williamjm

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

Another really, really poor performance from England. I hoped they'd kick on after a decent effort against France but, once again, the accuracy and discipline was horrendous. Ireland did defend really well but so much of it was self inflicted.

I think this might be the worst Six Nations I can remember for England, despite a good win over France.

Hopefully we'll get a better game in Paris tonight.

I think you're getting your wish so far.

5 hours ago, The Grey Wolf said:

In other news, the second map is complete. Which version do y'all prefer?

https://hiddenhistoryofwesteros.tumblr.com/post/645099003546124288/behold-the-second-map-for-my-upcoming-book

I'd vote for the first one.

9 hours ago, kairparavel said:

I enjoyed the books but I think Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom is actually the better of the two series. Leigh Bardugo did a great job with the heist concept and the characters are better developed. But it's just my opinion.

I did enjoy the first trilogy but it was a bit uneven. There were some bits I really liked but other sections where it had issues with pacing, which is not too unusual for a debut series. I thought the second series was better paced and I also found the characters more interesting.

Just now, ljkeane said:

I suspect they’re going to get steamrolled by France. I might be wrong though, I thought they were going to lose all the other games so far.

I wouldn't be surprised if you are right, although with France there's definitely always the potential for some indiscipline.

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

A bit of a mixed bag from Wales but they didn't shoot themselves in the foot and put enough pressure on England to come away with the win. Rees-Zammit continues to look good but I'm not sure about North in the centres.

It does seem they're potentially on course for a Grand Slam (although the toughest game is yet to come) largely because of their opponents' indisciplines.

35 minutes ago, lady narcissa said:

You know in my mind I thought there was some overlap.  But its been awhile since I read any of them so I guess I was confusing what we know if their backgrounds with what is actually revealed "live" in the stories.  In any case, here appears to be the answer:

https://www.thewrap.com/shadow-and-bone-series-netflix-six-of-crows-characters-timelines-books/

It sounds like they are showing some of Kaz's gang's earlier works which I guess could work. I can't really remember what the timeline is but presumably Kaz does come to Ketterdam some time before Shadow and Bone starts. They could also have Alina meet Nina when she goes to get trained since she would be with the other Grisha at that point.

1 hour ago, lady narcissa said:

As for combining Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows, I can see why they are doing that.   Best to just get all the characters out there at once rather than introducing a whole new set later on.  And they do have an overlap in the timeline. Presumably if the show is successful they could extend the story through the King of Scars material as well by doing it this way.

Doesn't Six of Crows start some time after the end of the Grisha trilogy? Although I guess it might be possible to move it earlier with a few modifications.

I thought it was a good trailer. I find the decision to try to combine both Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows in one season to be a bit puzzling, it feels they would be better to focus on one story rather than two very loosely connected ones. The trailer did seem to be mostly focusing on the former, although I think we see some of The Dregs later on.

I think Leigh has also become the first person from the Boarders Writing a Novel thread on here to get her own TV adaptation.

18 minutes ago, lady narcissa said:

New trailer today for Shadow and Bone premiering on Netflix on April 23rd.  I know a few of us are fans of the YA fantasy book series that the tv show is based on.  The author, Leigh Bardugo, met a few of us from this board at Worldcon in Reno before the first book ever came out and it was just a dream in her head.  It was probably thanks to Stego's vocal support for it on this board when it was published that many of us went out and purchased it to support her and then ended up loving it ourselves.

Anyway the trailer looks great! I don't get Netflix myself so I have no idea when I will ever see it but I will live vicariously through any clips of gifs I see until I do.

I've just realized I have no idea how to post a tweet or a link to the trailer on this board so if the following utterly fails hopefully someone will tell me how or post a correct link below. Anyway this is my attempt to post the tweet with the trailer...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">To destroy the Shadow Fold, we&#39;re going to need a miracle. Shadow and Bone premieres April 23 on Netflix. <a href="https://t.co/QLRLZiWbwS">pic.twitter.com/QLRLZiWbwS</a></p>&mdash; Shadow And Bone (@shadowandbone_) <a href="https://twitter.com/shadowandbone_/status/1365332043140317192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

14 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

The game today in Cardiff was comfortably the best of the weekend even with the early red card. Ireland offered loads more in attack with 14 men than England did ever did with 15. Decent performance from Wales too. They looked good ball in hand but they do need to sort out their lineout.

Ireland can probably take some confidence for the rest of the tournament that they were still in a contention for a win up until the last minute despite playing almost the entire game with 14 men.

On 2/4/2021 at 11:27 AM, ljkeane said:

I've not been paying a huge amount of attention to the build up to the Six Nations because I've been thinking it wasn't going to happen with the French travel restrictions etc. It is going to happen though and it apparently starts this weekend! I really have lost all sense of time.

I think the English team also seemed to have been surprised that the Six Nations was starting this weekend.

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

So, er, yeah, that was an absolutely terrible performance by England. There were pretty much no redeeming features. It was error strewn and littered with needless indiscipline, the attack was horrendous, the kicking game was rubbish, the set piece was poor, the defence wasn't that bad but it wasn't up to their usual standard. All in all that's just what I needed to cheer me up as an England fan stuck at home with nothing else to do.

It's made worse by the fact that I don't even think Scotland were at their best. They wasted a number of the chances England gave them to score and Finn Russell threw in a stupid penalty for them to get yellow carded but they kept the pressure on England and comfortably deserved the win. Congratulations to them on getting their first win at Twickenham for a long time.

I definitely wasn't expecting such a one-sided game. Other than the actual scoreboard which was closer than it should have been Scotland seemed to dominate just about every other stat. Scotland need to work on their finishing a bit and there were some silly mistakes but other than that it was a very consistent all-round performance. Cameron Redpath had a great debut where he always seemed to be involved, he looks like a good addition to the side.

3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

To be fair though Dance with Dragons took two and a half between the final revisions coming in and publication.

I think they can expedite things like that for a book they expect to be a big seller, but that might not apply here.

On 12/5/2020 at 4:29 AM, karaddin said:

@Caligula_K3 on your second spoiler point - yeah I absolutely didn't figure that one out, just was happily carried along on the ride.

13 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

I’m 30 pages in and it’s 1000 times more bonkers then the first. I’ve read some pretty bonkers sci-fi though so I’ve grown used to second person prose lately. 

It feels like second-person prose has become weirdly fashionable in SF/Fantasy in the last few years.

10 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Oh my poor heart reading this back  damn, things turn very dark very quickly in this book. I know its all a bit macabre but i feel it starts off more darkly humorous and then flips to be much darker. Which isn’t a criticism, i actually liked the tonal shift, but it certainly surprised me.

Also, I may just need to listen to the Epilogue again but what happened to the other third twin, Coronabeth(spelling? Im just going with the way its pronounced which, kind of an unfortunate name for 2020 but alas...) It seemed like the Emperor said only Herrow and the one Third twin survived but did I miss Corona dying or going missing? I thought she was just left in the lab

You are remembering correctly...

I think one good thing about the first book is that it does manage to make us care about many of the supporting characters from the other Houses, they're not just there as antagonists or redshirts.

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

Going back to this both Russell and Hastings are out of the Autumn Internationals. Which is a bit of a blow for Scotland. I think Weir was the travelling reserve for the Wales game so I'd assume he's next in line.

Weir is a competent fly half with plenty of experience but he's not the same attacking threat that Russell (or Hastings) are so I think this does weaken the team.

It was a decent performance by Scotland earlier. They should probably have scored more points in the first half given how much possession they had and the line-out often went wrong but a win in Wales is always a good achievement. There will be some concern about the injuries to Russell and Hastings with the Autumn internationals (or whatever they're called this year) coming up, I'm not sure who would be the fly-half if they were both injured, maybe Duncan Weir?

On 9/6/2020 at 12:16 AM, kairparavel said:

  Reveal hidden contents

72% in and FINALLY the name Gideon is mentioned. 

 

Finished. Going to marinate on it for a bit.

---------

If I were to rate this book it would get 2.5-3/5 for the roughly first 75%, with a 5/5 for soup. For the next 25% 4/5 for things happening on the ship (5/5 for the POV voice, 3/5 for the action), 2/5 for things not happening on the ship, and a 1/5 for the epilogue.

I enjoy books that make me think, that keep me guessing, that have me coming up with theories and cracking the mystery. This was not that book. The work of re-aligning myself each time there was a shift from past to present required entirely too much 'mapping' and trying to keep up with what was going on was without joy or anticipation. When the What is going on? overshadows the actual action on the page to the point of distraction, you end up with this book. Also I was disappointed that the one thing I was actively looking forward to never happened. It was explained but it didn't lessen my disappointment.

Having finished the book yesterday I think I'd agree with a lot of your ratings. It's definitely one of the stranger books I've read recently.

I gave up on reading them many years ago but I notice Humble Bundle have a 33 for £11 deal on R.A. Salvatore books:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/salvatore-showcase?hmb_source=humble_home&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_2_layout_index_2_layout_type_twos_tile_index_2_c_dungeonsdragonsrasalvatoreshowcase_bookbundle

It is a bit ridiculous how many books there seem to be in the Drizzt series now.

11 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

So who's it gonna be next? The possible contenders for the next James "Logan" Howlett a.k.a The Wolverine are as follows:

Tom Hardy

Charlie Hunnam

Zac efron

Keanu Reeves

Henry Cavill

Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Richard Armitage, Daniel Radcliffe, Luke Evans

Danny Devito (I'm serious)

Scott Eastwood

I think they would be unlikely to pick a really big star for the role, it's probably more likely to be someone relatively obscure like Jackman was at the time. Some of the people on your list might fall into that category but not the likes of Hardy or Reeves.

5 hours ago, A wilding said:

I have read some of them. (They are included as extras in some editions of his books.)

I would say they are a bit mixed, some good, some feeling a bit like filler. And they tend to be short. Unless one of the ones I have not read is a novella I doubt that the whole collection is that long. So I would suggest that only serious fans or completists read this (though I probably will).

Amazon says it is 139 pages in total so you're right that it isn't long.

I agree it's unlikely to be essential reading but I'll probably pick it up at some point.

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

My original plan had been to go to DC but that's being rewritten quickly because at the moment there's an excellent chance the pandemic will still be raging out of control in the US in a year's time. So holding fire to see what happens, and hopefully the next WorldCon I go to won't be as far off as Glasgow 2024 (and the fact that is now closer than London 2014 was is a bit weird).

I had been considering possibly going to DC as well, but with things as they are I'm definitely not going to be making any plans. I've never been to Chicago so if that presumably gets 2022 I might consider that.

5 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Why did the Sarantine Mosaic have to be two books?

Just finished Sailing to Sarantium last night and it built and built, truly the first 150 or so pages seemed like they didn't go anywhere, but by the end, I wasn't ready for it to end...

I'm glad I wasn't reading them as they came out because it did feel more like one long novel and works best when read together.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's excellent Dogs of War is £0.99 on Amazon.co.uk

I remember some discussions about Doves in the previous incarnations of this thread and they've just released the video for their first song in a decade: