The Sword and Laser discussion

It looks like Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong has been chosen as next months book pick.

It is announced on the latest podcast.

It was chosen by the Patreon members from 2 books that Tom selected.
The other book that missed out was Slan by A.E. van Vogt

Thanks Dave. I added it to the bookshelf and created a section for it. One character too long, even using & instead of "and" and so I had to remove a space.

This was the book I voted for, so happy to see it's the choice. I'm planning to try the audio version since I still haven't read the October pick and I'm falling way behind on my reading the last few months.

Has anyone done this in audio? Or listened to anything narrated by Christy Romano?

I just used an Audible credit to pick up the audio (that's how I'm most likely to get through the monthly pick in a timely fashion!) and then discovered that it was only 99p for the Kindle book, so I bought that too and will probably do a bit of both.

Lucky. US Kindle is $10, though the Whispersync for voice upgrade is only $4-5 I think.

Tom/Veronica:

Only two people voted on the November book???

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I think Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is still the choice, but there were many more than two votes.

We have your backs!

Mark wrote: "Tom/Veronica:

Only two people voted on the November book???

Click "Load more comments"

..."

What Mark said. 75 comments in that thread. :D

(stupid reply button in the wrong spot...)

Dang. Slan is awesome.

I'd say, "But then, who hasn't read Slan?" Unfortunately, a lot of SF readers these days.

I went ahead and used a credit for the audiobook. Let's hope I can fix my Audible/iPod syncing problem soon. I was able to avoid upgrades for about a year until iTunes forced a stealth upgrade. Every time iTunes does a big upgrade, it messes up my whole library where I have to redownload everything and now I can't get Audible to recognize my PC or my iPod as authorized (have a help ticket in to Audible). I even tried to make it work with a brand new laptop with no add ons.

Leesa wrote: "I went ahead and used a credit for the audiobook. Let's hope I can fix my Audible/iPod syncing problem soon. I was able to avoid upgrades for about a year until iTunes forced a stealth upgrade. Eve..."

Ugh. That sounds annoying. I loaned a friend of mine a bunch of books by loading up an old ipod of his and it was a huge pain.

Thankfully I mostly just use the android app. I have been getting some good use out of my Echo though, and syncing between the two has worked pretty well.

This from Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits:
"This city is a butt that farts horror." I have used this at least ten times in two days, this job, this lunch, this street etc. Thank you Tom for putting this on the list. A third in and love it.

Rob wrote: ... "Has anyone done this in audio? Or listened to anything narrated by Christy Romano?..."

Christy Romano? As in Kim Possible?!

Never read anything by this dude but I'll give it a shot.

I really like the Kindle sample. Funny, and interesting worldbuilding already. And Stephen gave a really glowing review so....

John (Taloni) wrote: "Dang. Slan is awesome.

I'd say, "But then, who hasn't read Slan?" Unfortunately, a lot of SF readers these days."

*raises hand shyly*

Yes, I did not mean to read it so fast, but it was so dang good I finished it before the month was up. I got a new smart phone, my hold on Overdrive popped up, put it on my phone and could not put it down. This is why S&L is so great, David Wong was not on my radar at all.

I just started this today. It's a short read, about half as long as last month's book. And I like the light style so far. So Apparently Davis Wong is a pseudonym for Jason Pargin, executive editor of cracked.com. He also wrote John Dies in the End.

I started it in audio yesterday. The narrator seems good.

I read this a couple of months ago, and it completely washed over me, I can remember virtually nothing of it. Off the title and the io9 review that pushed me to it, I was expecting more....

Pargin annoys me on the Cracked podcast and I couldn't get through 15 minutes of the movie John Dies At The End, but I ordered the book from the library so I'm going to keep an open mind.

I understand there's a car chase between autonomous cars, and I'm definitely curious about that. Mostly because I'm of the firm belief we'll all have autos within 15 years and it will be illegal to drive your own car inside the city limits of major metropolises like NYC, Miami, London and Tokyo, and I haven't seen much about autos in fiction.

Can someone do me a favour and explain why the author uses David Wong as a pen-name? I've been a bit confused by this. Thanks in advance.

Brendan wrote: "Can someone do me a favour and explain why the author uses David Wong as a pen-name? I've been a bit confused by this. Thanks in advance."

Check his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_W...

Wow, I must be out of touch. I've never heard of this book. I have heard of John Dies at the End though...

I just finished reading the sample, and I'm not sure it's my cup of tea. It's like that Vertical Horizon song, "Everything You Want"-- it has all the characteristics of a book I'd like (it's sci-fi, it's humorous, there's somewhat violent action, dudes in fancy suits, a female protagonist, etc.), but I'm not feeling it, for some reason; the humor's not working too well for me. Hopefully, I'll start warming up to it after the first few chapters, 'cause I already paid $9.99 for the Kindle version (which is what the paperback costs as well-- utterly ridiculous).

I agree about the humour. I can see what he's going for, but the humour is falling flat for me as well.

Okay, I've read several more chapters, and I will say (without spoiling anything) that it gets better once they arrive in Tabula Rasa.

I listened to the audio book and didn't think the narration was as good as the book. It just seemed like there were weird pauses where they shouldn't be. Characters were okay though. Overall, I liked the book quite a bit. I just happened to be in the mood for this kind of snarky fiction.

I'm the opposite. I thought the narration was one of the few highlights of the book.

I normally just listen to the podcast and rarely read the same book at the time. Though a few books i end up reading later. I was wanting to read this anyway, since I LOVE the John Dies movie, so I grabbed a Kindle sample... And was instantly hooked. About 60% through now and having a great time! Ive laughed out loud several times, i adore the understated, ironic intelligence and compassion of Zoey, and the themes of class struggle and the dangers of neoliberalism are refreshing to see without being smashed over the head with sermonizing. Excellent selection!!!

*Veronica (sorry for the misspelling)

David wrote: "Brendan wrote: "Can someone do me a favour and explain why the author uses David Wong as a pen-name? I've been a bit confused by this. Thanks in advance."

Check his Wikipedia page: https://en.wiki..."

I read this and was troubled by a white author taking an asian name as a pen-name. Seems a bit too much like cultural appropriation.

Urk, that was not a good read.

I know the author was going for satire and a humorous look at super heroes and modern internet culture but he certainly missed the target.

In the end the characters just did not take their situation seriously enough. They were in a truely f&*%$ed up situation and acted as though it was no big deal.

I think this type of satire only works if the characters play it straight. We see that the ludicrousness of their situation and can have a laugh.

To see this done right see John Scalzi's Red Shirts, Pratchett's Small Gods. This dreck belongs in the remainder bin.

I know that it's not awesome to bring politics into the discussion, but I'm wondering if anyone else out there is also thinking that they would have had a different experience with this book a year ago rather than now in the President-elect Trump era? This book felt too real to me now, too close to home, whereas a year ago (maybe a month ago?) I think the satire may have been more effective for me.

This book came across as a "Sin City - Friends - Beavis & Butthead" mash-up to me. Wong explored some interesting ideas - "Blink" feeds, interactive holograms, complex object 3D printers, for example.

Characters seem to mirror the extremes presented in the book's setting and action - they tend not to be particularly believable - but are entertaining. I found Zoey to be a frustratingly inconsistent character - one second paralyzed in fear, the next zinging one-liners in the face of her would-be killers.

Wong repeatedly gave bits of the plot away with little side-bar anecdotes about seemingly inconsequential things. I found these really distracting, in addition to being...well...spoilers. Sprinkled throughout were also little sermons on human nature that seemed to disrupt the flow of the story.

I do have a comment about part of the ending: (view spoiler)[There is no way that cat jumps at the Livingston hologram in the big show-down with Molech. (hide spoiler)]

I've noticed there's been hardly any discussion of this book so far. Did people not think it worth discussing? Was the violence such a turn-off that a lot didn't read it at all? Did people like it but are afraid to say so for fear as coming off as misogynistic or juvenile?
This apparently won the poll over Slan by a wide margin. Did those who voted for it pick it solely because it was the newer book without reading the description?
For the record I really enjoyed it. Depending on December's book this will probably be my pick for favorite S&L book of the year.

You could start a few discussion threads and get the ball rolling.

I personally thought it was 'meh' at best and would rate it as my least favourite S&L book of the year, just behind "Last Wish" and I liked the Last Wish. We have had a good bunch of books this year.

The violence didn't worry me. I watch (TV and Movies), read books/comics and play games that are much more violent than this book. It was the humour that didn't click with me.

I read the descriptions of both before picking this one. I found it pretty disappointing and so I haven't bothered discussing it much.

Phil wrote: "This apparently won the poll over Slan by a wide margin."

Still time to do an alt read of Slan! *cough*aevanvogtisawesome*cough*

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. Yes it was violent (view spoiler)[and I was cringing when I thought the cat was going to be torn apart but so glad it didn't happen (hide spoiler)]. But then again I enjoy "Walking Dead". But I never wanted to put it away and read something else. I looked forward to finding out what was going to happen. I got a kick over Zoe's attitude to her father's excesses. The hologram Candy was a silly plot device but still funny. The irreverence is just what I expected from the description of it.

Rob wrote: "I read the descriptions of both before picking this one. I found it pretty disappointing and so I haven't bothered discussing it much."

I read the descriptions of both and abstained, neither held much interest for me. I'm a third in or so and am underwhelmed. Not really motivated to pick it up.

I started this but just couldn't get excited to continue. I haven't actually cared much for most of this year's crop of books, but that's cool. I am always happy to try new things. (And I get them from the library, so no monetary loss.)

I'm surprised by how much I'm actually enjoying it as I'm not really one for sillyness and fart jokes, but the humour did a good job and I really appreciated it. The gadgets are pretty cool, and while it touched upon the struggle of the classes, it didn't feel overtly political (which isn't always a bad thing, but not what I'm looking for in a comedy). The downside is that I felt as though the characters weren't all as fleshed out as I would like them to be. Andre and Budd were particularly bad at slipping into the background. Overall I'd give it a solid 4 out of 5.

I like the book. I liked Zoey. I like the humor. I do not know if it is important, but it is not serial killers, but bounty hunters. There have been a few of S&L BOM books that have contained the same amount of violence so maybe it is only timing.

David wrote: "This book came across as a "Sin City - Friends - Beavis & Butthead" mash-up to me. "

After more thought - it was more of a "Last Action Hero" "Sin-City" mashup...

I tell you it is Little Orphan Annie if directed by Tarantino.

Tassie Dave wrote: "You could start a few discussion threads and get the ball rolling.

I personally thought it was 'meh' at best and would rate it as my least favourite S&L book of the year, just behind "Last Wish" and I liked the Last Wish. We have had a good bunch of books this year." "

I've really enjoyed all the books this year, but this one seems to be very much: I see why I'm supposed to care and/or laugh...but it just isn't happening.

Just finished and I must admit that I enjoyed the audiobook. Decent story, good narration, maybe a little too much violence. Sometimes it seems that our FB obsessed society seems headed down this path...

I was reminded while reading this book of a Stephen King quote from (I think) Duma Key, "Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it down, but it takes a genius to make people laugh."

That being said, though, I did find myself getting tired at times. While the book isn't long, it isn't terribly short either, and unless there's some subtlety I missed (other than a few flashbacks), the novel pretty much had just the one plot, which didn't allow for much in the way of a break. It reminded me at times of a self-driving clown car racing from Point A to Point B, with few rest breaks and no side trips.

Does make me want to read his other two books though, John Dies at the End and This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It. So there's that.

Lauren wrote: "I know that it's not awesome to bring politics into the discussion, but I'm wondering if anyone else out there is also thinking that they would have had a different experience with this book a year..."

I finished this book the day before the election and think it would have been hard for me to continue reading after it...

Vanessa wrote: "Lauren wrote: "I know that it's not awesome to bring politics into the discussion, but I'm wondering if anyone else out there is also thinking that they would have had a different experience with t..."

Strangely enough, I think the reason I ended up enjoying this book is because of the elections. I still found some of the humor to be immature/gross, but I was actually amused more often than not, and I started to like the characters, who are kind of just products of their horrendous environment.

I'm not done yet, though, so we'll see how I feel afterward.

David wrote: "David wrote: "This book came across as a "Sin City - Friends - Beavis & Butthead" mash-up to me. "

After more thought - it was more of a "Last Action Hero" "Sin-City" mashup..."

Still with some Beavis & Butthead though! lol

Stephen wrote: "I tell you it is Little Orphan Annie if directed by Tarantino."

YES! lol