The Sword and Laser discussion

Thought I'd suggest an author we've not covered yet Caimh/C.K. McDonnell (his first name's Irish, pronounced Queeve), with The Stranger Times.

His books have the full mix of fantasy characters, have a lightheartedness (a bit like Rivers of London; could even be the same fictional universe), and lots of humour. The setting's Manchester (a city in the North of England), so gives a bit of variety over the London centric view that most people get of the UK through fiction; including different accents, attitudes, and weather.

Whilst I'd recommend diving into the books from book 1, Caihm puts out free short stories in his (British Fantasy Society Best Audio Work award winning) podcast, one of which is a Halloween Special, so may be good to give you a season appropriate taster.

Hope people get some enjoyment from this suggestion :)

Related Links:
- https://thestrangertimes.co.uk/podcas...
- https://britishfantasysociety.org/abo...

You mean.... there are settings other than Victorian London? ;)

This year is my final return to my now slightly tatty copy of The Vampire Genevieve omnibus. Book 4 is a collection of short stories so might suit burst reading which is how it seems to go for me this year.
If time allows I also have Rotherweird in my Kindle library.
I've read the official pick, Interview With A Vampire, and don't fancy a re-read.

Picking up A Night in the Lonesome October from the library today.

I'm listening to Elizabeth Moon's Hunting Party, Graphicaudio version, on Spotify. I like the spaceship scenes more than the horse scenes. For some reason it's in two parts.

I will be re-reading A Night in the Lonesome October.

I was going to try reading a chapter every day as some of the folks hereabouts have suggested but life got in the way a few days ago. :-/

I did that when it was the club pick last year! It's a fun approach especially since most of the chapters are fairly short.

^ I have a thread going on Discord for this year's read. Come on down!

John (Taloni) wrote: "^ I have a thread going on Discord for this year's read. Come on down!"

^ where - I always find Discord to be such a god damn messy place! Its like a spare room / junk room / dumping ground. You open the door. Gulp. Slowly close the door and then run!

Haaa, reminds me of a moment of paralysis when using the latest updated Outlook. Wanted to do a search and they'd changed how to do it AGAIN. Dear Tech Gods: No, I'm not bad at tech. Yes, I get confused because I've had to learn 20 DIFFERENT WAYS TO DO THE SAME THING.

Anyhoo, it's in the S&L Discord which is this:
https://discord.com/channels/54897414...

The discussion is waaaaay down the page and is included as part of the 2024 book discussions because we read it as an October selection last year. Rob suggested doing that and, yanno, let's keep our overworked Mods happy.

https://discord.com/channels/54897414...

John (Taloni) wrote: "Haaa, reminds me of a moment of paralysis when using the latest updated Outlook. Wanted to do a search and they'd changed how to do it AGAIN. Dear Tech Gods: No, I'm not bad at tech. Yes, I get con..."

Thanks John.

I should have explained that before my "rant" I did spend 5 minutes looking at various places in Discord but the 2024 read wasn't one of those places.

I actually like Discord but it is one of those tech products where most of the good stuff is hidden out of sight and there isn't much in the way of hand holding when you first arrive to point those things out. e.g. threads.

John wrote: "where - I always find Discord to be such a god damn messy place! Its like a spare room / junk room / dumping ground. You open the door. Gulp. Slowly close the door and then run!"

Preach brother.

We're just a bunch of hoarders.

John wrote: "I actually like Discord but it is one of those tech products where most of the good stuff is hidden out of sight and there isn't much in the way of hand holding when you first arrive to point those things out. e.g. threads."

One of the problems with tech these days is that nobody wants to spend time learning how to use it. That isn’t a shot at you, I mean who wants to take a course or read a book to learn how to use discord? Certainly not me.

So companies take a different approach. Good design is when they make the features clear and intuitive (there is a book The Design of Everyday Things that talks about this with respect to physical objects) so you don’t have to search for them. Bad design is when they fail at doing that. But tech has gotten so feature-rich it is really hard to make things intuitive.

I can’t tell you how many times my wife asks me how to do something on her phone or whereever as if I’m a help desk or walking repository of iOS knowledge. I’m not. Far from it. But I have generally figured out how to find things which gives me a big leg up. But I’m sure I miss a ton of features as well because I don’t even know to look for them.