Isekai Genre and Audio Performance Feedback

While every other channel is fighting for your customers' attention, podcasts are where they've already given it No one accidentally listens to a podcast for forty five minutes. They choose to be here. They trust the voice in their ears, and when that voice talks about your brand, it doesn't sound like advertising. It sounds like a recommendation from a friend. ACast gives you that trust at scale. Digital precision, host read authenticity, and performance data that proves it worked Don't fight for attention. By it with Acast Learn more by visiting acast. com slash advertise Visit patreon. com slash sword and Laser Sword and Laser hopes you will enjoy this program. Hey everyone, weellome to Sword Lazer. I'm Vonica Belmont. And I'm Tom Merritt Sord and Laser is a club but it so much more. We bring you news from the world of science fiction and fantasy, and of course, awesome discussions from fans just like you. News from the world Sometimes when you say newew in the world, that's what I think. New think like I think I think news reels. I think This atomic bomb looks atomic I'm sad that there's like a lot of people that will never ike I didn grow up d during the time of old timey radio news shows and dramas, But even I feel like I understand them. Yeah. the reference You get that reference I understand that reference. I don't think my child is going to understand that reference. Unless I teach him There are Like why do you understand it It's not like you grew up then. So it either persists through the culture somehow or it doesn't. Like you understand that like Tinkly Ballroom music means the eighteen hundreds, even though that's a long time in the past. so I don't know why soistinly, but you know I don't understand. I mean no. Zither, you know that that sound sure Everyone knows that sound. Everybody knows that sound. Tom, what are you gnawing on? We had Noki Bolanese for dinner No key Good noki Yochi. No potato pillows? Yocchi Don't you say gnocchi? feel like we've had this conversation before. Good gnocchi. It happens sometimes. Yeah with Bologese sauce. it was very good Nice. I am having a G and tea. For dinner? Mommy's drinking her dinner, son. Oh He's having a liquid dinner No, I'm just, um G andT though, I love that.. I'm a big fan of the G andT It's very fragrant gin that's distilled locally Um from a distillery called Rain City Distillery That's pretty good. Canadian, loal local thing? Yeah. I just said a local distillery in school Yeah, okay. it be I guess local el I don't know what else it would be whereere would you be going with that? I don't know.ike Seattle is not that local, so yeah, it's pretty much gonna beue. Allright, well let's hop into the quQick burns First off, I'm going to keep repeating this for a few episodes just so we make sure everybody hears it and we get everybody's feedback on it. The short story is we have to change our Patreon from per episode to subscription billing What that means is right now, you get charged as a patron every time we post an episode. Actually, you get charged every time we click the little checkbox that says Chge you, which we only do when we post an episode. Subscription billing means you'll get charged per month. or you can choose to pay per year. The reason for that is Patreon has started selling making it so that some patrons can sell digital items through Patreon. And as soon as they did that, it caught the eye of Sauron that is Apple's App store policy. and Apple determined that all of Patreon is a digital a vendor of goods and therefore if you're a vendor of digital things, you have to give Apple thirty percent and follow the digital payments policies So what already happened is if you were to sign up for our Patreon through an Apple app you would have to pay thirty percent more because Apple's taking a cut But it also means that Patreon is not allowed to do per episode billing anymore they if they want to stay in the Apple App store, they have to get rid of that. So that means we have to switch by November to a flat monthly fee And what Veronica and I talked about before the show doing is just doubling the amount of any given tier We generally do two episodes a month twice a year just the way the calendar falls. We'll do three episodes a month. There are maybe some rare circumstances where we've done one episode in a month, but I don't know when. Mbe I think maybe only December if Exactly. Potentially like idn't record for the holidays. Yeah, but generally speaking, we're gonna do twenty four episodes in a year Probably more usually twenty five or twenty six So if we just double the current subscription prices and say that's now your monthly rate, you're basically paying the same amount that you would have paid for two episodes That's the main point to hear out of all of this. You will be paying most likely the same amount, if not a little bit less. That's slightly less because it is a different model. Yeah but you'll be charged and you actually you'll be charged once a month. so you might not even notice You might go like, oh, I pay I used to get charged four dollars by Patreon and now I get charged four dollars by Patreon. But it'll happen no matter how many episodes. So that three episode month will no longer be six dollars for the two dollars the mythical I don't even think we have a two dollarars episode here, but You won't have that. and were it to be less than an episode, it would still be the same amount. So yeah, what that's what we're planning to do There you go. Well, yeah, thank you. Thanks Tom for explaining that I know you have like C like fourteen, sixteen podcasts that you probably have to have this conversation about U Well, the good news is of a lot of them, I already did monthly because like the daily shows, I always did monthly. Um, But yeah, gott to do this on a couple others. you're right. All right, well thanks to everybody. If you have any questions, drop us an email, feedback at swordenlazer d. com We'll do our best to answer them. or send us a message on Patreon too, if you're already a subscriber.. We're in there as well All right, Tomahome says Brandon Sanderson Isles of the Ember Dark is now available for pre order. That's quite an early pre order for february twenty twenty six Yeah, that's ten months away That's almost a year. Is that is that very unusual? I guess that I guess Is that very unusual? Once I said ten months, I'm like, that's not that far for B That Anderson. They haven't revealed the the book cover yet, though. They're taking your money. You don't even know what that book cover is going to look like what if you don't like it? I mean the book It like either. so I guess that's more important than the cover, but And that's pretty normal. Ian says Children of Strife is on the way. This is a Children of Time series book from Adrian Tchakovsky. Tor UK has acquired four stellar novels from Adrian Tchaikosky and Children of Strife will be the next one All right, that is yeah the next volume in Children of Time. he is just killing it with these books. like they are They are so award winning Yeah. They're just really racking up the awards. If you're an award out there, beware Adrian's coming for you coming for y you withith his serious face, his slightly intimidating scow. Aazing facial Yes Lickerish says Cassidy, Beve Morris, are not sure what to call him, Lickish says, a quote data scientist and blogger, was doing an analysis on the best sci fi and fantasy in the last fifty years based on the major awards, Hugo, Nebula, etcera He noticed a curious thing There is a very distinct trend where Sord has started to outperform laser in awards over time. Speaking as an armedchair economist who fails to understand that correlation does not imply causation. I'm referring to me, Lakrich says, not the author I will say that my first impulse is to attribute the change to Veronica's influence But then I realized that Sworden Laser has only been in production for fifteen of the fifty plus year trends Which means it is more likely that Veronica is a product of her times, while Tom is a relic of the Glden Age H And he continued with a follow up O, I should probably follow up with a summary of the top ten according to awards received that spurred the observation of Sord trending over laser Personally, I've read all of them except for the Yiddish Policeman's Union and Blackout All Clear. To be honest, I've never heard of either of those. Say what Note that March Sordan Laser pick the City in the city shows up at the number eighteen spot, and I'm sure Princess Donut missed getting onto this list by a whisker. You know The details with all of the grizzly math is here that I mention the author was a data scientist. Here is the thing that caught my eye It says top rank science fiction and fantasy novels of the past fifty years. However It is more than fifty years because The title is determining the greatest science fiction and fantasy novels Since nineteen seventy Do you know that' what they did in nineteen seventy Know what debuted in nineteen seventy Very, very important to me. what debuted in nineteen seventy? Star Wars? Nope, not No, Star Wars was seventy seven Tom Merritt? M. Yes, I debuted. All right. I cannot have I cannot take credit for that Suray, Siry, guess that. and I stole her answer. So actually, this entire exercise is What effect have I had? fict of fantasy The life for us of Tom Merrit Mhm And and it would make sense that When Veronica arrived in this world, Suddenly you'd have rising tide of sword books, right Yeah So I think it's just I think that explains it that explains it all I think that's pretty clear. Yeah haveve g through this whole post. I would like to dig into the analysis of this. Yeah the number one ranked sci fi fantasy novel of the past fifty years I haven't read this whole thing either. so I'm not even going to try to guess on the methodology here. You can go read that for yourself. but number one is rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clark Number two is Ringworld by Larry Niin Number three, speaker for the dead or since Scottard. Number four, Nuromancer, William Gibson, and reminder, even though I don't know the methodology, this is going based on awards given. Number five American gods, Neil Gaiman Number six, Yetish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. That's two thousand eight Gods themselves by Isaac Asimov Blackout by Connie Willis to twenty eleven The Dpossessed by Ursula K. Login and Ancillary Justice by Anne Lucky Where are you seeing the full list? Beuse I'm seeing ten. J just past fifty percent scroll Oh, I see. Okaykay. Yeah. The top ranked SFF novels of the past fifty years is the subhead. If you do Mandath for that And then it keeps going with, oh, Martha Wells network effect is number eleven, actually. That's pretty cool. I like how he also does the top drank series whichich I think is pretty cool. So like number one best best series is the Osagan saga by Lois McMas Rou Boujold. The second best is Book of the New Sun by Jean Wolf Number three is the Oxford T travel series. Weve read Doomsday Book. I've read Doomday Book, Blackout is in that series Yeah which and to say nothing of the dog, we almost read. R pretty sure And then fourth best series Broken Earth, which kicks off with the fifth season Yeah, so this is cool because it kind of shows like all the the first books in series. We've also read like all of them H the series wise. We haveven' not read read Mars. We've read different Kim Stanley Robinson haven'tad that I read Red Mars and I've re it I've read it too, but just not for the shows. hearry you not I like it. I couldouldn't get through it.. It was I found it boring. I'm sorry I think what was it twenty fifty wasas the one? is that the one we read did not read we did not read that one U, but I liked I liked that one better And it's a more recent on the whole thing and it's kind of in the same b. I've heard really good things about that. wanted to read it for a while But yeah, that's funny. we've read all the first books in all these series except for Red Mars, which we have both read separately Good for us. Cool, this is cool. I love I love data stuff like this. so Yeah, Thanks Lr. That's a good That's going to be fun All right, then Tomahome says Mike Flanagan's carry TV series has been Greenleit at Prime Vide. The series will be eight episodes and begin filming this summer Um, a little bit on the horror side A Little bit of horror coverage there. Surprised it made it through the cracks, Tom Yeah, I don't know why I'd let my guard down that time. probablyrobably because it was Tamahome and I'd just have a soft spot Also, I forgot to put the link in You did, That's okay That just shows you weren't serious about the whole thing. It was, you know what it was? It was a book. turned into a show versus you know, another thing or something that's unrelated to books. And I widened out and widened out to include horror. Also This is the first time this has ever happened Nothing from Good Reads was posted on our Quick Burns thread since our last show. This is all from the Discord Whoa. So this was interesteresting Thery Cry newews was the first thing I pasted in. I think I was maybe just a little like scared we wouldn't have anything, which I was wrong. We did. I see. so you got that from Goodreads. I got this all from Discord Oh. Nothing There was nothing on Goodreads. The last post on Goodreads was Trike's post about the Murderbout TV series that we talked about last time Changing of the guard Man, you guys are moving into I know. I know Tom. M always says, whereere are you, Ywn? I wasinking the same thing this is this the Ywn effect? Ywn okay Ready check. He is in discord sometimes. So it's not like he doesn't use discord, but he has always been a Big u Good reads guy. I don't really mind having discord. The one thing I will say is people tend to write less descriptive text in discord for some reason, I think because of the chat feel. So it does does lead to me having to like that paste the headline of whatever they're linking to into the description. We don't get the nice long paragraph description So if you are posting in Discord and you think about it, you know, add a little like summary as little summary. Yeah. Yeah Myike countount zero or says. ero text on the Discord didid write descriptive text in our Quick Burns thread on Discord. So and I didn't include it because it was a graphic novel turned into anime. And by that time we had a lot. So I wasn't scraping by. So you were totally unfair and I apologize. I was gota say. Yeah That's a little we got run we're here It's fine Yeah. All right. thank you everybody for submitting stories to Discord. You can do that either in Discord or goodoodreads or email them to us directly or send them by carrier pigeon or smoke signals or Telepathy or telepathy whatever. Yeah. Yeah o being wok up in the middle of the night the quick and being beamed in my brain My mom accidentally like butt dialed me at four thirty AM this morning M She says her phone isn't working right. She just bought a new phone too. I feel like at some point you gott to stop blaming the phone Yeah, it's a poor craftsman who blames their tools. My question is was she early East Cast time or never went to bed East Coast time couldould have gone either way. Yeah. All right On that note, time for Barrier Sword, which is our feedback from the audience Ruth writes I had never really considered before about the impact of negative commentary on the morale of our overlords I want TNV to feel enthusiastic about the book club, so I shall endeavor to make some more positive comments about our current and future picks. Thank you, Ruth I'm still not entirely convinced by Alexander Skarsgard has murder bought to BH. I sa I saw someone suggesting that Gwendlyn Christie would have been perfect for the role, which I totally agree with. And now I can't help wishing she had been cast instead. I'll probably watch the show anyway, though, as the trailer looks good, it captures the snarky tone perfectly I Interesting. Okay, so Gwendol and Christie was a name that had been thrown around in a lot of fan castings for a long time H It's gonna sound I don't know how to state this You hate She's not Gwendell and Christy? No Why you hate her so much U that's not it at all. She's an angel on earth I just can't picture it. I feel like she's This is funny to say, I feel like she's too Fem I kind like when I picture murderbot, I really picture murderbot to be very androgyous. And I think that's probably part of the reason why I didn't love Alexander Skarsgard being murder bot at first either because I see him as being so So masculine, Right And so for me, it was definitely someone like a Tilda Swinton but Late. Yeah, just more murder body, I guess. I'm sure she could pull it off if she wanted to But Yeah, I feel like It could have been an interesting opportunity to have a truly gender nonconforming or androgynous person like be in that role. and that would have been super cool. Tony Colltte is one of the people I thought of I don't know if you ever saw the show it was a showhowtime series. where she played person with multiple personalities And some of the personalities were men and it waspl. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Crochet Chrissie says like uncanny Valley looking. Yeah, totally. L almost like like you really have to can't Like your brain can't like figure out what's happening kind of deal in a cool way. I think that'd be really interesting and just like a cool opportunity to have some more representation Um But that's okay. As people noted in chat, Scarsgard bought the rights. like he pushed this thing. This was a project he wanted to get done. it's the next thing in bear your sword actually. St Stehven says since Alexander put up the money to start the show, and I'm sure having his name attached to the show brought in many investors, I'm going in with a neutral mind I really wanted an animation version like the ones in some of the episodes of Love Death and Robots I guess I'll have to wait some more time for my vision to come true Maybe Dungeon crawler Carl, but the character of Carl may be too tempting for some actors to pass up Yeah. plus I just have that voice in my head now. It's gott to sound like Carl. Jeff Hayays It's gotta sound like Jeff Hayes, Carl I mean, Jeff Hazes all the voices in Dungeon Cow, including Donut and everyone else to me right now. So I know Jeff Hayes can't play all the characters, but Um, yeah. I would like to look up some fan castings for Dungeon Crawler Carl actually. let me look that up while you're talking. Yeah yeah. I'll read Pauls. You know Speaking of Alexander Skarsgard an voice and his subtle facial expressions actually really sold me. I had always imagined murderbot as having a low female voice, but listening to him as a murder bot in the trailer, I thought yeah. This is what a SEC unit would be programmed to sound like I'm sold, hashtag, Team Scarsguard bx. So yeah. it seems like the trailer really won people around My supposition was like, sure, it seems weird because you think of him as vampire guy, masculine vampire guy. But honest or some other role, but that's the one I think of. But he's an actor. And if he's a really good actor and he really understands this role, He'll be able to pull it off and so far so good remains to be seen when we get the actual U show coming, but but trailer trailer look looking good find any good sanas U yeah, some people are saying Alan Richson. The guy who plays Reacher right now Too big I don't know him You do I mean, I'm sure I do. I just don't recognize that. You' you'll, yeah. I mean he Ohah He's just he's so big. He looks like how I would imagine Carl looking. kind of picture Carl that large. I fixure him is pretty big Well he like I think of him just like a big like, I don't know. Um Well, okay, peopleople are saying that Carl said he was big, that other people are saying' big, but this guy's really No I know reallyally big. He's like He's like, he makes u Henry Cavill looks small Like he's big, big, big. Yeah Some of theason for the for the Carl books make Carl look like ridiculous big, but I always thought that was just a stylized like You know, oh, this is like a heavy metal art kind of take on Carl. Yeah I'm not I'm not super happy with these with these guesses He This particular thread. Well, then feedback at Sordanlazer d. com will have to fill in and make Veronica happy. Fan cast Carl now do it. Yeah I'm trying to try oh yeah, actually Bark Hamel is M to Kai would be awesome Interesting I think a Mordecai is more of like a country Western, you know, like Almost u remember actors' names, but who's the guy He always does this voice What? And he does insurance commercials, but he was in the bigig Lbowski And this I'm looking Sam Elliot you Sray my exper Princess Donut, Phoebe Waller Bridge. I was thinking Mordecaai would be like a Sam Elliott style guy Oh, Zev, Felicia Day. Nice I'm looking at cculating flusha it would be great Great for Ze Is that u Oh, and Gwendlyn Christ is Hecla U Sure, she could do it. Don't get me wrong. wouldouldn't be the thing that comes to mind first Anyway, those are some that's just from the MyCast website, which I guess is a site that people vote on fancastings for things which is kind of fun Ohh, West Chatham is Carl You know West Chatham best as the actor from the Expanse. Oh MS He's a little short for Carl. N not gonna lot.ing, is he short? Yeah. in life. In life. but you you could shoot around that. That's not a problem, I' like that. Yeah.'s yeah, he's forty six now, but he looks young. Yeah. That's all right. Carl's not super.' has no spring chicken. Yeah Okay, I think we should, yes, S Ry says we should start a fancast thread. I think we should I think that would be fun Why? Why What? Under under West Chatham and Google Uh peopleeople also search for Alan Richson, okay Jackie Gleason Are they like related or something? And Syil Shepherd That's weird I don't know what that's about. When the algorithm goes wrong, there's probably weird connections, kevin bacanisms that we're not aware of somehow in there Certainly, certainly Yeah All right, let's see. okay So''re did we read Paul when I was looking at the fancasting? We did. That's what I read to buy you the time has to take Garsguard but Let's jump into the Book of the Month discussion, followed with a kickoff and then a spoilery wrap up of Dungeon crawler Carl. Let me hear about your bookpick friend. Yes. So I understand if you haven't had time to read the book briefing yet, Veronica because I just posted it before the show So you have Perfect excuse this time say Oh no, I haven't got a chance to read it yet Gonna to read it right now. Yeah, so I actually texted Veronica. I'm like, amm I being lazy if I pick Mickey seeven, which was the other semifinalist to Dungeon crawler Carl? And Veronica said, Yes, you are being lazy, but that doesn't mean you can't pick it. It's a perfectly legitimate pick. So we are going to read Mickey Seven No, it is not Mickey seventeen. Mickey seventeen is the name of the movie that stars Robert Pattinson. Apparently, so they could kill Mickey more times. They wanted to kill him more than seven times in the movie. So they made it Mickey seventeen, but it is based on the book Mickey seeven. and book is by Edward Ashton. It was published in twenty twenty two. After the movie started into production, he published a sequel called Antim Matter Blues, takes place two years after the events of Mickey Seven. But it's not like you're getting into a big long series. So if you read Mickey Seven, it's meant to be a standalone book The premise is that Mickey Barnes has signed up to be an expendable, which is to say he does dangerous jobs colonizing an ice world. and when he dies, most of his memories are transferred to a clone. And according to Edward Ashton, he wanted to write a short story the idea of the tele transransportation paradox. That's the that's the philosophical idea that like if you are transported molecularly and then reassembled, are you still you Yeah, this keeps me up at night. Yeah And so this is kind of a way to deal with that with that paradox. So he started writing the book in twenty fifteen as a novella, but his editor encouraged him to make it a full blown book And therefore we got Mickey Seven He's been writing since twenty fifteen. He writes the fourourth Cort, Mal goes to war three days in April, the end of Odinary. If you've heard of those, that's Edwardash. I' have heard the E end of in Ordinary. yeah. He is an electrical engineer, a cancer researcher and imaging expert and teaches quantum physics. by day and is the author of Mickey Seven and other books by night just super, super casual Yeah He all hilarious. He has a hilarious bio, which I didn't feel proper copying fromr is clearly not based on reality or at least it's, you know, distorting reality to make funny phrases. So I highly recommend going to his website and reading his bio because it's very entertaining Yeah, Tamomei mentions the, you know, being rebooted in altered carbon similar question. R. And that that popped into my head as well. So there's I mean This is one of the probably I would say top Three maybe science fiction questions of our age I'd like to talk with the other two ha' come up with those yet. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. but its arere you yourself if you are cloned into a new body So let us know Are you He backack atwnlazer d. comot We have so many questions on this episode. So yeah, don't start reading it till may first, justust kidding. You can read it when everyone But it is the m book pick I don't know how I'm going to justify not reading Dungeon Crawler Carl though. You could read this one in book form Sure Oh It still would be time I'm not reading Dungeon Ca Carl You could just be like me and read one page a night before you pass out. Yeah doull it out over however many pages, two hundred days. Exactly. I don't know if I'll get it done in that time All right, shouldall we wrap up DCC Dungeon crawler Carl. Yeahes Matt Dinnaman. We should. and we should warn people that we're going to be spoilery about book one U Veronica and I have both moved on to other books. We will try our best not to be spoilery about those books But we are going to talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl in a spoilerway. So if you haven't read it yet and you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to skip this until you're done and ready to listen I would like to start with an admission Veronica. H. I think I sort of alluded to this on the last episode, but I wasn't excited about Dungeon Crawler Carl Oh, tell me more. I didn't really know that much about it. I knew it was based on MMO's, I knew it was a dungeon crawl. I knew I'd probably like it because you know, I've played those kinds of games. and I thought that it had too much support You know what I mean? That's sort of like Is this some kind of grassroots thing or is it like justust a tread I I couldn't tell It felt like it w too easy And so my anti authoritarian streak kicked in and I was like, okay, I guess I want. I'm going to read it. And I was wrong in every single way about it. I was like ready to cringe at Princess Donut. ' I'm like Okay, it's the cute cat trope as a pal And then of course, Princess Donut not only immediately turns into a character, at the beginning of the book, which I'm like, okay, that's cool. She she could actually talk. This isn't just, you know, a cat that maybe or maybe not as intelligent. This is this is better, but is a amazingly hilarious character all on her own and very cat at the same time. Obviously Matt Dinnaman knows cats Um This guy cats. I cannot stop Listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl. That's why as soon as book one was done, I immediately went into book two and am now on book four Yeah, I'm midway through book three myself. And similarly, I mean This goes way back to when we had Felicia Day on the why did I put the Ephasis on the wrong syllabable U when we had Felicia Day. You mean Felica Day Y. Si Um when we had Felic on the show to talk about thirird eye, And she mentioned Dungeon crawler Carl. as being like a book that she really enjoyed. And she was like, you gott to read it, you gott to read it. And I think I had the same reaction you did, which was like, No, you can't tell me what to. Don't tell me what to do today No, I was not like that at all. No But I did Tind of put it on the back burner a little bit and as soon as I started reading it, I was like Oh, I'm gonna like this. I can already tell I'm gonna like this. It gave me very like The similar similar dopamine hit I get from reading murder bot or reading Yeah Boba verse Yeah or something like that where I'm just like, well, I'm binging this now. even the in this world now. Yeah. Well, not the same for me actually. I think it's more like B Tone the tenor of the book. as opposed to like once in a while, I just want something that's a little more lighthearted and I mean, there's a lot of darkness. Buts's I think that's what surprised me is this is a really smart book But it' not it's trying very hard to not let you know how smart it is Right? So the premise is like, it could be really lazy. You could get a ton of people loving this book by just telling like the tale of a person crawling through a real life dungeon, right? But it's so much better than that. And Dinnaman works so hard to create a believable backstory and believable characters with depth and growth U For sure. It's really It's a huge part of it There is a lot of heart I think I think Carl is the type of person I mean, maybe in some ways I'm not being to say it. I was Almost like Gary Stewish in some ways, you know, like he But I think he's just my perfect guy. I don't think I don't think he's everyone's perfect guy. I think he's just like, oh, Carl seems like someone. I would really like to know and really like be close with and like the best guyam with Carl Caro clearly makes horrible mistakes. And so I don't think you can call them Mary Sue Gary Stu because that is reserved for characters that never make a mistake and they're always perfect. And they and we've sort of started to just use it as like, oh, I don't like this character. Maybe it has things too easy. It's like, no, no, no you're right.. That's not Mary Sue Gary Stew those characters have no flaws. Carl's got flaws. So what is what is the phrase for a character Like I'm able to put myself in him kind of almost completely. Like I feel like if I was a big hulky dude, like I would be Carl. L I feel like I would probably make the same mistakes and probably you know But I think at his core he's got the right heart And he wants to do the right thing. And he's just trying to figure this thing out and stay true to himself. and survive and protect the people and animals, pets he cares about. And figure your way out of this thing while also kind of giving the middle finger to the Barant corporation and Everybody who's running this show, essentially So I think that's And I think it's really fitting that and this isn't a spoiler that the third book is, you know, like the What it was the anarch notot the anarchist, um Carls The Dungeon anarchist cookbook what is called the title of the third book. Dungeon anarchist cookbook, yeah Like he feels like he's got like anarchy like in his blood, you know, he's like, I'm going to find a way to break the system if I can Um, Yeah, he's he's Doomsday scenario That's the sevent. No, The third book is the Dungeon anarchist cookbook.'re Um And Yeah, I don't know. he's very likeable to me. and I think it's well written. It's very deep. The world buildilding is huge U I think it's more complicated than it seems I think it's deeper than it seems, just like a dungeon. And I think there's going to be a lot of interesting backstory the characters that we haven't discovered yet, which I think is pretty fun, somethingomet to look forward to And it might not be everybody's cup of tea and that's okay. No, that' I think just we feel like we have to say that for every book because, you know, when you say something nice about a book, you're going to get seven people tell you why you're wrong. And it's like, well, it's not for you, which is fine Um And and I understand that you know, if you're not into RPGs, you don't play Dungeons and Dragons, you don't play MMO's um, You might not understand this book, but I still think you would You won't get the dopamine hit of like, oh my gosh, that's a thing. That totally happens. I've had that happen to me. but it's still a well told story that doesn't rely just on that trope. And that's what I mean when I say it's better than it needs to be because it It could be fine just relying on the tropes of games and people would love it, But he goes above that and beyond that to create stories that are interesting And I now really get, I also kind of rolled my eyes internally when people are like, I don't know, this really should belongs in the sci fi genre. And I'm like, look, Goodreads says it's mostly fantasy. So that's where we put it in the tournament. Okaykay? But now I'm reading it, I'm like, Yeahah, no, I totally get why you could make that argument that it belongs in the sci fi genre Yeah. can definitely, definitely go either way in many in many forms Um, Well let's get into some of the feedback. So yeah Yeah R. Ruth said it was interesting to hear the clip of the fully dramatized version of the audiobook that we played last time. Even though, to be honest, my takeaway was that Jeff Hay's performance is so good, you don't need anything else. That's kind of true. His performance is amazing I really have to say the performance helps a lot Like I H his reading of this book, his performance of this book is singular. Like it's truly a phenomenal work of voice acting And I think that that can't be under sold. and I think that can't be I mean, that could be part of the reason why everyone enjoys it so much. That's definitely the audio into it tootally It's a different experience for sure. Yeah. So that's That's a big, that's a big thing Um, The fact that they had to give an extra credit, the fact that I think in the second book is it the second book or the third book?d The third book where they're like, the voice of this character is done by this other narrator and it suddenly dawns on you if you didn't already know, Ohait. That has all been Jeff Hayes this entire time. Well, I knew that. Yeah, me do. But it was just like So it's even more shocking when you hear a new voice that he's doing and you're like, oh Yeah, it's crazy. It's incredible So, u But anyway, moving on I was going to say there's a Count Zero Or has a great post that he posted on both Good Reads and Discord about Izekai Am I saying that correctly? Counts your or hopefully, I believe I am So with Dungeon Crawler Carl, if the topic of the Izekai sub genenre doesn't come up in the book briefing, it might come up on the podcast. It's coming up because of you. I have a few quick notes on the subgenre and the ways Dungeon Crawler Carl falls into it I play I bring this up not to use genre as a straitjacket, but more so for those who finish the book. who want something else that isn't Dungeon crawler Carl, I have some examples and guidelines to look for Izekai is generally used to describe works of portal fantasy where the protagonist or the protagonist along with a group of supporting characters, end up transported or reincarnated to another world. Sometimes it's following death by automotive or other vehicle mishap, dark Sometimes it's by actively being summoned to that world where they are granted magical powers and tasked with fighting some form of dark Lord Sometimes, this is actually very much like my D and D campaign that I'm doing right now by the way. Iouch I'm sure.. Yeah. Sometimes they' trapped in the world of a full dive MMORPG due to deliberate action by the designer or from some other unexplained outside forst. He goes on to explain more about the different instances of Izekai or Sometimes portal fantasies and how they're different and other it's yeah, it's I think John Carter does actually come up in this thread, Tomahome Um It books like my next life is villainous, all roots lead to doom So there's a lot of examples in there. Yeah I think that's pretty cool. I didn't really know that that was a term. I hadn't heard that before Is it similar whyy does it sound like Izekiah? thing because you want to go have want to go to there. Delicious snacks. snackos. Yeah Um Well, he also pointed out that there's another similarly popular work that fits the kind of thing that Dungeon Crawler Carl is There's a Korean series called Nah Honjaman Lebop which is solow leveling. Honja is solo, like al lone h And level up is just borrow word, but for a level up So it's it's so low leveling where you you and that's literally what Carl is doing at the very beginning of this book, right? if you if you go right from the beginning before The transformation of Princess Donut, he's basically alone, right? Princess Donut doesn't have any combat capabilities at first Very true All right, and then we've got a thread I'm Rh. who says, So when this book won the March Madness Tournament, I wasn't sure it was going to be for me. It's not something I'd normally pick up and the premise sounded really goofy. But when I saw the audio book was on special offer, I listened to the audio sample and I was immediately sucked in I'm now about two thirds of the way through book three and I already have books four, five lined up to listen to. They run out two for one credit Dyl and audible. so I snap them up. she says here's a few reasons why this book series has so many admirers. Feel free to add more. One, Jeff Haye's audio performance. He hass been mentioned both before here and on the podcast, but he really deserves another shout out His character voices are spot on and I especially love the way he does the Dungeon AI and the in game announcements. shouldment That was awesome. You just synchronized in your announcement of a new achievement. Who get a reward. Reward Synchronization is its own reward. Um Anyway, so yeah Eing what I said for the the performance stuff T, the endless inventiveness of the setting Well there are definitely elements here that are familiar to anyone who's played a role playing game like Dungeons and Dragons, Elder Scrolls, or World of Warcraft Dinnaman adds plenty of his own touches. I love the unique items and grotesque monsters he invents Things like the. Okay, this is from book one Krack Kareon Bos sponsor and the magical heart pattern boxer shorts that Carl receives. Yeah. I was really waiting for him to get pants and no spoilers on the future, but I was a little surprised by the end of book one and I'm like, Wow, list it's just still a boxerer. St still no pants. Yeah U Num three, the characters, of course, Princess Dononna is everyone's favorite. She's per perfection Carl himself is slightly more generic protagonist, but I enjoy the glimpses of his childhood and the ways he tries to be heroic and sometimes slips into recklessness The supporting characters like Odette and Morde Kai are great too Especially as we see the weariness of former crawlers in their new lives It reminded me of the former Victor characters in the hunger games Yeah, I want to add more to the settings, but it's hard to keep straight in my head. I know certain things are definitely in future books But all I'll say is if you do keep going in the series and you know this if you've already kept going, the settings keep being very inventive. Hmm, Mhm D deffinitely in book three. u Things are getting a little wacky. Wacky, if you know what I mean? We're getting a little bit high on our own supply about Dungeon Crawler Carl. So Scott M. is here to kind of give us a back down. Yeah. Yeah. Scott says I feel like if I wanted to I'm gonna read it in the achievement voice I feel like if I wanted to experience a level grind as a form of escape, I would rather play some Wow or another MMO. In novel form, it just doesn't click for me. I expect I would feel similarly about most lit RPG novels. I understand what the novel is doing and I don't mind reading it I'm just also not especially interested in what it's doing I want to note that Scott M Was writing in chat And then as soon as you started reading his post, he stopped writing listen to you, read his post in that ridiculous voice I wrote out a very long well thought out response and I just grabbed that one paragraph. And this is a highic summation of it's not for me. it's not It's not being like, you're wrong for liking it. It's like, oh no, for me, if I w to do levels, I wantan to play them. I don't want to read a game. Yeah. for sure. I get that. I totally under. It kind of made me wantan to play a video game, honestly. I think that was that's another thing too is achievement. you scared Scott M out of making a chat Are you proud of yourself He's not gonna give us any more insightful comments on goodood Reads or Dcord. Wait Hopy now Uh So the episode title is going to have to be new achievement, right I'll be honest. Yes, absolutely. The only thing I don't ever like about the audioobook and I think it's a testab it to how well the audio book and the writing is. is when the AI talks about feet really, really don't like it and I'm not supposed to. So it's I think Everybody iss pretty triggered by that. Yeah I think that's.'s it gets I honestly I'm not as triggered by it as maybe other people were. I'm kind of like laughing at how creepy it is? Oh, totally. yeah But I'm not feeling uncomfortable atith. revealing very much about yourself Strangely exciting U But yeah, it is Especially when he does that heavy breathing voice. It's that too, right? It's not was If I was just reading it on the page, I'd be a little creeped out like, ooh, that's okay, that's supposed to be gross, I get it. But But the way he reads it's like, whoa, this is in my ears right now and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that And as Pate notes in the chat Princess Donut's All Cs messages are also perfectly and appropriately annoying in the audio book. E All Cs, anything I read now is in Princess Donut's chat voice from here to time Scott just wrote in our chat. I started to comment lots of times, but I enjoy listening to and reading people's enjoyment. and don't feel like being a dampper even if I don't share it he does not he did not He did actually write an not writing in all caps. now he's's Totally, totally chill U Anhow, thank you. this was fun. this was fun. See, even even We get to have fun in different ways on this show sometimes If Even if it's just imitating excellent audiobook authors and narrators. poor imitation of Jeff Hayes, F for us, at least. So poor. so poor. Tailes in comparisons Oh, you know I once had a life where I thought I was going to be a voice overver actor. It didn't work out for me N too late I think it's too late. No, it's never too late I couldn't do characters. I can do myself really well. I'm not every day someone will need that Maybe, maybe someday Although I still get emails sometimes about Stealth suit markark I from Old World Blues. Yeah and Fallout. ye I guess that was that was my big hit. Yeah. Listen, you never know, you never know what you're gonna do until the end Still got a microphone. Still got a microphone.'s right. It's tr. All right well N achievement Your dreams were crushed Reward? You picked a different life. Great job See He still got it All right, thanks everybody for listening and joining us in the live chat Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you so much to all the folks who back our show. If you want to help support us, you can head over to patreon d. com slash sword andlazer. You can also support the show by buying books through our links. findind links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at sword andlazer dot com slash