S&L Podcast - #278 - Don’t Trust Turkey Data

A hot new approach to a fantasy trilogy, the real drama of rocket scientists involves cake, and why you can’t trust turkeys to rigorously use data to predict future results.

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QUICK BURNS
    
Geoff: Marlon James announces Dark Star fantasy trilogy: 'I hope 12-year-olds read this book' 
    
Nokomis.FL "Lies Lies Lies Lies Lies and more Lies" 
On his LiveJournal Martin wrote, “Not done yet, but I’ve made progress,” he wrote. “But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now. I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”    
    
Fresno Bob: Some random guy got the cover for this article on top SF+F for 2017 over on Kirkus Reviews 
Publishers Weekly calls it "Appropriately convoluted!"
Pilot X
    
Silvana: More books coming out from the amazing NK Jemisin, including a contemporary fantasy dealing with themes of race and power in New York City. It has a projected publication date of April 2019.
    
Sporadicreviews and David: Neil of the online magazine Clarkesworld finally quit his day job and is going to be an editor full time (see here: http://neil-clarke.com/frankly/) He changed the Patreon goals for direct salary & healthcare though.
    
Louie: CBS orders pilot for Andy Weir's NASA set drama, Mission Control 
Terpkristin: My coworkers and I are having a good laugh over this. Some of the comments on Facebook today:
"I like staying awake and eating M&Ms"
"I bet the CBS version will have way more explosions..well, OK, maybe not."
"Also probably not as many expletives."
"They have producers to make it more high drama. We just have I and T managers..."
"Oh, the I&T managers make it high drama"
"You forgot about the cake. Or, knowing there's cake but having to be on console and getting last picks from the seagulls who come to watch"

Definitely a couple of inside baseball jokes there, but also what it's really like. For the record, on the cake, if the launch scrubs, they put it in the freezer for the next attempt. This lead to what is now known where I work as "cakegate" and many "the cake is a lie" jokes. 
    
Lauren:  James Cameron is apparently working on a "History of Science Fiction" series for AMC.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Hey guys,

I was listening to your latest on the Three Body Problem - episode 277 - and thought you might be interested in a recent interview with Ken Liu on Chinese sci-fi. Check out the January 13 episode of the Sinica podcast, a podcast which primarily discusses topics related to contemporary China, but this time overlaps with the January read on S & L. Link here: Sinica Podcast: Ken Liu on Chinese science fiction
https://overcast.fm/+GuZKG8KEI

Regards,

David

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If the phrase "her eyes were bigger than her stomach" equates to getting too much food and not being able to eat it all, then in my case, "my eyes were bigger than my...mind?" I did not make it through the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy during my holiday break - I only made it through The Dark Forest and am now reading the third book, Death's End. Really liking the series! And I couldn't get into Stiletto, so I haven't picked that one back up yet.

Robyn

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When/How did you find Sword & Laser?
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
January Pick: Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

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 - #277 - The January No-Beer Problem

We commend Terry Brooks' foresight, possibly convince Veronica to watch the Man in the High Castle some more, and give you important information to get the most of The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.    

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WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Dry January!
    
QUICK BURNS
    
Alex: with a new quadrilogy, titled The Fall of Shannara, Terry Brooks is bringing the series to a close --- TERRY BROOKS: Well, my original plan was to live forever, but I’m discovering that’s probably not going to happen, and I don’t want to be one of those authors whose series, after going on such a long time, gets written by somebody else at the end. So I decided it was time to at least write the ending, because I’ve had it in mind for many, many years.  --- The Black Elfstone (out June 13, 2017)
    
Nokomis.FL: The Man in the High Castle Gets A Third Season and New Showrunner
    
Sporadic Reviews: From Galaxy's Edge magazine :
We have a new blog called Signals from the Edge managed by Lezli Robyn. Check it out...we plan to develop it as a general site for all SF/Fantasy news and to have discussion on stories published by us (with author participation). We'd love to hear your feedback on what you would like to see.
   
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Music
 

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So to share some holiday reading, I have completed ""The Girl With Ghost Eyes"" by M.H. Boroson and I wanted to put it on your radar. It's an awesome urban fantasy set in 1800's San Francisco Chinatown. The setting felt really well researched and historical San Francisco Chinatown really comes alive in the same way historical New York comes alive in ""The Golem and the Jinni. 

A Closed and Common Orbit"" by Becky Chambers is also great. Without mentioning spoilers, it very much has the same hopeful and humanist tone of ""The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet"". The setting of these books feels really unique. It obviously draws a degree of inspiration from Star Trek and Star Wars but takes ideas from those universes and does it's own distinct thing with them.

Currently I am working on "Wake of Vultures" by Lila Bowen.

MP

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So in sync with Sword and Laser lately! I was on page 110 of The Three Body Problem when I heard the podcast and that that would be the January pick! I am planning to read the whole trilogy over my holiday break (off work until January 3rd - woo hoo!). I had The Rook on my shelf for a while to read and so when that was December's pick, I read that and liked it so much I bought the sequel on Kindle and have started that, too. Like Veronica, I am hoping more Myfawny shows up.

Robyn  

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In Episode #276, you excoriated us for not responding with our holiday reading list.  Shamefacedly, I began writing this email - and was stunned when Tom announced the book for January.  I have just finished ""The Three-Body Problem"" and I'm currently reading book #2, ""The Dark Forest.""  I had some attention deficit issues during some sections of the first book that I ascribe to the cultural differences between my background and the author's.  Nonetheless, I'm enjoying the story. The translator managed to make it understandable for Americans while still retaining some of the Chinese flavor.

Thanks for the podcast,
Gregg
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BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
January Pick: Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Book briefing

ADDENDUMS    
Tom and Veronica will be at Baycon!

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.

Welcome to Brand new patrons Karen Turner, Paul, Peter DeCastro and more! And huge thanks to Andrew for raising his pledge!
    
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