S&L Podcast – #508 – Sexy, Sexy, Mind Palace
/We have Murderbot trailer! And we like it! Plus, the Hugo nominees are out and we wrap up our thoughts on The City and the City and begin our April dungeon crawl.
WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Sumo Mandarin Orange
Veronica: Cadbury Egg season
QUICK BURNS
CountZeroOr and Trike: Murderbot trailer: May 16 on Apple TV” (Watch on YouTube)
Seth: Happy National Library Week (in the USA) (ALA National Library Week)
Chaminade and Geoff: Hugo shortlist 2025 is out!
Novel:
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US, Tor UK)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (DAW)
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Tor)
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)
“For the first time I can remember, I’ve read them all before the nominations! Service Model or The Tainted Cup are my favorites, but they are all good.”
2025 Hugo Award Finalists
Mark: SFWA names Nicola Griffith as the 41st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master (SFWA Announcement)
Seth: The S&L bump strikes again with The Ministry of Time – this time it’s on the short list for the brand‑new Climate Fiction Prize (Climate Fiction Prize)
The long list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced – it’s mostly lit‑fic, but the nominees include S&L pick The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Another example of the S&L bump? (Women’s Prize Long List)
NaNoWriMo shuts down as a foundation due to funding issues (TechCrunch)
BARE YOUR SWORD
TRP: When I saw the title, I thought Tom and Veronica would mention Elisabeth Wheatley. She’s an indie author who writes in the fantasy genre. She is a queen of TikTok/YouTube self‑promotion and created a voracious book‑reading character called Book Goblin. I have read her book Daindreth’s Assassin and can definitely recommend it.
Tassie Dave: The question was asked, “How often have we read the March Madness runner‑up?” In the 9 years of March Madness, the runner‑up has not ended up as a pick eventually, only 3 times.
- 2016: was a tie. Both books read. The Fifth Season as an alt‑pick.
- 2017: Howl’s Moving Castle was a pick in 2020.
- 2018: Soulless was an alt‑pick.
- 2019: Never picked. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
- 2020: Never picked. The City of Brass.
- 2021: Never picked. Gods of Jade and Shadow.
- 2022: Children of Time was a pick in 2023.
- 2023: Children of Time was a pick in 2023.
- 2024: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a pick in 2024.
Of the books chosen to be in the March Madness Final 16 brackets, 33 have ended up as S&L book picks (so far).
- The best year was 2018, where 8 of the 16 books ended up as book picks (7 official and 1 alt‑pick).
- The most read in a single year was in 2024: 6 of the 12 book picks for the year were March Madness books (5 from the 2024 tournament and 1 from 2022).
- 4.77 books, on average, from each tournament end up as book picks; 3.66 books when you account for books that were in multiple tournaments.
- 4 runner‑ups were read in the same year: 2016, 2018 (both April alt‑picks), and 2023 & 2024 (both May picks).
- The Fifth Season was, effectively, the runner‑up, as V&T used their veto powers to declare A Darker Shade of Magic as the official book pick.
With Veronica expressing a boundless love for all things cheese, I wanted to pass along an amazing landmark between Milwaukee and Chicago: the Mars Cheese Castle (marscheese.com). Should you ever make it to Wisconsin, this is a fun location to try a variety of Wisconsin cheese. Most restaurants will offer fried cheese curds, but I would recommend trying fresh cheese curds as well. Fresh cheese curds are lovingly referred to as “squeaky cheese.”
Ever yours,
Shawn D. Whale
p.s. I failed to find the Bare Your Sword link on Goodreads, which is why I sent you this.
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Bookshop • Amazon)
FINAL THOUGHTS (spoilery)
The City & the City by China Miéville (Bookshop • Amazon)
Book briefing: Patreon
TCaTC: Boring Borlu (Goodreads)
ADDENDUMS
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