S&L Podcast - #511 - Throw Me in the Corpse Hole
/We discuss the return of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Frank Herbert’s posthumous SFWA Infinity Award, Audible’s AI narration plans and Amazon’s cancellation of The Wheel of Time—while nominating hamburg steak and vegan enchiladas and sharing listener stories from Matt Dinniman’s event. We round out the show with in-depth discussions of The Lives of Tao and Mickey 7.
WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Hamburg Steak
Veronica: Vegan enchiladas
QUICK BURNS – add time stamp!
Any news or announcements
Iain: 10 years ago the planet of the spiders was set loose.
Tchaikovsky’s publishers didn’t think it would amount to much. Creating something truly unique means you don’t fit in existing boxes.
Bsky post by aptshadow
Iain: Via Scalzi on Blue Sky.
Dresden is back. “12 Months” is coming out in January after Jim Butcher works through depression. Good read.
NYT: Jim Butcher on The Dresden Files
Mark: The SFWA announced that the recipient of the 2025 Infinity Award is Frank Herbert, author of Dune.
The Infinity Award posthumously honors acclaimed creators who passed away before they could be considered for a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.
The Infinity Award will be presented at this year’s Nebula Awards Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
SFWA Infinity Award Recipient: Frank Herbert
Paul: Locus’ annual fundraiser is up, and the coolest-looking thing for sale this year is “A special luxe edition... of the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, signed & personalized, with printed edges in a gorgeous binding,” for $500 USD. I know Tom’s a big fan of the series (I’m on book 2 now and it’s pretty awesome), so just throwing it out there.
There’s also a signed Sando book plus a chull plushie for the bargain rate of $1,500, and for under $150, signed books from Corey Doctorow, Vajra Chandrasekera, Elizabeth Bear, and more, as well as other perks.
Locus fundraiser on Indiegogo
Chris K: The shortlist for the annual Arthur C. Clarke Award, celebrating the best science fiction novel published in the UK, has been announced.
• Private Rites, Julia Armfield (Fourth Estate)
• The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre)
• Extremophile, Ian Green (Ad Astra)
• Annie Bot, Sierra Greer (The Borough)
• Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)
• Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock, Maud Woolf (Angry Robot)
The winner will be announced on June 25, 2025 and receives an engraved bookend and £2,025 in prize money.
The 2025 judges are Dolly Garland and Gene Rowe for the British Science Fiction Association, Nic Clarke and John Coxon for the Science Fiction Foundation, and Glyn Morgan for the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival.
Andrew M. Butler represented the Clarke Award directors as non-voting Chair of the Judges.
Locus: 2025 Clarke Award shortlist
John: Audible unveils plans to use AI voices to narrate audiobooks.
After all the recent praise for Jeff Hays’s narration of the DCC audiobook, this is a sobering reality check.
The Guardian: Audible’s AI narration plans
Phil On The Hill and JasonReads7:
Looks like Amazon has cancelled The Wheel of Time. Is this sad news? I only watched an episode or two and was not won over. The curse of long series is that we never reach the end when televised.
The Verge: Amazon cancels The Wheel of Time
BARE YOUR SWORD – add time stamp!
Feedback from the audience
Hapahappiness: Hey y’all. Matt Dinniman event was great! Some takeaways: writing awful things was easy because being an a-hole is the path of least resistance. Jeff Hayes made (and lost) a bet resulting in a donut tattoo on his butt. The tattoo session was recorded and posted online. Mr. Dinniman thinks the video resulted in the first DCC audiobook being on the NY Times bestsellers list for the first time. He has never watched Gilmore Girls or Gossip Girl; his daughters are his subject matter experts. He denied having a foot fetish. Lol. One of his joys with this series is when people tell him DCC has reignited their love of reading or got them to read for the first time since high school. When I met him he commented on my S&L hat and told me he recently learned about our book club. 😊 He stayed past 10 pm meeting with everyone and personalizing books (with a name). Overall, a really fun event.
Jan: For the New Dungeon Crawler Carl segment of the podcast 😉
I did not know that the hardcovers for the series had a bonus chapter at the end! I don’t know if I’d buy these just for the chapters, but it might be interesting for some!
Sorry if this had already been mentioned on previous episodes, but maybe these kinds of incentives are something we will be seeing more in the future...
Trike: Re: Ship of Theseus – comedian-juggler Michael Davis had a great joke on this topic. He said one of his axes used to be owned by George Washington. “I’ve replaced the head and the handle, but it occupies the same space.”
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Kick Off
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
Amazon audiobook link · Bookshop link
Wrap Up
Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton
Bookshop link · Amazon link
An SF “Adventure” about being hungry · How many times can an author use a big word? · The line between adaptation and “in name only” (spoilers abound)
ADDENDUMS
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