The Sword and Laser discussion

Our April book pick will be selected by Bryan Alexander Benson who backed our Kickstarter. Thanks Bryan. The book is A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish. -- Thren Felhorn is the greatest assassin of his time. Aaron Felhorn has been groomed since birth to be Thren’s heir. Sent to kill the daughter of a priest, Aaron instead risks his own life to protect her from the wrath of his guild. Assassin or protector; every choice has its consequences.

Bryan also is an author so we're going to make HIS book our official alternate pick. So check out The Brand by Bryan Alexander Benson as well! It's a fast-paced, Fantasy action novel with steam-punk tendencies. It is the first book in the Order of Luminan series. We'll have Bryan on for our wrap-up episode at the end of April.

via podcast #167

Hopefully one of the mods can get the books added to group bookshelf :)

I'm pretty excited about both of these books. Already grabbed them both, and I'm happy to see that the main pick is also on Audible with WhisperSync for Voice enabled.

My friends reviews/ratings of A Dance of Cloaks haven't been very good. I also saw comments that the narrator for the audiobook was bad.

I'm opting to get it from the library instead of buying it.

I never heard of the author but read the first few chapters last night. Not bad. It probably depends if its "your kind of book."

Yeah I briefly went thru the reviews on Audible for the narration as I'm picky and also listened to the sample. I think I'm going Kindle version on this.

The bodies are stack up fast so it has a GOT feels to it.

The narrator makes a huge difference. Is there a web sit that rate them? Or has a sound clips?
I hate to pay to hear a nasal nosed narrator.

There are ratings on audible for the narrators, not sure about anywhere else that does.

Audible has around 5 minute samples as well.

downloaded a sample of each and will give each a try. That's the joy of ereaders - you normally can tell whether or not you will enjoy a book from its sample without any commitment. Even if I decide they are not for me and dont want to read them I will have still read enough to be able to comment on writing style etc in the discussions.

I don't know if this is the right place to comment or not, because I am new to groups. but I find Dalglish frustrating to read. one the one hand his books such as Dances' are imaginative and interesting and the story often compelling, but but I find his writing style shallow and his prose very basic. which is off putting.

Didn't let any moss grow under my feet; put a hold on our library's copy of A Dance of Cloaks.

Didn't see The Brand anywhere in the card catalogue, but will be reading it too, so off to Amazon I go...

Done- meh Film at 11.

I like hearing about the author and stuff relating to the book but maybe we should hold off on discussing the book itself until April or else our supreme overlords might stop giving us this much warning.

Alan wrote: "I like hearing about the author and stuff relating to the book but maybe we should hold off on discussing the book itself until April or else our supreme overlords might stop giving us this much wa..."

He posted comments before the first of April
Also suspected of coloring outside the line-
http://iurl.no/5gmq4

The premise seems quite interesting, but I think I will have to skip this one. It is not available on my library, nor on OverDrive. I could use my Audible credit but I am not too crazy about the narrator and I'm afraid of being disappointed at the story because of it, since it has happened to me before.

I'm still reading Words of Radiance so I'll be skipping this one too.

This is one month that I wish they'd held off on announcing the next month's pick until later in March. I've finished the book, and because its not even April yet, I have to wait to talk about how disappointed I was with it.

Simple choice... what's available on Kindle. I've been slow on the Audible options... and you can't beat the nice feeling of clicking the buy button and getting the book before the page has had the time to refresh.

Might pick the other one too, if it can be found locally.

I have just read the sample and am about to start reading beyond that. It seems pretty decent so far.

Both this and the alt pick strike me from the little I have read so far to be adventure oriented fairly traditional fantasy and that is part of the genre that I am less interested in these days but both seem to be engagingly written enough that I will persist with them and am fairly confident it will be an enjoyable experience.

Ben wrote: "Both this and the alt pick strike me from the little I have read so far to be adventure oriented fairly traditional fantasy and that is part of the genre that I am less interested in these days but both seem to be engagingly written enough that I will persist with them and am fairly confident it will be an enjoyable experience."

I'm just over 2/3 of the way through the main pick and you've articulated my thoughts exactly. I haven't really been into this kind of fantasy for a long time, and this book hasn't made me want to run out and rediscover it, but it's a good story well told. Had I come across this 10 or 15 years ago, I'm sure I would have loved it.

I wouldn't mind the traditional epic fantasy direction the book goes in, but I kinda find the language too contemporary for the genre maybe. Maybe I'm just used to Tolkien and Eddings or something, but there's just something missing. I'll finish the book, so it's not bad enough to make me put it down, but I doubt I'll go out and buy the next one.

Mike

I started this one and made it to about 10%, but I just don't think the quality of the writing is that great. I am dropping it there and I'm going to read something else on my list.

I was going to skip this one because the ebook was $9.99 everywhere. However, I got an email from B&N today and it's $1.99 for the Nook. It's the same price at Kobo. The Kindle edition is still $9.99.

It's now 1.99 on Kindle too. I wasn't about to spend 9.99 on this one, but 1.99 I will do.

Derek wrote: "This is one month that I wish they'd held off on announcing the next month's pick until later in March. I've finished the book, and because its not even April yet, I have to wait to talk about how ..."

Some of us are of the opposite opinion. I don´t live in the US and if I want to order a book that is not normally stocked in my local bookstore, it takes 2-3 weeks to be delivered. I know I could get the ebook but I really much prefer paper books. This makes it hard for me to have the book in my hands early in the month, at the same time that most people are actually reading it. Last month I started reading Altered Carbon on like the 25th, and by then all discussion was pretty much over.

So yeah, just wanted to say that some of us would actually like earlier announcements for the next month´s selection.

Paolo wrote: "So yeah, just wanted to say that some of us would actually like earlier announcements for the next month´s selection. "

This also applies to anyone who tries to get the books through the library system. A couple of weeks notice is usually essential.

I don't understand people who complain it's to early. It's not like there are no other books in the universe that they could read in between to wait until the kick off date.

Derek wrote: "This is one month that I wish they'd held off on announcing the next month's pick until later in March. I've finished the book, and because its not even April yet, I have to wait to talk about how ..."

You should suggest a book as a sub-book-of-the-month for those of us who have finished it. I'd do it, but I don't want to tick people off by picking something that sucks. So we can discuss that book while we wait. We'd have to make it a seperate thread. No? Stupid idea? I dunno. I'm new here.

Maybe that's a good idea Michael. I start the pick once announced because I like having the group discussion a lot. I just didn't realize this one was so short. Lesson learned.

That said, maybe we could start early threads (or ask the mods to open up early threads) not for the official pick but for the alt pick. That way keeners can read and discuss the alt pick before the month starts. As to why aren't we just reading anything else, my preference is to read and discuss with the club as we go.

I agree with AndrewP. Just suck it up and read something else, you complainers!

Mohrravvian wrote: "I agree with AndrewP. Just suck it up and read something else, you complainers!"

I tend to agree, if you like the discussion so much, surely you can wait til the start of the month when everyone else starts reading the official picks.

There's nothing stopping you guys from having unofficial between-pick picks and discussing in the "What else are you reading" section of the forum