S&L Podcast - #405 - Above The Fold

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The hosts of the SMR Podcast join Tom to discuss The Fold by Peter Clines. Is the main character overpowered? Can they convince Christ to read the book? Plus why kids these days get to tour potato chip factories AND the beginning of March madness!

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Coca Cola - Mini

Rod: San Pellegrino Tangerine and Wild Strawberry

Robb: Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper

Chris: Lemonade Propel

QUICK BURNS

Joanna: The BSFA Awards shortlist for 2020 had been announced.

Trike: George R.R. Martin to produce Roger Zelazny’s Roadmarks for HBO.

Richard: James E. Gunn has passed away at the age of 97. He is known for his works The Listeners and The Immortals.

Trike: Redwall by Brian Jacques to be turned into an animated feature film and a TV series by Netflix.

March madness is here!

Brackets

BARE YOUR SWORD

Terpkristin: I’m jealous of the kids that get to field trip to the utz factory. I grew up in MD and we did all kinds of field trips to local things (MD Science Center, Baltimore Aquarium, Goddard Space Flight Center, many Smithsonian museums, Mount Vernon, etc) but never the utz factory.

From @MitchamBeth THE MARROW THIEVES, Cherie Dimaline. A great post-apocalyptic road story (only they avoid roads) layered with the traumas and inspirations of reclaiming First Nation culture. There's personal and cultural loss and rediscovery.

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Next month!

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

My guest host will be Alex Brown, librarian, local historian, author and Tor & Locus reviewer will join us as our guest host in March.

WRAP UP

The Fold by Peter Clines

Contrasting views

Ruth: I DNF’ed this pretty quickly as I just found the characters flat and the story uninteresting. Reading the spoiler-protected stuff above, I’m glad I quit when I did as I think I’d have found it all really annoying, especially the [ nerd-guy-gets-the-cheerleader thing (hide spoiler)] which is a trope I HATE. "Leesa: I enjoyed the story. It was fast-paced, funny, and nutty. Light weird fiction! Just what I needed!

Terpkristin: I don't need every book to be unique. I don't need it to be special. I need it to be engaging (and lately, not depressing). I enjoyed the romp. Perfect? Absolutely not. But a fun read.

Jenny (reading Envy) - the author is missing such a great opportunity based on his narrator - this guy has a photographic memory? Why is her hair brown and not a specific Pantone shade, like 19-1228, 18-1033, or 19-1012? Surely at some point he's read a paint sample catalog or crayon wrapper. I mean... brown?

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 - #404 - A Page Turner in the Best Sense

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So many new reading list suggestions from Locus to the ALA to TheMarySue. Plus George RR Martin updates on his progress. And Rod Simmons from SMR Podcast is here to disucss this month's pick The Fold by Peter Clines.

Download Directly Here

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: UCC Mango Cream Soda

Rod: S.Pellegrino Essenza Blood Orange & Black Raspberry

QUICK BURNS

Mark: Ty Franke and Wes Chatham will continue their discussions about the Expanse in a podcast

Mark: Star Trek: TNG's Commander Data, Brent Spiner, will write a fictional autobiography noir thriller titled Fan Fiction: A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events for release Oct 2021.

Jan: The Mary Sue has posted their list of the 15 Most Anticipated Diverse Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novels of 2021

Mark: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael J. Smollin is 50 years old.

Jan Via Tor.com: Elan Mastai’s 2017 time travel novel "All Our Wrong Todays" is being adapted by himself as a TV series for the Peacock streaming service.

Aaron: Preserve JRR Tolkien’s Former Home as a Public Writing Haven

Silvana: 2020 Locus recommended reading list is out!

Trike: George R.R. Martin says 2020 allowed him to make the most progress yet on the oft-delayed next installment of Song of Ice and Fire, writing “hundreds of pages.”

Jenny (Reading Envy): I thought you would find it interesting that after picking two post-apocalyptic reads, Mallory and Brea did an episode on hopeful reads for their own podcast.

Terpkristin: Studio Ghibli is now building a "real" Howl's Moving Castle. It won't move, but it looks like it will be a part of the Studio Ghibli theme park being built in Japan.

Seth: The American Library Association reading recommendations for 2020 are out.

Dominik: Chris Hadfield wrote a novel! It's an alt history thriller about space murders, set in the early 70s, and currently up for preorder

We will be doing our March madness tournament for the April book pick, so get your nominations in for what should be in the tournament!

BARE YOUR SWORD

Tassie Dave - I give many books I enjoyed 3 stars, including The Marrow Thieves. I save 4 and 5 Stars for above average or exceptional books. I wish Goodreads had ½ stars or an out of 10 system for more nuance.
I'm not a fan of rating systems like Uber, Yelp etc that treat anything lower than 5 Stars as a poor rating.

Some folks like Rick advocated for the Yes No ratng system similar to Netflix but Jan disagreed "I don't like the Rotten Tomatoes system (sorry, Tom) where you count the percentages of Yes vs No reviews. A fantastic movie with 90% raving reviews would reach the same score as a middle of the road flick that doesn't offend or excite anyone and has 90% "It's fine" reviews...

I wonder if Big Data wouldn't be better these days recommending media to you based on what you've read or clicked in the past. I mean Spotify had become over time really, really good at recommending me stuff - until I made a playlist for my dad that is..

To Which Trike responded "The folks who work at Rotten Tomatoes are aware of this, to the point that they now have a podcast called “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong.” 😂"

Jenny: I have similar feelings to Mallory about The Sparrow. I had read it before S&L read it, didn't reread it then, still haven't been able to read the sequel. One of these years I might be ready.
And you know, I love The Handmaid's Tale but the show version gave me terrible nightmares. I had to take 2 weeks between episodes of the first season and almost stopped watching after episode 3? 4? And never returned to additional seasons. I thought it was funny that my husband, who has no investment in one of my favorite books, was able to soldier on through, whereas I couldn't take it. Then again, I do live in this state so maybe it's too close for comfort

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Fold by Peter Clines

AndrewP: Is this book 1 or book 2 of a series? Goodreads says it's #2, but Amazon says it's #1.

Richard: I've read all four of the series, and especially enjoyed 14 and The Fold--Dead Moon kind of faltered, and Terminus is OK. The Fold definitely works as a standalone with a couple Easter eggs if you read 14. I strongly recommend the audiobooks; Ray Porter knocks it out of the park.

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/