Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday - Saad Hossain

January 20, 2020.
Requested by Silvana and Virginie.

Thank you Jenna :)

Virginie wrote: "Thank you Jenna :)"

You're welcome :)

Looking forward to this, thanks, Jenna.

Starting today! Excited to read this novella, I heard great things about it.

Yay! I want to finish my current read so I'll start this sometime in the next couple days :)

I will be here!

Already 38% and the novella manages to be funny and smart while also grounded to the near future scenario of climate change, AIs and collapse of society. I laughed many times already. The djinn character was hilarious.

In~

Oh wow, I misread the date of this BR, that's why I started earlier LOL

Anyway, I believe you all will enjoy this one. Very quick and fun read.

Starting the book tonight! :)

Read Chapters 1 to 6 yesterday (around 32%). Well, it's been a fun ride so far! The writing is clever and irreverent, and the SF elements are pretty well-thought. I'm impressed by how much world-building was crammed in the 50+ pages I've read :O

It does! How do you like the buddy thing going?

Read Chapters 7 to 12! (view spoiler)[
Well... I like the teen Djinn. She annoys Melek Ahmar and calls him Papa Tuesday xD
Bhan Gurunb really starts to manipulate things to get his revenge, being so intense about it that even the Djinns are a bit afraid. Quite the change from the guy chilling on his mountain and eating pistachios :p

And we finally learn what crime Doja has committed. I didn't expect human trafficking. I should have seen it coming, with all the mentions that a a big population is necessary for a healthy nano-particules climate and the failures of the AI in the beginning, but it still took me by surprise.

(hide spoiler)]

I still did not understand why you need a big population for a microclimate, though. Can you explain why please?

Gonna add this to my TTS app and join/listen... blurb sounds fun... and it's short...

Silvana wrote: "I still did not understand why you need a big population for a microclimate, though. Can you explain why please?"

(view spoiler)[
From what I understand, the pollution of the air got so bad humankind need to use nanotech to locally create a living environment. So the medical spine implant thingy doesn't just run an individual's body but also send out nannites to make the air breathable. I think there's also 'bad' nanobots out there eating everything (probably resulting from a fuck-up in the 'let's use nanotech to clean the air' early experiments).

So good and bad nannites/polluted particles fight, and one human is not capable of producing nannites at a fast enough rate to win the fight. In a group, each human increase the 'good' nannite population exponentially (since they're protected by their neighbors', then able to conquer & secure a wider area, etc.).
Hence the need for a big enough population to have a stable climate in city-sized area, but not so big that food becomes a problem.

(hide spoiler)]

@Iain: you might finish this one in ten minutes

@Viriginie :thank you!

Silvana wrote: "@Iain: you might finish this one in ten minutes

@Viriginie :thank you!"

I'm expecting ~3hrs max... Text-To-Speech is a bit slower than real narration, for comprehension...

Finished last night! This was a weird mix of genre and SO MUCH FUN!

Virginie wrote: "Read Chapters 1 to 6 yesterday (around 32%). Well, it's been a fun ride so far! The writing is clever and irreverent, and the SF elements are pretty well-thought. I'm impressed by how much world-bu..."

Agreed... I liked what I read yesterday... TTS seems to be having a rough time with the special words, but overall it's a very interesting world... I think I left off just after the Lord of Tuesday met the girl in the garden... it definitely sounds like the nanos work the way Virginie mentioned above...

Virginie wrote: "Finished last night! This was a weird mix of genre and SO MUCH FUN!"

IKR? I need more novellas like this! 😆
Perfect length, and a standalone. Winning combo.

I finished, and I enjoyed it, but I'm the opposite of you guys... I love series...

I think part of it is my voracious reading appetite... it's easier to find things to read when I have a dozen books just waiting to be read in each series... as long as a series doesn't overstay it's welcome...

I also just want to know more about most worlds I inhabit for a short time... take this story... (view spoiler)[I'd love to have see what happened in Karma City after everyone's points were wiped...

(I feel like I should have seen Karma's implicit complicity in the hume/nano trafficking... I definitely think the TTS narration struggles inhibited my comprehension a bit) (hide spoiler)]

I'm a big fan of short fiction 'cause it's less of a time commitment. Also a good way to sample an author's style before reading their long, long series :p

I have so many series on my TBR, finding something to read will never be a problem for me xD

(view spoiler)[Well, I didn't see it coming either, but felt, just like you, that I should have... Definitely a facepalm moment when I realized what was going on :p (hide spoiler)]

Virginie wrote: "I'm a big fan of short fiction 'cause it's less of a time commitment. Also a good way to sample an author's style before reading their long, long series :p"

same with me! also, the sense of fulfillment is faster to get.

Silvana wrote: "Virginie wrote: "I'm a big fan of short fiction 'cause it's less of a time commitment. Also a good way to sample an author's style before reading their long, long series :p"

same with me! also, th..."

You guys also have the advantage of cheap short fiction, as e-readers and print readers... I'm looking for successful audio-makers...