A big thanks to Mr & Mrs NavigatingWorlds for tagging me last month. I kind of changed the name of the tag and whatnot, but I DID use their questions, so it’s all good.
1 ) You need a team of 3 people to help you overthrow an emperor. Which fictional characters would you recruit and why?

Sorry guys, maybe next time
Superman. Pretty self-explanatory
Tisamon from Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadow of the Apt series. Awesome swordsman and willing to kill, where Superman isn’t.
Any character from a Terry Brooks’ Shannara book. They’d be the sacrifice so it didn’t seem as easy as it was.
2 ) What is the most surprising twist you have come across in a novel?
I can’t remember, honestly. I know there have been several times that a point of view was revealed to be a 180 from what the reader was led to expect, but no specific title springs to mind.
3 )You are hunting for a house to buy with your family. The only places available are Northern Westeros (north of the wall), Mordor, and Arrakis. At which location will you purchase a home?

Another good read to own a condo instead
Arrakis. I’d be a rich water merchant and live in comfort in Arrakeen * wink *
4 ) If you had to attend a fictional school of magic, which one would you select?

♪Oh, oh, it’s Magic♪ (the Gathering, that is!)
I’d take the one on one lessons from Kulgan in Raymond Feist’s Magician series.
5 ) You are the likable, but slightly useless, best friend to the main character. What one skill keeps you out of trouble?
Not being afraid to piss in the woods. Nothing is scarier to Alpha Predators than the ferocious scent of a Bookstooge, especially a slightly useless one.
6 ) If you had to read every single book by one author, which author would you pick?

Dickens, it’s whats for Dinner!
No contest. Dickens. There is a reason the man’s writings are “Classic”.
7 ) Which is the best country in the world?

I didn’t choose the Yurt Life, the Yurt Life chose me
Kyrgyzstan Forever!!! Any country with a “K” and a “Y” AND a “Z” has got to be awesome. And by the way, I see you, my secret Kyrgyztanian friend, lurking around.
8 ) You are on an epic quest to save the world. You can take either a phoenix, a dragon, or an old bearded man. Which do you choose?

The Quest for the Bearded Kyrgyztanian
Dragon. I can BE the old bearded man.
9 ) Wine or beer?

6 Mt. Dew cans worth of caffeine
Teetotaler here, so I’m going with “Energy Drink”, preferably VPX Bang.
10 ) You have struck it lucky and book blogging is your full-time pursuit but you need a co-author for your blog. Who do you choose and why?

When you are as awesome as me, you’ll understand
Nobody. I explain why here:
A SuperSoldier, errr, Reviewer of One
Now I’m supposed to come up with my own questions and threaten you all with bad luck or something unless you do the tag in 10 days.
Lol for Shannara sacrifice! 😀 I’m with you on Dickens, by the way, though Twain and Lindgren and a bunch of others vie for the spot. Come to think of it, I have read all works of certain authors, like Tolkien or Czajkowski for example 🙂 I guess that the smart thing to do would be to pick authors who either don’t write that much or write no longer 😉
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I am actually in the process of getting rid of all my Brooks books. I’ve got like 20 of his Shannara ones and then the Word and Void trilogy and then his Magic Kingdom of Landover series as well. That should make the shelves a little lighter 😀
The only things of Dickens that I don’t like is his Child’s History of England (not a history fan) and some of his travelogues (not a traveler nor interested in traveling). So with 20+ quality books, I figure I should be set, you know?
The thing with Tchaikovsky is that while he’s not as driven as Sanderson, he’s still pretty relentless in churning out the novels, short stories,novellas, etc.
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All those dead trees to be put on Brooks’ conscience… 😉 But that’s a lot of space on your shelves – what will you fill it with? Oh, the possibilities! 😀
Czajkowski sure does write in a steady pace, but at least for now his stuff is very good and original indeed, which I cannot say about Sanderson. I think the book market these days forces the authors to become a constant presence with new books and whatnot every half a year – which directly influences the quality of their work, and not in a good way!
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Ha, trees are one of our best renewable resources. At least for now. Once I get my “pave the planet” plan going, well, that’ll be a different story 😀
Definitely not in a good way. They are becoming commodities just like a sack of coal or something. I have to wonder how much longer the business model most big publishing houses use can last.
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Exactly! The value of a book is deteriorating quickly, because it doesn’t matter whether it’s good, only whether it sells. The market is more and more ruled by fads and fashion – just look at the junk like Twilight series or Gray… I feel that many of the classics would have never been published in contemporary conditions – deemed too difficult or controversial or depressing or simply “unsellable”.
That’s grumpy me 😉
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Grumping right along with you 😀
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This cracked me up🤣
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Glad it did. I really like doing tags, just not all the time or seriously. Unless I feel serious upon the subject. But that is hardly ever…
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Aw, man. Now I have to give up my dreams of teaming up with you to start a “Two Old Men Read Young Adult Novels” blog.
On the bright side, now I don’t have to read young adult novels.
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Yeah, that particular blog would last 2 posts. Then I’d either shoot you for making me read YA or shoot myself for making myself read YA. Unless we went in for the double suicide murder pact. Like killing each other with some ridiculous YA tome that has zero originality or quality.
Now, if I got to execute the authors of said ya books, then we’d be cooking with gas!
Oh man, a death lottery blog. 2 books. Which ever one we hate less, the author gets to live. The one who dies, you and I gamble on who gets to come up with the execution method.
That actually sounds like something I’d be willing to do 😀
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I’ll pencil this in for after the complete breakdown of society.
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Excellent plan of action. Of course, if we survive that and all that is left, for books, is YA stuff, then I’ll consider myself dead and in hell. In which case suicide is no longer a sin and a wide open option 😀
Man, our blogging future is doomed before it even starts!
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Can you please,please make this blog happen? 😀 I think your melt-downs and descent into madness would be fun to read about!! It would also be the darkest timeline!
I like to watch people suffer *evil grin*
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Hahhahaa. Can you imagine some of the whining and wholesale complaining that would happen?
Makes me wonder who would lose it first, us or our readers? Of course, I suspect most readers would just stop reading us instead of committing a Jonestown style act 😉
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I think to overthrow The Emperor, I would’ve chosen someone like Conan or Tarzan for the rough stuff, someone like Ender or Sherlock Holmes to plan things out, and someone with frightening paranormal/supernatural powers as a backup plan in case the first two couldn’t get the job done.
I don’t read many comics, so I wouldn’t have thought of Superman!
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Supes is my go to guy for almost everything except killing.
I like your choices. Any particular standouts for the supernatural powers?
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Can’t think of anyone sufficiently menacing at the moment. Well, except Cthulhu, but he’d be worse than the emperor we were trying to get rid of.
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Yeah, talk about cutting off your arm to remove a splinter in your thumb…
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hehe ok as much as I wish you’d picked the muppets, superman is an obvious choice and I love your logic for picking Shannara characters to act as canon fodder 😂 Ah Dickens is a good choice. Hilarious post!
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Maybe when I do one of my snarky tags I’ll use the muppets. They would certainly be a great comedic value 😀
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hehehe absolutely, and hey, they also work as good canon fodder 😉
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in some of their movies, that is literally true 😀
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hehehe yes!
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For a second I really thought you were going to go with those three muppets! 🤣 I can foresee the fear in the emperor!
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Well, if Miss Piggy is along, then somebody better be afraid, right? 🙂
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“Not being afraid to piss in the woods”. It’s better than peeing against a wall that pees back at you… I’ve always wondered whether they paint a walls at a certain height. I bet they calibrated the splash back effect for a certain organ size which is probably racist, and discriminates against one race in favour of another. Basically, outrageous profiling… I’ve always thought not peeing in public is utter nonsense: if you are genuinely unable to identify any sufficiently near, proper facilities, if you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go, and–provided it is done discretely (against a wall in a deserted back alley, or, likewise unseen, behind some roadside bushes, etc)–what’s the problem? Or do some people piss poison?
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Ughh, splashback. Now that is some bad stuff.
Not being a city guy, I’m not aware of painting levels or other things in the city. I just consider them all dumps.
I know the whole reason for not is because if you give an inch, scumbag humanity will take 10,000 miles. So you discourage bad behavior and hope that not too many people break the rules.
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Arrakis is a good choice, or rather the only choice that can offer more chances of survival! If I were you I would look for another real estate agent, though: the present one does not look like a very dependable person… 😀 😀
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😀 Yeah, he’s looking a little down right now, isn’t he?
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[…] posts ranged from (un)Hauling Books to filling that space right back up with a Book Haul to a Random Tag to a Ramble on Re-Reading. I also started up what I’m calling my Versus set of posts. A book […]
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