So, just pointing out this podcast, called A Good Story is Hard to Find. Long, thoughtful book reviews of a wide variety of books and movies, about an hour in length. Nice, calm podcast to listen to while walking the dogs.
Also, as you may have suspected, the podcasters (is that the term?), Scott and Julie, happened to have reviewed TUYO for their first podcast of the year. It’s a great review. You can bet I immediately downloaded various other episodes — including one that reviews Paladin of Souls and one that reviews Watership Down.
I’m particularly interested in listening to or reading good reviews of books I have already read and love — does anybody else feel that way? — But once I trust that a reviewer’s taste is more or less compatible with mine, I do go on to read reviews of books that I haven’t read. Or in this case, listen.
Please Feel Free to Share:
Can’t check from my work computer, but I think I remember running into them years ago when I saw they’d reviewed IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE.
You sure might have, and I should look up that episode if so. From the intro to their podcast plus the fact that Will Duquette was their guest for the TUYO episode, IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE would be something they would love.
I just listened with pleasure to their review of Tuyo, and will listen to some more.
Thank you for bringing them to our attention.
One thing I noticed, when they were talking about which real-world cultures might have had some influence on the Lau – they didn’t mention the Romans, which was my first association, both for the disciplined standing army fighting in formation, and the life built around the legions.
This was reinforced because of their position between the individually fighting warriors of the cold north, and the Egyptian-inspired jackal-headed people of the hot deserts, as the Romans were the link between similar far-flung borders of their empire.
Now I’m wondering: were they part of your inspiration, or did that association come purely from my own background?
Hanneke, you were right. I kept wanting to use Roman military terms and had to make a conscious choice not to. However, culturally, they are pretty distinctive in some ways. The Lau we will see farther south are also not quite the same, culturally, as those of the borderlands.