The Sword and Laser discussion

I heard Veronica on the wrap up podcast speculating about the reasons why there wasn't much discussion about this book. I wasn't going to comment initially, as usually I feel like if I don't have anything nice to say, that I shouldn't say anything at all, perhaps others feel the same? I also didn't want my first comment in the S&L forum to be a negative one, but I have to say that I really didn't like this book. The characters felt two-dimensional to me; riding along with the gang on their heist almost felt like riding along with the Scooby-Doo gang in the Mystery Machine, but way less fun. The story wasn't deep enough to draw me in, almost on the level of a jokey Hunger Games and bordering on YA (not that there is anything specifically wrong with YA). The magic system was too open without any logic or boundaries, and seemed to exist to give the story grit. In the end I wasn't drawn in, and didn't particularly care whether they succeeded or not.

I personally enjoyed it, although I do agree that it was fairly lightweight.

Yeah I wasn't thrilled with it either. Daniel, the famous wizarding son, the boy who lived, vs the Hungry Hungry Hierarch did not inspire interest in me to know which side won. I did really enjoy reading John's thread about LA-centric easter eggs, though.

I ended up giving it 3 stars. A few good ideas but not developed enough for my liking. In terms of magical heist stories it's vastly inferior to the first Alex Verus novel Fated where the 'MacGuffin' is stored in a (view spoiler)[multidimensional 'tardis like' vault. (hide spoiler)]

If nothing else, it's probably nice to have something a bit more upbeat than Doomsday Book for folks. :)

Yeah I didn't care for it that much either. I liked the idea of the magic system and it was a pretty fast, easy read hence the 3 stars, but there wasn't anything that great in it for me. I certainly was not keen on continuing the series.