinking of getting a Romba again. I haven't had a roomba in a decade. Can you get a roomba that can go over Bodega? Like just take the hair directly out I need like a dog Fobey. Yeah, you know, Exactly. know that exists. I know it exists, but she is just It's like she has no guts on her inside. It just ejects hair from like an infinity ball inside her body. Yeah. And I I can make a full bodega out of her own hair every day. I used to feel that way sometimes about my dogs. All three of our past dogs shed a lot H manan, it's kind of cool to have a short haired dog. I've never had him before. It's amazing. He's still sh But it's like little tiny, little tiny. Oh I know. those are Th those are worse in their own way because they get wedged into things and they do not come out. They don't they don't turn into tumbleweeds. No. Yeah. They're just like little, you know, I got one of u a hair like that from Moro and Roro. Her hair got stuck in my toe In your toe. burrowed into my toe like my big toe. Oh my gosh. It was so sharp and pointy. And I was like, why is my toe ' the robbing, like what is going on? And I like had to keep looking It with like a magnifying glass overost, like a headlamp until I finally found it and I was able to pull it out with tweezers. You have the weirdest things happen to you I have the weirdest thing happ. You really do L the weirdest things I'm surprised I'm really like there's been a few times in my life where I've been like, do I have a tapeworm? No this is I will back you up. like I think Going back twenty years, I remember you saying, do I have a tape for Well, I mean, you've known me through such fun events as ruptured ovarian cyst in the middle of the Metreon. Yeah. where I had to go to the hospital Tuberculosis. Yeah. Yeahah. you're like Oh, rupturred ovaritist that. No,'s just that's low on the list That's like I forget that happened sometimes. That was like one of the most painful experiences of my life. Yeah, the TV. Tuberculosis on the outside of your lungs onn the outside of my lung, which made it even weirder. Yeah Um That was great really working at CNet and having to tell everyone I worked with that I had tuberculosis and I had to get tested for tuberculosis. Well, it as funny as everyone was like like concerned for you, like, oh, are you okay? And then like Are you from the Victorian age? That's exactly what Crochet Chrissie just said I'm like, I used to used like I have the Hopa happiness just made the joke I was about to make, which is like, I have the consumption. Right U, yeah She had the bell the sccarlett fever. That's coming back. Don' joke about that. It's all very back Yeah. It's all coming back. polio, Scarlet fever. Yeah, it's got tapeworm. oh God. U Got at this point, I kind of wish I had a tape worm. I' take that Hehoo U little history of the Veronica Tom relationship there. Yep G. That's all the bigger swores we have. Anyone else want to talk about anything going on in their lifeves Well, before we get to the book of the mononth's discussion, I want to put a plea out for suggestions for Veronica for the pick for next month. Okay Uh you may or may not need them. I don't know. You'll probably land on a book pick all on your own, but it's always good to hear what people are interested in. So what kind of sword book you want? Let us know in the discord, in the chat, in email, feedback at sword andlazer. com on goodreads. However you want to let us know Thank you I always love suggestions. It's always fun, so I appreciate that. Big time. Lve chat is only talking about tape worormms right. No know, they're completely, completely distracted. yeah Need a tapeworm that eats dog ha. Thank you. Yes, Mor. Yeah. that would be great. That'd be great. I think I'm just gonna to buy a roomba. I think I think I just need a roomb. I just need help You know, I just need a little bit of help. You need the Robo Rck What's the Robo? The Robo Rock is is a roomo off Yes, he's got all the ideas. Let's go Hear. The Robo Rock was shown up at CES. It has a robotic arm that will pick things up off the floor and move them out of the way of the vacuum cleaner So it goes around autonomously like a rooomba in vacuums If it runs into items Avoid them And it can even like pick them up and move them into a corner of the room while it finishes vac Can it do that with ten thousand Lego takeake a while technically could I like it. Yeah, I like it There's also a LegO vacuum, I've heard that just vacuums up the Legos and then pull them back out later Yeah. Yeah. yeah. I'm interested in that. That is Crochet Chrissy says, I'm afraid of the room because my cat puk's everywhere. you can teach the robo roock to avoid the capappuke because it it recognizes objects so it can move them and can you can teach it like just avoid that one. Don't try to move it, donon't try to vacuate it, justust go around it Ray asks, what's worse in the foot? Lego or shirt or short dog hairs. You know, I haven't stepped on any Lego yet. I know that that is an extremely painful thing to happen. You've never stepped on a Lego ever? Not yet, not really. You've had tuberculosis on the outside of your lung and you've never stepped on a Lego I'm sure I've stepped a Lego in my life, probablyrobably my own Lego from when I was a kid. Yeah. I definitely stepped on a bunch of when I was kid's why asking Yeah, because they hurt. I still remember how I don't remember actually stacking me on them. I do remember how much they hurt They're very sharp, They're very sharp We have a large chat room tonight and I really feel like I'm letting them down with a lack of s. You fantasy conversation. We've got fires, we've got disease, we've got All of it Yeah so much drama in this show. So much drama, so much drama. All right, well, speaking of drama, should we jump into the Book of the Month conversation Let's do it. The Ministry of Time by Culanne Bradley. I really enjoyed We're not going to be spoilery today We'll wrap it up with spoilers in the next episode. but this is my jam. And I know a lot of people had a lot of feelings about it here and there. and I engaged in some discussions in the Dcord. and all of your feelings are valid. but I definitely like I just thought this book was Jem U It's it's a great allegory in the sense of An immigrant story, but the immigrant story is from time Although the main character's family also has an immigrant story and Can Bradley's family is truly hasit an immigrant story in the reality of their world Um, It's about time travel. and it's about time travel in that way where you're not traveling through time, you're seeing the effect of the travel through time, right? And just I was just fascinated on how Re It felt like the characters who had traveled through time were to me. like, oh yeah, they're different different They have different assumptions. They're written differently. I don't know if they're accurate because I never lived in the sixteen hundreds or the eighteen hundreds, right? So I can't I can't say. But from what I know They felt really accurate. likeike, oh yeah, I could see someone being like that and busting our assumptions about how they would be and adapting to certain things faster and other things slower than you might expect. I thought it was really well constructed as a story One of the things and I hope this isn't spoilery, I don't think it is. One of the ideas in the book is about how If you don't fully accept your transition to the new time, like emotionally and mentally, you physically start to break down in certain ways or you stop showing up in the time that you are currently existing in various ways. Yeah And I found like I hadn't really experience that type of time travel discourse before my knowledge, I think in any of the novels that I've read that dealt with time travel. And so I thought that was a really interesting new take on that or a take I hadn't experienced before. aggreed. I have never seen anyone use it in fiction either There are some you know, rather speculative physics theories about whether You know Consciousness affects ity affects reality affects the construction of quantum at a quantum level. And they aren't like, you know, oh man, it's our spirits or anything. It's like, you know, physics level stuff of like, well, we can see this this effect of consciousness and we can see this effect of quantum mechanics and they're very similar. and the math says that maybe they're intertwined Uh and and There's not there's not any way of test. They're not testable, you know, so there's they're kind of just left out there but I'm like, oh, yeah, call you Bradley read those then and then integrated them in a way that felt like kind of spooky, but also grounded And I love that really Really good Yeah, I have also finished it and so I'm looking forward to our wrap up conversation in the next couple of weeks but Yeah, I found it it's just beautifully written. Like I think the The language itself in the novel is so well done. It's also really funny in parts. Like there's some very funny passages. Very dry funny Very dry fy, very British. U And just a lot of like very meaningful introspection, I think, by the main character U And so it was it was a very moving book and of course, again, we'll talk spoilery about it next week. but Um, I haven't really read too many of these spoilery discussions over Ungood Reads or Discord yet. I have to catch up on those for the next episode But another one though seemed pretty polarizing. and I'm looking forward to understanding more about why. Yeah, me too I have my suspicions about why, but some people felt it was too expository for lack of a better word Um I found it in many ways to be extremely subtle, So Either People who thought it was expository missed the subtleness. and at one point I wrote, I wish I had dicken notes. I don't have any good examples. so you know I may be totally wrong So either the expository people missed the subtlety or I was seeing subtlety where there is none. you know or some combination of the two. but Yeah, I felt that there was just so much like under the surface uh signaling for, you know, for lack of a better word. I don't know. there's there's There's a certain part of me that identifies with our sailor withith Gre. withith Gore. I could say Gore. that's not spoiler. with Gre. You learned that in the first chapter. there's there's bit, not a lot But there's a bit. of our main characters story that is similar to my wife's in very broad strokes. So maybe to just, you know saw saw more of ourselves in there. I don't know Yeah. You are a Victorian aera saailor, that's for sure. Yes. I am. Naval maner. Yeah so and an amazing marksman I I know honestly, like again, we'll talk more about this next time. the Not the epilogue, but kind of like the afterward about like how Kayen Bradley kind of expanded the character, the real world character of Graham Gore. And oh, that's what he looks like. I didn't actually see the picture. Mark just shared the picture Wow, it's not really at all how I pictured him, but I love it. But the expression expression is spot on. Yeah, right Wow. Yeah yeah That's cool. Thanks for sharing that mark That's cool. Anyho, yeah, I loved their their kind of like expansion into how they came to create that character from very little historical content, you know U So that's that was neat U love that Um, Anyway, yeah, if If you also saw subtlety and took notes unlike me, let us know the in the comments somewhere Well did we did have a couple of threads. So Scott in our chat room as well, but here on Good Read said the often creative and beautiful use of language in this book was one of its highlights. I thought I would start a topic where people could share one of their favorite passages and why it stood out to them. I highlighted so many passages in this book Many, many more than typical for me with a novel, but I'll try to limit my contributions to hopefully let others share. So he goes on to say, I mentioned on Discord how the closing paragraph was deeply moving to me. I thought it was extremely powerful, but it's spoilery, so he's taking that off the table So here's another one that he kept circling back to He was here by and with and in my body. He lives in me like trauma does. If you ever fall in love, you'll be a person who was in love for the rest of your life. Yeah, that's good Good one That's a good one. And then I also like Trikes. Oh no, Trikes is good and one of the ones that I actually remember as being very funny. This is a great example of the humor you're talking about Gore wouldn't watch television, he seemed to find it a tasteless invention. You can send dioramas through the ether, he said, and you've used it to show people at their most wretched No one's forcing you to watch East Enders. Any child or unmarried woman of virtue might engage the machine and be faced with lurid examples of criminal behavior. No one's making you watch midsummer murders either or deformed monstrosities against the will of God? What Sesame Street, he said Yeah Yeah that was The whole biking scene too was very funny. I really liked Gram learning how to ride a bike and Yeah. Yeah, there was there was a lot of great, a lot of great passages in this. So thank you, Scott for starting that topic. folks will will pop in and add some more there We also have another I think you just really like Scott's posts, but Scott Okay I do yes, I do. and Scott's in the chat as I mentioned, so he's probably gonna to feel quite chuffed hearing me talk about him this way. He makes great posts and he often makes non spoilery posts. that's what I'm looking for for this time of the midmonth check in is Things that a good conversation starters. So if you all out there want to be like Scott, about think about the. Why can't you be more like your brother Scott Scott wrote, I ran across a guardian interview with the author, which covers a lot of ground. I shared it in Discord and thought it worth sharing here as well. Among other things, it provides the pronunciation of her name, which is not any of the guesses I had. I found it very interesting that the guiding spirit behind the book is Bradley's best loved writer, Terry Pratchett Her humor is obviously not the same as Pratchett's, but now that it's mentioned, I can see the influence. Perhaps also explains in part why there were places in this book that actually made me laugh out loud, not something I often do when reading with my eyes. The interview does delve into some of the more serious themes of the book. This stood out to me People never ask refugees, are you grateful? They ask, how grateful are you Anyway, the full article is worth reading Okay, so yeah, we have been pronouncing her name incorrectly. So she pronounces it Cleon And that is not how it was pronounced in the audiobook pronunciation. So that's where I got my information from So that's pretty cool. That's that's an interesting, I like that I like that pronunciation and that spelling. Yeah. C U LL dash YA n Hullly on Why are you smiling? I have nothing to add. That's why I would like to I haven't read this interview yet, but I would definitely like to like to read this one Um How many I wonder how many o, this is interesting Like the bridge in the novel, she mainly quote passes as white, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been subject to racist insults, many of which she lists in the novel Um And yeah, I was I was curious. I did not know her her ethnic background at all going into this. So this interview seems to go into a lot of the story about how Much of the main character, Kat's life is based on her own background So that's an important note as well So you didn't read my M is what you're saying? I did not I did not. Okay. Again, I did not. I'm sorry Beause there's a line. She was born in Walthamstow, East London to a British father and a Cambodian Khmer mother. That would have cleared it up for me. Yes. That would have set the stage there It would have. yes. you know, I don't subscribe to our Patreon. I don't pay money to myself. so I don't get those delivered to me. Also you which would that last line of the book briefing Well I didn't read any of it, so Kalan is pronounced Koan and means darling in Cambodia. No you did not write that in the book briefing. Did you seriously? So why have you been Is that why you were smiling and nodding so enthusiastic? to add You Tom, you little Tom, Merr He's screen sharing with me right now to my own Patreon It is the last line in the book briefing right there. There it is There it is, well Good job, Tom. You want a fricaking medal? Yes, I do. You want a participation trophy? You want a good job, Tom? Yeah, give me a c Good job, Tom. Give a day Give me a darn cookie No you you are you do it No I do it good job. Wh why I wasn't saying anything because I did' bad and I should feel bad. I didn't want to big time you on that one, but then when the second one came up, I was like, okay, now I have to say. Well, Scott, maybe you should have read the book briefing and you would have known a lot of that information iscus doesn't host the show with me. so I don't get to go out about that I'm just I'm just transferring transferring my own angst. Sure onto somebody else. someomebody who can't fight back because they're just in the chat room and not haveving a video call call with me Yeah, you want me to submit? Okay. you give I do not give. As they say, I think you should But you're giving I'm giving, I'm giving something. I don't know what it is. I'm giving, See you next Tuesday. Oh, no, you're not. No, I'm not No I'm not. Not at all. No I'm not. Anway, that's the Ministry of Time I Cy Anne Bradley and we'll wrap it up next time. It's ye Yeah, we'll wrap it up with spoiler. spoilery thoughts You were given some wrap up noises there You were making some