S&L Podcast - #361 - My Little Space Brain Friends

Are we excited for The Witcher? Probably? Are we excited for the Hitchhiker's Guide Hulu TV series? Maybe? Are we excited for Vessel? In some ways? Is Tom excited for The Poppy War? YES!

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WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Hudson Four-Grain Bourbon

Veronica: Old Potrero

QUICK BURNS

Joanna: One of the many news from Comic-Con: The Witcher teaser is here

Dara: The British Fantasy Award nominees were announced.

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award):

The Bitter Twins, by Jen Williams (Headline)

Empire of Sand, by Tasha Suri (Orbit)

Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Jo Fletcher Books)

The Green Man’s Heir, by Juliet E McKenna (Wizard’s Tower Press)

The Loosening Skin, by Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)

Priest of Bones, by Peter McLean (Jo Fletcher Books)

Dara: The World Fantasy Award Finalists were announced.

Novel

- In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey (John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

- The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

- The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)

- Witchmark by C. L. Polk (Tor.com)

- Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)

The winners will be announced at the convention October 31st to November 3rd and will be held in Los Angeles.

TRP: Hulu are planning a HitchHikers' Guide To The Galaxy series.

Dara: BookRiot compiled a list of 50 Must-Read Fantasy Books by Women. There are quite a few S&L picks, including August's pick, The Poppy War. As always, no list is definitive but I always appreciate them because I end up with more books on my never-ending TBR list."

Trike: Amazon has renewed The Expanse for a fifth season: Season 4 debuts Dec 13.

Sean Lookielook: HBO Max is ready to explore Greek mythology.

The forthcoming streaming service has handed out an eight-episode, straight-to-series order for Circe, a modern take on the world of Greek mythology based on Madeline Miller's best-seller of the same name."

BARE YOUR SWORD

How many S&L books had you read this year before they were announced as picks so far?

My library has fallen victim to ransomware

Astronaut Pee Pee

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Next Month: The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

Book briefing

WRAP UP

Vessel by Lisa Nichols

Book briefing

Aooogha! Whoo whoo! Bad science alert!

VSL: (Spoilers) was anyone else underwhelmed by the

VSL: Characterization

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 - #360 - Cuddling with Direwolves

Veronica is definitely not meeting direwolves in Ireland and stealing them and smuggling them back into the United States. Definitely not. Tom likes the Rook. A great database for finding queer SF/F books. And our thoughts so far on Vessel by Lisa Nichols.

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WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Water

Veronica: pink wine

QUICK BURNS

Any news or announcements

Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal for winning the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel The Calculating Stars, a previous Sword and Laser pick.

And Ursula K. Le Guin continues to make her presence known to us after she is gone as Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing won best Non-fiction book and The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition with Charles Vess wins Best Art Book

The complete list of winners is listed here on Tor's site

Clyde: The Rook has started on Starz. I reckon the first episode hit all the right notes.
I wonder how closely they will follow the book. Might be difficult to do it all in eight episodes.Mark: What to Read this Summer Based on Your Favorite 'Star Trek' Character. Many of the recommendations will be familiar to S&L readers!

Dara: George R.R. Martin revealed some tidbits about the new Game of Thrones series, including which Houses fans can expect to see. Yes, the Starks and direwolves. No Lannisters.

You can read more at Entertainment Weekly.

David: The US TV broadcast of the Le Guin documentary, "Words of Ursula K. Le Guin" will finally air August 2 on American Masters (on PBS):

taeli: Sarah Waites created a database for Queer SF/F. It's only got about 70 entries now, but she's taking suggestions.

Mark: Jade War Swag!
Release day for Jade War is July 23

BARE YOUR SWORD

Feedback from the audienceWhat it's like to read 1950s science fiction

Hi, Tom and Veronica. Just listened to the latest podcast, in which you
were speculating about Rosamund Pike, who has been tapped to play
Moiraine Damodred in the TV series of The Wheel of Time. According to
IMDB, she wasn't in any of the Twilight Saga movies, which you had
thought she was. But it's interesting that you tagged her as the "Cool
Girl" Cullen sister in those films, because her big breakthrough was
starring as Amy Dunne in "Gone Girl" - and both the book and film are
known for her "Cool Girl" rant.

Dave W.

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Vessel by Lisa Nichols

Book briefing

Aooogha! Whoo whoo! Bad science alert!

@El_Commutador
Some thoughts about #Vessel @swordandlaser :wink:

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 Chris Darnell, Kristin Pilotte, and Judi Serrato

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 - #359 - We Have Literary Opinions

We’re so excited about our guest pick! It’s the kickoff for our July book, and the first ever-not-in-any-way chosen by Tom or Veronica. Also we love XKCD and we love Station 11. Also Dara and Terpkristin. So much love!

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Agua

Veronica: Fancy aqua

QUICK BURNS

Dara: Rosamind Pike has been cast as Moiraine in Amazon's adaptation of The Eye of the World.

Dara: Stan Lee's first adult novel is going to be released on September 17, 2019.
A Trick of Light, co-authored by Lee and Kat Rosenfield, is the first chapter in Lee’s planned “Alliances” universe.
Readers can start following the Alliances story starting June 27th on Audible as read by Yara Shahidi (black-ish, grown-ish)

Dara: Via Entertainment Weekly, Maniac showrunner Patrick Somerville will be adapting former book pick Station Eleven for WarnerMedia's streaming service. Hiro Murai will direct to 10-episode limited series.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Feedback from the audienceLiterary Opinions (xkcd comic)

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

It is time to kick off our July book pick, and while close followers of the Goodreads and Patreon already know this, neither one of us made the pick this month! We took some time to chat with our guest about the book she picked. Who could it be? let's find out. Vessel by Lisa Nichols

Book briefing

Our next episode is July 17!

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 www.patreon.com/notificationsYou 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/