S&L Podcast - #543 A - Dumpling Heist
/Listen. We talk a a lot about what Guy Fi might or might not be. But the most important part of the episode is when we try to name all the possible variations on dumplings. Come join us. And we kick off The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei.
What Are We Nomming?
Tom: Mediterranean Scallops and brown rice risotto
Veronica: Pierogies
Quick Burns
Scott: Audition by Pip Adam has been awarded the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. Announcement and video here.
Trike: Is life a teensy bit overwhelming? Are you feeling a little emotionally frangible? Then check out this website called How Sad Is This Chapter? to see if you should read a specific book or not: howsadisthischapter.com. Here’s her explainer, derived from her rating each chapter of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Ruth: The British Fantasy Awards were announced last night at the British Fantasy Convention in Glasgow. Winners included:
Best Fantasy Novel: Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Best Horror Novel: The Buffalo Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Best Newcomer: The Outcast Mage by Annabel Campbell
Best Novella: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Iain: World Fantasy Awards
Best Novel WINNER: Once Was Willem, M.R. Carey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Best Long Fiction WINNER: Psychopomp & Circumstance, Eden Royce (Tordotcom)
Best Short Fiction WINNER: “The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting at Home”, Renan Bernardo (Reactor 8/27/25)
Best Anthology WINNER: Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett & Craig Laurance Gidney, eds. (Essential Dreams)
Tamahome: Posted a phone screenshot. Tom hated you for one moment. He was attempting to tell us that Paramount Pictures has the Red Rising movie rights. Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is attached to direct. Justin Rhodes, who worked with Lawrence developing Netflix’s video game adaptation Bioshock, will pen the script.
specious_reasons: Via email, I learned Goodreads now has fractional star ratings. As is typical for Goodreads, I couldn’t find a news item on the website for a link. I stopped (publicly) rating books a while back because I try to keep my ratings looking like a normal distribution. A perfectly cromulent book might get 3 stars from me, and it probably doesn’t benefit the author.
Bare Your Sword
Alan:
I don't really know what Guy-Fi is, but if there's a marketing term for "this urban fantasy isn't a romance" I'd like to know what it is.
To which Jan replied: "All Slaying, No Laying"? ;-)
Paul:
So guy-fi seems like it's barely a thing, and is basically based on DCC, Hail Mary, and the resurgent popularity of the Red Rising series. I read a Bookseller.com article that summarizes its appeal (male protagonist, easily digestible, camaraderie is primary relationship), but it seems like it's a new enough term that we can make it mean whatever we want.
So, who would like to nominate books/series that could be considered Guy-Fi?
I think an easy addition could be good ol' Ender’s Game. I'd call Heinlein the grandfather of guy-fi, so I'd nominate Starship Troopers as well.
(For the record, this genre does not appeal to me at all TBH, but it's fun to look back at my books and say "Was that Guy-fi?")
To which John (Nevets) replied:
By those definitions, I think a lot of the military Sci-Fi would qualify as well. And there is a lot of that out there.
To which Tamahome said:
Oh, is that what Guy-Fi is? I guess my discord quick burn about Aethon Books buying Wargate Books is Guy-Fi news. I give Guy-Fi 3.75 stars on Goodreads.
And Spriggana added:
My first thought for Guy-fi are the long military SF series like Evan Currie’s Hayden War or Ryk Brown’s The Frontier’s Saga. No, I did not read any of those… ;-)
Stephen:
By finally picking The Eyre Affair I do mean it was written in 2001, been the loser in many a March Madness, and it is unlike any book I have ever read, super witty. It can go in either genre. So whatever S&L challenge needs help, The Eyre Affair can be there for you.
Ruth:
Great to hear the return of the 'What are we listening to?' segment, although Tom I do think it's kind of cheating to play the actual Jisoo song rather than singing it yourself... ;)
Book of the Month Kickoff
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
[Bookshop link]
Patrons stick around for the book wrap-up for last month's pick. If you're not a Patron, the book wrap-up will come as a separate episode next week.
(Welcome to the wrap-up of last month's book pick!)
Addendums
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