S&L Podcast - #477 - I Said What I Said, She Said
/Veronica now knows how to catch up on Old Man's War. Should good books not be SciFi? Is "they said" saying too much? He “sucked his teeth” is not enough! We kick off Kings of the Wyld and wrap up Mimicking of Known Successes.
WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Eggplant Caponata with sausage
Veronica: Energy balls!
QUICK BURNS
Not Licorice and Seth: Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo shared that she was “heartbroken and deeply disappointed” about the cancellation. She penned a note on Instagram that confirmed there would be no season 3, nor a Six of Crows spin-off, ending the “Grishaverse” on Netflix.
Roberator: John Scalzi announced 2 new books out in 2025 on his blog, including Old Man's War #7:
TRP: Jill Bearup, actor-combatant and YouTuber, developed a series of "Fantasy Heroine" YouTube Shorts , where an Author and her novel's Protagonist disagree about the way the story is going.
Jill Bearup has written a novel based on this series, called Just Stab Me Now.
It will be published in February 2024 and is available for pre-order on various sites.
As of today Just Stab Me Now is number 5 on the Barnes and Noble top 100 books chart
Jan: Neil Gaiman was recently guest on the scriptnotes podcast.
Jan: The Imaginary Worlds podcast had a nice episode recently about Hindu Fantasy
Kev: Humble Bundle has 21 Scalzi novels for $18 or pay what you want. (Ends around December 14)
mantissa: NPR has the books we love list. One can filter on speculative fiction
BARE YOUR SWORD
Seth: Liked the episode. And I even liked the book pick (even if the book wasn't my favorite) since I wouldn't have picked it for myself, and that's half of the point of being in a book club.Jan: Regarding the flowery language: I always found it interesting that it is recommended in English to always (or at least most of the time) use "said" in order not to draw attention to the word, while in German it seems the opposite. At least, in school, kids were always downgraded for "repetitious language" if they used "said" twice in a row, so we were always encouraged to find synonyms...
I don't know if that's an English vs German thing though, or a professional writing vs school teachings thing. How is it in different languages?
Tassie Dave: I don't mind the author using "said" repeatedly in text, but I do find it annoying in audio, he effused.
The brain does seem to skip over it when reading, but it just seems to stand out when listening, he uttered.
I'd rather the narrator distinguish between the voices, and also have a different tone for inner thought and vocal dialogue than repeated say "said", he expressedSteve: I haven't listened to the podcast yet, so I'm missing some context, however when I was at school in the UK a *cough* few decades ago, we were very much told to avoid repeated use of "said"Oaken: Oaken looked up. “It is easy to convey who is talking without even using the a verb like said.”
“I disagree,” said the man in the jaunty hat.
Oaken looked at him askance, “Well then you are wrong.”
Seth: There was some interesting talk about this last time they interviewed Bobiverse author Dennis E. Taylor (at least I think I remember there was). He was saying he even tried to write a different version for the audiobook author that left out repetitious "saids" to make it less jarring. I think he concluded it was too cumbersome to pull off, but it's interesting.
Certainly, when listening, I'd rather just have the narrator do a different voice and tone to denote each character than for them to read all the "saids." Like Tassie Dave, when I'm reading I don't really care. I'm much more likely to be thrown out of a narrative by "she expostulated" than even 50 "she saids" in a row.
Iain: For the record real bread does not have sugar in it (which then kicked off a debate about whether that's true)
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Kick Off
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames.
Wrap Up
Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older.
Gristle McNerd
I was reminded of the ruthless lady's guide to wizardry, in that it was a detective story in a genre setting, that was clearly mostly there as a backdrop for the romance. I liked it okay, it was a fun little diversion, but not exactly a masterpiece
3 Random (Calvey)
I liked the book but it’s not a great book. It was short, but I like the idea of the Holmes story and the coziness. Jupiter was kind of a fun place to tell a story, but I had a hard time with the platforms and understanding them or visualizing them. I think also being a Novella there wasn’t enough development, I’m curious to see what the next book will do.
I think it was nice palate cleansing morsel after The Library at Mount Char.
Iain Bertram
I loved this book. 📕
The world building was to support the story. In some SF the story comes second which is not the case here.
The settings makes everyone a climate refugee. Conflict between those who want to go home and those who want to build a new life. These underlying themes are obviously important to the author.
John Taloni
I'm amused that one of the selling points of this book is "what if Holmes and Watson were gay?" And I'm like, "how many times did Holmes tell Watson, "bring your service revolver." A CODE PHRASE IF EVER I SAW ONE! 🙂
Tassie Dave
I ended up really liking this book. ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Had to laugh when Pleiti objected to being called the C-word 😁 As a socialist, I'd be appalled too 😉 I did find the narrator's pronunciation of certain words a bit grating though. August, which is used many times, (for a description of a person) is not pronounced the same as the 8th month 🤨 There were certain other words, that I can't remember, that also sounded off. I would read the sequels.
ADDENDUMS
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