The Sword and Laser discussion

I just started seeing ads for Shadow and Bone on Netflix coming April 23

https://twitter.com/netflix/status/13...

I haven't read the trilogy by Leigh Bardugo which starts with Shadow and Bone.

The tv show looks interesting. What do folks who've read the books think?

I haven’t read that trilogy yet but I did read the follow-up duology of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom and loved them.

The actor they’ve cast as Kaz Bekker certainly looks the part. Like Loki in the MCU, he is complicated and incredibly difficult to portray, so the actor really needs to bring Tom Hiddleston levels of nuance and layering.

Cautiously optimistic, but I haven’t seen anything else the writers have done.

I take back my last sentence. I am VERY optimistic now, as I see that the series showrunner is Eric Heisserer.

He wrote Arrival, which is hands down one of the best Science Fiction movies of this century so far, brilliantly adapted from Stories of Your Life and Others. He also adapted Bird Box, which was better than it had any right to be. He also adapted the comic Bloodshot Definitive Edition, which was a better script than as a final movie.

So yeah, high hopes indeed.

Shadow and Bone dropped yesterday. I sat down to watch the first episode and wound up binging all eight episodes, even though I was a little confused.

I read Shadow and Bone last month. It's the only Grisha novel I've read so far. Season one of the tv show is based on this novel, but also weaves in characters from Six of Crows, which is what confused me. I think I'll read this book as soon as I can.

In any event, the tv show is very entertaining.

I watched episode 1 of Shadow and Bone and was left a little confused as well. I'm guessing fans of the series that know who's who will have got more out of it than I did.

It was good enough that I will continue to see where it goes. But I don't feel a need to rush through it. Yet.

I’m on ep 3 and I think it’s terrific. It does a nice job of slowly introducing the world and characters. The kid playing Kaz Brekker is stellar. Perfect casting and he’s crushing it. The guy playing Jesper the gambling addict/expert gunslinger is nailing the role, too. Everyone else is solid. They’ve clearly spent a lot of money on this.

So should I read all the books first?

I will say none of the story in season 1 with Kez and crew is from the books, but you will have a better idea who the characters are.

Technically Six of Crows is 2 years after Ruin and Rising.

If you think about the character ages it doesn't make much sense. Kaz should be like 13 in season 1. I think they aged everyone up for the show. Or at least Kaz's crew.

But anyways. I really liked season 1 and hope they get to make more. I thought the production quality was very good and they fixed a lot of the things I didn't like about Shadow and Bone

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "So should I read all the books first?"

It’s not necessary, I don’t think. None of the specific situations were familiar to me, but about half of the characters are, so it seems like they’re mixing-and-matching from different books.

I'd actually recommend against reading the original trilogy first. I didn't think it was very good. I think the show is doing a better job with the story and characters so far.

I think the Six of Crows duology is worth reading. I'm not sure if I'd read it first or not though as I previously mentioned that book takes place 2 years later so they have basically just pulled an "Expanse" and pulled those characters forward earlier in the show (Expanse did this with Avasarla in season 1 and Bobbie Draper in season 2, plus changed or merged several others).

In the wake of finishing the tv show, I read Six of Crows and I've just started Crooked Kingdom. I find the Crows and their story much more interesting than Shadow and Bone (the novel). The tv show did a great job of telling Alina's story though, and I'm all in for a second season.

If you get a chance, watch the Netflix promos for Shadow and Bone. The actors seem to be having a great time making the tv show.

Rob wrote: "I'd actually recommend against reading the original trilogy first. I didn't think it was very good. I think the show is doing a better job with the story and characters so far."

Lots of people have said the same thing, and recommend Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom over the original trilogy. I read just those two and thought they were great. The heist in episode 4 of the TV show doesn’t seem to come from the books but has the feel of one of them.
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All of the stuff with Alina must come from the trilogy, which is why it’s new to me. So I’m learning all that stuff as the show progresses but I’m not having any trouble keeping it straight.

It almost feels like this takes place in the same world as the Whedon show on HBO, The Nevers, except 60 years earlier over in Russia.

The girl who plays younger Alina really looks like the 20-something actress. Really good casting there.

So that was really great. Satisfying conclusion with more to come. (Hopefully.) The mention of Hellgate at the end sounds like they’re planning on leaning heavily on Crooked Kingdom, which would make for an awesome series. All heists all the time.

I read the Shadow and Bone book only recently and tbh I didn’t think it was that great - a lot of quite tired YA tropes. I’m enjoying the TV show so far (3 episodes in) although I must confess that I’m finding the characters from Six of Crows far more compelling than the ones from Shadow and Bone, I tried the audiobook of Six of Crows a while back and didn’t get on with it, but maybe I should give it another try, in a different format.

Yeah the show has me wanting to reread the Six of Crows duology before jumping into the King of Scars duology.

But my reading is down, so I'm not sure I have time. I'm kind of curious if I pick up on stuff I missed the first time now that I've completed the original trilogy though.

For instance I understand that at least some of the characters from the original trilogy show up later and I would not have known who they were when I first read them, but it didn't seem to hurt my enjoyment of those books or confuse me at all.

I imagine this is harder for people to get into than a show like The Nevers, because it has to do a lot more heavy lifting in the early episodes to set the story, the world, and the characters all at once. The Nevers uses a more familiar milieu, so we can hit the ground running.

Episode 5 was where it really started clicking for me, as almost everyone started coming together and all the backstory began affecting the current tale. 6, 7 and 8 were just all forward momentum after that. (Aside from a final bit of backstory business. You’ll know it when you see it.)

The final scene on the boat was almost too perfect as their paths all crossed, but I thought it was awesome. I can picture the writers giggling with glee as they wove all those threads together.

No mourners. No funerals.

Trike wrote: "I imagine this is harder for people to get into than a show like The Nevers, because it has to do a lot more heavy lifting in the early episodes to set the story, the world, and the characters all ..."

I can agree with that. 3 episodes in on Shadow & Bone and I'm still trying to work everything and everyone out. The Nevers is more straightforward and relatable from the start with a few unfolding mysteries and uncertain character motivations.

I enjoyed this show. It really picked up in the last half. The heist episode was my favorite. A friend of mine recommended Six of Crows and this made me want to pick it up.

Chris wrote: "I enjoyed this show. It really picked up in the last half. The heist episode was my favorite. A friend of mine recommended Six of Crows and this made me want to pick it up."

Definitely. And Crooked Kingdom is basically that heist scene over and over, escalating in stakes each time.

Essentially the Xzibit meme: oh, you like heists? How about a heist in your heist in your heist?

Added Six of Crows to my holds list at the library. It's gonna be a while (about 10 weeks). The show has really upped the popularity of the books.

Chris wrote: "Added Six of Crows to my holds list at the library. It's gonna be a while (about 10 weeks). The show has really upped the popularity of the books."

I’ve put in a hold at my library system too. It was actually less popular than I expected - I’m only second in line and in theory I should get my hands on it by the end of the month. (By way of contrast, when I tried to reserve The Thursday Murder Club, I was 67th in line)