The Sword and Laser discussion

To Gene Wolfe! Thank you for Shadow and Claw and Pringles. Plus, William Gibson’s Alien 3, what you need to know before reading The Martian Chronicles, and our final thoughts on the vast conspiracies that make up Theft of Swords….and OUR SHOW?!!! DUH DUH DUH!

http://swordandlaser.com/home/2019/5/...
https://www.patreon.com/posts/26548895
https://soundcloud.com/swordandlaser/...

Just fire up Wikipedia for a good definition of Scrumpy:

Scrumpy is a term for certain types of cider originating in the West of England, particularly Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. Traditionally, the dialect term "scrumpy" was used to refer to what was otherwise called "rough", a harsh cider made from unselected apples.

Unselected means the left overs the orchard owners couldn't sell :-)

The rough stuff is dangerous, you get drunk from the legs up, leading too much hilarity. Really rough stuff looks like it was made in a bath (unfiltered). I have tried some at various beer and ale festivals and it is an acquired taste.

If Stoked Cider Scrumpy has a head then it isn't scrumpy...

If you love Urban fantasy and police procedurals Rivers of London is for you. It is also a rare occurrence of non-white main characters in fantasy... Well worth a monthly pick.

Iain wrote: "If you love Urban fantasy and police procedurals Rivers of London is for you. It is also a rare occurrence of non-white main characters in fantasy... Well worth a monthly pick."

Yeah, that's been nominated a few times for March Madness and I know it made the tournament at least once.

The audiobook is fantastic!

I kind of got tired Urban Fantasy and everything I've tried in the last few years were pretty meh to me, until Rivers of London.

My only gripe is the US publisher changed the name of the first book to Midnight Riot for some dumb reason..

I wouldn't call it a *dumb* reason, but the US title isn't an improvement. Titles are marketing just as much as covers, and I certainly wouldn't have considered a book to be Urban Fantasy with a title like "Rivers of London" (which does sound like some literary junk I wouldn't try if I knew nothing else). Midnight Riot isn't much better, though, because it certainly doesn't give any kind of hint as to the characters or setting.

I have to say I think that changing the title of Rivers of London to Midnight Riot seems like a dumb move to me - Rivers of London tells you what the book is about, while Midnight Riot tells you nothing. It also makes talking about the book with people across the pond difficult.

Rivers of London series is one of the books I picked up via the March Madness nominations. It is the perfect marriage between narrator and book series. Plus there are comics that are tied in to the book, so the main protagonist will reference something that happened in the comics. Does not ruin it if you have not read the comic, but is a cool thing nevertheless. Glad to hear Veronica keep on going in the MJS fabulous Hadrian/Royce adventures. I was totally scared to start his non H/R series but MJS new series is even better with the same snarky humor I loved in his first series,

Ruth wrote: "I have to say I think that changing the title of Rivers of London to Midnight Riot seems like a dumb move to me - Rivers of London tells you what the book is about, while Midnight Riot tells you no..."

Yep. Rivers of London is what the book is *about*, while Midnight Riot is just one of the things that happens in the story.

This one time at Archeology Camp ..... ;-)

Ruth wrote: "It also makes talking about the book with people across the pond difficult. "

Not really, we foreigners are used to the US changing SFF book titles. We've had at least 3 in our book picks.

Northern Lights -- The Golden Compass
HP and the Philosopher's Stone -- HP and the Sorcerer's Stone
Temeraire -- His Majesty's Dragon

Talk about actual translations. At least in this case, the German title is „Die Flüsse von London“ which is a word by word translation, but this isn‘t always the case.

Iain wrote: "The rough stuff is dangerous, you get drunk from the legs up, leading too much hilarity. Really rough stuff looks like it was made in a bath (unfiltered). I have tried some at various beer and ale festivals and it is an acquired taste."

I have drunk the real stuff on a few occasions when I was visiting the west country. All I can say is if you can drink a 'couple of them' and still walk then your either a hardened alcoholic, or it's not real scrumpy. It's on a par with real barley wine for getting you legless:)