Final Thoughts on The Will of the Many

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Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler peeering podcast ads like this one, for example But always wonder how you actually get involved with them for your own brand or organization? Well, it's easier than you think. We're ACast, and we give you the platform to do it all yourself. Browse thousands of popular podcasts, choose the shows that match your perfect audience, set your budget and launch. And if you want a hand, our podcast specialists are there to help you launch with confidence This is podcast advertising without barriers. Get started at aast dot com slash advertise. Sord and laser, d dooo doo, sword and laser, doo d doo doo, sword and laser, d doooo doo sword and laser slash patreon. com to join the hunt for goodood reads Hey everyone. welcome to the Sord and Laser. I'm Vonica Bmont and I'm Tom Marr Sordnlazer is a booklub but 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. Oh my gosh, do you know what has not happened in a long time What's that? Neither one of us put our what are we goming in? ahead of time. I just saw that. I was like A we gonna do the portion of the sh? Oh no. No It's come to a complete halt You did delete the entire intro, but that's probably fine too. you're getting in the wrong area of the podcast. ye I don't We don't need it anymore. You know, I got it memorized at this point pretty much though when I sometimes when it's not there, I panic and feel like I don't remember it anymore and then that gets a little weird. Yeah, should we rewrite it? because we haven't done an It's an interview in a minute. keep that there for the we bring you news from the world of Science, fiction and fantasy and awesome stuff. Would that Yeah. Would that freak you guys out? Like would that be weird It's gonna throw sixteen, seventeen years' to saying it. You're going to be like, we news from the world of science fiction. Yeah It would be weird. Yeah. Chat agrees. Hello to our live chat. We've got a very large live chat happening, live studio audience here tonight So thank you all for joining us. If you ever want to participate in the live chat, you can head over to our discord. We set out announcements when we're going to be doing a live episode And we love hearing the real time feedback. You are all my second brain. I couldn't do it without you. It does make the show better. We're not going to lie. And the more of you the better. I think so. yeah So join us, won't you? So speaking of which, Tom, what are you nombing? During It's a thing today with Molly Wood, The subject of burgers came up Eileen had already started planning to make something involving potatoes because there were potatoes sitting out on the counter But after I was done recording it Mashem boil them, stick 'em the stoon T toes T to. But after we were done with it's a thing, I texted one word to Eileen That word was All Bot And the response was OMG yes And so we got Smashburger from for the win, which is The one of the like hot smmash Burger places in L.A They only do like two styles of burgers and Brussels sprouts and fries, it's that kind of place And they are delicious That really interesting because I found in the grocery store two days ago Beyond Burger now does smash Burger patties. b them. And I had never seen them before in the store. D you have I haven't had them yet. gotta hear I'm gonna make them soon. I didn't have cheese in the house. I know cheese is a running theme in the pre show, but I didn't have any good cheese in the house, so I wanted to wait. G away for probably I'll make them this week.. What's your favorite cheese They were talking about this in the discordom Honestly, I love all cheese. Like I'm really like I will do the stinkiest of stinky. I will do hard cheese che cheese, All of God's Jesus But when I buy cheese at the store, I buy like the sharpest oldest Chedder I can find. It's very American It is I our predilelection for Cheddar I do bu aual cheddar though, typically. Yeah Yeah, I like I wnder sometimes if there's anything actually Irish about it, but it's sharper At least the Irish cheddar they sell here is sharper I wanted to hurt my face. I really wanted to like I love sharp cheddar. yeah It's like dill pickles. Like if it's not like a dill, dill dill, dill punchy in the mouth pickle, like I'm not interested We've been getting grruyere Cheddar blend from Trader Joe's. That is okay die for Well actually don't, donon't die. and you won't be able to finish eating it but it's really good. Nice. Yeah, we don't have that here, Trader Joeess So I might have a grruiere Cheddar blend because basically all Trader Joe's doesing it like that thinkink what if I've been saying that word wrong my entire life How it was And now I can't say it at all I mean, I'm not saying it the way the French say it ool ye. Grier, Ger, Ger Ger Oh boy. why you can't trust myself Parad It G R U Y E R E Zomino spells it like it should be written by a pirate We areer Cer, career. I think I'm saying it right You're saying it the same way I'm saying it. Cer Cer. Cer. Cer Ger It's gue That part I'm sure about That's the part I'm not sure about. That's where our difference lies G getiz dark off Is it gu or what do you say gur Gurer Grier Greer Ger Greer Ger. Ger Ger Oh, look, Mark found the actual and whatever it' the word looks like. That's not the problem That's the Mald that I buy. say. What I was going to say is that Trader Joe's just buys stuff from other suppliers and puts their name on it. so you might be able to find it somewhere else in Canada I'm sure. yeah. I don't think they invented that that specific combination of things. Probably not U I'm having a hot toddy A little bit against my better judgment Yeah But Chat said it was okay, so I'm just going to gore Um Honestly, no amount of alcohol is probably great when you're not feeling well long tend to lower the immune response tiny bit. But if you're not having a ton Probably okay. I'm not having a ton, so I think lemon and the honeyest parties have you had. This is the first I'm only hf way your rolling so Yeah, just a and I haven't had anything else to drink for this whole cold. It' a it's just the bad head cold. It was one of those colds that instantly turned into like a chest cold. Oh yeah,. You know. there was like feed up bad enough. rest all the time, but you're like. I did my first rest today. I did my first like I got around two o'clock and I was like, I can't be in meetings for the next two hours.ike I just can't do it. And I went and laid down and watched Instagram R Igg in Instagram You know? Yeah. so I gota. That's good. Good. That's a good way to take care of yourself So's what I'm heaven. Yeah. All right. Well u What do he you say we to a transition Jump into the old show. Let's do the quick burns It's the most wonderful time of the year. March Madness is here. Yay. ourur March book tournament which is in no way related to the basketball March Madness, copyright lawyers has begun its first round So the round of sixteen books began on Sunday at at Rob's suggestion, we're doing them Saturday through Sunday No wait, Sunday through Saturday. We're doing them Sunday through Saturday. So at midnight Eastern time onn Saturday night, Sunday morning, the new polls will go up. Uh, we have Some brackets here. you want to throw out your your picks for the brackets we as we pull through them You know, honestly, like I just don't know many of these books So for me, I don't really have any opinions about them. That's how I w my first March basketball pool Oh really? I just picked Villanova out of a coffee can Nice.. All right. so let's see U Did you want me to go through the brackets? Oh, I was gonna to go through the brackets and have you pick, but we could do it the opposite way. I also did. I don't want I can't No I don't think it's good for me to pick because I don't want to inform anyone's decisions during this very important voting time. That's true. We don't really want to know. Yeah. Okay. All right. I't should go through the bracket. Well, you go through the sword bracket and I'll go through the laser bracket Sure. Okay.. So sword round one is the Art of prophecy by Wesley Chu and twelve kings in Shara Kai by Bradley P. Bullo for round Is this how does this Oh, this is not numbered appropriately? That's fine. The polls did not display I entered them in order and then Goodreads decided to shuffle the way they play on the polls page. I see what I see whats happened to That sword round one match four and then match round one, match one. is Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Dungeon crawler Carl by Matt Dinnaman. let's see Sword Round one match three is middle game by Shon McGuire And Time of the Cat by Tany Rayner Roberts Sword round one Match two is the Adventures of Amina Al Serafi by Shannon Shakraborti and she who became the son by Shelley Parker Chan Laser round one, match one is the top seed. Lord of lightight, Rogers Zasny against infury born David Weber Laser round one match two is Embers of War by Garethell Powell against Parable of the talents by Octavia E. Butler Laser round one, match three is the spepeed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon against Wom City by Tlotlo Samas and lays aroundound one match for is Mickey seeven by Edward Ashton, which there's a movie coming out from uh the guy who did parasite Bong Juneo. Oh yeah. yeah. And Mickey seeven is up against how Rory Thorne destroyed the multiverse Okay Eason. Again, if you don't know how March Madness works, it's pretty simple. We have all the polls up on good reads. Anyone is welcome to go vote. Once the votes are cast, the winner of each bround goes up against the winner of another match until we end up with just two books, one sword and one laser going against each other in the final That final round will be march sixteenth through the twenty second. So we've got this round, then a round of eight, then aroundound of four, then the championship. and also If you hear this before the end of round one, which ends Saturday night, you can go to challenge d. com and enter your own picks And there's a bracket there that will keep up We also embedded that at swordenlazer. com where you can you can kind of make your picks of who you think is going to win and then see who's going to win the bracket. and it's always fun to see who gets the brackets best Wow, nice. Oh, and just to clarify, so Kill the Farm Boys by Delilah Dust Dawson and Kevin Hearne So that is that's not listed here, but that is that was a weird thing. I don't know why Kevin Hearne is not listed in the in the the goodoodreads Yeah listing for this. Yeah because because the names on the goodoodreads Pull are just the automatically pulled in Oh good read. Interesting. Yeah. ye. Mbe for some reason they don't account for two authors Yeah click through it shows Kevin Hearn, but when you do the like pull in this author thing it didn't Mmhm. Okay. So that just so just so you know if you're a big Kevin Hearn fan he's trying this Kevin Hearn We just love Dly last Austin better. No I'm just k And thanks Rob is always for for helping us out with putting this whole thing together. rununning the show here. Yeah Rob doing some really cool stats on previous tournaments because we've been doing this forever now Uh so he's he's been pulling out stats of like most frequently nominated and whher whether the one with the most nominations wins the tournament, how often, all that kind of stuff. So check that out in the Discord or on goodreads. Amazing All right, well, Tke says and this was also extremely exciting for me this week. The first look at Alexander Sarsgard as murder bot Stryke says I've enjoyed Scararsguard in everything I've seen him do, but I still think he isn't quite right for murderbot. I'll watch though. debuts may sixteenth on Apple TV. It's tough thought? It's tough U because I've seen Alexander Skarsgard in so many things including true Bood where he played a not human human Right? So it's kind of similar to Murder Bot in some ways h And so when I look at him, I see Alexander Skarigard. And so I get what Tric is saying, like It's kind of hard to look at him and see Murder Bot On the other hand, the way they've got his hair. The way that his uniform is, like the styling and everything, hisace, his expression. Yeah Yeah like all of that fits. So hopefully it's a thing where I forget he's Alexander Skarsgard after the first, you know, fifteen, twenty minutes and he just becomes murder bot for me, att least I hope so. Crochy Chrissy says too sexy for sex unit. and I said seack seck unit, sex unit, notot sex unit. Although it is Alexander Sarsgards. Rotten gods. Rotten gods She claims autoorrect. I don't buy it. N' not buyer. You know maybe Audio correct is onto something, who know? Sex unit. Oh that's definitely. Is that if we make that the title of the show, will that like block us somehow some kind of SC SECS unit Like that. Oh like SEC K S SECKS sex unit Well, I was thinking SEC like Sc unit Okay, that' And then the plural like' correcting unit I see, I see what you're doing. All right, I like it. I like it. I like it. I'm here for it. J you know whether we've actually titled that or not. We don't. That's kind of fun Forence Jason Jason B says Florence Pewgh or Dave Batista is always what I saw in my head D Batist depending on murderbot emotions at the time, that's so interesting. Florence Pgh, I could totally see That would have been a good casting actually I'm saying Dave Batista is wrong, I justt thought of them. Though to be fair, Florence Pgh is very tiny Yeah, a very tiny lady. They would have to stretch her in post. That would be difficult. That's point. I mean, if they only did her face like when the helmet was off, like close like maybe it could be like a Darth Vader situation. Yeah. But she yeah, she she do be a tiny lady. Um But I liked her a lot. so that would have been that would have been cool. Yeah, Tilda Swinton. I Tilda Swinton, I could see someone someone more androgynous. Yeah. I don't think Hunter Schafer is that androgynous though. Ustand Sinton. I don't think so either Yeah But Sarsgard can be kind of bowie like We just not used to him because his true blood character was not Right. But yeah Yeah, ye. Well we'll see. we'll see. I'm excited, reggardless. I'm definitely going to be watching Me too Scott wrote that the nominations for the twenty twenty five Ursula Kalogin Prize for fiction open on march first and run through march thirty first, so the whole month of March. Anybody can submit a nomination. The full set of criteria are at Ursulaogin dot com slash prize twenty five. The period of eligibility for a book to be nominated this year is different book must have been published first between april first, twenty twenty four and december thirty first, twenty twenty four. so it's a shorter period Excellent Uh, any What is the are are what are the requirements? You can find them at Ursulaaleind dot com slash prize twenty five The book must be a book length work of imaginative fiction written by a single author published in the US in English or in translation to English. In the case of a translated work winning the prize, the cash prize will be equally divided between author and translator. That's awesome. firstirst published in the US between the dates mentioned and available for purchase in the US. So that's kind of Those are the those are pretty broad b options there. And they're changing it to be calendar year. in the past, it was always up through March through the end of March. which is the year that they're giving it. So that that they were like, that's too soon, too soon from the nomination. So they're pushing it back to the previous calendar year, whichich is why you have the shorter od because january first through march thirty first last year were available were eligible for the twenty twenty four prize All right. so this next one, I hate this for my body. Scott says it seems worth mentioning that novels set in the twentieth century are now getting categorized as historical fiction donon't like that at all Here's a good reads list broken down by decade from the nineteen hundreds to the nineteen nineties. We are a quarter way through the twenty first century. Hate that. hate that even more Do you remember back when you were Horting canned food and listening to neutral milk hottail the you can't even say it And so like you're trying so hard I on Y two K, New Year's Eve on december thirty first, nineteen ninety nine, spent New Year's Eve hiding in a cabin in the woods with food and supplies with my weird prepper boyfriend at the time. So we really thought that the shit was going down. You know what? That's funny I spent New Year's Eve nineteen ninety nine. and A ion of cabins in the woods in Sedoma County with like thirty other people who were having a New Year's Eve party just in case we were away from everybody else. This was real. I mean, the fear was real. This was like a legit thing. I was seventeen, so you know, it was me. Yeah, for sure, for sure. you were also seventeen. U Back that, back that hs Um, But it was a weird, it was a weird time. U yeah, so why why are we talking about this? Be then nineteen hundred set in the nineteen nineties are considered historical fiction. Yeah. These are new books That's what confused me at first. This isn't going back and saying a book written in nineteen ninety five set in nineteen ninety five is historical fiction. They're saying these books about the nineties that are coming out this year are historical fiction Show that made it better. Weirder. No, that's weirder. Well, 'cause it's twenty five years old So that's far enough back to be historical fiction I guess. All right, Yeah, that recontextualizes it now a little bit. A book in the nineties that was set in nineteen seventy would have been. historical fiction, right? Yeah. no, I'm sorry. if it's not like Victorian era, it's not historical fiction. This myind long as you. You know, you are a vampire, so I'm and ageless. Yeah, you're agegeless and timeless Yeah, that's right Anyway, that's weird. Nobody liked that post. so thanks Scott. Thanks Anway, Scott, good after. Ke 'em covered. Mark wrote that George R. Martin has a new business venture opening in Santa Fe, New Mexico this March in the same building as his movie theater and bookstore. You can now visit a tavern named Milk of the Popy seemeems like false advertising or illegal. Tell her it was me. So yeah, I think it's going to be a bar, which sounds awesome. You will probably not be able to get opium there. M Mhm Yeah. I mean, it'sFe, who knows? That's not what she used to kill Joffrey. Sorry, spoilers ight. It wasn't the milk. I was making a no, it wasn't. it was No it was much more violent. Much more violent than what what that would have given you. Yeah But that listen, listen Crochet Chrissy expressed the thought that most of us have, which is could Lord just write the books. Having having the tavern opened. doesn't necessarily stop him from writing. It's not like a zero sum game where every minute he spent opening the tavern, he wasn't writing the books. L that's just not how it works He might need the tavern to go to write the books I think we all just need to be comfortable with the fact that it's not happening That's kind of where I If he publishes another book in the series, I'm going to be right there and super excited You know Yes It will be it will be a wonderful day But I think I think we all just have to You know S that out into the universe. L like free ourselves from that burden that we've been carrying. S down these heav many many, many, many, many, many, many and go enjoy some milk of the poppy instead Yeah There's many, many good books and many, many wonderful authors that we can continue to support as well And we will do so Yeah. And that's okay. And there's AI ory I could just like generate like the final book just to Just to mess with us. I made it could. I don't know if it'd be good, but it would not be good. Yeah get All right, and then Mark says finally, the author forecast Weetather worth reading kickstarted Your local weather told through five thousand plus literary quotes and counting I don't know what percentage of quotes come from sci fi and fantasy novels, though Okay, but it's like a little e ink screen. Oh, that's cute. Yeah. and then it tells you your temperature and if like Clear skies are coming, you know, the example is the sky was clear, remarkably clear, and the twinkling of all the stars seemed to be of one body timed by blahah blah. That's from far from the matting crowd, and part of it was covered by the play button on their video so I couldn't read the whole thing. But you get the idea Yeah That's cool. They are. I like this. Yeah. Ver cool Ver funded I would say Yeah. That doesn't mean you can't get one though But yeah, No I know. I'm just I'm just impressed that they far surpass their their goal, which is always nice to see. That's that means a lot of pressure because then suddenly they have to like Really crank those puppies out. But at least they startre working with economies of scale a little bit more, so it might actually be easier. It depends The deal with Kickstarter too is you set your goal at like a quarter or less of what you think you can get So that you hit the goal really fast and get everyready excited and then you had stretch goals Oh that's So hopefully this is in their the realm of their what they plann for Hopefully.ope yeah. that's fun I miss that I feel like we don't, I feel like we've lost. The era of funny little gadgets that do cute things. Yeah, like the chumby and the Nabaz tag I loved my chumby. I loved my Nabaz tag. I loved all that weird stuff He we just had little fun gadgets that did one thing or a couple of things and they were cute and they hung out around your house and they became A plague of e waste eventually, but you know Yeahah and killed us while Yeah, we'll just like choke on these on the electrode dust of of Nabazags past. They're in they're in my brain right now. Well, there's a title, The Cpses of Nabas Tags Past. Just gonna add that in for fun. That's the forecast for British Columbia today If you look it up on the E screen, that's what you're going to see for's Yeah for Thursday. Amazing All right, well I think we should hop into now Bear Y swword, which is our feedback from the audience. Once again, on behalf of the entire S laser staff, which is me and Veronica Apologies to Ruth or accidentally Rh all the roofs for accidentally attributing the hate of Shakrabardi to them. Ian did step forward. Kudos to Ian. and wrote Twas I? bad mouthed Chakraarty No need to slandnder the roofs. Ian said I found her books to be a rather superficial take on the mythology of the Jinn, amongst other reasons. Then Ian took the opportunity to comment on other parts the episode. grabbed attention grabed our attention and kept going. Well I have you, let's talk blurbs. I don't think it takes away from writing as reading is a pretty important part of a writer's profession. You need to keep up to date with what is happening in your field Charles Stras Burb for Giddyon the nth sure made me want to read it. and that was Tampson Yur's first novel. Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted Gothic palace in space As for going south to get colder, that's totally normal in Australia, where James Islington lives in the south, no less. Not that anyone from the UK would call Victoria cold. U So yeah, I guess that that's a really good point about the South thing where you know, James Islington is just writing like, yeah I'm not going to buy your northern hemisphere hegemony when we go south It gets warmer. that or colder. When we go south it gets colder. That's the way it is down here. Oh, I don't remember talking about that. Was that as an interesting part of the world building that he had. was that as you went south, it got colder, people from the south were known to be, you know from cold climes. And I thought that was interesting. and yeah, it makes sense. You got an Australian author. That's the way you would see the world. As for the blurbs though, we have talked to multiple writers Over the years I'd say More than two thirds of them say I don't have time to read So yes, reading is a pretty important part of a writer's profession when they're learning to write, but once they become a professional writer A lot of them just say like I work on my books and that's all I have time for R Not all of them, but a lot of them I'm sure reading is probably a privilege at that point, you know to be able to have that freedom Stehven says I was browsing the sales table at my local bookstore when I ran across a book called Longships, a thick book about Vikings by Franz G. Benson Benson, Bgson. Son of Bang, I guess from nineteen fifty four But it was the blurb by Joe Abercrombie that caught my eye. a ripped roaring saga that's vivid and authentic. No one should go a Viking without it So blurbs do work on me, especially if it is by time traveling grrimdark authors I greatly admire I should add, if hard backacks are one price, I love how everyone's like, while I got you. I should add, if hard backs are one price Trade paper, another but cheaper, should not ebooks be even cheaper considering the lack of paper and binding Yeah, again, The price of things is based on what people will pay for them. the cost of making the thing is the floor Like you can't sell it for less than that. That's the cheapest it can get Unless you're doing loss leaders or something like that, but the price is not You know, what we what would cost to make? will'll sell it to you. The price is, what will people pay for it If you have a competitive market. Now, if you don't have a competitive market then the price is whatever the mononopolist can decide to get away with. But even then there's price pressures even on mononopolis. So I I'm on a crusade to kind of get us out of this mindset of thinking like, well, it only cost two dollars for you to cane that picture, Grandpa and grandpa's like, yeah, but it's really good And I think you should pay me more for it because mine's better I take that from my own grandpa who caned pictures Caned pictures? He did. He used caning, like chair caning in Pictures. Oh he would like his first one was a sunrise You put like a piece of wood with a wood burned sun And then he caned it so that like the rays of the sun were going out into the can. Oh That's cool People would be like, well, that's like five dollars worth of cane. Why are you charging so much? He's like becausecauseuse it's good 'cause it's c It's not the cost of the materials effort Yeah Yeah How much is your time worth. Yeah. How much do you want the story? How much are you going to enjoy this story good Anyway, the Burbs st thing, I think is a really good point Which is, you know why they have blurbs? because they work. Ian and Stephven are both good examples of blurbs arere like, yeah, those are pretty compelling blurbs Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I do I have in the past also seen blurbs from authors I like and been like, all right I like and know their vibe, like this will probably work for me It's a real thing. And that's why they get authors to do that. Yeah. Licis wrote in our chat, clelearly have been reading too much romantasy because that was not my first impression of what Tom meant when he said caning crossed my mind as well. Not gonna lie. Yeah. Kind of that's why I was like, you know, like chairs aining in the chairs That's o. You don't have to explain the. P it on the chair. Let's let our brains do it. That's a fine thing, but a different thing. That's fine. That's fine. It's all good All right. well, thank you everybody for submitting stories for the Quick Burns and for submitting your stories or actually letting us find your conversations to talk about and bar your sword. We're gonna jump over to our book of the month discussion And u I don't understand like why you were redoing a book I got you for a second. after last week's revelation that we had in fact never picked a book by China Mievill M decided to pick a book by China Miaville You could have picked one I haven't actually read U I thought about Pernito Street station. It was basically between Perdido Street Station and the city and the city. And so I asked Discord and it was kind of overwhelmingly. There were a couple of people who wanted Perdido, but almost everybody else wanted the city and the city. And I think the city in the city is more accessible able not not accessible as in like, you know, accessibility, but like it's it is more widely appealing as a story because it's a mystery. He wrote it for his mom His mom was was in the hospital with cancer and was a big fan of murder mystery. so he's like, well, I' I'm going to make one for you And so he created the city in the city That's in the book briefing, which of course, Veronica read You know, I didn't actually know you picked this until I opened the u A lineup dock Hello Almost texted you the entire text of the book briefing. You texted me the words the city in the city, but I don't know if I grocked that was your pick I have to come back and look at our chat thread because you did. Let's see, Tom. Oh, yeah, no, I did I did I just texted you a link Oh, I texted you a link to the book brief Yeah and and the text The text you know extracted the title of the book briefing, the city and the city. I thought it was just an interesting post that somebodybody had written about I hope it was. The Mavill effect I They all want to know how I'm gonna to recover from these these sick burns that keep getting thrown my way. I don't know. I'm Chisp at this point. I wasn't even trying to burn you at that time. Scott M. says Book briefings in Veronica shall never meet. Never, ever. I don't know her, as Maria Cry would say. I don't know her Anyway, you've read the city in the city and I have now as well. Ive finished it today. Oh, that was fast. Really good. Good. All right, I' reread it Yeah, it's definitely worth a reread too because it's pretty dense in its plot. not hard to read dense, but like there's intricate pieces of the plot going on. The book jacket copy non spoiler thing is it is a murder mystery in a town that intersects with another town. Well, they're cities, right? A city that intersects with another city. But the two cities are not allowed to see each other So The inhabitants of one city learn which buildings and what style of clothing are the other city and they unsee them Yeah And there's there's a there's an enforcement mechanism. if they ever break that rule that will come down on them Uh and uh I put this I think in somewhere. I don't know remember if it wass D discord or goodood Reads, but I was training seeven the dog to, you know, learn when it's okay to play and when it's not, right? We play and we have fun. and then when I say it's time to stop, we have to stop. So he has to walk past the toy without looking at it. Okay monster No I'm kiding, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. so many people tootally why I was tootally my hackles went up totally triggered you. I know I know. idea is that he's having fun. anyyway. so has to walkast he has to walk past the toy when we're done and not look at it. I was like, Ohh my Godd, I'm teaching him to unsee. Exactly. Exactly Cool. Well, that's I'm looking forward to rereading this one because I read it. I did read it I know I've read it. Just not for sword and laser So it'll be a good reread. I don't often reread books. Why are you laughing? When are you laugh? Say says, I've read the book briefing twice now Geez. All right All right, lets let let's wrap up a book I have definitely read F Sword and Lazer. Okay. And that is The Will of the Many by James Islington Noted resident of Victoria, Australia, where it is slightly colder then Syiddney. Yes, rightight, but not what a European like Ian would call Ct Exactly. Um, so let's let's talk about our opinions first and we'll jump into some final looks from the audience I really enjoyed this book. like I going back to it, it was a I'm going to listen to my audioobook while I'm cleaning the house and continue cleaning the house until I get to a point that I want to stop Um This as a character, I hadn't considered him a Gary Stew until of course, everyone else in the chat started mentioning that and then I got it in my head and You know, honestly, like he wasn't. I dont think it was said he's good at everything He is good at some things. He's definitely good at some things, but I think it's more he's got this tenacity and he like kind of says to himself like, well, Why shouldn't I be able to do that? or this person can do this, I'm gonna to do this. He puts in the time. like you can't argue that he doesn't put in the time and effort There's nothing wrong with being naturally talented. characters can could be naturally talented and he is naturally talented. It does make I mean, he's a protagonist that makes him interesting. You know, that's part of the allure, I suppose And yeah, as Jason B notes in the chat, he was a prince. so he had like the background. L had that early education. But then he recognizes that he came from a privileged background. L he tries to hide that, but he knows, like that gives him a leg up on a lot of the stuff that he's doing Um, But boy puts the work in, like he is out there training every single day. He is doing the studies, he's getting the crap beaten out of him. He is practicing and practicing and practicing. He's what? what? Licorage says how many real life princes are Jack of all trades versus how many are spoiled brats? Okay. Well Well first of all Real life prrince is now totally different. Second of all, this is fiction Also I would argue that Prince Harry probably could there I feel like Prince Harry like has the tenacity that he also How many real life princes concede their will? or not. L it's an entirely fantasy land. So I think it's okay for the prince to not, you know be similar to Prince Harry or William, either William, sir I used to think I was gonna marry Prince William. Oh did you? the same age. I'm glad you didn'. Ddg a bullet there Yeah, yeah I think so. But anyway, Um I like this as a character. He had he's got a lot of a lot of Crochet Chrissy says romanticy bias strikes again. What do you mean What did I what who what? with me? What did I say? What didid I say something? I think it might be Jack of all trades, but it might be something I said, I don't know I don't know. Gaing shortly. Typing is happening. Typing. several people are typing. But no, I think it's I think he just So many princes could cede their will. C E D E That S E E D. Oh Most all the princes could see Sie ED. Please stop doing that, Jeezus. O U, But yeah, that that was u That's funny.,'s funiney you guys Um I totally lost my traade of thought. Gary Stew Yeah So anyway, he worked he worked really hard And I appreciate a hard worker. You know, he knew he knew what he had. He knew what he had to do And he was scared. I think that was that's the hard thing too, likeike he I think it was He's a scared kid at the end of the day. mission creep with Mary Sue, Gary Stew. where the original concept was who never had adversity that just never had a problem and won at everything. And that's not a very interesting story And I think over time when people don't like a character or don't like a book or even not even dislike, but they're just like, meh about something. It it's become habit to say, well, if they're a talented character, they're Mary Stu. They're Gary Stu Yeah because because they're good at something. and I don't think that that's useful because characters being good at things you shouldn't have every character not be good at things. Not every character also has to have you know, disabilities or disadvantages. We could use more of those characters, abbsolutely. But just because a character doesn't have that, I don't think it makes them a gary st. I think all of us would be pretty hard pressed to name a lead character in any of the books we've read recently that doesn't in some way fit that description You know, it's just like Well a cota which Kato which even gut accusations of Mary Sue. And ye Cotter Witch's main character had had legitate legitimate disabilities. like so I'm like, yeah, I don't even think you can You could say that that that character is perfect at everything. She was pretty naturally good at socc, but she had she had talents, right? Yeah yeah If it had been a soccer story, maybe maybe I would have thought she was Married. Mh But anyway, this was a, you know he I liked him as a character. I liked the whole book. I liked the characters. I thought it was really interesting. I can't claim to understand everything that happened. I'm not going to pretend like I'm fully on board with what it The plot was telling me in the world builduilding, there's gaps in my knowledge for sure, but I'm I'm in it. I will I hope to continue the series U so that's that's kind of where I'm where I've landed with that. What about you? Yeah, I as we said previously I really enjoyed the beginning. I felt like it moved really fast and there was a lot of interesting stuff. When he got to school, I felt like it slowed down quite a bit and I didn't lose interest, but I found myself not being quite as interested When he started to get closer to the mystery, it just became a different kind of book for me, but I enjoyed it It never became a book that I found excuses to read, but it certainly was something at the end of the night when I'd be like, ooh, it's my book reading time. you know, I can't wait to find out what's up with this. And I was very curious where we were going with him. And I guessed most of the stuff, but not all of the stuff. So there was you know, there were some wrench's thrown. and I have to say at the very end and we can be spoilery now. so if we're going to if you're spoiler for the ending Yeah, you might want to back off, but at the very end I I thought We were going to go to another world. I didn't think we were going to find the dead brother O No I thought we were gonna find the dead brother. really. Okay. I didn't think they were gonna be copies of themselves. Oh yeah, no, I definitely didn't think that either. So that was not that was not sorry, I got very L there was still in the magine back. Yeah, yeah yeah. L he is. There So I guess the brother is dead His copy Yes is dead. Yeah But it's like a transporter accident. I thought that was pretty fascinating Totally, totally. So he's in Obatum. so the A third sorry, a third version of it. S, I'm reading the the Wikipedia page. Wait so how many visas are there So this is a third version of this wakes up in Obitum There's a second version of who's where's the second version of this? I lost track of how many of all the thises then Me too So there's there's a vI that There wass a vestine in That goes back There's like original vist that after he comes back and Viridus, like he wakes up and Viridus is like, okay, come work with me. you know Oh He's in the Luum. The original Licorice says the original world diluum and the obiteum Oh, I didn't get that I didn't get that that was that was a copy. So where is he in the How is he still in the Lucium I don't understand that. Okaykay So U I think we all knew that that his his wolf friend was going to come back. That was was a pretty. I was happy to see that that little DusX Macina popp back up and that was Dogusx Machina. Dogus Dogusx Machina. That's also a good title Dang. We're just like racking them up tonight. Yeah All the ty things typing Um But yeah, so he comes back and Veridius is like, C work with me and he's like, No, I'm going to go work in governance and work with Callidus' father. really figure out like what the MLM is doing to people U the will seating MLM that they've got set up and where the power is going That's interesting. Yeah Licorice is saying there are two unexpected chapters at the end, one for the Lum and one for the OitTum. I realize that now, but I read that as well as story. Not just two versions. So that's that's on me. but Wait, so wait where so where So there's one just Didn't make it My brain is totally broken now. Okay. so he He runs he runs the labyrinth, he goes into a chamber. There's a pathway to Obitium and Lucium He wakes up And then he's in He's in He's he's so part of one of him is in Lucium, onene of him is in Oum and the other one is in the regular world So what Licor says, what happened to him in each chapter was different Yeah, it didn't seem like it to me. I should not I don't know if this was an audioobook thing. That part did not work for me either Yeah I mean, I'm sure it makesense. I'm not disputing what you're saying.'m just Like it did not ' he the g offense He lost his arm I thought his arm was removed. Did he get his arm cut off in Lucium or when he was back at the accademy Yeah, back at the accademy, he lost his arm In the regular world, in the normal world, he lost his arm Yeah, I'm gonna to have to go back and rel listen maybe. I don't know if I have the energy for that, but That's wacky. Okay So there's that There's that. that's Fascinating. I'm learning that in real time I felt really sad, like I really wanted Olkicore to be like nicer to him. Yeah. I wantnder heis score to be like Actually more fatherly towards him and instead he just like really treated him as very dispensable, which makes I thought that was I thought that was a That was good writing though to make us feel that. likeike, oh, maybe he really is a father figure. And then turns out no, what we should have guessed from the beginning is he was just using this. and that became pretty clear Mm. Do you think, what do you think is going on with With Anisa Like, why do you think she got all weird at the end when she saw his wound and pushed him off the tower. That was Anisa, right that pushed him off the tower? or was that Yeah, I thought that was because she was under the influence of what? of U whatever thing I'm a horrible book podcast host Um, okay. She was infected, she was infected by what The only cure was to kill him. What was the? No, she didn't do it to win because she was fine She she I mean, she was she was okay with him surviving. I don't unless she was told that like, There was something was bad was. Be remember her eyes turned black Yeah. like what is that? Yeah? She was She was being controlled is what I what I took. Right And I thought she was being controlled too. Yeah. Thats something like triggered her. the control mechanism. Yeah Um, okay crazy. I was really sad about Calidus. I really like Callidus He died. I was sad, but maybe he's alive somewhere else. No, but he didn't die like in the labyrinth, so he's not he's probably not coming back. Remember his friend Calidus? Yeah H is family was a mess Calladus' family Yeah, what you Callalidus was the one whose father was like, don't come back. Yeah. Yeah. ye Yeah. his family didn't like him anymore. We We don't know for sure. But yeah, that's the assumption Anyho let's read some comments now that we've done our thing. so John posted this, John Talloneoney posted this when he was around the seventy five percent mark He says, so this book is feeling like a gigantic prologue. It's all set up for what exactly? Maybe there'll be some action in the next one hundred and fifty pages. Yeah Yeah, there are. U Since this is a mega series of doorstop books, I kind of think there will be a Fury of action to finish and then a cliffhanger. Yp Also, call me crazy, but isn't a central piece of action a fraud? His action stopping the big attack came after another conspirator gave him immunity. the scratch across the chest and gave him a weapon He basically walked across a plank and then the attacker killed himself U The intro gave me heavy Thomas coovenant vibes. feels when we are introduced to people using mind powers to manipulate objects in a medieval second world Their covenant didn't get it and here the MC does, but we don't, but it's still an intro I could really do without another magic school, but it works as a framing device. The classes don't make sense at all. Do they do this every year? If they do, why not have our main character wait until the next one? Yeah, it was kind of interesting too why why set them in the full like right away. Kys sccore doesn't want to wa That's why That's why he's like get to the top, get to the top now. U I took that as as an ambition thing Like yes, he could have come back the next year and slowly progressed. I'm sure plenty of the students do Um, but Bill Keyscore didn't want to wait I think you're right And then later John Telloney writes on Discord, just when I thought fisted couldn't be tough, along comes an even more awkward construction I refer of course to the pejorative Rotting gods, which dots this book. It's, you know, the phase phrase jumps out of me every time I see it Why would Gods throt What would they look like? Kindall search says there are forty one instances in the book. I swear it's three times as much. God D That's the thing that's wrongay better one Thatck was way funnier Like I started saying Fc. All the time. Yeah in the audio didid you do the audio book? I did It sounded more like c. The way the way the narrator said it No, the audiobook there says FC, FC. FC. How wasn itt written? Wait, so did you Is it spelled okay Yeah, it's fact Yeah, has Julian started saying that yet? No. I'm waiting for people to tell me how it's spelled in the book to see if I'm saying it could wait all day if we. I'm just gonna sit here and wait until someone who read the book tells me how it was spelled But that's fine H. Meanwhile, Judge Ruth, Tiltab says Okay I fininished What? Okay. I thought so. back, back I guess I thought it was Fack. Salon up ye.. Tilt to have Judge Ruth says, Okaykay, I'm finished next book when I haven't had time to gather my thoughts on this book yet to say anything other than gosh, that was good But I figured I'd make a thread for folks to discuss the ending in the book as a whole in future speculation. I'm going to calm down and wash up now. that got intense It's true T ten. Yeah And then Ricardo says, this book was a plot machine and I never read a six hundred page book this fast. ag. I also dug the dynamic between Vis, Calidus and I can't remember how to pronounce his name. Idan Iden Um Aiden, I feel like most of these characters shared typical traits we've seen in stories like this, but everyone's motivations were understandable The tension between Vis his loyalty to Sus, and everyone pushing and pulling him for their own ends are what stood out for me By the end, some contrivances, one too many bond villain monologues and the DusX Alupi That's a good one. But those would be my knitpicks Also the romance with Emisa and was expected, Eisa but was expected, but did nothing for me On the very end, I'm always a little nervous about multiversal stuff. I don't like take back seies, but this book earned my trust for the next two installments. Nice, well crafted And then William eighteen forty four said, I'd been a read all the pick Sord and laser listener for years. Then I hit some major personal family crisis stuff and just couldn't face anything except cozy reads. I could trust. This was my first sword and laser read in a year or so and it hit my brain like a tsunami I shot through it and now I think part of my mind is in denial that it's over I keep wanting to read the next bit and worrying about what's happening to Vis Diago when I'm not looking. I seriously cannot wait for the next book Is that how his I thought his name was Kiago Like common, very common Greek name. V Veronica. Ohago Siago D It was fun with a D? This kind of stuff blows my mind. You heard a D I heard a Dag. Diago. Wow, I thought it was frootting gos. Frootting gods, Rotic That's so funny Yeah, all these spellings look wrong to me Yeah was around There was I will tell you, I will say it was it was a very like Spanish style, Italian style diago. So I get what you're saying. There was kind of like a hard D, not a soft English diago. Yeah, yeah, that's funny I do need I feel like I should start looking up books in advance to see like what the words and names are Yeah before I start reading so I can picture them correctly for the poipis of this show Yeah And then finally, Turp Christen says, Interesting that Tom found it fast at the start and it's slowing down. I found it to be a slow start for me, but now that I'm about twenty five percent in, I keep looking for opportunities to read. I wish that I liked the narrator of the audio book, because that would give me a lot more reading time lately I personally IMO really liked the narrator actually So that's surprising, but takes all kinds As they say You know? Indeed, it does. U that who narrated Will of the M because U he has narrated other Yeah I'm going to find out who shortly, but it's another book that we've read Oh really? Youwan Morton also narrated Well, he narrated a bunch of dune stuff, apparently, but that's what I was thinking of. He narrated the Halo books. No, there was another one that we read I swear that I wanted to write down and I never did. but he he did doon. So if you've listened to Doon on audiobook lately I I look through to see if I can find anything. I'm not Not recognizing anything so far It's not coming to me either He's done a lot of Gygabriel K, so Yeah. I don't think we've read In this book club, any guy got realkay actually We have We have to be rent togethera Yeah, we read Tagana, that's right Oh, is that did we read that for Vaginal Fantasy and Sworden Lazer? Wow. Yeah, probably. crossover pick backack in the day