S&L Podcast - #409 - Home is the People We Choose
/Hugo awards are out and we’ve almost read all the authors! Jenny Colvin from Reading Envy is back but we also have hints of a new forthcoming host of Sword and Laser. Plus our last delightful thoughts about the House in the Cerulean Sea!
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Coffee Dalgona
Jenny: Peppermint Bark Tea
QUICK BURNS
Any news or announcements
Mark and Jan: Hugos!
Elizabeth: Lois McMaster Bujold accidentally wrote a novel-length Penric installment:
BARE YOUR SWORD - add time stamp!
Feedback from the audienceJerry Perez: Finished this today. Great audiobook production. Fantastical story that needs to be a television series yesterday! (The City We Became by NK Jemisin)
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Trike: Young Adult and New Adult are the only marketing-derived genres. I know a lot of people believe that all genres are marketing gimmicks, but it isn’t true. With only a couple exceptions, most genres existed before modern marketing, and the few which arose after the type of advertising we associate with contemporary entertainment faced an uphill battle of acceptance because they originated among the unwashed public. The high-falutin gatekeepers always dismiss things which come from the lowly filthy rabble.
In the Before Times my PhD thesis was on genres, which is why I can state that with such certainty. It began as a focus on film genre but morphed into all genres. Just to underscore how “before” it was, the first draft of my paper began before Urban Fantasy was named.
I’m an old.
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From the Discord:
Tassie Dave: I expect we will get more author interviews once Veronica finishes her Maternity Leave. The last one was Dennis E. Taylor (of the Bobiverse) last July.
Tamahome — 04/06/2021
When does Veronica finish?
Tassie Dave — 04/06/2021
They never said when. I guess when she has time. Which I'd guess would be when her son turns 18 Kenley Neufeld: Just completed “House in the Cerulean Sea” for @swordandlaser. A sweet and funny story of love, discrimination, goodness, and magic. Now turning to “The Luminous Dead” for something completely different.
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
NEXT MONTH
Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel (The Murderbot Diaries)
Our May host will be Robb Dunewood of the SMR Podcast (and our June host is scheduled to be Adobe Product Manager, Veronica Belmont)
WRAP UP
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Kharl — 04/14/2021
I was a bit skeptical about the book at the start, thinking it a bit childish. Man was I glad I looked past that. What a wonderful story./dev/tea — 04/13/2021
Just finished, and this book is a perfect case in point for why I love the Sword and Laser. I mentioned before that I voted against this pick every time. I wouldn't have picked this up in a hundred years, but it was a great read and as someone else said, utterly charming.GrannyWeatherwax — Yesterday at 7:44 PM
Really enjoyed it. It was a cozy listen as an audiobook. I appreciated the science fantasy setting: both the vague dystopian part and the cerulean sea. I liked how the characters were generally kind and made in-character decisions. I also appreciated that it had a plot—which resolved! Several other feel-good science fiction novels from recent years had wonderful settings and characters, but not much plot. THITCS had all three.
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Leesa
I am going to miss the kids now that I am done with the story.
swarbs — 04/18/2021
I'm almost tempted to dip into fan fic for this one, it would be great fodder for sort of slice of life stories. Talia entering a garden competition, or Chaunceys first day as a real bell hop, something like that. There could have been another hundred pages of that sort of stuff in the book and I'd have read it happily.
ADDENDUMS
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