S&L Podcast - #375 - 16 Books Enter, One Becomes Pick

We unveil the 16 books we'll be pitting against each other in our quite Mad March tournament of polls. We also chat about the Nebula nominees, introduce our March pick, and give our final thoughts on Gideon the Ninth.

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WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: San Pellegrino
Veronica: Waterloooooo

March madness UNVEILING
Sword
- The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

- The Land: Founding by Aleron Kong
- Rivers of London/Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
- The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan

- The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow


Laser
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
- Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson

- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
- The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

- All Systems Red by Martha Wells
- The Female Man by Joanna Russ


QUICK BURNS

Mark: Nebula Award nominees announced.

For best Novel:

Marque of Caine by Charles E. Gannon
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker"

Jan: The LA Times has announced its nominees for their first Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction, sponsored by Ray Bradbury Literary Works. It is part of the 40th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.

The inaugural nominees are
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell"

AD BREAK
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Modern-day slave Alek Fitz collects debts owed to demons, Haitian lao, vampires, and a diverse rolodex of other clients. Uncanny Collateral kicks off with a visit from Death, the Great Constant Himself, who needs a job done quickly and quietly. Aided by his best friend Maggie, a jinn who shares Alek's slavery, Alek sets off on what quickly turns into something more than a simple odd job. As the stakes escalate, Alek must use all his wiles and brawn to set things right in Death's realm.

Book Two, Blood Tally, finds Alek working for a cantankerous old-world vampire with more secrets than he lets on. It released in mid-February.

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BARE YOUR SWORD

MLISsa! @Chaos_Librarian
@swordandlaser Hello! I love your podcast and this seems relevant to what you do, so I thought that I’d share!

Richard Marpole @RMarpole
@swordandlaser the Jim Butcher series about Romans in a Fantasy world is Furies of Calderon!
(You probably looked it up already.)"



BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Next Month!
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

Wrap Up
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Book briefing

GtN: write a better blurb challenge

GtN: Harrow is a bae & other thoughts

GtN: Which House are you in?