S&L Podcast - #506 - SECs Unit

swordandlaser · #506 - SECs Unit

March Madness has begun, so get your votes in now. Plus do we like Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot? And our final thoughts on Will of the Many and non-spoiler intro to The City and the City.

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WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Smashburger from For the Win
Veronica: Hot toddy

QUICK BURNS

March Madness is here!
Round of 16: February 23rd - March 1st 11:59 PM ET
Round of 8: March 2nd - 8th 11:59 PM ET
Round of 4: March 9th - 15th 11:59 PM ET
Final Round: March 16th - 22nd 11:59PM ET

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/23044773-march-madness-2025---round-1-voting-ends-march-1st

Trike:

First look at Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot.

I’ve enjoyed Skarsgard in everything I’ve seen him do, but I still think he isn’t quite right for Murderbot. I’ll watch, though. Debuts May 16 on Apple TV.
Link

Scott: Nominations for the 2025 Ursula K Le Guin Prize for Fiction open on March 1 and run through March 31. Anyone can submit a nomination. The full set of criteria are at the site below. Note the period of eligibility this year is different. The book must have been first published between April 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024.
Link

Scott: It seems worth mentioning that novels set in the 20th century are now getting categorized as Historical Fiction. Here's a Goodreads list broken down by decade from the 1900s to the 1990s.

Mark: GRRM has a new business venture opening in Santa Fe NM this March, in the same building as his movie theater and bookstore... a tavern named Milk of the Poppy
-- Link

Mark: the Author Forecast: Weather Worth Reading Kickstarted
Your local weather told through 5,000+ literary quotes and counting. I don't know what percentage of quotes come from SF&F novels.
Link

BARE YOUR SWORD

Iain: Twas I who bad mouthed Chakrobarty. NO need to slander the Ruths. I found her books to be a rather superficial take on the mythology of Djinn (amongst other reasons).

As for 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 Stross blurb for Gideon the Ninth sure made me want to read it and that was Tamsyn Muir's first novel (“Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!”).

As for going south to get colder that is totally normal in Australia where James Islington lives (in the south no less)... Not that any one from the UK would call Victoria cold.

Stephen: I was browsing the sales table at my Local bookstore when I ran across a book called Long Ships, a thick book about Vikings by Frans G, Bengtsson from 1954 but it was the blurb by Joe Abercrombie that caught my eye, "A rip-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 a time travelling Grimdark Author I greatly admire. I should add if Hardbacks are one price, trade paper another but cheaper, should not e-books be even cheaper considering the lack of paper and binding?

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Kick Off
The City & the City by China Miéville
Amazon Link
Book briefing

Wrap Up
The Will of the Many by James Islington
Amazon Link

John (Taloni)

I'm at the 75% mark, kindle says page ~475 of 632. So far this book is feeling like a gigantic prologue. It's all setup for...what, exactly? Maybe there will be some action in the next 150 pages. Since this is a mega series of doorstop books I kinda think there will be a fury of action to finish and then a cliffhanger.

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. (I know these people have names, I just don't feel like digging in the text for ten minutes right now. Might edit later.) (hide spoiler)]

The intro gave me heavy Thomas Covenant feels, where we are introduced to people using mind powers to manipulate objects in a medieval second world. There 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 MC wait until the next one.

Also John Taloni (this time on Discord)

Just when we thought "Fisted" couldn't be topped, along comes an even more awkward construction. I refer of course to the pejorative "rotting gods" which dots this book. It's...yanno, that phrase jumps out at me every time I see it. Why would gods rot? What would they look like?

Kindle search says there are 41 instances in the book. I would swear it's three times as much.

tilltab (Judge Ruth)

Okay, 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 folk to discuss the ending and the book as a whole, and future speculation.

I’m gonna calm down and wash up now. That got intense!

Ricardo
This book was a plot machine and I never read a 600 page book this fast. I also dug the dynamic between Vis, Callidus & Eidhin. I felt 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 Suus 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-villian monologues and the deus ex machina, but those would be my nitpicks. Also, the romance with Emissa 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-backsies. But this book earned my trust for the next two installments.

William_1844
I'd been a "read all the picks" S&L 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 S&L 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 is 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 can not wait for the next book.

terpkristin: Interesting that Tom found it fast at the start and is slowing down. I found it to be a slow start for me, but now that I'm about 25% in, I keep looking for opportunities to read. I wish that I liked the narrator of the audiobook, because that would give me a lot more reading time lately.

ADDENDUMS

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