S&L Podcast - #327 - Real Housewives of the Aegean

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Why we think Amazon may have been cribbing off us,  the reality TV connection to ancient Greece, and the raging 2X audiobook debate speeds along.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Maui Brewing Co. Big Swell

Veronica: Basil Hayden Bourbon

QUICK BURNS

AndrewP: Amazon just posted a list of '100 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime'. Lot's of good stuff on there and I must be representative of their market as I have read 75 of the 100.

Victoria: Not sure how serious this is, but apparently someone is trying to trademark 'Dragon Slayer' - there's an article from Cory Doctorow about it here. I want someone to write 'The Cocky Dragon Slayer' now.

Trike: SFF book sales have doubled since 2010

John (Taloni) John Scalzi has finished the followup to The Collapsing Empire called Consuming Fire

BARE YOUR SWORD

Hello Awesome People!

Listened to S&L this week, talking about 2x speed. Over the years, I went from 1 to 1.5 and now I listen to everything at 2x speed. This includes audio books. The only way I’m able to listen to podcasts and audio books at this speed is because I’ve adapted to it over the years. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything because I listen to my audio books when I’m walking as I am completely focused on what I’m listening to. By listening at 2x I’m able to blow through books, and it keeps me walking at a fast pace.

Here’s is a mostly complete list of books I read in 2017 (45 total)

I’m halfway through 2018 and am already at 30 books…

Have a great day!

Cheers
Stephen Schleicher from MajorSpoilers

From Jenna: Fellow listeners of @swordandlaser: are you really speeding up books and podcasts?! Why!? You're dying at the same time. Listen to the stories/words in the voice recording them. You're at a campfire. Voice, inflection, timing is art. rushing is for people who believe in heaven.

Chell on Patreon
Oh man listening to audiobook at normal speed RUINS them for me. I could never listen to them at normal speed. Narrators just read too slowly and it drives me insane. I can't focus on the words or enjoy them. I don't often go up to 2x (unless I am at a super exciting part and just want to hear what happens) but I tend to listen to it to things at 1.5x.

Kelvin on Patreon
I basically only listen to audio-books so does that mean I have to slow down. my card does a good job of telling me that! can't wait for tom's new Audio book. can we get a short section or chapter. . . I like to listen at the normal speed but can only listen at 1.5 max, 2.0 just seems garbage. I thought harpies were the bird women and sirens were like mermaids. I agree with TOM eg spoiler alert and Veronica's singing was great. wonderful show as usal.

Help me find a book from my childhood?

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Circe by Madeline Miller

Book Briefing

Circe: The Real Housewives of the Aegean

Circe Readers Questions

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 - #326 - Slow Down, Readers!

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A database of all the stories, Stranger Things enters the tie-in book world, a debate about speed-listening, and what Veronica REALLY thinks about Zeus.

Download directly here.

WHAT WERE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Strongbow Cider

Veronica: Una Lou Rosé

QUICK BURNS

Stranger Things Is Launching a Book Franchise, including a Prequel About Eleven's Mom

Jessica: The FIREFLY crew returns in a brand new book series “Titan Books and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products have teamed up to publish a new series of official titles within the Firefly canon, with Joss Whedon serving as consulting editor” The first book, Firefly: Big Damn Hero, by Nancy Holder hits shelves in October

Dara: Not SFF-related but the outcome of this could have genre-wide impacts. For anyone not following along, the romance world has been in disarray because an author trademarked the word "cocky" and now using it as a cudgel against her fellow authors, threatening them with lawsuits and forcing them to change their book titles. The EFF has a rundown of events.

Can you imagine if someone trademarked "galaxy" or "space station" or "sword"? The outcome of this case will have far-reaching ramifications.

Meghan: Mortal Engines is getting the big screen treatment by Peter Jackson. 
Didn't see it on the S&L Bookshelf but it has been discussed a couple of times as a SF rec

Tomp: Fantasy Author Brandon Sanderson Teams With FremantleMedia North America To Develop TV Drama Series.

Mer: I attended a presentation by Dr. David Brin -part of a series of science lectures hosted by the Museum of Science Fiction in the District of Columbia area- and he mentioned a database he's founded (in conjunction with The Arthur C Clarke Center for Human Imagination at University of California at San Diego) where science fiction plots are stored in a database. The intent is businesses/organizations/scientists don't have to reinvent the wheel; use the database to look for similar ideas by authors / screenwriters, and then use the already existing research to inform their work.

Folks like us can provide references to authors / screenwriters / stories for questions that have been asked.

The database and website is here TASAT: There's A Story About That.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Audiobook speed read

Kindle (and other ebooks!) Daily Deal

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Circe by Madeline Miller

Book Briefing

Circe: spoiled by mythology?

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 - #325 - Mythology Ideology

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We're very excited about the Expanse coming back and Gail Carriger's plans and that the "What are we drinking" segment got a good review! Plus the different takes on mythology from our two latest book picks.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Baron de Lustrac, Armagnac Limited edition

Veronica: Bulleit

QUICK BURNS

Silvana: Congratulations to Nebula Award winners:

No surprise for both novel and novella categories. I just read the short story winner and I love it!

John (Taloni): Gail Carriger's "How To Marry A Werewolf" is now out. This is one of a series of novella's Gail is putting out herself. They are all set in the timeframe of the Parasol Protectorate books and feature secondary characters from those work

Nokomis.FL: Was surprised to see that Dennis E. Taylor, who wrote We Are Legion, We Are Bob (The Bobiverse), has a new book coming out in June 5 called The Singularity Trap. Surprised also to only see it listed as an Audible audiobook, no Kindle or dead tree version listed. Usually it's the other way around. Anyway, it's a new series, which is good though I would have preferred a sequel to Outland, his first book in the World Line series. Edit: Now I know that 'Audible Exclusive' really is exclusive, not just to the format.

Dara: George R. R. Martin's short story The Ice Dragon is getting adapted into an animated film

Scott: Jonathan Maberry's book 'V-Wars' is getting a Netflix adaptation series starring CW's The Vampire Diaries - Ian Somerhalder

Silvana: It is done deal, The Expanse has been saved.
The recent fans campaign has truly been awesome and I am glad it paid off. Here's to six more seasons! 🥂

ALSO from Nokomis.FL: The team of James S.A. Corey are writing a new space opera trilogy.

Silvana: RIP Gardner Dozois
I only started reading short fiction and anthologies a few years ago but I am already feeling the loss.

Kenley: Shout out for S&L in Library Journal, the most trusted and respected publication for the library community. The article is about podcasts in general and includes a plug in the section on fantasy and scifi. I've included the entire section here because it may be of interest too (second paragraph is on S&L).

Sword & Laser is a long-running literary sf/f podcast hosted by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt. They not only highlight current reading picks but also present a very active companion discussion forum on Goodreads and run an ongoing sf/f book club alternating between the two genres. (Belmont also cohosts the Vaginal Fantasy book club with Felicia Day featuring romance novels by female authors.) Bonus: learn what the hosts are drinking each episode.

BARE YOUR SWORD

 

Lindskold, author of The Firekeeper Saga: "One of the projects I’ve been working on over these past many months is putting together new editions of the Firekeeper e-books. Through Wolf’s Eyes; Wolf’s Head, Wolf’s Heart; The Dragon of Despair; Wolf Captured; Wolf Hunting, and Wolf’s Blood are all now available in new editions for both mobi and epub formats from Amazon/Kindle; Nook; Kobo; i-Tunes, and GooglePlay."

Digital public libraries

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Circe by Madeline Miller

Book Briefing

Reading Glasses Circe Live Stream: Join Brea and Mallory as they discuss Madeline Miller's Circe LIVE! Ask questions and join the discussion! June 5 from 6pm to 7pm PST.

WRAP UP

Night's Master (Tales from the Flat Earth) by Tanith Lee

ADDENDUMS

Tom needs your preorders! He's 75% of the way to having a sequel to Pilot X funded with just two weeks left to fund. So take a look and preorder a book!

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 - #323 - Demon Mythology

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So many awards! Locus, Scribe, Parsec, oh my! Plus why we think maybe it's OK to read the 21 books you shouldn't read, and we kick off Tanith Lee's amazing Night's Master.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: H20

Veronica: ZIPFIZZ

QUICK BURNS

Mark: Sword and Laser has been nominated for a 2018 Parsec Award in the General fan or news podcast category. The Supremes previously won a 2014 Parsec in this category, but this time, the podcast is authored by Erotica Belmont and Tom Merritt. The things we learn by following S+L on the twitters!!!

Emily: There’s a gofundme (started by Mary Robinette Kowal) to help Rivers Solomon get to the Hugos. It’s made just over a third of its goal and apparently anything extra will go to helping other Hugo finalists. It seemed worth mentioning since Rivers Solomon is the author of recent group pick, An Unkindness of Ghosts, and supporting authors is always nice.

Mark: More awards, the 2018 Scribe Awards nominees. These are media tie-in creations and tend to fall under our radar. So much so that I couldn't find any official announcement. Here's the list from one of the nominated authors. Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files, Planet of the Apes, Predator, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Librarians, Supernatural and more...

Mark: 2018 Locus Awards finalists announced A boatload of familiar authors and titles. Very difficult to pick winners! Two S+L picks are up for best first novel! The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter and An Unkindness of Ghosts.

TRP: Not seen this elsewhere in this group so apologies if this is old news.
The BBC are filming an Edwardian (i.e. original period) set version of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. It stars Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark) and Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) with Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, Once Upon A Time) and Rupert Graves (Sherlock)

Dara: FIRE & BLOOD, the history of the Targaryens, will be releasing in hardcover on November 20, straight from the man himself:

However: Nokomis.FL also notes Winter is not coming this year.

BARE YOUR SWORD

First off, thanks to John Taloni and Tanya for that awesome rendition of We are the Bob (We are the Legion) that you heard at the end of last week's episode! Go check it out in case you missed it. If you lived in a Sci-fi/ fantasy world would you still be into nerdy fiction?

21 Books You Don't Have To Read

@careyt says: have you guys seen this new bundle?

@GeekyAwesomeJen says: I went to a pottery painting place and painted a Lem!

 

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Night's Master (Tales from the Flat Earth) by Tanith Lee

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

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 - #322 - Analysis Paralysis

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Have you ever walked into a book store and just froze? Us too. We'll talk you through it. Plus we announced the May book pick and Tanith Lee fans will be happy! Because it's by Tanith Lee! Also the wrap-up for We Are Legion (We are Bob).

Download directly here!
    
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Water    
Veronica: Flying Fish IPA    
    
QUICK BURNS
    
Tomp: It seems some helpful people have asked another bunch of helpful people about the Wheel of Time series on the Amazon chat service and they got a mixed result but most of the answers was that Yes it's on the way. Check out the four chats on wheeloftime.tv    
    
The Fall of Gondolin will be the second “new” Tolkien work to be released in two years, following the release of Beren and Lúthien in May 2017. Edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher Tolkien, and illustrated by The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings artist Alan Lee.  
    
Netflix confirmed that its adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher books will be 8 episodes long and shot primarily in Poland. 
    
Mark: 11 books Elon Musk thinks everyone should read. The list includes several science fiction and fantasy classics, plus non-fiction on artificial intelligence and more. 

And as John (Nevets) pointed out they are just books Musk has mentioned in previous interviews, not a list Musk compiled as a recommendation.  
    
Amazon is developing a TV show based on William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’. Scott B. Smith is writing and and Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are signed on as executive producers. The Peripheral takes place in two different futures, connected through a virtual reality game. One is relatively close to our present, the other is several decades further along, after society has collapsed.
Keith says: "The track record for bringing Gibson to the screen, big or small, isn't exactly sterling (or Bruce Sterling)""
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
The Martian is a prequel to The Expanse
    
Analysis Paralysis
       
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
Next Month:     
Night's Master (Tales from the Flat Earth) by Tanith Lee

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
    
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.
    
We Are the Bob (We Are the Legion)
Words by John (Taloni)
Music by Tanya
    
    

S&L Podcast - #321 - What is Camp? Baby Don't Yurt Me

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We are SO excited to be nominated for the Hugos! Thank you! Also the return of the Expanse and why Amazon will spend $1 billion on a Middle Earth show.

Direct download here.

QUICK BURNS
    
Stephen: Hugo Finalists are announced and Sword and Laser made the Best Fancast List. Congrats Tom and Veronica.
    
Mark: The Philip K. Dick Award was handed out last night at Norwescon to Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn.After the Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun was the winner of the 2018 Special Citation PKD Award."    
    
Joseph: Another potential TV adaptation incoming: (Neil Gaiman doing an adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels.) I liked the BBC adaptation from 2000 or so, but would be happy to see another take on it."    
    
Louie: Book EIGHT of The Expanse has a cover and release date.  Also, was the title already known? Cause that was news to me.  Tiamat's Wrath will be released on DECEMBER 4th! " 
    
Iain: Foundation may be coming to Apple ....    
    
Tomp: According to "The Hollywood Reporter" the Lord of the Rings tv-series will be a five season series (by Amazon streaming) set prior to the events in the Lord of the Rings books/movies. The production must start within 2 years. The rights were bought for $250 million. The production costs may exceed $ 1 billion. That would make it the most expensive series ever made.

There are also rumors about Amazon concerning The Dark Tower (King) and Wheel of Time (Jordan).  Those series are unverified as of now but would also probably have a big budget as Amazon tries to get a whole new gang of subscribers to their streaming service.

If you do the math you can understand why Amazon tries to take a big bite of the streaming cake that also is fought over by Disney and Netflix (and others). 20 million new subscribers with a monthly fee of $10 would generate $3.6 billion of Revenue every year. That would surely pay for those 3 series. " 
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Hi Veronica, I'm chiming in again to mention we just released Discworld Reading Order Guide 3.0 - the final version of the Guide due to Pratchett's passing and no books on the horizon - Krzysztof.
    
Embarrassed - 100 Books I Haven't Read (or heard of!)
    
Secret Codes in Library Books
    
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
Book Briefing    
    
WALWAB: Sentient ships
    
WALWAB: What would your VR space look like?
    
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 - #320 - We are Sword (We are Laser)

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The March tournament was so much fun, and in the end we'll read We Are Legion (We Are Bob) which is an appropriately fun book. We also talk about other podcasts that are cool to listen to (in ADDITION to this one, heh) plus our last thoughts on the beautiful complexity of An Unkindness of Ghosts.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Antinori Pian Delle Vigne Brunello Di Montalcino 2010

Veronica: A to Z 2014 Pinot noir from Oregon

I was gonna save this for Bare Your Sword, but I think it's much more appropriate for What Are We Drinking. Over on Twitter, Alex posted:

 

QUICK BURNS

Handmaid's Tale returns April 25 - New trailer out

Trailers and airdate for the BBC's TV adaptation of China Mieville's THE CITY AND THE CITY - begins on Friday 6 April on BBC2 in the UK.

Mark: Nominees for the 2018 Audie Awards (for audio books published in 2017) are up and the list has many categories. There is one S+L pick and several authors of past picks.

Fantasy
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
(Also Catherynne M. Valente is nominated for The Refrigerator Monologues)

SF
Provenance by Ann Leckie
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
and Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is also nominated in the Fantasy category, so why can't he get a break during S+L March Madness?

John (Nevets): I guess it is not a sure thing yet, but it looks like Amazon is trying to make The Three-Body Problem trilogy into a big budget TV series.

Could be interesting, but with the Chinese roots so ingrained in this franchise, I really hope they treat it right, instead of just making a cool movie off of a hot book. I guess I'm saying I hope it is more "Black Panther", or "House of the Flying Daggers" then "Ghost in the Shell."

Edit, sort of: I actually meant to put "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" instead of "House of the Flying Daggers", but on doing a quick refresher of the production on each, I sort of think I like the "House of the Flying Daggers" reference better, It was more fully Chinese produced, then CTHD

BARE YOUR SWORD

Lauren (Posted this in Quick Burns. It's not news so really doesn't belong there but it is interesting) Nisi Shawl wrote a "Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction"

It's from 2016, and I couldn't find it in past Quick Burns threads, but I just discovered it and thought it was a great resource for folks who are looking for inspiration for more diverse authors to read. There are plenty of books on here I've never heard of, and a whole bunch of these went immediately to my TBR list.

Changing tastes in author

Other book podcasts

Speaking of other podcasts, I wanted to take a moment to play a trailer for a podcast called Flash Forward. Check it out!

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

Book Briefing

Wrap Up

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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 - #319 - An Unkindness of Blurbs

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More Pratchett TV coming, and more Rothfuss books?  Plus more deep discussion about an Unkindness of Ghosts, including why blurbs may lead you astray.        

Download directly here.
        
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?        
Tom: Water        
Veronica: Homemade Whiskey Blend        
        
QUICK BURNS
        
Michele: The BBC announced it's picked up a six-part Discworld series. Deadline says it goes under the working title The Watch. The production company founded by author Terry Pratchett, Narrativia is co-producing and Simon Allen (Das Boot, The Musketeers) may write. The Watch is supposedly a procedural crime series set in Discworld's main city of Ankh-Morpock.  
https://io9.gizmodo.com/terry-pratchetts-discworld-is-finally-being-turned-into-1823424350    
        
Shad: Tor.com has a story where Patrick Rothfuss said that the Kingkiller Chronicles are a prologue to another set of books. No word on a release date for the end of the prologue, aka Doors of Stone.    
https://www.tor.com/2018/03/07/patrick-rothfuss-kingkiller-chronicle-prologue-the-doors-of-stone-book-3/    
        
Mark: Mark  First teaser trailer for Christoper Robin, a live-action Pooh tale from Disney.
https://nerdist.com/christopher-robin-teaser-ewan-mcgregor-winnie-pooh/    
also: A noir tale of Pooh told in tweets by Lavie Tidhar  https://twitter.com/lavietidhar/status/971164407270125568    
        
Julie: A new (8-part) adaptation of ‘His Dark Materials’ is in the works, according to Deadline. To be directed by Tom Hooper and to star Dafne Keen (from ‘Logan’) as Lyra. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda has been cast as Lee Scoresby. 
http://deadline.com/2018/03/the-kings-speech-director-tom-hooper-logan-star-sign-up-for-his-dark-materials-adaptation-1202319285/    
        
Silvana: Cover reveal and excerpt from Robert Jackson Bennett's new fantasy series: 
I really love his Divine Cities trilogy and it seems that the new series will be set (again) in urban areas (yay) and now instead of gods, we'll have industrialized magic (kewl). Release
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2018/03/new-series-from-robert-jackson-bennett-cover-reveal-and-excerpt/?cdi=4810E6D0B64805A9E0534FD66B0AA956&ref=PRH2028E2388CC9    

Terpkristin: Tad Williams has setup a crowdfunding campaign to make merch related to his books/series. Perks include a new short story, pins, shirts...     
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tad-williams-is-making-merch-entertainment    
        
BARE YOUR SWORD
        
Any @vaginalfantasy or @swordandlaser fans planning on attending @Dublin2019? Hoping to host another Worldcon meetup!    @liz_loves_lit    
        
30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced Interesting list, and one is @swordandlaser book of the month.    Silvana @silvaubrey    
https://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/news/03/06/lambda-literary-award-finalists/        
        
Fascinating discussion from @katemosse on Frankenstein ; or, The Modern Prometheus and influence over 200 years. Good to continue after reading it with @swordandlaser in January. #DubaiLitFest #frankenstein200 https://twitter.com/cferstat/status/969511974022402053/photo/1    Cameron @cferstat    
        
Solarpunk    
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19194883-solarpunk    
        
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION        
        
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
https://www.amazon.com/Unkindness-Ghosts-Rivers-Solomon/dp/1617755885/?tag=theswoandlas-20    

Book Briefing
https://www.patreon.com/posts/17203664    
      
AUoG: How much does the Blurb matter?    
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19247415-auog-how-much-does-the-blurb-matter-no-spoilers-please    
        
AUoG: spoilers, triggers and other warnings    
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19250076-auog-spoilers-triggers-and-other-warnings    

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    http://swordandlaser.com/picks/    
        
        

S&L Podcast - #318 - I Wanna Know What Love Is

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Tom tries to convince Veronica to fight hate, but A Wrinkle In Time has her questioning love's power.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Hudson Four Grain Whiskey

Veronica: Bulleit Rye

QUICK BURNS

David: Nebula Award Nominees announced!

Lots of GREAT nominees, among both the novels and the shorter works!

Also Hugo nominations are still open I assume...

Kenley: Amazon is developing a series based on Iain M. Banks’ sci-fi novel Consider Phlebas

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Amazon has acquired the rights to another huge book: Consider Phlebas, the first installment of Iain M. Banks’s space opera Culture series. THR reports that Amazon will partner with British screenwriter Dennis Kelly (who created the critically acclaimed Channel 4 series Utopia), and that should the scripts for the series work out, it will order it directly to a series.

Silvana: Just in case you missed the last weekend's uproar about Terry Goodkind. Not cool, man. I see some other authors have commented about it in Twitter. Looks like both PR and professional disaster to me.

Tomp: It's interesting to see the POV breakdown on nationalities, gender, occupations and Ajahs.
It's also weird to see the word-count-outlier-chapter in "A memory of Light" (book 14). The outlier chapter is "The last battle" with a word count of more than 80,000 words.
Avoid reading the comments at the bottom if you want to avoid spoilers.

Iain: Tor reports new Richard K. Morgan book coming: Thin Air.

John (Taloni): Cover reveal and blurb for upcoming Gail Carriger "Custard Protocol" book Competence at her site. Accidentally abandoned!

All alone in Singapore, proper Miss Primrose Tunstell must steal helium to save her airship, the Spotted Custard, in a scheme involving a lovesick werecat and a fake fish tail."

Scott: Forgive me if someone posted this before, but the sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson will be released Oct. 30th, titled The Monster Baru Cormorant. He gives an interview here.

BARE YOUR SWORD

SWORD BRACKET
1 The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
2 Soulless by Gail Carriger
3 Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
4 Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
5 Jade City by Fonda Lee
6 Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
7 The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
8 All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

LASER BRACKET
1 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
2 Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
3 Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
4 Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
5 House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds
6 The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
7 Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
8 The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and other stories by Vandana Singh

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Book Briefing

WRAP UP

February Book: A Wrinkle In Time

AWIT: Charles Wallace

AWIT: Warm Blanket

AWIT: The Ending (Spoilers, Obviously)

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 Anna Parikka, Travis Falstad, and Jim Bell

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 - #317 - Crew Goals

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Hey the Hugo nominations are open and you can vote for us! Also Firefly is coming back as books. And the Hugo nominations are open and you can vote for us. Plus StoryBundle has an awesome set of books called Black Narratives! And the Hugo nominations are open and you can vote for us. Oh and the Locus Awards are open for voting. That one... you can't vote for us. But you can vote for us in the Hugos.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Gainey Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2015    
Veronica: Syrah    
    
QUICK BURNS
    
John (Nevets)
It looks like Hugo Nominations are open, both for last year's works, and for 1942 works. They are calling it the "1943 Retrospective Hugo Awards", but that's like how they call this years the 2018 Hugo awards for 2017 works. If you are eligible to nominate, you have until March 16th to get those in, so that should hopefully be plenty of time to think on it.

Stephen: You can nominate The Sword and Laser podcast in the best Fancast section. There is a need to double the amount of nominated votes from last year to become a finalist. WorldCon 76 is being held in San Jose, Ca. You need to be a supporting member or have gone to Worldcon 75 to be involved     
    
Silvana: Locus Award's ballot is out and non-subscribers can vote too. 

Voting is open until April 15, 2018. 

Jenny: StoryBundle is offering a Black Narratives Bundle that has some great stuff, including one previous S&L read and another by the same author. The initial titles in the Black Narratives Bundle (minimum $5 to purchase) are:

To Raise a Clenched Fist to the Sky: The Panther Chronicles, Book One by T. Thorn Coyle
Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson
Angelborn by L. Penelope
Echo by Alicia Wright Brewster

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular titles, plus SEVEN more!

Lion’s Blood: InSha’allah Series Book One by Steven Barnes
Blades Of Illusion: Crown Service #2 by Terah Edun
To Wrest Our Bodies from the Fire: The Panther Chronicles, Book Two by T. Thorn Coyle
Kabu-Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor
The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
Black Borne by L.L. Farmer
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

Even though I've already read The Salt Roads and Redemption in Indigo, I went for this one! "    https://storybundle.com/blacknarratives
    
April: Tomi Adeyemi's book "Children of Blood and Bone" is coming out 3/6, and it looks amazing. This video of her opening her copy is fantastic:


    
Tassie Dave: Titan Books is releasing 3 Firefly novels. Starring our loveable bunch of rogues and browncoats. These will be the first books written for the franchise with original storylines. 

The first will be released in October, 2018 with 2 more scheduled for release next year (March and October 2019) 

The novels will be written by Nancy Holder, who has written over a dozen Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in novels; Age of Heroes author James Lovegrove; and Tim Lebbon, who has written the movie novelizations for 30 Days of Night and The Cabin in the Woods, as well as tie-in fiction for the Star Wars, Alien, and Predator franchises. Joss Whedon will serve as consulting editor.     

Tamahome: Firefly novels coming to the 'verse    

Mark: My Own Kind of Freedom: A Firefly Novel by Steven Brust was written on spec and submitted for consideration as an official Firefly novel, but was rejected. Brust released it as an ebook which you can download in epub/mobi/pdf formats at http://dreamcafe.com/firefly.html

Matthew: So happy to see R.A. Salvatore announced more Drizzt books (who didn’t see that coming lol). It’s a brand new trilogy starting with a book called Timeless on Sept 18th. I’m a few books behind but will easily catch up before the new one comes out. Also this year is the 30th anniversary of the The Crystal Shard.    
    
Colin: Orbit announces the publication of original Culture drawings from the Estate of Iain M. Banks. Sounds like something that some of us would be interested in.  
    
TRP:  here's a link to a story about the HBO version of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 
It's a film starring Michael B. Jordan, Sofia Boutella, and Michael Shannon which is due to air on HBO in the spring of this year.
Here's another link to the teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzAwg9gj9vc
    
Tom's book Pavaria is on Audible now, read by Tom!
    
March Madness nominations continue
    
BARE YOUR SWORD

Science Fiction Art Prints    
    
Spaceship + Crew generator    
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
February Book: A Wrinkle In Time
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
    
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 - #316 - Why'd Ya Do It, Ernie?

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We share our memories and thoughts on the passing of Ursula K. Leguin. We also talk about how silly it is to think anybody but George R. R. Martin truly knows the release date for Winds of Winter, and discover the true villain of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Air

Veronica: Temptation 2013 Zinfandel

QUICK BURNS

RIP Ursula K. Leguin

Nokomis.FL - Winds of Winter is coming......September 6th. ? The story came from The Strand bookstore's website on NYC. Several other sites reported the same story, i.e

Trike: The next project by Dennis Villeneuve, director of the superb Arrival and better-than-expected Bladerunner 2049, is going to be a new adaptation of Dune. He says his goal is “Star Wars for adults.”

BTW, if you haven’t seen the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, I highly recommend it. That guy was a crazy person, and the influence of that failed project was felt in most of the sci-fi movies released in the 1970s and 80s, including Star Wars.

Darren: Anyone else pick up that Google are now doing audiobooks. There's no subscription option like Audible which Google are touting as a good thing (personally I get quite excited when the credits turn up), and there's no whisper-sync which I don't use much myself but I know others do.

I'm sure the ongoing conflict between Amazon and Google is going to play into this at some point, just as long as they don't start pulling apps from each others services then having another option out there can only be a good thing (surely?).

Not bought anything from them yet so no idea what the service, quality, usability is going to be like.

Anyway, it's 50% off your first purchase until Feb 26th.

Mary: Yay! It looks like MaddAddam could be back on! (And yes, I call these Sci Fi even though Ms Atwood doesn’t like the term.)

BARE YOUR SWORD

S&L BOOK CHALLENGE

Rob was sad because we didn't mention the challenge last time. You have to create new shelves that feed into your challenge totals -- we're competing to see who can get to 10,000 Sword OR Laser books first! (Veronica named hers sl-laser and sl-sword respectively).

From Sean Lookielook (the Rob and Tassie Dave of Vaginal Fantasy, btw): "When you join the challenge you make a separate bookshelf for that challenge. Just name it "2018 sword challenge" or whatever. It doesn't matter what it's called; it's just for your reference. Only books that are on that shelf AND have been marked as "read" (i.e. they are on your "read" bookshelf with a "date read" set in 2018) count toward the challenge."

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

February Book: A Wrinkle In Time

Book Briefing

Final Words on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

FOTMP (1818) part 3 chapter 4

Veronica has problems with this chapter too, also this story is basically Doomsday Book at this point (everyone is dead).

FOTMP: Why'd Ya Do It, Ernie? (Whole book 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

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 - #315 - Philip K Dick Move

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Goodbye Shannara, hello The Blade Itself TV show? Also Moby Dick and Philip K Dick have different problems, and what the monster in Frankenstein might truly represent.

Download directly here.
    
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Fantasy Scotch  
Veronica: Fantasy Bailey's    
    
QUICK BURNS
    
Thane: Viacom cancels Shannara TV show
    
David: Rumour that The Blade Itself is being made for TV/Film.
    
Trike: The adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Nightflyers is coming to Syfy in the US and Netflix everywhere else.
    
Dara: HBO confirms you won't be getting your Game Of Thrones finale this year
Best comment: "Man, who's writing this final season? George RR Martin?"
Best response: "Low hanging fruit."
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
"Hi, Tom and Veronica.  Love your show, which I found by looking through
the long list of last year's Hugo nominations for other worthy podcasts
to listen to.

In your podcast #314, you speculated on the opening of Frankenstein
being influenced by Moby Dick. That seems really unlikely, unless Mary
Shelley had a time machine, since Moby Dick wasn't published until
1851.  Nice try, though.

Dave W"    
    
Philip K Dick accuses Stanislaw Lem of Communist conspiracy
"He [Lem] was “probably a composite committee rather than an individual.” Dick's evidence for this denouncement was that “[Lem] writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not.” And the conspiracy spread further still: “The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction.”    
    
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Book Briefing
    
This was different than what I expected
"I was mostly surprised as to how quickly the actual experiment was over. It felt like "And then everything worked and holy sh*t, what a monster, f*ck it, dude, I'm outta here". I was prepared for a detailed description and a lot of building up what I thought was one of the most important scenes of the book and then it was over so fast."    
    
Oh My Goth!
    
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 - #314 - Not-So-Young Frankenstein

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It's a whole new year of books, and we have some suggestions! Plus the science behind Westeros and the amazing 200-year-old Mary Shelley.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Tea

Veronica: Coconut Water

QUICK BURNS

24 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Add to Your January Reading List

The Wertzone: New Steven Erikson book and interview

The University of Bristol used a climate model to simulate Westeros. 

BARE YOUR SWORD

Favourite S&L Books of 2017

Christmas Day with the Supremes and Tech's Message

Harry Potter by predictive keyboard....

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Book Briefing

The Wertzone: Science Fiction just turned 200

Which edition?

Changes between 1818 and 1831 version

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 - #313 - No Bones To Pick

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Ready Player One may have a sequel, The Witcher TV show has a show runner, and we have no bones to pick with California Bones.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Beckmen Vineyards Cuvee Le Bec 2015

Veronica: The Yankee (Bourbon...) The Agricol (Rum, Lime, Ginger)

QUICK BURNS

Trike: Disney purchased most of 20th Century Fox.

Disney announced its agreement to acquire most of 20th Century Fox including its movie studios, regional sports networks, cable channels and production arms. A new company called Fox will spin out on its own containing Fox broadcasting stations, national sports and Fox News. Disney will assume controlling ownership of Hulu with minority stakes owned by Comcast and Time Warner. Disney expects the acquisition to take 12-18 months to close.

Dara: Ernest Cline is writing a sequel to Ready Player One. Gotta milk that cash cow I suppose

Louie: Netflix's The Witcher series finds its showrunner and executive producer in Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who has previously written and executive produced for Netflix's Daredevil, and The Defenders, and Starz’s Power.

Nokomis.FL: Here are the most listened-to titles on Audible in 2017

Trike: Ian McKellen says he'd play Gandalf for Amazon's show if asked.

David: For the fans of S&L pick The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, they've revealed the cover for the sequel, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman.

Mark: Coming to Netflix The Frankenstein Chronicles is a reimagining of Mary Shelley's classic novel, Frankenstein.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Killing Your Protagonists is Overrated

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

Next Month: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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 - #312 - Eating Bones for Fun and Magic

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Some authors drop by and lend some insight on Goodread's book giveaway charging, we’re excited from some Old Man’s War movie action on Netflix, and why eatin’ bones is fun.

Download directly here
    
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Angry Orchard    
Veronica: SomeWine    
    
QUICK BURNS
     
Rob: Goodreads is going to start charging publishers and author for giveaways. Boo.    
To which Clyde wrote "Sigh. That is yet another gatekeeper tax. I suppose some bean counter had a bright idea.
I reckon the result will be that most giveaway activity moves to FB, G+, etc. with links to the writer's/publisher's pages. "    
And then Robin Hobb casually sauntered in and wrote "Bingo. I think it's likely that individual writers will do their own giveaways via their own websites/facebooks, etc. It only makes sense to build your following that way. If I pay Goodreads to give away my books, then I'm paying Goodreads to drive more traffic to them. Publishers may pay the fee just to keep their lives simple.It's like the old tale of the Tar Baby. The deeper you get into these things, the harder it is to pry yourself out.

After which Mark Lawrence popped his head in and spake thus "Even publishers may fall back on their own websites using their social media and that of the authors to drive readers to giveaways. I would suggest that and say spend the money saved on a Facebook advert or something similar."

Which made Stephen say "Wow, two of my favorite authors read S&L's Quick Burns ! Okay I will spend a day liking all the Publishing Houses on Facebook, follow them on Twitter ( Most I do on Twitter already) , but is there anything else besides giving Goodreads some grief?"    
    
Louie: First trailer for Netflix adaptation of Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon
    
Iain: 2017 best of lists are starting up. The UK Guardian's list is out. Some good books in the list.   
Scott: Adding to the 2017 book lists, here's the one from npr

Ruth: 
see comment history On the “best of 2017” topic, Is anyone else feeling deeply unimpressed that the Goodreads award for best fantasy book has gone to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay ie a screenplay not an actual fantasy novel?    
    
Lauren: This week, I discovered two neat digital projects involving old science fiction fanzines! 
First is a project from the University of Iowa where they have scanned the library's collection of old sci-fi fanzines. They are doing a crowdsourced project to transcribe the content of the fanzines, so if you feel like contributing, there's an opportunity! They have a tumblr where they report out some of the neat things that they find:  
AND
The Speculative Wonderverse
This is a digitization project for the Bob Gibson sci-fi fanzine archive with content going back to the 1840s. They have a tagging system so you can find stories and other content based on various themes. There's also a weird symbols system that Bob Gibson used for labeling the stories but didn't leave a key for, so you can try to solve the mystery. 
    
Sandra: Netflix has acquired John Scalzi’s modern sci-fi classic Old Man’s War to develop as an original film.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
"Hello, I've lived in Germany for 21 years and have been enjoying German Gluwein, pronounced glue-vine (mulled wine) for quite some time. That being said, I have found a great recipe that will solve all of your woes!

1 bottle of wine (must be a wine you would drink!) I use Merlot or Bordeaux.
1 cup of granulated sugar
3 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
Mix and heat, do not boil, to desired temperature. Make sure sugar is dissolved. Enjoy! I add a piece of orange for extra flavor. Let me know what you think.
Kory"    
    
"Rob:
I thought the plan was to read Frankenstein in January, not March. The wiki says it was published January 1st, 1818.

So maybe Frankenstein in January and A Wrinkle in Time in March?

And then the last two years the April pick has been the March Madness winner. 

If you want to follow the ""normal"" alternating Sci-fi/fantasy you could do A Wrinkle in Time in January and Frankenstein in February.

Although last year a lot of people were hoping for a Sci-Fi March Madness tournament, which I'm still hoping we may do next year. "    

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 - #311 - Science Fiction Triggers Clickbait Headline

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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

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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

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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

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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