hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1554.txt

Episode: 1554
Title: HPR1554: 07 - The Crown Conspiracy
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1554/hpr1554.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 05:03:50

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You
Hello and welcome to today's episode of Hacker Public Radio. I am Pokey. I'm the biggest jerk in the
world and I'll be hosting the show today for the second time because we just did a half an
hour's worth of show and I never hit record. So I guess we can attempt to re-manufacture what we
just did. Joining me tonight is MoreGellen, the low-tech mystic. Hey, MoreGellen. Hey, it's a
going man. Pretty good. Deja Vu Taj. We have also with us tonight. How are you Taj? What's good
everybody? And we have X1101. Howdy. So tonight on the Hacker Public Radio audio book club,
we're reviewing the audio books presentation of The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan. The
way that our book club works for anyone who's new is we do a brief review of the book up front
without any spoilers. We take a break for a beverage and we review a beverage of our, each of us
reviews a beverage of our choice. And then after the beverage, we are, if the spoilers are fair games.
So if you have a fear of spoilers or want to avoid them, you'll want to cut the show off at the
end of the beverage review if you have not listened to this audio book or read the paper version.
With that said, we'll get started again. Guys, how did you like the book this time?
I thought it was fantastic. I come mostly from a background of science fiction, cyberpunk,
and not a lot of fantasy. Some of the more classic fantasy works and some young adult fantasy,
but this definitely wasn't young adult on purpose, but at the same time was truly family-friendly
and very, very enjoyable. Yes, totally agree. And as I said before, I'm going to have a hard
time not saying that. It's the kind of family-friendly that a lot of family-friendly entertainment
isn't. A lot of stuff is written for children and then panders to adults by slipping in jokes and
references that children wouldn't be expected to get. Whereas this is a thoroughly grown-up story
that is just told in a safe way, and the content is safe for children. And that's something
that I really, really appreciate. I love that I could burn a copy to CD for my mom as well as
listen in the car with my daughter to this one. It was great. Taj? Yeah, take two. I really like
the audio book. I thought it was really good. It took me a while to get into, but once the ball
started rolling, it was very hard for me to put down. I blew through this pretty quick. I really
enjoyed it. Nathan Lowell is a great voice actor. He did a great job on this book, specifically,
having listened to last month's book club. I think he did a better job doing the voice acting on
this than he did his own book. I don't know if there's just because there's more, more characters
who are different in this book than they were in his book, but I thought that his voice acting
really shined in this. I also really enjoyed the book for me. It also started out pretty slow.
The first chapter too was kind of not sure, and then it was boom. I needed all, and I needed all
now. I think I finished the book in two sittings. I spent a lot of time in the car, so I have
plenty of time to listen as well. But yeah, it was two days, and I believe I finished through it.
The audio quality, the narrator, was very good. It kind of took me a minute to warm up to the
narrator. I have to say that I don't know what it was, but there was something at first that
but overall really enjoyed it. I like the music. I really enjoyed the interludes in between some
of the scenes. It was a nice such that not all audio books do, so that way it kind of gives me
changing the setting now. We're going to jump forward ahead in some time, but there's little
things like that that really, really polished the book, and it made it a very professional
recording and production for something that I can go and download for free. It was very rewarding
to listen to. Yes, I totally agree. Music selection for this one was fantastic. I love the
opening music, how it came in with like a baseline riff that just for me got my heart pumping,
got my blood flowing and ready for that particular episode of the story. I listened to this one,
I think I've listened to it probably three times. I don't know how quickly I went through it
the first time. It couldn't have taken long. The second time was real quick because I just couldn't
stop listening. This third recent time, I knew it was for the book club, and I knew it was going to
be like a month between when we recorded the last show and recording this one. I intentionally,
I had to force myself not to listen to more than one episode a day, and I even broke that rule
a couple of times. So yeah, this one is a hard one to put down. Say it made my evening doing the
dishes a lot more fun. Make dinner with a little one to bed. Start working on dishes, throw my
headphones on. Listen to at least one chapter book. It was enjoyable. Yeah, it sure was. And that's
something that is interesting too is because as difficult as this book is or was for me to stop
listening to, you know, once I get into a chapter as hard as it was to turn it off, I still had no
problem falling asleep to it. It wasn't so, you know, jarring. There was nothing, you know, no
drastic volume changes, no specific pace that would change so drastically that it kept me away.
And some things can. I still was able to fall asleep to this and, you know, wake up listening to
something else. No, that's that's a really good point and I apologize for the audio. One of the
things that we touched upon it was kind of like young adultish or whatever and it just popped into
my head. It reminds me a lot. It has not so much story-wise, but the feel. It has the feel of the
princess bride that movie. It's just one of those good enjoyable all-around stories. Yeah, yeah,
there was good guys and bad guys and you knew who was who as well, except for the mystery part of
it, but yeah, you could kind of pick them out with their characters. You knew who was who except
when you did. Right. Well, once you did, until you did, you didn't, but once you did, you did.
Now, you guys had said in our first attempt at not recording this that reminded you guys a lot of
D&D like playable adventures. Yeah, talking about the characters, they felt like
good interpretations of some of the very fairly common archetypes, but with enough
depths in them to make them actual characters rather than just, you know, this is, you know,
generic thief. This is generic fighter. These were, you know, people with history and personality
works. And earlier, we, somebody had mentioned, I forget who it was, that like you're dropping right
into these, these characters lives. And so you definitely get the sense that there is a pass that
you're not addressing in this story that makes those characters seem a little deeper than,
then they are portrayed in just this book. I hope, I don't know, I haven't read any other books,
I hope they go forward in the books and you kind of uncover a little more of that, because I think
it would be interesting. No, that was, I'm an avid TV player. We get together each week and
me and our buddies, we play D&D. And the book had a very D&D kind of feel to it for me. And
there's a lot of, there's several scenes where they're giving descriptions, different areas,
or the characters, and they're kind of giving a rundown of what that character's wearing or what
he's got. And in my mind, that was giving me subtle clues to, well, was he have three of those,
or what's that, you know, that, you don't just drop that out with going, that's got something
a little more to it than just a normal item. And so, in the back of my mind, I'm waiting for
instances where that's going to come to light. And so for me, there was a lot of foreshadowing
and hints built into the book, which was very enjoyable. Yeah, that's interesting, because I
didn't pick up on the fact that, you know, he carried three swords until a third time I listened to
it. I don't think that's a spoiler, I think that was in the beginning. But yeah, I listened to
the book three times before I realized that. Yeah, I can't wait to get into the spoiler part,
because there's all kinds of stuff I want to talk about. But yeah, the three swords, the thing,
you know, that was the first description you get of a guy. And that's what was going through my
mind the whole time. I'm waiting to see what sword does what, you know, you just don't carry around
three swords for no reason. Yeah, that's, that's a big tip off at least for the adventure or mind.
There's yeah, three swords are hindrance in some ways. So yeah, so they've got to be more
useful than they are a burden to carry to be with carrying three different swords. Yeah, that
really likes his bling. He gets excitable choice. Yeah, these guys spend a lot of time on foot,
and I can tell you from walking around on foot and carrying a backpack every day, I try to think
of what I can leave out of the backpack before I head out. Well, maybe Poke, if you will, the
second and third swords behind next time, you might be a little better off. Yeah, I know, I know,
especially if one takes two hands just to swing it. I think he's got to be many pounds. I can only
imagine. So I'm kind of lost as to where our conversation is or was because we said so much,
and now I don't know what we said during the recording and what we said before the recording. And I,
I apologize to our listeners and to all of you guys for for the group up. Did anybody write in?
Yeah, we definitely did. Yes, thank you, Colin, who was on the show last week, wrote in, and he wrote
a piece for each of our segments. So for the the pre-spoiler segment, he wrote, quote, overall,
I really enjoyed the book and the story that's told. It was a little strange at first as you
became accustomed with the fantasy worlds, given that races other than humans were few and far
between, although they were very important and they did appear. I'd say that the story had all
the right elements, although I think it perhaps would have benefited the story as a stand-alone
piece to have explored the world itself a bit more and add context to the world. It's definitely
well set up for the remainder of the series. I can also say that Nathan Lowell does the audio version
proud, very well read. I would definitely recommend it for people to listen to. And quote, boy,
I did a much better job reading that the second time. And yeah, the only thing I would comment on,
on Collins, quote, there, would be about expanding the world. I'm not sure how that could be done
without making the story longer or adding a lot of, you know, detail to the setting that might
slow the the book down. I'm not sure how that would have affected it. I hesitate to make,
you know, to say that such a drastic change would be an improvement.
Yes, yeah, I think the book was short, but I want to say economic, that's not really the best
description because of all of the the background that's implied, you get the feeling that it's
there without going into it, so it feels bigger than it is.
Yeah, it was very short, but it was also very rich. Like I think I said it last recording or
somebody said it whenever it was it was like a week, a week and a half slice of their time.
That's what we got. We didn't get any kind of foreshadowing. We didn't don't know what's going to
happen after this. It was just this is what happened this week, week and a half, and then a couple
of days later. And there was a lot of stuff going on. And as there was a lot to unfold and like
said, it started out really slow. And I'm kind of wondering, what is this? And then I'm picking up
on this and picking up on that. And it's yeah, like I think I'm probably going to end up having to
sit down and read the actual other books if they're not going to pop out on an audio version.
Because that's a point when you get to the end of the book. And there's the hey, stay tuned for
the, you know, first chapter of the next book. And I stopped the book there and went back to
audio books looking for the second audio book, which I couldn't find, which was kind of a disappointment.
So yeah, I'm definitely probably going to end up just to, uh, I don't know. And I'll talk about
some of that reasoning. I guess we get into the spoiler section. I got some big questions.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I agree with Colin. There's so many things
that are hinted at about this world. It's kind of hard to go into without doing spoilers that,
as soon as it dropped, I was like, Oh, well, how did that happen? And there's a couple instances
where it's explained. But really, for the most part, it's just kind of left up to your imagination,
which I guess in a way is a strength. But the another part of me is like, well, that could be so
cool. Um, I want to hear more about it. Um, I don't, I don't want to end this book though. I think
this book, um, it, it's served well by its length the way it is. I think if you expanded it
on the more it would probably, um, get slow. I think it, it keeps its action pace, um, pretty good
at the length it is. And I think that's one of the reasons it feels like a D&D adventure is
because it's very well-paced. The other thing it kind of reminded me of is I've playing a lot of,
the Elder Scrolls games and the, you know, the deep history and the richness reminds me of that,
though, it much more condensed. Yeah, I think if I had a choice, I would say, give me another story
and just throw some detail on that as well. This, you know what? This is a story, a sequel to this
anyway. This would be something I would, I would like kickstart, I would contribute to a kickstarter
or fund anything or something. This, I, I definitely would, I would love to have more of this,
with Nathan Lawle reading specifically. Poke, did you say, I know, I think you were the one that said
this, that your daughter bought the, um, ebook of the second book of this? No, wasn't, it was another
book by Michael, Michael J. Sullivan. We bought a kindle version of one of his other stories. I think
it was a, oh, like a novella, I think it was a much shorter story. But yeah, we liked it that much
that we went out and bought more of his, his stuff. And I don't, she didn't, she said she didn't like
it that much, but I think that's because, um, for the same reason, I think she missed a lot of,
you know, in, in the detail. And I should probably read it too and discuss it with her because she's
has asked me to. I just, I don't get a lot of time to read. So I haven't been able to do that yet.
Shame on me. I'm a bad parent too. Not only I'm not hit record. I don't even read the book to my kid.
Here a monster. I'm monster. That to my list of things not to do. Yeah, right on your parent. Yeah,
take some notes. All right. Well, I'm, I don't know what more to say or what not to say, but, uh,
we've been recording for 20 minutes. And since I feel so lost, I think we should just go to the
drink review section and move on unless anybody's got anything else to say for a first section here.
More gallon. Have you got anything in your cup holder? Uh, well, when I wasn't driving,
I'd like to make that clear. Uh, yeah, no, when I was enjoying it at the apartment, I had some,
nice bourbon and coke. So I'm a big fan of that. So that, that's what I enjoyed. Oh, right on.
Do you have a favorite brand of bourbon? Um, when, when I'm feeling spicy or I guess whatever,
I like to get the, uh, the Woodford's reserve, uh, but, uh, just something regular. I like the
Evan Williams. So they're both local to, uh, where I live. So it's kind of, I don't know,
makes it a little special. Is that even a word? Yeah. Well, color me jealous. They live so close
to bourbon country. Yeah. Color me. You must live in the same part of the country as me and we're
yelling. Yeah. No, I'm actually in Louisville, Kentucky right now. Yeah, I grew up in barge town.
They, uh, quote unquote, burping capital of the world. So yeah. Well, then this bottle sitting
beside me might have come from just down the road. I am enjoying an actually the very last of my
bottle while Turkey won straight bourbon whiskey. Oh, I've never had wild turkey. How is that?
Well, let me give it another sip and I'll tell you firsthand.
Excellent. Not overly, um, not too much rye so that it's not, doesn't have the really big bite.
Nice smooth finish. Excellent. No, is that a special wild turkey? Or is that just regular?
Well, it's the one of one proof is the only thing special about it. There's a regular one that's
more like the 35-ish or 30 or 35 percent, like a 70, but the one of one proofs just got a little
kick to it. Okay, I always thought wild turkey was a bottom shelf liquor. The one of one is not.
Excellent. Good to know. I usually, if I drink bourbon, I usually try to drink knob
creek. It's always been, it's been my favorite since I tried it. I used to drink the Makers Mark,
but I think knob creek topples that on my list anyway, but that's good to know about wild turkey.
Both of those are a little heavy on the rye by detaste. Okay, okay, good to know.
You should also give woodfords that Morgallan mentioned ago. It's a little spending, but very good.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'll try that. I'm not the, I can't drink like Jack Daniels and Jim
Beam. Those, those ones don't do it for me anymore. Jim Beam story, I could tell some other time,
but yeah, no more of that stuff for me. Taj, what do you got? I'm playing it safe tonight. I've
got a big old glass of homemade fresh squeeze lemonade that I made for dinner tonight. Oh,
right on. You got fresh lemons down there or down there. I don't know where yet if you even care
to share. Actually, since we're on the topic, I live in the same city as Morgallan apparently,
and I didn't know that I'm right outside of Louisville, Kentucky. We don't have lemons here.
It's not quite hot enough for them here, so I wish we did. I'd plant a billion of them.
Okay, cool. Now, what's, since you've made it yourself, what's your recipe for lemonade?
Like, what are your ratios of lemon juice to water to sugar?
Usually I do it by just kind of taste, just kind of taste as I go along. I put it about, I had a
pitcher. I squeezed, I think, six lemons into it. Instead of sugar, I used stevia powder.
Trying our whole family is trying to cut back on the sugar, so it works really well.
It has a little bit of an effort to taste, but it's not as bad as like your aspartame or your
saccharine that is usually your fake sugars out there. Yeah, definitely those things kill me.
Yeah, a lot of guys at work drink the stevia, now they put it in their coffee. That's cool.
Yeah, I've always done it by taste too. My family hates when I make a pitcher and sip in the
side of the jug. Well, it's the only way to cook anything, isn't it, by taste? I believe so.
Here here, I agree. The recipe is more like guidelines than actual unless you're baking.
I'm just gonna say unless you're baking. Yeah, I'm playing it safe tonight too. I've got,
I've got a cup of tea. I've got a full-joy brand, Oolong tea, and I kind of like it's not
quite as good as what you get in the Chinese restaurants, but I think that might be just because of my
boxes a little more stale. It's probably the same brand. Definitely even in what you were drinking
last time. Oh God, yeah. Yeah, it's nice. It's, it's, um, it's nice. I mean, I don't know how to
properly brew a cup of tea, but since it comes in little paper bags, you know, I don't think it
matters that much anyway, but I like it. It's decent enough. And I usually, you seem to only be able
to buy these giant boxes like a hundred tea bags, which for me, that's enough for two or three years.
So I kind of separate them out and I vacuum seal them and then throw them in my, my freezer and
it like the sub-zero freezer. And that seems to keep it a little fresher anyway. Yeah, that would
my concern tea that's packaged in bulk. If it's gonna take you two or a year's to drink a tea,
drink a thing of threes isn't gonna be any good. Yeah, I think by vacuum sealing it though, it,
it keep, you know, I think that helps a lot. It keeps the oxygen off of it. And then throwing
it in the freezer seems to help quite a bit. I do that in the coffee beans too. Yeah, right on.
Um, Colin has a beverage review for us as well. And he says,
quote, having reviewed an ale, I knew very well last time around this time. I have gone for a beer
that I've never tried before, but caught my eye at the local supermarket. It's a beer by Innocent
Gunn who are based in Scotland. It's labeled as the Innocent Gunn original and is an Oak aged beer.
Apparently, it's matured in Oak for 77 days. The description says it is a smooth Scottish beer
with hints of Toffee, Vanilla and Oak. The taste is definitely that of an Oak mature drink.
It's quite deep and drinks quite well. It's fairly light, but not quite as light as I'd usually drink.
It's quite nice if I would suggest that anyone who can find it nearby, give it a try. Oh, it's
quite nice. And I would suggest, geez, whatever, that wrong twice. And he's got a link for our
show notes, which you'll be able to find in our show notes. I've had Innocent Gunn also does a
bourbon barrel aged that is fantastic. I've not had their original. Oh, man, I had a bourbon,
I've had two bourbon barrel aged beers lately recently. And one was spectacular and the other one
blew the lid off my head even more. And they were both by the Kentucky bourbon beer company
or something like that. I forget exactly. But wow, are they good? Is that the one we had down in
Boston? Oh, yeah, that's right. It was. That's right. I had the one that was on tap in the bar
there. You're right. That was that was fantastic. That was, I think it was a bourbon barrel
porter. And the other one I had was the bourbon barrel, ale, ale. And I liked the porter even
better. Yeah, that was phenomenal. But yeah, Innocent Gunn. It almost sounds like Innocent Gunn.
If you read it too quick, put it, it's Innocent. And again, we'll have the link in the show notes.
And I'll dig up a link to the Wild Turkey one inside that as cool. Thank you.
Now, we're going to know we said we wouldn't call on you just in case you're in a spot that you
couldn't get back to us. But if you can get back to us, I know you were dying to talk about some
spoilers. See, and that's why we shouldn't have called. I shouldn't have done that. All right,
how about you? Are the guys you want to get started? I think one of the things that really threw
me off at the beginning and kind of just those first couple chapters, the same thing as Morgana
was talking about. I think the thing that threw me off is this is a mystery novel with kind of
the trephings of fantasy around it. And as soon as I kind of latched onto that, I think it made
a lot more sense to me and I got more into it. But I think it's definitely the mystery part of it
is the dominant thing in this book. It's a mystery story with a fantasy setting more than a fantasy
story. Yeah, I get that. I can definitely get that. You're always trying to figure out who
done it and why and what's at stake here. Yeah, it's not that it's a bad thing that it's that.
Actually, I kind of enjoy that. But it was when I kind of read it, I was assuming that I was going
to just drop right into a fantasy world. And you kind of do that first chapter is definitely fantasy.
But at the same time, I think they're setting up some some crumbs that you need to follow. And
especially when you hit chapter two, and it's almost completely different characters that are
unrelated. He kind of just jared me around a little bit and I didn't I didn't realize really
until several chapters later what that first chapter really was doing. Well, they weren't unrelated
characters. It was just you only got to they were the very, very tail end of first chapter where you
met the main characters. Yeah, and I felt like that first chapter was there to set up your
expectation or at least to to not make it out the characters later. It's just there to say,
look, here's how clever these guys really are. So all these fantastical things that are about to
happen could happen to these specific people like this that it just helped you to believe that
it wasn't such a stretch some of the some of the things. Yes, they really are that good.
First chapter will be their resume. Right, right, right. Like had it not been for the first chapter
where you know, they break in and they're able to cut through the roof and then shoot the the
rope with the arrow. You wouldn't believe that he would be so so and I was I get your names wrong
which you wouldn't believe that the the guy who's the fighter would be so good with a sword later on
where he's he's dueling like these champions think that one's Adrian. I think so, yeah.
And the first chapter really speaks also to oh god I'm blind when his name but his partners skill
as a as a thief. Right, right, it is more about is it Royce or right, it's Royce, isn't it?
It is Royce, thank you. Yeah, it it is more about him but it it makes it believe we'll
okay well these guys are partners so that they obviously both have to be pretty skilled.
The one thing I didn't really careful that they resolve later in the series and that's all I'll
say about spoil a future books is that they give the name of their little organization as Rayira
but never in the indication as to why or what it is. The whole time I was listening to that book
every time they mention it I'm like that's an interesting name. Why? So had you read the other books
before or after this one? I finished the audio of this one and then immediately I started reading
next one at which they give the explanation for that I think within the first couple. Yeah,
they do have that first chapter at the end of this one and yeah they say what Rayira means and
yeah I got to get that next book too. Did you guys have a favorite character? Was there anyone
that stood out in particular? I definitely wanted to see Ezra Hut and like just be awesome.
They let him out and it just kind of disappears. He's one of the characters that I'm like they
have to do something with him in the sequels because just somebody who is that old and all around
that long has to have some coolness left even without his hands. That makes him more awesome. He
doesn't need them. Yeah he was without even saying so without giving you any evidence except for
just his own words. He is one of the most badass characters in any book that were read or listened to.
Well I mean the fact that he can take that spell that he was bound and flip it inside out with
it seemed to like unless I missed something just a thought. I mean you know 900 years worth of
thought figuring out how but without any you know incantation silly wand waving it just
flipped kind of definitely speaks to his badassery. Well and I think part of it is is they build all
the guards build up this character that they're like don't trust anything he says and I guess you
kind of just assume that there he's going to be this swarmie like mustache twirling the lid and
they walk in and he's like all right here's the deal I'm just laying it out. This is what happened
blah blah blah blah and you know it's just as simple as he was and his delivery made him
almost more menacing in a way that he was just like I don't even have to be flashy. This is what
went down. Yeah and the fact that you have no idea whether he was telling the truth or not
is just adds to me just as this badassery because whether it's true or not both stories would hold up
perfectly well under his explanation. And I think that that I mean it's one of the many times they
use to illustrate Ulrich's naivety that he takes it at face value and takes action whereas Hadrian
and Roycer like well this is kind of our only choice but still don't trust you. One question I was
left with with him which to me I felt like it should have been answered in this story that it
belonged in the context of this story not in some separate story is how he communicated with Ulrich's
sister you know what I mean because she didn't have the signet rings so she couldn't have gotten
in unless he cast some spell which let her in or she did but she didn't seem like that gifted
a magician yet so that left me wondering that's that's one whole in this story that I felt
should have been answered in the context of this story. Here you go man that signet rings
and Ulrich's until the king was assassinated so I was kind of assuming that she was either
palming it from the king something like that or she had access to whatever the stone was in
that ring to be able to get through so those were kind of some of the things that jumped
upon when you bring up that. That's a good point being that she was spooled at all in the art
and as proved by the lock on her door being a gemlock if she had recognized what the lock was
and what the gem in the signet ring must shoot him necessarily needed the ring but rather a
stone that could approximate that wellness. Yeah but she would have needed the signet ring to
get past the guards they weren't they wouldn't let her by just because she had they weren't going
to let these guys just because they they had a key that opened the door. Well and the family
has some connection to dwarves already so in my mind it wouldn't be out of reason that she might
have a dwarf helper that would help her maybe just even make a replica of it if she did whatever
to get him to do that. Yeah maybe I got to think it's some sort of telepathy or something I don't
think she had an audience with him that's the only thing I can imagine. And see I got the I got the
opposite impression that in some way she was granted audience with him which caused all these
things to transpire. I got the same impression as well because as her husband say that he either gave
her a potion taught her how to make a potion. Yeah he taught her how to make a potion with this guy
would have been much more convincing as far as like okay now he's whether he's manipulating her or
whether he's opened her eyes to the truth either way a personal audience with him is more convincing
as the explanation for that than you know some sort of crystal ball conversation. And one of the
things that I felt like was kind of just dropped it wasn't mentioned more than a couple times was
the fact that her father sent her to the university to study that stuff and that everybody else was
not pleased with that decision. So part of me wonders if her father had something to do with it
um and maybe got those two connected but then I don't understand what his motivation would be
to do that. Oh that's interesting I hadn't thought of it that way. I didn't get that she went
to the university to study magic though I just got that she went there to be educated and that
happened to be you know one department at the university and and she glomed onto it. Yeah I got
the impression that it was very much at her urging that she was allowed to go to university
and then she sought out the art to learn rather than being sent there for that person.
I liked the monk he was my favorite character uh of course I'm forgetting his name now but he
I loved that guy I loved how simple he was I love how big the world was to him and I liked
seeing the world through his eyes it you know it kind of addressed the issue that this is a new
and different place. It kind of made me think of of my daughter she's 15 months old and just
everything is and wonder amazing to her you know you get a grown man who has that same feeling and
can articulate it better is I mean he has that child like wonder with everything it's it's really
enjoyable to to hear. I thought he was good as comic relief because um you get quips between
the other characters and that are kind of funny but I think they're he had more times where I left
out loud um just his reaction to something and I think that that was kind of needed in some of it
that um when things got a little too dark he was always there to just kind of be like oh that's
a horse that that's amazing. They're even prettier than horses. Yes since listening to this book
I've been trying to watch horses walk to see if their foot really does land and I can't imagine
how that would work. I'm jumping here real fast I'm gonna have to uh disappear for a second so I'm
gonna just rattle off a whole bunch of things but um for me um the wizard the wizard that being
introduced to the story and everything when I finished the book I was left feeling like this
was a blog okay so let me get this straight you guys go in and you meet this wizard and he's been
in here for a thousand years this dude just locked up for a thousand years okay we're gonna talk to
him and then um yeah we're gonna let him go okay it's one of the most powerful wizards ever he's
been trapped for a thousand years you're gonna let him go and then we get out into the world and he's
like yeah I'm gonna go this way deuces guys um what and then no no other mention of this guy
I'm sorry I don't trust any wizard that's powerful enough aimed that we're gonna lock you up
and by the way I'm gonna keep you in here for a thousand years so that you can't die so that you
have nothing to do but think yeah I don't trust anybody that's all super powerful and had nothing
to do but think about how ticked they are for the last thousand years yeah nothing good to come
from that yeah that's definitely gonna get me to read the other books there because I was I was
losing my mind on that part um that that was a big thing for me don't forget the hand
hand removal that that's fairly significant too I would definitely add to me being very irritated
I can't believe he didn't take the monk with him just I mean he admitted three times he was clever
and he's got hands you know why not but uh I also really enjoyed um with the author did the
starting out the book the first couple chapters um I kept waiting for the magic and stuff to happen
like the uh they sneak in they clearly steal the papers out of the safe and it's like they start
describing how they did it and I'm waiting for what's the magical stuff that they did here how
this go down and it's like oh yeah we we had this crossbow was it super magical no no this guy
just crafted it you're like okay but that's still kind of neat and then why'd you get in oh yeah
well no we just saw the whole hold in through the roof okay okay so in a way I felt like it was
almost kind of like the the author was kind of almost poking fun at the reader that needs that
magic high fantasy thing going on to really enjoy it because he gives it to you so well later on
in the book but at the beginning it's like he's I I felt like I was faked out a couple times where
I'm waiting for this or waiting for that to happen I said you get uh they describe Hadrian and the
swords and it's like okay well the one on his back got to be some awesome cleaver thing or maybe
a bus through stone who knows what it does um with uh Royce his knife like there's something going
on with his knife that I would love to know more and more about because they they multiple times
describe the hilt and the jewel and the things going on with it and uh well that might have been
the the murder weapon I get the two daggers descriptions either way that they mentioned his knife
in the description several times which makes me think that that is something bad and like the the
few times that he kind of uses it in the book they don't go into a lot of detail but he misses some
people up with it so it's like yeah I'd like to know more about that um the dude hates some dwarfs
love to know what's going on with that that's got to be a good story x1101 you were just about
the season what the horse is to oh um you were mentioning watching horses walk to see if they really
do their their back of land exactly where the front was I was gonna say is rather than trying to
watch the walk I would looking at their the tracks to see if you see four sets of tracks or really
just two to see if there's really how things happen yeah well you know I haven't had a chance to
get close to horses so I would I'm not just look at them either way but yeah I would check out both
for sure so what about uh Ezrahan you guys think he's trustworthy or is he off to be the most
nefarious person who ever lived again I'm not entirely sure those are mutually exclusive yeah that's
true he could have just been telling the truth uh see because I now he he sounded like such a bad guy
at first and when I listened to his parts of the book all I could think of was this guy's lion he's
lying so bad but then the the priest the high priest or whatever he was from the church he turned
up to be such a rotten character it makes me think maybe Ezrahan is a good guy after all
or at least was a good guy being locked up for a thousand years lots of good guys would turn into
bad guys at that yeah I was gonna say the same thing they might have created their own worst nightmare
by locking that guy up especially like I said if he if he's just that frank about it and says it
whether he's lying or not it's it's pretty uh significant when he gets out that he's been locked up
for a thousand years with no hands um I could see him being trouble for them this guy he got locked
away at a time when it was a golden age so you think about somebody in our time being locked away
for a thousand years and then you get back out and it's like medieval times there's uh you know
like I can see this guy wanting to go back and recreate his own golden age he has the power he has
the skill like this guy can do it and he's got the motivation so like why not go back and change the
world take it back to what you know in his mind he's improving the world he's taking it back to that
golden age um yeah yeah I look I like I can see that happening yeah right after I kill all these
guys that locked me up because he's got the knowledge and he's basically a magical weapon of mass
destruction yeah yeah exactly but you'll note that he didn't kill all of the gardens and such
you'd spent the last thousand years making sure he didn't get out uh no but uh feet worse than
death comes to mind no worse than they put him through yeah or volunteered for that matter that
the way he handled that definitely does lead lens some credibility to him being uh the whole scene
as they leave definitely lens some credibility to him being maybe not such a bad guy his explanation
about the faces in the wall him not just you know incinerating all of the guards those things
kind of lead lead lead me to lean a little bit towards maybe it was a frame job either that
or if you're as powerful as he is you're not gonna take time to stop on every ant on your way out
thousand years would maybe make you fairly spiteful though yeah I mean if you can spray a you know
a can of hair spray over a lighter at the anhyl you might stomp all those ants just just uh you know
me just an principle but yeah I was kind of left with the the impression that that he was perhaps
framed but yeah he he I got the idea that he was a good guy anywhere or at least a neutral guy
maybe he's got his own he clearly has his own motivations and he's gonna carry through with those
and maybe morality doesn't enter into it at all and which you know what would mean by my logic
would mean that yes he was framed and that's about all there is to it uh I like that he rewarded
intelligence and cleverness though um when Royce reasoned with him about you know how or why he
should help them figure out who killed the king it was simply a a match of wits there that he
rewarded by telling him that he didn't have to tell him that and he said as much but then he did
so maybe he'll build a nice meritocracy and I definitely did see him recognizing some real cleverness
in the in the monk I also am not calling his name for figuring out so quickly that all he did was
take the the enchantment they had put him under and turn it inside out yeah I kind of wondered
like when he figured that out I thought that maybe he had in the back of his mind that oh there
are no more wizards like me but maybe this guy could learn and like maybe just kind of plotting
that he would be his apprentice but then that didn't turn out Andy has hands I don't know I still
think with the I go back to the same argument that this dude would look at these people like idiots
as far as he you know to come in from the golden age you're looking at people with it you know
it's amazing they got in here much less are able to reason with me oh yeah won't kill you
you're kind of entertaining don't know don't trust the wizards I love the way he talked how his
language was older and following that made me concentrate more on on his words and what he was
saying and like the meetings behind it and I you know I like that as a as a device I enjoyed it
I thought that was one of the strong points of Nathan Lowell when he was doing the part where he's
trying to talk like they're talking and you could just tell the frustration he was having was trying
to change every word to to match them it was it wasn't something that was in the words that he was
saying it was just the way that they were formed it was it was really funny but at the same time
conveyed something about that he was at least trying but it was really irritating for him I found
that hilarious he was working out the words he you to you that that makes no sense it was yeah it was
a very enjoyable part of the book the English language yeah and at the same time I thought he did a
really good job of speaking in Ezra Hodden's true voice that was really smooth it came across
well I'd have a hard time reading that out loud hell I had a hard time reading Collins letter out
loud the first time and that's you know just Oxford English versus American English speaking at
calling he says for the spoiler segment of our show quote I definitely liked and would recommend
this book I think the characters of the thieves Hadrian and Royce come through well and they
established themselves very well in the story whilst allowing the other characters to take their
roles I would listen to it again happily and would like to follow the story on and learn more about
this world I have two slight criticisms in the story and then I felt for a story that had a lot
of journeys in it I did not really get the sense of the prince's group traveling all that much they
only ever seemed to arrive and leave from a destination with the exception of the attempted execution
of the prince I would have liked to hear a bit more about the journey the surroundings and maybe
some more background about the world the story took place in I also feel that the book
may have had a little too much setting up for the oncoming series rather than enriching this story
it may be a bit harsh but comes back to my first point and a couple of events in the story
such as the wizard Ezra Hodden wandering off immediately never to be seen again in the story
or the dwarfs disappearance and a lot of looking to the future by characters such as Archibald the
Bishop Royce and Hadrian I particularly liked the set pieces in the book my favorites were the
attack on Melengar which lasted for some time and was very enjoyable especially Royce and Hadrian's
exploits at the end of the sequence you really imagine Pickering Sword coming down and snapping
Braggas in half the visit to Gutariah prison to see Ezra Hodden was also very good albeit a little
short perhaps what came to the escape and quote thanks again Colin with respect to his calm about
just leaving and arriving that kind of goes back to recession about the D&D no I know at least
a couple of ventures I've played it you only talk about the road if something happens otherwise
you travel and you arrive now and anybody who's done a lot of traveling or anything like that or
I don't know I've read a lot our quote unquote read listen to a lot of audio books the Robert
Jordan's Will a Time series books that that take over on that the traveling route and stuff like
that it's it's kind of boring and I mean that's that's the most miserable part miserable part of
the journey and usually nothing exciting really happens so yeah that to go back it's kind of
fine to skip over that yeah I had no problem with that I forget what I was I got carried away
and what you guys were talking about I forgot what I was gonna say all right um yeah I was gonna
say the only thing that I felt was missing from their journey was just their sense of exhaustion
and hunger and I mean they really had no supplies they went a long way they were sleeping um this was
the onset of winter so and they were you know up in the mountains so this was just getting worse
and worse and worse for them and you know I had to I had to remind myself you know to remember that
that this journey was so harsh for them this was so bad and then this is not something happened
and in June um you know and and hunting and gathering what's going to be easy while they were
wandering out there yeah I'll give you that I mean because spend a long time laboring the travel
do miss other than their kind of few pointed works about how tired they how much that saps out
traveling adverse conditions for that but uh for for me the the traveling scenes and stuff like that
I think it also helped to uh develop a lot of the prince slash new kings characters well
the uh prince king uh he really grew on me at first I the author does like our reader does an
excellent job with his voice yeah I can hear him coming through and at the beginning of the
book I think dude you are a total deep ag uh couldn't stand him did not like this character you know
they need to get rid of this dude what's going on and then uh like Colin said by the time they're
staging the castle and he just he's at the point where he's like no look I'm the king I'm gonna
take off my helmet I'm gonna walk up to the gate I don't care if you shoot me because I'm the king
this is my castle gtfo yeah okay you're cool dude like that definitely really really grew on me
I think his his character was probably uh one of the more enjoyable progressions I guess
just starting as a guy I really couldn't stand and then into a really lovable character
it's like wow you really grew up in more days that's what I was just gonna say he did he grew on
the reader because he grew he himself grew at the beginning he would have stomped in the castle
and done the same thing but it would have been out of a sense of entitlement where at the end he did
it out of a sense of responsibility and especially with action like that why is almost as important
yeah yeah exactly um and if I can touch back for just a second on what Colin had said about you
know more journey being there maybe and and if Colin were here to answer this I'd have to ask him
maybe he meant that uh the description of the land itself was missing because that's something
you get a lot in like Tolkien you get descriptions of the trees you get descriptions of the mountains
you get all all kinds of stuff like that um while they're journeying they don't really he doesn't
really describe the journey so you know what I mean like maybe that's what he meant uh if anything
I could see that as as being missed but I don't think it was quite missing but you also get a
1200 page epic where pages of that describing rocks and trees exactly and that's what I mean
it's not missing from the story but I can I can understand a person I can understand that being missed
by a reader who's expecting it so I I don't know I wish Colin were here to answer that I guess the
other thing to miss without some of that is the scale of distance they travel I mean you get
we traveled three days but did you get like two miles a day or did you get like 40 miles a day
yeah yeah yeah exactly yep I yeah I got the impression that these guys didn't go more than
maybe a hundred miles tops and another thing I'd like to address with that is that um I think
it makes the book more accessible to people just in general if you cut out a lot of that travel
stuff um some of the of his hardcore guys might really enjoy it and like the world building but I
think it like said going back to the hey it's a it's a good young adult young reader kind of book
that this that's part of what helps it make it fit that part is that it doesn't kind of board you
out too much with some of the and yeah you miss out on some of the world building and things but it
it makes it more accessible to people in the long run as an enjoyable book which in my mind makes
it feel like that princess bride kind of thing you know there you don't get the long journey but you
get the struggle struggle cliff climb you know that that's five minutes you know so that's that I
I can give it a pass on that and that's kind of one of just to kind of go back to what we're talking
about earlier about winning more I I think the one time in this book that I thought was kind of
completely separate it was more kind of that telling the story is when the elves show up and sort
of first of all when I the elves first came into the story I was like oh this is like high fantasy
because at that point I guess I hadn't realized I thought it was kind of more just humans running
around in medieval times but the fact that he a takes kind of the I if you can call it a stereotype
for a fake race the stereotype of elves and kind of flips it to where they're sort of the oppressed
and not the aloof and and high beings but then like he literally just tells the story of the elves
which I really loved I thought that that was great but I didn't think it fit with everything
else that was going on it was kind of like this this just step aside to explain the actions of
this one character later well you get I got the impression that the elves used to be that high
and mighty greater than civilization prior to you know novren being born and kind of elevating
mankind to the dominant role there see to me this was a pattern in the book which makes me think
you know go back to that the mage going to be up to anything good because we see that the powerful
people are that were in the golden age seem to be have imprisoned slaughtered or we turned them
into slaves so that that seems to be to mean indicates that you've got the human and the dwarfs maybe
working together or whatever it is the other races they go we don't like this we can't necessarily
beat them but maybe we can and so for me those were patterns that I noticed in the book it was a
nice change I liked it it was it was something different I think a lot of people when they play
in these worlds they don't do enough different or if they do it they do it superficially and like
you were saying there's there's a pattern and that pattern kind of recurs over and over and over
again which just makes me want to read more about this world but I didn't get a lot of it in this
book and to kind of continue on with like not imaginary races not necessarily matching up to their
imaginary stereotypes if you will like I really enjoyed the scene with the dwarf and Royce in the
tower and you know it seemed like the dwarf was kind of using some magical stuff and it was kind
of doing some traps not dwarfs at least in my mind are traditionally like their crafters and
they're not much they're not big fans on trickery or magic they're they're pretty straightforward
so that that was kind of that that was a nice twist onto me and I would really like to know more
about the elves and the dwarven people the lore and you know because the dwarves almost kind of seem
like more jerks than normal so I'd really like to know like there was that just a really a whole
jerk dwarf that we met in this book or are they all like yeah I would really I'm looking forward
to exploring more on that in other books that would be cool also I'm Scottish dwarves always sound
I was thankful he did not sound Scottish he did a great voice on that dwarf I you know having
read books to my kids and trying to do a gruff voice it ain't easy to do that for very long you
you get real sore and your voice gets real weak but he he stayed strong I gotta applaud that
yeah it kind of my just sort of you know extrapolating what we know from that one dwarf and
and things it seems like the world in general has kind of lost magic but maybe the dwarves have
held on to some of it and they kind of keep it by laying low and not by making it is it's big
of a deal and not by exercising it and that almost they might be the most powerful race that's
still around but nobody notices because they're three-foot tall no no exactly I had that same feeling
and that was kind of I was going back with the patterns of the things I don't miss made me wonder
if the dwarves were really kind of the ones pulling the strings and I might be jumping ahead a
little bit because this book definitely leads it up to feel like the church is what's pulling the
strings and you've got the church wants to bring the empire back and getting rid of royalty and
so like there's there's a lot of threads going on but you know that I was had that thought at one
point reading through the book you know get this go back to the dwarves are really the one pulling
the strings you know kind of in the shadows underground out of sight you know out of mind
but yeah that might be quite the stretch as well I think probably in one of the future books
the one being a piece on the chessboard for sure something that wasn't you weren't expecting but
I didn't get the impression that their whole society was like that just that this one guy was
particularly nasty and it seems like the only dwarf stereotype they really kept was the master of
stone type thing yeah yeah the craftsmanship and and explaining away the you know their skill as
simply craftsmanship and not magic even though it appears to be magic uh I love that this was
there was something that was the real gym for me in this book I'd never heard it
right this way but that the dwarves talking about when he's with Royce and the tower and how he can
hear the stone and it sings to him and you know that just adds a whole kind of it's it's a nice twist
on the is it magic is it next it you know you're almost kind of a it's well it's kind of a spiritual
religious thing because it's not necessarily magic but we we hear the stone and just did the way
he would describe the lattice work and like in my mind it almost made me think like oh it's like
he's describing almost like on a molecular level or like spider webs and it was it was very visual
and it was very rich I enjoyed it I could I could see that whole scene it was one of the probably
best uh in my mind it was just locked in there that really enjoyed that I completely
when I'm in a situation um like it work where you know I'm an expert at something and I've got to come
in and figure a situation out I often think of it as reading the the situation reading what's
going on there so when he talked about it singing to him or talking to him that uh it was relatable
in in a way but it also kind of conveyed the fact that he's way better at this than I'll ever
be at anything well and you also kind of get the being an expert in something to to that degree
people aren't can't tell us what you're doing is expertise or magic yep same old saying
does anybody remember the monk's name by the way that started with an age I keep
when I'm harried but that was kind of a similar as character from another book but it
harried him and how something started ancient about see I started with an amp no I can't think of
it right now and I wish I could I was wondering did anybody else get choked up when he when he
told the story of his 12-year-old buddy who died and he said he couldn't explain it to him because
he's only 12 years old I got so choked up that that's that part was really well done yeah a little
bit no and he describes planning him and the tree wing and that yeah yeah that that was definitely
a nice kind of touching scene so it and it it emphasized his innocence I if he will in the book as
well which uh like his character was really I enjoyed it but I also kind of I don't know if it's
just coincidence but I've been hitting a lot of books recently that have the idedic memory character
which is um it's kind of neat but it's also kind of a crutch sometimes in a book um it didn't
have a problem at all with it in this book because he he had a lot to add and he also had that
innocence factor so he wasn't just like an overpowered character with too much knowledge or something
weird like so it's really interesting balance and it was definitely kind of hard not to like him he
just had that innocence factor with that lots of information it was almost most kind of like data
or something like that you know from Star Trek you just massive amounts of knowledge but no real
world experience just very innocent which he kind of loses when he kills the guy you know at one
point in rage and that that brought it home a lot for me too you know there's so there's a lot of
character development that was kind of subtle in the book and in some ways it's kind of ironic
because hatred or hate to main characters hatred and voice they I don't know it was like these
they were kind of like least developed I don't know for me it felt like as far as what you got
to know about them and whatnot so and I don't know maybe I'm wrong with that just kind of how I felt
well I think the monk is the one um character that actually is able to give anybody that
history that that I think a couple of us said we wanted um he's he's the one way that you can do
an info dump of exposition and kind of get away with it because nobody else in the group knew
knew it either um that it's it's been so long since anybody knew that stuff that it makes sense that
he if he had memorized all that that he would be the only one to do it I mean I can see where
he is a crutch to an extent to do some of that exposition but at least it's a crusher that was
wrapped with a good character yeah yeah it was weird because at first I thought of him as as uh
you know maybe being like on the the autism spectrum but he didn't seem to pan out that way
he seemed to be more well adjusted than that just inexperienced here's one thing that I another
another thing might be my only other real criticism of the book is I didn't feel like um oh boy
what was his name was it Percy the the guy they stole the letters from the beginning I didn't
feel like it was necessary for him to show up at the end uh I don't know that that just felt that
to me felt a little awkward did did anybody else notice that I'm not sure I thought I felt awkward
I felt like it kind of plumped together some of the geography of the area giving more setup for
future novels um kind of giving you more of an idea of the churches overall plan and maybe a
little bit forced as to you know tying up loose ends and bringing back someone that we we started
a little bit of going back to talking about it as being a mystery novel just kind of wrapped in
fantasy that's the ending of every agatha christian novel ever all the players get together in room
and they hash out who did it and I think that um it it was a little awkward I think but at the
same time I kind of expected it I it wasn't surprising yeah it wasn't surprising to me either and I
don't think it was so awkward that I actually noticed it at first I don't remember thinking that
the first two times I listened to it but this most recent time I I did notice and I just think well
what is he doing there what is his purpose in the story in this scene and it didn't he didn't seem
to have one uh the monster with myron myron thank you I looked it up I cheated I tried looking it up
I didn't see it on the page but thank you because that was gonna bother me all night yeah me too oh yeah
and speaking of names I thought he did a really good job with names in this book a lot of times
in fantasy novels the names seem so contrived they just they're they're like getting hit with a
bucket of cold water when you meet you know some of these people with these weird fantasy names but
I thought these all mostly fit the only the only two that I that I felt were a little uh not
contiguous were the prince and the king I didn't think their names seemed like they came from
the same family but other than that none of them seemed out of place you know in in a story or
or you know what I mean like they weren't awkward names like you can get sometimes
Esra Had was a little awkward but I think that was mostly from being you know a thousand years
outside of what everyone else was yeah and I didn't realize until just tonight that Esra Hadin
was a single word I thought that was like a first and last name yeah that's kind of how it sounded
and kind of the impression I got as well until I saw it written as a single name I don't know
if it's just how I listened to it or whatever but the first couple times they mentioned his name
for some some reason in my mind it was a title it wasn't his name and that's probably just me
listening to it wrong but yeah no that's an interesting way to look at it all right so is anybody
got anything else they want to talk about in this book or are you guys about ready to wrap it up
I said pretty much everything I have said I said pretty much everything I have to say
uh where they had uh the princess on trial and they were like uh she went to school
burner oh wait wait and she does magic she's a witch too burner that was like oh you guys are so
backwards but uh yeah that that that that was a nice scene as well I guess but that was the
whole castle siege scene I guess so yeah that was about it I could hear my wife cringing they had that
particle she's educated burner I kind of like that my wife's here listen I'm just teasing her
Taj if you get any closing thoughts no I think we pretty much hit everything I had to say about it
cool cool I yeah again I'll reiterate that I hope another one of these comes along especially
an audio format and especially with Nathan Lowell doing the reading um but if we're all done with
this one uh I think we can announce the next one more gallon came up with a fantastic one more
gallon are you are you free to talk about that one right now uh quickly um I got a horrible audio
going here but uh but yeah um basically it was one of the uh first audio books that I ran across
and it it just totally won me over two audio books and because I was kind of skeptical at first
when I came across the patio books website and which just kind of these are all going to be kind of
half but not so good books and this is this has been one of the most fun books that I've read in a
while it just had me chuckling smiling and very uh very thoughtful lots of lots of stuff to think
about through this book and it was just it was it was a real gym so um yeah I'd like to share that
well go ahead man we're on pins and needles here oh oh and then see that's the bad thing now
I can't even remember the title what was the title my friend you helped me out with that
right on it was how to succeed in evil the novel by Patrick E. McLean um and there's two
versions of this so don't anyone who wants to join in next time or wants to listen to it don't
confuse it with uh how to succeed in evil the original podcast this is uh he took his original
podcast he polished it up he rewrote it and he made a novel out of it and that's the one we're
going to do uh for the next show how to succeed in evil the novel by Patrick E. McLean uh this is
available on podiobooks.com and there will be a link in the show notes for this one as well
and uh just to encourage people to listen to this one I will say that I've also listened to this one
multiple times and uh it's one of my favorites and and I know it's one of my mom's favorites
and I don't remember how family friendly it is probably not it's probably okay for for
you know to recommend to your mom but not to your daughter or to my mom but not my daughter I'll
put it that way I think there were a couple scenes in there that I wouldn't want kids listening to
immature kids anyway I'll agree with that what's the what's the process for uh suggesting a book
um well basically the the newest guy usually the newest participant I should say usually
as the person that does it and I happen to ask we're going uh before the show so we just went
with it um there's really not much of a process other than that if you've got one uh to suggest we
probably do that next time oh shoot you an email about it okay okay though I I do want to say uh
one that I really really would like to get to at some point it's it's not finished quite yet
but at some point when it is finished I think we have to review uh street candles by our very
own lost and bronx um he's one of our community members and I've been listening to this audio book
of his and it is astonishing good it is it's it's stupendous and we must cover it once it's finished
uh whether that's on the next show or the show after or somewhere down the road I can't remember he
told me how many more episodes he had for but I don't recall but when that's done oh man you guys
have to hear it it's it's fantastic I would like to second that uh this lost bronx this guy is awesome
he's live streaming his recordings of the book as he's doing them so you can get on a google hangout
with him when he does this and listen to each chapter live it's it's really fun uh like I'm I'm
delivering I'm at my piece of job and I'll join the hangout with my phone you know and listening of
course but yeah it's just awesome to tune into a live story here and there when I have the opportunity
he's doing a really cool job with it so I'd like to anybody out there that's listening to it
maybe interested you know maybe catch up on them and listen to the some of the the live stuff
it's it's very fun I'd like to see more people do that that's awesome I listened to star drifter
and I loved it and I didn't know that he was it even started the second one yet so now I know
what I'm gonna be wasting my time with I'm also on board listening to uh luster bronx novel I've
heard uh heard about the process for a while now yeah it's it's uh it's sci fi and I will say
Taj if you like star drifter um tighten your seat belts for street candles it's uh they're
not quite in the same league and I don't think luster bronx would take offense to me saying that
but but one one is uh is a novella uh and one is a more than a full length novel and he really
stepped up to to fill those pages um not that not that uh star drifter was bad at all it was I
thought was terrific but um I just mean that if you you won't believe how how different and and
full and rich it is awesome I'm looking forward to it yeah so uh we won't do that one this time
that's that's down the road because it's not done just yet um but we we definitely got to do it so
for next time anyone wants to join us though it's how to succeed and evil the novel uh on paudio
books dot com uh i want to thank all you guys for for joining me tonight um i was really worried that
people were losing interest in the audio book club uh and it happened right at that time where
hpr is at a uh uh kind of low in the queue we don't have a lot in our in our q and uh we may
resort to the backup q this week um i hope that doesn't come to pass um but it kind of came to a
low point that was really a little worried and um you guys showed up more gallon touch x-1101 um
calling who wrote in and a couple other people uh Jonathan NATO said he was going to try to make it
5150 i knew try to make it and the timing just couldn't be there but even just saying that they
they wanted to be there and and couldn't because of timing uh was just the the morale boost that
i need personally and uh i just want to thank you guys all for helping out the book club
hand hacker public radio and and and thank everyone for listening to of course but um but you guys
who who show up and do the work um you know you you're the core of hpr and and just thank you so
much for that yeah i just want to add to that and the this is my first time being on here but that's
never been because i haven't loved the audio book series i've been following it since before it
stopped was space kc i um i think space kc was actually the first one i listened to instead of just
kind of following along and then it stopped like here and i was like but nobody's talking about it
so i'm super glad to be back i'm uh that it's that it's going on and i'll try to be here as often
as i can uh a lot of it just has to do a scheduling you know that's life but uh poke don't ever think
people don't don't love it and don't appreciate it man all right well thank you i i knew people
love the first couple but you know with course we had uh you know super stars on there we had
you know dan wash go and and clatu was on uh at least one of them um you know we had
integral i mean jeez you know so i i i i i i never i never assume it's because of me that
anybody likes something that i'm involved in i just try to facilitate you know
oh dude we appreciate the work and like say keep in mind dude it's it's starting to get warm
in summertime it's the phase of things this will happen so hang in there dude and because you know
you've got me and lots of other people that really enjoy what what what goes on so you and like
said people like you that are the backbone of these things really help keep it along for the
us people that phase in and out and yeah settle thank you well yeah and and that uh i have
phased out quite a bit in the last several months i've just been really busy with family stuff
taking up hunting and and that being a family activity uh it's i have not been here
nearly as much as as we would think and there are people sticking around uh in and working on
things in the background uh you know got it can fallen but i mean you know he's he's just uh a
saint work he does um i i i i'm not gonna start listing i shouldn't start listing because there's
so many people who are involved and i i won't remember them all and that's you know shame on me for
that but uh yeah just thanks to everybody hpr is fantastic thank you every keeps it going
and i have to say i'm fairly new to the hpr but i absolutely i'm pretty new as well and everybody
has been open arms so if you haven't recorded a show get on it do it now it takes five minutes
now do it especially now because as pokey was saying we we need shows yeah and and it's not just
that we need shows um the people who listened to hpr uh to a person everyone i've met everyone
have spoken to everyone have corresponded with everyone's been a fantastic person if you're listening
to this by default you get the thumbs up from the rest of us we're eager to hear your content um it's
it's you know we try to say as much as we can uh that we really try to be welcoming i mean that's
kind of our thing um i know that the you know the name of it is hacker public radio which would
imply that we're primarily about hacking but more and more uh you know throughout the years
i think we're primarily about being nice to people everyone at hpr seems to be nice to one
another and whatever particular hack you're into that's that's the kind of hacking that we make
it revolve around but really it's it's the community it's about just being cool with one another
and that's what makes it so much fun to me what's out a much more classic meaning of word hacker
you know it's someone of curiosity and some interest in something exactly exactly and uh and
if you're listening we want you to be part of it so uh you know come on join us now and share
the software hope sorry i can't that's your song you'll be free hackers you'll be free the free
software song is spoken to me to be to drum or something or i know smoky rumhat how they used to do
that or anyway we get a wrap it up uh thanks everyone for listening thanks everyone for joining in
and have a great night and we'll look forward to seeing you next time good night everybody
night everyone thank you later guys
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attribution share a live free dot oh live oh hey was was a month uh warning was that enough for
everybody should we go to two months or i mean should we meet up next month there is two days
okay what are you guys thinking about the scheduling of this i like a month any um i i'll burn
through books so pretty much any book that we put out like i can go through any day or two so
i'm abnormal on that but i think if we go anything longer than a month or so people that have
read the book you're going to forget part stuff like that and it i don't know i i think one
a month gives us 12 books a year to go through and gives nice reviews and people can jump in and
jump out and that way if there's a book that somebody's not interested in they can skip that month
but know that next month there's another book that they'll probably be interested in so i think a
month is a good period between yeah i agree i think a month is pretty good i finished this one and
i've been kind of holding off starting something else until i found out what the next book was
going to be um but this was a short book so i think if we had a longer book like it seems to be the
next one's going to be a little longer if the number of chapters are in the indication which
you probably isn't um you should be able to get it done in a month the Tuesday nights works for me
now up until this week it didn't so my schedule changes a lot just because of my job so i mean
wherever it is it might be a problem it might not but i i definitely want to keep trying to come on
cool yeah my schedule changes to mostly around family and and you know like my wife's work
schedule and my daughter's school schedule and that kind of thing but i kind of i kind of like patch
Tuesday because just because it's easy to remember and it's kind of cheeky to say that you know we won't
be needing to do that tonight we can do this instead i like that man i like it a lot um i'm good
to join pretty much any night you know as long as it's in the evening um if i'm working i can do it
from the pizza job here as long as uh my random go changes are okay i don't know how bad i
sound it tonight so i run arch every Tuesday is patch Tuesday
same with day and Thursday and Friday and let's go say sandwich right in between patch Monday and
patch Wednesday said but true all right i don't know i see frequent patching is the positive
that's a good thing and i don't even use arch now i'm an arch user i'm totally down for the
everyday thing it's just you know sometimes it you know you just a constant seeing update is ready
all right cool all right with that we're gonna cut it off