The Sword and Laser discussion

Our August pick will be The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Let us know what you think about the pick

I’ve had this vaguely on my radar, although I don’t know much about it. I have Audible credits going spare so it was easy enough to pick up the audiobook.

SPOILER: (view spoiler)[Ms. Belmont has chosen a book with at least two editions that have spredges! (hide spoiler)]

This has been on my TBR for a while. Looking forward to reading it.

So I just looked at reviews on goodreads, and the trigger warnings posted by one reviewer were many: “Content warnings: lots of extremely graphic gore, body horror, torture, ritual cannibalism, scenes of someone being eaten alive and so on and so forth.”

So I guess I’m gonna be passing on this one.

This is a good book, I rated it four stars.
Beautiful prose/narrative, its unique storytelling of combining many POVs at once and the endearing main characters who you'll immediately root for.

Yet it was not as good as the author's first novel though, that one was a masterpiece with a capital M.

Tina wrote: "So I just looked at reviews on goodreads, and the trigger warnings posted by one reviewer were many: “Content warnings: lots of extremely graphic gore, body horror, torture, ritual cannibalism, sce..."

Hmm it is not that bad, iirc, gore would not among my descriptive words for this book but to each their own I guess.

I've held this book in my hands at least twice - once at a bookstore, and once checked out from the library - but haven't read it. I don't know why, exactly, but this pick is a good reason for me to finally just go for it. Looking forward to it.

Oh! This is exciting! I loved his first book The Vanished Birds so I bought this one when it came out. I was not disappointed. The language was poetic and it just felt beautiful. I think I've nominated it for the March voting in the past. And since I own it, I may reread it with you all. However, my problem with rereading is just that there are so many other books I want to read it's hard to commit my time to something I already have. But then what was the point of buying it?

Silvana wrote: "This is a good book, I rated it four stars.
Beautiful prose/narrative, its unique storytelling of combining many POVs at once and the endearing main characters who you'll immediately root for.

Ye..."

This could also be my summary of the book: great prose, but odd pacing. I vaguely recall the sections that apparently prompted the trigger warnings, but the details don't appear to have stuck in my memory (and apparently didn't warrant mentioning in my review), which suggests they are less disturbing than some of the other stuff we have read.

If anyone is considering skipping this book because of the trigger warnings, maybe wait a bit and see how the group opinion evolves before completely writing it off. My recollection is that the warnings make this seems more traumatic that it actually is (but maybe I am misremembering).

Aaaand, another fantasy book. That's apparently in high demand at my local library, wait time is 13 weeks.

Now that I'm retired on a fixed income I need to be very selective with my book budget, and spending $15 for yet another weird fantasy tale just doesn't cut it for me.

The last actual Laser book we read was Cordelia's Honor back in April, and as I recall it had some fantasy elements.

I'll probably skip Spear, at least until it's available through the library.

Tom, can we please, please, have a hard sci-fi pick in September?

I started listening to this in audio and found that as an audiobook, it was too hard to listen to (needed more focus than I can spare). Alas it’s an 11 week backlog at my library (how many of you live in Loudoun county Va eh? 😂), so I’ll be skipping for now.

the month has begun. go forth and discuss