S&L Podcast - #82 - On Fire

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This week we talk about the newest eReader from Amazon, as well as why we hold on to those old paper books, and we wrap-up Reamde (spoiler alert!) and kick off a new book!

QUICK BURNS

Kindle Fire is out! - our thoughts on e-readers

Keeping Physical Books in a Digital Age

Fiction can possibly alter personality

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Did you list past reads when you joined Goodreads?

Biting off more then you can read

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Everything You Missed in the Hunger Games Trailer: 40 Awesome Images!

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Tentative Finish Date: January 2

BOOK WRAP-UP (Kind of)

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

EMAIL

Hi Tom & Veronica,

A few weeks ago, Ian Tregillis wrote an interesting blogpost about the upcoming publication of his second book "The Coldest War". Here's the link to his blog for the full story.

To sum it all up, he announced that the audiobook would be released on December 20, 2011 on audible.com. So I thought we could add it the calendar. For the ebook and ""dead-tree"" editions however, we will have to wait until June or July 2012. - Nicolas

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Nadine, Duncan, John, Kendrick, Jason, Al, Isaiah, Roman, Robert, Sarah, Mary, Ed, Michel, John-Paul, Justyna, Chip, Davis, Austin, Mitch, Beelissa, Brian, Eric A., Ryan, Lexy, Martin, Joey, Fiona, LS, Nicholas, Suhail, Joe, Chris, David, Phil

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audible.com/NGP

S&L Podcast - #82 - On Fire

S&L Podcast - #81 - Elephant paper

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Is Neal Stephenson fantasizing revenge?  How does Patrick Norton read so preternaturally fast? Can you really make paper out of elephant dung?  All these questions and more exlpored on this episode of Sword and Laser.

QUICK BURNS

Art of the Hobbit: Never-Before-Seen Drawings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Terry Pratchett on Snuff

Mark Charan Newton's THE REEF released as an ebook

10 Debut Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels That Took the World by Storm

The Victorian Hugos: 1885
The Victorian Hugos: 1886

CALENDAR 

BARE YOUR SWORD

1Q84 paper texture

Reamde : Why terrorists?

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Grimm - the other fairy tale show

The 1986 infomercial for the Neuromancer movie that never was

BOOK PICK

Vote for the next book!

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Sam, Sheala, Jared, Michael, Bree, Kristin, Kodai, Tracy, Reuben, Christina, Mark, Joshua, Chip, Everitt, Emma (aka Liliy), Jonathan

 

S&L Podcast - #81 - Elephant paper

S&L Podcast - #80 - All Hallow's Read

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We wrap up Ready Player One, give away a Kindle, get psyched up for NaNoWriMo, and discuss whether virtual worlds will lead to the decline of cvilization. Ready Player One spoiler's ahead!

QUICK BURNS

These Are the Greatest Geek Books of All Time, Readers Say

WINNERS: 2011 World Fantasy Awards and Lifetime Achievement Winners

CALENDAR

See what's coming up.

Sean sent in an email and an MP3 with some books to add to the calendar.

Hey T&V,

Here are a few upcoming books that would make interesting additions to the calendar:

15 November - Ten Billion Days and a Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse

13 December - Spice and Wolf Novel 5 by Isuna Hasekura

24 January - Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel by Mizuki Nomura

BARE YOUR SWORD

Virtual Reality and the end of Civilization

Was I-rok underused, or overused?

All Hallow's Read

TV, Movies and video games

James Cameron's Fantastic Voyage is a doomed 'love story'

WILD CARDS optioned for a movie

BOOK Wrap-up

Ready Player One

Giveaway Announcement? Winner! Icelord!

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Casey, Amanda, Michael, Ian, Erik, Scotty, MonkeyButler, Michael, Michael, Alan, Rich, Ben, Noel, Jay, NCGrimbo, Robert, Micah, Philip, Vaugh, Andy, Zach, Stephen, Nathaniel, Domenico, Ken, Joshua, Sean, Matthew, Bill, Kyle (aka Khet), Nick, Eric, Erica, Ed, Quasar, Richard, Jon and Maxwell!

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #80 - All Hallow's Read

S&L Podcast - #79 - Sell me this Doctor

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Wherein Tom decides to spend $1,000 on an Alastair Reynolds book, Veronica decides to become an author, and we remember "that comedian". It's a chatty episode, a little longer than some have been, but we hope you find it chock full of goodness.

QUICK BURNS

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd Edition) goes live

Agatha H and the Airship City: Girl Genius book is a cross between a comic and a prose novel

Cover art for BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH by Alastair Reynolds --- Tom's excited about this series

SF Authors Predict Computing's Future

CALENDAR

Oct. 18 2011
Aloha from Hell, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Oct. 20 2011
The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding
Oct. 25 2011
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 
Oct. 27 2011
The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Initiate’s Trial by Janny Wurts
Nov. 8 2011
The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson
Stands a Shadow by Col Buchanan
Endurance, Jay Lake (Tor)

Get the full calendar

BARE YOUR SWORD

Neal Stephenson - Feminist?

Siri brings nerd humor to iPhone

NaNoWriMo 2011

TV and Movies

Sell me on Dr. Who

Who watched The Walking Dead?

Giveaway Announcement

Write a pitch for a NaNoRiMo story, we'll pick a winner randomly from this thread. You have until October 31st to post, and you could win a Kindle!

EMAIL

Tom and Veronica,

Every once in a while Tom mentions that he's always looking for books. I've also come to the conclusion from a few subtle hints that have been dropped here and there that he's a baseball fan. So I'd like to add the following to Tom's reading/listening queue (as the Audible version of this is a fine performance: Summerland by Michael Chabon, winner of both a Hugo and a Pulitzer (not too shabby and a thoroughly uncommon combination). YA fantasy (though as a middle-aged geek, I enjoyed the heck out of it as well) about trans-dimensional travel, elves, dwarves, magic, good, evil, and baseball. Not just baseball, but baseball as a metaphor for life.

Who knows, it might even be an excellent selection for S&L.

Love the podcast, even though I can't always keep up on the reading.

Yours in geekdom,

George Van Wagner, occasionally known as GVDub in various places on teh intarwebs.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Dave, David, Louise, Mike, Amir, Jason, Ben, Cappy, Rebecca, Gregory

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #79 - Sell me this Doctor

S&L Podcast - #78 - I fixed it!

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It's time for SciFi writers to get up and help science, according to Neal Stephenson. We also seem to have had the idea of starting a wiki for Ready Player One.  Now if we only had the energy to do it.  And one broken link gets two podcast hosts into an epic battle of fixing.

QUICK BURNS

Science fiction writers have a job, and it’s time to do it, says Neal Stephenson

TV and Movies

Ready Player One to become a movie?

Downton Abbey

Game of Thrones casting: Ygrette

CALENDAR

Oct. 18 2011
Oct. 20 2011
Oct. 25 2011

BARE YOUR SWORD

Steve Jobs/James Halliday

Virtual Online Schools .. Why not?

Play Ready Player One online (quest spoilers)

BOOK CHECK-IN

Looks like we'll wrap up Ready, Player ONe either next week or the week after. Which would you rather?

And Tom gives a quick review of The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

EMAILS

Hi, I just discovered your podcast and I'm listening from the first episode. It's full of geeky goodness and I've enjoyed every episode so far. However, I discovered that the MP3 for podcast 25 is unavailable. Would you be able to check the link in your spare time or perhaps send the MP3 via email?

Thanks,

Chris

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Macrologia: @Veronica I think that, whenever on @swordandlaser, you should be referred to as Deathstalker Commander by @acedtect.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Jim, Franck, Wes, Corey, Garrett, Gordon, Ramon, Anthony!

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #78 - I fixed it!

S&L Podcast - #77 - Ready Player One and Reamde Kick-off

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It's an episode chock full of twists and turns with an incredible ending you won't see coming. Unless you've listened before. We end with the email address. But HOW do we get there? Well for one, we talk about video games as storytelling. For another we kick off Ready Player One and Reamde as our new books. And finally..... well that would be a spoiler.

QUICK BURNS

FLOWCHART: Navigating NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Ursula K. Le Guin has a brand new reason to be scared of immortality

The Top 10 Books Lost to Time

CALENDAR

10/4/2011
Infidel, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)
10/7/2011
10/11/2011
Snuff, Terry Pratchett (Harper Collins)
The Cold Commands, Richard K. Morgan (Del Rey)
10/18/2011
10/20/2011
10/25/2011

PS The calendar is now available on the website.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Most accessible Stephenson book?

Games as Storytelling
Jason from Bethesda comments

TV and Movies

The Enders Game movie puts out casting calls for 10 characters — including Ender!

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 promo

BOOK Kick-Off

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

EMAILS

Hey Veronica and Tom,

The reason I'm writing is because after 2 years, I finished my 3rd book, first fiction, a novella titled Trapped in My Zombie Body. The cover is being designed now, and I will have it going out digitally in mid-October, paperback in November. Moreover, I'm donating 50% of royalties to Child's Play Charity.

Synopsis:
Imagine your body no longer listened to you. You were trapped, experiencing the world in a new way: without any control over your actions. It's a world filled with sleep deprivation, mind games, and unthinkable acts. Welcome to my world.

By the way, I publish under my legal first name, Mario, rather than my nickname, Andy, just FYI. I look forward to hearing from you guys!

Cheers,
Mario Lurig, aka Andy in Colorado

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

York, Brandon, Kyle, Matt, Joshua, Another Brandon, Lindsey, Rob, Walter, Simon, Esther, Joe, Brian, The Duchess, Adiel, Sophie, Another Joshua

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #77 - Ready Player One and Reamde Kick-off