S&L Podcast - #311 - Science Fiction Triggers Clickbait Headline

This week we have a lot to say about wine, some to say about Amazon's Lord of the Rings series and loads to say as we wrap up Connie Willis' Doomsday Book. Plus we kind of sort of kick off December's Book, California Bones.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: I Massi 2009 Chianti

Veronica: SomeWine Red Wine

QUICK BURNS

Via Silvana and Louie: Amazon announced it has acquired the global TV rights to Lord of the Rings and intends to produce a multiseason TV series in cooperation with New Line Cinema, The Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins. The series will explore storylines preceding the Fellowship of the Ring, and included a possible spinoff series. 93-year-old Christopher Tolkien officially retired from Tolkien Estate on August 31. He was very much opposed to licensing the rights.

Nokomis.FL: Trailer for Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s book A Wrinkle in Time

Alex: Good news for Brandon Sanderson and fan of The Stormlight Archive:
John (Taloni)
Cool! I went over to see how it was doing on the USA Today list and it is a very respectable #3. Then I noticed that installment 12 of Diary of a Wimpy kid was #4 and had hit #1. Twelve! It's like Jeff Kinney has a license to print money. Andy Weir's Artemis also charting at #8.

Travis: Science Fiction Triggers Poorer Reading, Study Finds

That's what the headline reads, but then when you read the article, it turns out that lots of people are biased against sci-fi, and those people don't read it as carefully as they do realism. Which, like, duh! "identifying a text as science fiction makes readers automatically assume it is less worthwhile, in a literary sense, and thus devote less effort to reading it. "

BARE YOUR SWORD

Books with main characters collaborating with dark side of fantasy universe?

@swordandlaser listening to the smooth roberator episode where someone was asking for western fantasy and I wanted to mention the Wax and Wayne books by Brandon Sanderson. They are definitely worth reading. @Shaunyuken

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Announce California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

California Bones Book Briefing

Last Thoughts on Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Damn You Connie Willis!

On Time Travel and Paradoxes

PhysicsMinute on Time Travel

Final thought

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

Review us on iTunes!

S&L Podcast - #310 - Apocalypse 1870

OMG. Patrick Rothfuss is best buds with Lin-Manuel Miranda and they're doing a TV prequel to Kingkiller Chronicles, while Felicia Day plays Poppy the Dragonologist AND Amazon wants to do a Tolkien series. And that doesn't even begin to shed light on how good our book pick Doomsday Book is. But the piece de resistance of the show is one man's story of losing power and trying to read.

Direct download link!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: 2015 Chateau de Camarsac - Bordeaux and Plugging his new book Pavaria.

Veronica: Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey

QUICK BURNS

David: The 2017 World Fantasy Awards winners were announced today at the World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio, TX:
Winners include The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North for Best Novel, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson for Long Fiction, and "Das Steingeschöpf" by G.V. Anderson for Short Fiction, among others. Terry Brooks and Marina Warner were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

TRP: Neil Gaiman just announced that Josie Lawrence will play Agnes Nutter in the TV adaptation of Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
She played the same role in the BBC radio adaptation of the book a few years back Good Omens: The BBC Radio 4 dramatization Josie Lawrence is an excellent comic actress and a skillful improviser (especially songs) who people may know from her appearances on Whose Line Is It Anyway. Also I'm seeing her in the play that Neil Gaiman mentions in a couple of weeks.

Terpkristin: Tor.com says that the TV adaptation of Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle will be "The Kingkiller Chronicle" and will be on Showtime and has a showrunner. John Rogers is the showrunner (The Librarians, Leverage, Transformers, per Tor.com). Apparently the announcement also included something for fans to chew on. Per Tor (emphasis mine):
"Set in the world of the wildly popular fantasy series by Rothfuss, The Kingkiller Chronicle will follow a pair of wandering performers on their adventures through the unique and startling world of Temerant, immersing audiences in a universe of unexpected heroes, mystical places, and terrifying dark forces. […] The television adaption is a subversive origin story of legendary proportions set a generation before the events of the trilogy’s first novel, The Name of the Wind." Rogers tweeted "A generation is a very, very *specific* amount of time. It'll make sense later." I guess I may have to get Showtime...

Dara: Lin-Manuel Miranda on Adapting The Kingkiller Chronicles, How It Inspired Moana, and the Lady Lackless Song He Wrote

Silvana: Amazon in talks about adapting Lord of the Rings into TV series Hmm. Why not The Hobbit? While the LOTR movies are not perfect, there are also still other stories in Middle-earth worth exploring. The Silmarillion for instance. Feanor, Turin, Luthien, there are so many stories there. Anyway, if they stick with LOTR I hope there will be Glorfindel and Scouring of the Shire. And maybe Tom Bombadil.

Felicia Day to join cast of The Magicians, as dragonologist Poppy!

Louie: I feel like this is relevant news to this group, whether you are in SF or not.

Borderlands Books Buys Permanent Home Thanks to Patrons’ Sponsorship

Nokomis.FL: OMNI Magazine Is Back

It's NaNoWriMo Time!

BARE YOUR SWORD

Hi guys,

To Say Nothing Of The Dog" is Connie Willis' friendly nod to Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog)", a humorous book from the late 19th century, originally planned as a serious travel guide, and then gone haywire.

Best,
Marc Fabian Erdl

---

Hello good folks of S&L!

I have a reading challenge dilemma, as not in the title, that I wanted some advice on. Hope you can help.

I have a goal of 24 books to read in 2017. I'm at 18. Only 6 more to go. I fell behind a little during the summer but have been working hard to catch up. This 18 is already a huge accomplishment for me as I haven't really read anything since I was in middle school.

Here's the dilemma. I'm a slow reader, and I really, really, really want to read The Way of Kings by Branden Sanderson. Hope that's spelled right. As most you may know the book is 1,000 bajillion pages long, and I might as well throw out my goal for this year. So, should I read The Way of Kings? Or focus on shorter books to knock out my goal before reading it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Out.

George

---

Apocalypse Diary, Day 3 - without electricity, I have been plunged back to the '70s... the 1870s. Read a book about a similar apocalypse (The Fifth Season) by firelight and candlelight. Plugged phone into car and drove around to recharge it. Okay, it's a weirdly advanced 1870s. Alt universe, clearly.

The plague has struck down my nearest neighbors, who live on the hill across the woods. The lone survivor trekked over to offer a cup of jolt, which I have gladly accepted. Our suffering bonds us.

The heavens are troubled no more, the sunlight shining brightly down through ice-blue skies and skitters across the fallen frosted leaves. It is almost enough to make one forget the devastation wrought by the storm which hath brought us so low.

I feel an especial kinship to my compatriots to the south who suffered a similar fate not long ago, although I daresay they are not also dealing with freezing temperatures. But this is not a competition, nor what we elders termed a "pity party" in those long-ago '70s. I keenly feel empathy in our shared plight.

The animals and I have retreated to our demense's great room, huddled by the fire. I envy them their obliviousness to our suddenly shifted lot, and wonder which will eat me first. My money's on the Chihuahua.

Diminutive demons and pint-size princesses will cavort and gambol this eve, begging for treats I do not have. Their tricks may push our fragile existence beyond the brink. Perhaps they will accept spoilt cheese as a bribe to stay their hands?

Will soldier on and report later.

Trike

---

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Book Briefinghttps://www.patreon.com/posts/15026582

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

S&L Podcast - #309 - League of Extraordinary Ladies

We’re happy for Chuck Wendig and sad for the passing of Roy Dotrice and Julian May. And we’re also debating whether side conversations are a good literary device.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING

Veronica - Rosé
Tom - Jet Lag - But check out these book-related pics from his recent trips!

IMG_0966.jpg

Baker Street Station

As seen in "The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter"

IMG_0965.jpg

Marylebone Station

As seen in "The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter"

IMG_1024.jpg

The Dakota 

As seen in "Time and Again"


    
QUICK BURNS
    
Mark: Invasive by Chuck Wendig is in development for a CBS tv show titled Unthinkable.
    
Danielle reminded us on October 19 that Just wanted to remind everyone Philip Pullman's La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust) released.    
    
Tassie Dave: Roy Dotrice, known here for his fantastic audiobook readings of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, has died at the age of 94. He was originally meant to play Grand Maester Pycelle in the TV series, but was too sick at the time. He did end up playing Hallyne the Pyromancer in 2 episodes of Season 2
 
William: The great Julian May sadly passed away on October the 17th 2017. Ms May was inducted into the the First Fandom Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention. Ms May was most famous as the author of the unique Intervention, Galactic Milieu Saga, and Saga of the Exiles sequence of books. Ms May also collaborated on the Trillium series with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton. 

On a personal note, her work moved me deeply and has led me to interests that, in a way, have shaped my life. I salute this deep thinking maestro of the very eloquent page. 
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
"Last few months I've been getting into several LitRPG books on Audible -- Most of these books kind of are both Sword AND Laser in nature. You have usually a fantasy environment viewed from the standpoint of some form of hyper-advanced VR players in an MMORPG game. Every series is different as you have different game rules, needs to logoff, interactions with the real world, uses of social media, flaws or hidden features in the game, etc. If you haven't looked at the genre , you might want to try.,..

(We've met before -- I attended your first Several DragonCon sessions)

Mark B."    
    
Science Fiction Horror Stories?
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
Next month: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Book Briefing    
    
"Wrap Up: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Hardcover
by Theodora Goss
"
    
Side Bar Conversations
    
The ending or the ending?
    
ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons, like Logan, Carmen and Gregory. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser
    
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

S&L Podcast - # 308 - A Decade of Us

That’s right, Sword and Laser has been picking and reading books for 10 years and we’re not even close to stopping. This week we discuss why you don’t need to travel to London to read Theodora Goss but it doesn’t hurt. And why we’re extra excited for Andy Weir’s Artemis.

Download directly here!

QUICK BURNS
    
Dara: Amazon is developing adaptations of Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family, Snow Crash, and Ringworld.
    
David: The British Fantasy Awards were announced

Ian: TRP wrote: "Neil Gaiman posted a picture from the TV adaptation of his and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch."

I realise where I have seen a picture like this. The back cover of Good Omens. 

Looks like they are channeling the authors (appropriately so). 
    
Travis: Two of the five books on the National Book Awards shortlist for fiction are speculative: Sing, Unburied, Sing is a ghost story (I loved it), and Her Body and Other Parties is both fairy tale and sci-fi.
    
Nick: Andy Weir's Artemis is getting the audiobook treatment, and Rosario Dawson--of Daredevil, Luke Cage and Sin City fame--will be doing the reading! The audiobook is scheduled to be released on Audible.com November 14th of this year.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Firstly, thank you for a wonderful podcast. I love looking forward to it.

You mentioned that George RR Martin won a Past Words award for illuminating history. I read Maurice Druon's ""The Accursed Kings"" (history based medieval western europe royalty struggles) after seeing somewhere that it's the real life version of Game of Thrones. I don't know if those books directly inspired it, but on the Amazon reviews there's a quote from Martin to that effect.

The Accursed Kings was written back in the 50's (and if I remember correctly, they were written in French). With the popularity of Game of Thrones, and the release dates on the books, readers searching for similar series to fill the time between GoT releases would be likely to stumble across Druon's work, hence reviving to some extent the historical saga that very few people would ever be curious enough to read/not likely to stumble over these particular monarchs in mainstream history books. Not a direct historical illumination, but kinda sorta related.

Have a wonderful week!
Mary
    
10 Years of S&L holy crap
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
October Book Pick: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Hardcover
by Theodora Goss

Book Briefing    

ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

Thanks to Ryan Kather, The Cutaways Podcast, Neal Cross
    
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks
 

S&L Podcast - #307 - Annihilation is the New Arrival

Good Omens looks good, Annihilation looks great, our last thoughts on Helliconia Spring, and why we’re reading about monsters in October.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: The Dalmore

Veronica: Some kind of Rosé (She doesn't know she tossed the bottle)

QUICK BURNS

TRP: Neil Gaiman posted a picture from the TV adaptation of his and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.

It features David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Crowley (the demon) and Aziraphale (the angel) respectively.
David Tennant seems to be channelling Bill Nighy(not the Science Guy)'s ageing rockstar character from the movie Still Crazy.

Silvana: just wait for the Expanse Origins Graphic Novel, published next year.
Tassie Dave: 4 of the 5 issues from the Expanse Origins graphic novel are available now. (Holden's, Naomi's, Alex's and Amos's origin stories) Only Detective Miller's story is new for the Book released in February 2018.

David: George R.R. Martin wins one of the inaugural PastWords awards from the Historical Writers of America
The Historical Writers of America will recognize seven artists whose work illuminates the past. The awardees include novelist Larry McMurtry; Larry’s son, songwriter James McMurtry; fantasy writer George R.R. Martin; nonfiction author Hampton Sides; and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, writer Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell, the creative team behind the three-volume graphic novel, March.

Mark: Ok Sword & Laserites, let's go out there and be nice!

Trike: Phil Lord & Chris Miller (Lego Movie, Jump St. Movies, 3/4 of the Han Solo movie) have been hired to direct the adaptation of Andy Weir's Artemis.

Brendan: Teaser trailer for #Annihilation starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac. In theatres 2.23.18.


BARE YOUR SWORD

Hello Veronica,
Hello Tom!

I'm on holiday with my family in Canada at the moment. As I was browsing the fantasy/science fiction section of a bookstore in Prince George, BC, I noticed Tom's book on one of the shelves!
Here's a pic. Well done, Tom!

Cheers,
Fiona

IMG_20170917_163148.jpg

 

Need a book club recommendation for modern, non-dystopian, upbeat Sci-Fi

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

October Book Pick: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Hardcover
by Theodora Goss

Book Briefing

WRAP UP

September Pick: Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

Welcome to Ingelin Naess, Theo Karner, Boyang Chen

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

Review us on iTunes!

feedback@swordandlaser.com

swordandlaser.com

goodreads.com

(415) 779-6736 or (415) 7SWORD6

S&L Podcast - # 305 - Major in Martin Studies

The Martin Studies International Network will help you study Westeros better, Scott Lynch gives hope for the next Locke Lamora book and sadly, we lose a great one in Jerry Pournelle,

Download here!

QUICK BURNS
    
Silvana: The Martin Studies International Network is launched! Yes, that Martin. I might join just for the heck of it. (and comments about The Winds of Winter in three....two....one....) 
    
Terpkristin: Dragon Awards for 2017 were announced over the weekend. 
Some books that I'm sure people around here liked. 
    
Andy: Scott Lynch updates the Helsinki Times on the status of The Thorn of Emberlain (via The Wertzone) Looks like we may get The Thorn of Emberlain in 2018 and the Scott Lynch lets us know some interesting details moving forward. Emberlain will be Locke and Jean's new base for a few books and we have a clue to the story. Enjoy. Click through to the Helsinki Times, it has a new photo of Scott with his magnificent beard"
    
Clyde: Jerry Pournelle has died. He is one of my favorite writers, and he will be missed.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Coinage of the Realm - cool words from SFF stories
    
What are the darkest sci-fi/ fantasy stories not including Dystopias and post apocalyptic stories?
    
Obama and The Witcher (Veronica sez "TIL!")
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
September Pick: Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss
Book briefing
    
From Dara: What about his brother, Ryan Alldat? (I hate myself)    😆
    
ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser .
    
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks,
 

S&L Podcast - #304 - Westeros for SciFi Fans

We say goodbye to Brian W. Aldiss by reading one of his books. We respect Terry Pratchett's Steamroller wishes. And why Hey Jude is not an anachronism. 

Download directly here!
    
QUICK BURNS
    
Nick: British SF author Brian Aldiss, author of the Helliconia Trilogy and Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (which became the film AI Artificial Intelligence), has died. Three of his books appear on the Gollancz Sci-fi Masterworks list.    

Iain: BBC Obituary for Brian Aldiss  
    
Nekroskop: Terry Pratchett's unfinished works got steamrollered.    
    
Aaron: San Diego (California) has decided to start a book festival.  
    
Silvana: Kameron Hurley offered to write the now-dead reboot of Xena: Warrior Princess. While I don't see any need to reboot this classic series, I'd love to see Kameron Hurley's take on it.
    
Veronica: Super-interesting article about buying your way onto the NYT best seller list.
   
Shad: The Oathbringer prologue is up on tor.com. Wasn't expecting the prologue to be that POV. Answers a few questions and poses quite a few more.
    
Genesee: Another trilogy in the Shades of Magic world by VE Schwab.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
On book reviews: Is Goodreads that bad?
    
Sword & Laser's 100 Books: The Stats
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
September Pick: Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss    
Book briefing
David: Adam Whitehead (of Wertzone) just posted an article about Helliconia, comparing it a bit to Game of Thrones
    
Wrap-up    
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
    
What's the deal with "Hey Jude"?
    
ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser
    
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks.  
 

S&L Podcast - #303 - Smooth Roberator

All the best books are being adapted into TV shows and movies including Good Omens, The City and the City, Dawn, and The Fifth Season! Plus we dive into the Gunslinger and talk mostly spoiler-free about fantasy westerns. And BONUS song about our Goodreads moderator, Rob.

Download directly here!
    
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: UCC Green Tea    
Veronica: Nothing :(
    
QUICK BURNS
    
Louie: The Hugo Awards have been announced. N K Jemisin takes the top prize for her novel, The Obelisk Gate. And The Expanse wins Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, for its Season 1 finale episode "Leviathan Wakes," written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, directed by Terry McDonough. 
    
Via N.K. Jemisin on Twitter: N.K. Jemisin’s ‘The Fifth Season’ Book To Be Developed As TV Series At TNT.
    
Jen: In case this hasn't been posted yet, nominees for the Dragon Awards.
    
Robert: Octavia Butler's Dawn is being adapted as a television series. Attached to co produce is Ava DuVerney, director of Selma, 13th, and the upcoming A Wrinkle in Time. Hopefully the adaptation is for the whole of the Lilith's Brood Trilogy.
    
Lauren: China Miéville's The City & the City is being adapted for BBC Two as a 4-part drama series, starring David Morrissey from The Walking Dead as Borlu and Mandeep Dhillon as Corwi. I'm really interested to see how they show the "borders" of the city (and the consequent "unseeing") on screen.
    
Robert: David Tennant and and Michael Sheen have been cast in the adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens a six part series produced by BBC and Amazon.
    
Shad: Tor.com will be putting the first 32 chapters of Oathbringer online starting with the prologue "To Weep" on August 22 and the first three chapters on August 29.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Hello Tom and Veronica,

I know you said you were done talking about butterscotch, but I have to send this in because I keep yelling at my speakers. Butterscotch does not contain scotch. There are a few theories about the origin of the word, but two more common ones are that it comes from ""score"" (to break the candy into pieces after it's done) or "scorch" (as the sugar has to be cooked). Recipes depend on whether you're making candies or sauce, but common ingredients are brown sugar, heavy cream, butter, and salt and vanilla for flavour. Here's a good article on the etymology and the difference between butterscotch and caramel, and here's the recipe for butterscotch sauce that I use, which is fantastic and unbelievably easy and will impress anyone you feed it to.

Also a few recommendations for local beers, while you're up in Canada. We have tons of smaller breweries around! Most of these are fairly easy to find in stores, and some will be on tap in some places:
-Parallel 49 makes a nice grapefruit radler called Tricycle, and they have a fab dark beer called Salty Scot, but it can be hard to find at this time of year.
-Bridge's Lemon Gin Saison is super refreshing
-Hoyne's Dark Matter is a really nice dark beer
-Dead Frog's Nut Brown is yummy and a little lighter than the Dark Matter

Erin

I should add: this is not saying that putting scotch in butterscotch would be wrong, as I'm sure it would be delicious. Just that it's not a required ingredient.

--- 
    
Misty, water-colored memories
   
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Book Briefing  
    
TGS: Llut
    
TGS: Other Fantasy Westerns?
    
What's your favorite Dark Tower connection to other Stephen King Novels? (Minor spoilers)
    
ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.
Welcome to Susanna, James Freeman, Jessica Alter, Stephen Crawford  
    
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks.
    
Stay tuned after the show for Tanya's rendition of Smooth Roberator!    

A license to read, forums to patrol
Guards all our threads with a sword for the troll
His eyes are like lasers but what he wants is control

No need to ask
He's a smooth Roberator
Smooth Roberator, smooth Roberator
Smooth Roberator

S&L Podcast - #301 - Long Days and Pleasant Nights

Hot Pie has a bakery! Ready Player One has a trailer! The Rook has a TV show! This episode has a final word on butterscotch! And the man in black has a gunslinger following him!

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Forgot.

Veronica: Driftwood Crooked Coast Altbier

QUICK BURNS

Trike: The most pleasant surprise is the Ready Player One trailer. I started a thread in the Movie/TV section, but here it is.

Trike: Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer is adapting another story from Ted Chiang's collection Stories of Your Life and Others for AMC: "Liking What You See: A Documentary."

David: The 2017 World Fantasy Award nominees have been announced.

Stephen: Do not know how serious this is, but Hot Pie has opened a bakery called, are you ready for this, " You Know Nothing Jon Dough "

David: And Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad wins this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award!

Robert: It looks like Daniel O'Malley's The Rook is coming to Starz. It is being Executive Produced by Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series. So of course her name is overshadowing the book's author.

Nokomis.FL: Rob Reid releasing excerpts for his upcoming book, After On.

BARE YOUR SWORD

I have to raise the name of David Eddings, I read these books in the 1980s. I found it very hard to buy new copies in Brighton uk . I manages to buy complete set on eBay and started reading, wow, the books are still great and I find it very strange that these books have not been made into a movie or to series. Please could you remind your followers about David Eddings. Would you consider a review of one of his books on your show.

Mike

---

The final word in BUTTERSCOTCH

Okay…

So this began when you guys were talking about adding whiskey to butter beer, which is like butterscotch soda (according to what Tom said, I’ve never had any) and my comment was simply goofing off about adding scotch to a drink that, should it be using authentic ingredients, would already have scotch, because butterscotch is traditionally made with scotch. So I called the redundant concoction Scotch Butterscotch.

This isn’t helping, is it?

Anyways. I think we can agree that butterscotch, because it’s made with scotch, is the better version of caramel.

JF Dubeau
(and yeah, don’t waste good scotch. Just use Johnny Walker Red.)

Book Box Subscriptions

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Gunslinger Patreon Book Briefing

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

Welcome to Chris Hyde, Jessica Crawford, Steve Coghlan and more!

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks.

S&L Podcast - #300 - Don't Pee in the Gene Pool

Hey kids, Nnedi Okorafor has an HBO show coming, EW and Tor have LOADS of book recommendations and we love the world created by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Download directly here!

QUICK BURNS

Allison: HBO has optioned Nnedi Okorafor’s World Fantasy Award-winning novel Who Fears Death to be a TV series with George R. R. Martin attached as executive producer. The novel is about a woman with magical abilities living in post-apocalyptic Sudan where light-skinned Nuru oppress darker-skinned Okeke people.

Silvana: So, according to EW, these are the 27 female authors who RULE scifi and fantasy. I can't even...Who are half these people? Who the heck is Rainbow Rowell? Apparently I was not aware of the genre rulers.
- AND Melanie added: Seems more like a list of 27 books not authors. Rainbow Rowell is a pretty famous realistic YA author who wrote ONE fantasy book as a spin off of one of her normal books. She does not belong in this list.

Stephen: Tor.com reviewers gives us "The Best Of 2017 So Far" list. Nice list, so take notes.

Stephen: Also, want to lend a hand transcribing Magical Manuscripts and rent a fissure into the underworld? It all possible.

BARE YOUR SWORD

A few things about KU.

A. It is a pay service.  10/month allows you to read as many KU titles as you can consume.
B. You can have up to 10 books in your library at a time.
C. The audio portions still cost full price.
D. Each KU author gets a pittance per page read.
E. There are a lot of books that would never get a wide distribution.  Some deservedly so.
F.  If you don't read several books a month, the $10 probably isn't worth it. I read 10/20 books a month and have a constantly full backlog and have not purchased a full price boom in months. At three to five dollars a book I am spending 10 bucks to consume 30 to 100 dollars worth of media.

There are however nuggets of gold among the dross. My favorite is Glynn Stewart.  He has 3 series and 2 stand alone books.  All of which are as good or better than traditionally published works. One series in particular that I recommend to S&L is Starship Mage.  A political action romp set in a universe where space travel is possible because of magic. It is epic fantasy political space opera at its finest.

There are of course other good KU authors and books, but a lot of them are mental floss and not like the high faluting books you generally pick.

-Joel

---

Scotch butterscotch is just butterscotch @swordandlaser . Butterscotch is essentially caramelized scotch, sugar and cream. ;) @jfdubeau

---

@Veronica @acedtect I am binge-listening to all of @swordandlaser -
This podcast makes me feel better about being me. #yaynerds #thankyou @epjwrites

---

That looks more like a bear romance novel cover @swordandlaser https://twitter.com/tamahome02000/status/885143125542481920/photo/1 @tamahome02000

@swordandlaser Also @librivox has tons of PD sci-fi/fantasy read by great narrators. Great stuff. @joeljadamson (or as I like to call him, Joel J, son of Adam)

http://www.librivox.org

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

LHoD kickoff!

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks.

S&L Podcast - #298 - Don't Get Eaten By a Bear

George R. R. Martin has even more money coming his way, public domain books clean up nice, we love the Locus Award winners, and why Veronica is not allowed to let a bear eat her.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Schilling Hard Cider: Rhubarb Lumberjack

Veronica: Bulleit Rye

QUICK BURNS

Trike: Syfy to adapt (ordered a pilot) George R.R. Martin's short story Nightflyers into a series. Seems like not a lot of material to support a series, since it's basically his version of Alien.

Silvana: Locus Award Winners
Have not read the novel winners (not really interested as I am one of the very few not impressed with Three-Body Problem) but I read the novelette winner (Alyssa Wong has a unique style) and plan to read the novella winner too.
Special mention to Kameron Hurley for best nonfiction work.

Iain: Just found the Standard E-Books, which are Project Gutenburg books that have been type set and cleaned up to make them easier to read.
I have found the Princess of Mars and Armageddon 2419 A.D. (aka Buck Rogers) and many other cool old SF and fantasy. This is a treasure trove of free books (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc...).

Nathaniel: Just seen this, a Foundation TV Series?
(( Skydance Television is closing a deal with the Asimov estate to try turning Foundation into a sprawling TV series.))

Call for submissions for science fiction and utopian imaginaries

BARE YOUR SWORD

Post-Science / Next Age Fantasy

I forgot to attach the photo! I entered my little guy in the costume parade as Baby Lem and I was his dragon wrangler 😊

Regarding Ep. 297 of @swordandlaser : how about scotch butterscotch? I know you eventually went there but...

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book kickoff!

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

Review us on iTunes!

feedback@swordandlaser.com

swordandlaser.com

goodreads.com

(415) 779-6736 or (415) 7SWORD6

S&L Podcast - #297 - Haint a Plot Hole if You Ask Me

New Game of Thrones Trailer! AHHHHH! Levar Burton reading stories on a new podcast! AHHHH! Haint plot hole in the Hum and the Shiver-- ahhhhh— maybe not that big a deal?

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Butterbeer

Veronica: Margs

QUICK BURNS

New Game of Thrones Trailer (Returns July 16)

David: Indra Das won the 2017 Lamba Literary Award for Best LGBT SF/F/Horror for his first novel, The Devourers. Full list of winners here.

Nokomis.FL: George R.R. Martin says he thinks incremental updates just make fans angry, and only completing "Winds of Winter" will satisfy them as he tries to deliver the next book.

Christos: Levar Burton is finally making Reading Rainbow for adults and it's free. In each weekly podcast he reads a popular short story in full adds sound effects for atmosphere and gives a little background on it. He said he's going to read Sci-fi and Fantasy short stories but also non genre stories. He only released one episode so far (Kin by Bruce McAllister) but it's great, can't wait to hear more, I never watched Reading Rainbow as a kid because I never heard of it until I was adult, but I am a fan of him.

Sandra and Jessica: The title of the third installment in Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series has been announced: Record of a Spaceborn Few. The release is slated for June 14, 2018.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Sci-fi with language contact?

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Vote for our July pick!

The Hum and the Shiver: A Novel of the Tufa by Alex Bledsoe

Patron book briefing

The Haint

Cover Art Travesty!

The Painting in the Cricket Library (Slightly Spoilery)

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

S&L Podcast - #295 - Don't put spiders on your head

The Hugo nominees are out and we love them all, we kick off the Hum and the Shiver with music, and a spider that looks like a sorting hat. 

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Lifeway Kefir

Veronica: Hirsch Small Batch Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

QUICK BURNS

terpkrisin: Hugo nominees are out, including some books S&L has read or authors and series that we've read.

Books include:
All the Birds in the Sky
A Closed and Common Orbit
Death's End
The Obelisk Gate

More interesting to me, I actually *know* one of the editors nominated. I'm very happy for a friend to be nominated. :)

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials 'Equel' Gets a Title, New Hero, and Excerpt

Stephen: They found a new spider, and it is called "The Sorting Hat Spider"!!!
And the scientific name has Harry Potter influence.

Aaron: This year's Geeks Doing Good campaign just went up (6 days). mong the swag is stuff for the Iron Druid Chronicles, The Kingkiller Chronicles, The Dresden Files, and a JoCo cruise ticket raffle.

BARE YOUR SWORD

What is the most dangerous city in fiction?

@swordandlaser @acedtect IIRC, generally it’s whiskey for American and Irish. Whisky for those others. My mnemonic? It’s booze: Americans and the Irish want more! via @BrentWeeks

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Hum and the Shiver: A Novel of the Tufa by Alex Bledsoe

Patron book briefing

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

Welcome to Peter Gee and El_Comutador

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

S&L Podcast - #294 - Live at BayCon with Whiskey!

We are excited about the winner of this year's Nebula, the finalists in the Locus awards, and so many TV shows coming from our favorite books. Plus, why Neil Gaiman will read a Cheesecake Factory Menu on stage. 

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Veronica and Tom (Thanks to Robert!): Michter's Limited Release Toasted Barrell Finish Bourbon

QUICK BURNS

Louie: The Nebula Award winners announced. Congrats to Charlie Jane Anders on winning the Best Novel award for All the Birds in the Sky.

Rob: Locus Finalists Announced

terpkristin: So, apparently GRRM has said that the HBO GoT spin-offs will NOT include Robert's Rebellion nor Dunk & Egg. I'm perplexed but intrigued as to what they will be.

Trike & Rob wrote: Recent S&L pick and popular video game series The Witcher is being made into a TV show by Netflix: With Andrzej Sapkowski as a consultant.

David: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff is coming to HBO, with Jordan Peele & JJ Abrams as executive producers. Magic and racism in '50s America (despite the name, it's not really a Lovecraftian novel). I think the book had some potential issues, but Peele's studio involvement makes me beyond excited.

Alex: Neil Gaiman agreed to read entire Cheesecake Factory menu, with a catch if $500,000 has been raised for a charity of his choice, which happens to be the United Nations Refugee Agency.

BARE YOUR SWORD

I'm on the literature division for Worldcon 75, held in Helsinki this year, and a huge fan of Sword and Laser. I wanted to let you know that I will be hosting book club meetups for Sword and Laser and Vaginal Fantasy as part of the Worldcon program. The meetups will be open to anyone attending the con and will be discussing the August picks for each club. I can't wait to meet all the fellow genre book fans from around the world! We haven't finalized the schedule yet so I can't tell you the days for the meetups but the con is from August 9th to 13th and it's going to be a fantastic lineup.

Kind regards
Liz Loikkanen

Live Audience questions!

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

June Book

The Hum and the Shiver: A Novel of the Tufa by Alex Bledsoe

May Book Wrap Up

The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Colin: Discussion seems to have dried up quite early for this book. Is that because so many of you had read it before this month?

Drew: I'm almost done (I have about 15% left) and I think I have figured out what has been bugging me.

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

Welcome to Larry Lein, Sean Sandulak, Gloria Renna.

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

S&L Podcast - #292 - Cozy Space Opera

We've got more of Game of Thrones TV coming, the Arthur C. Clarke Award nominees, and our thoughts on why The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is the opposite of epic in the best way possible.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Orange Juice with Mango

Veronica: Robert Hall 2015 Rose de Robles

QUICK BURNS

Silvana: Another TV series we can wait for: The Black Company

Danielle: Don't know if anyone has posted about this yet or not, but Persepolis Rising, book 7 of the Expanse has a release date of Dec 5, 2017 per Amazon. Just in time for Christmas. ^.^

David: The ceremony for the Parsec Awards for podcasts has been hosted by Dragon Con for a decade, but the organizers recently announced plans to begin holding a livestreamed virtual ceremony instead sometime in November (date TBA).

David: The Arthur C. Clarke Award nominees have been announced. The Clarke Award is given for the best science fiction novel published in the UK (judged by a panel).

Nokomis.FL: HBO has signed on four writers to begin development of four different Game of Thrones spinoffs

Conal and Nokomis.FL: Here’s What Andy Weir’s New Book ARTEMIS is All About (United States and Canada on November 14, 2017. )

BARE YOUR SWORD

First ever Lem

What are the coolest and most powerful handheld weapons in sci-fi and fantasy

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Long Way to a A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Opposite of Epic

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

Welcome to Jenna Woginrich, Tanya Dawn, Liz U

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks

Review us on iTunes!