S&L Podcast - #532 - Chekhov's Dead Body
/Eat zucchini! And Bleu cheese. Also, we didn’t get nominated for a Hugo, but loads of our favorite authors did. We kick off our May read (a little early) and wrap up our spoiler thoughts on The Raven Scholar.
WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Soybutter-glazed salmon and zucchini with rice
Veronica: Bleu cheese Beyond Burger with grilled onions
QUICK BURNS
specious_reasons Sword and Laser didn't make it into the fancast category despite our meager efforts. Here are the novel nominees:
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz)
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK)
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape)
Mark: The Raven Scholar, this month's pick, was nominated for Best Novel, and author Antonia Hodgson was also nominated for the Astounding Award. The previous month's pick, Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, was nominated for Best Novella. Previous S&L authors Scalzi, Heather Fawcett, and Max Gladstone were nominated for Best Series: Old Man's War, Emily Wilde, and The Craft Wars, respectively. Alas, Sword and Laser didn't make the cut for Best Fancast, so we'll try again next year.
Mark: The 2026 Locus Awards finalists have been posted — 10 titles each in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult, First Novel, Translated Novel, and more! Sword and Laser picks making the cut are The Devils by Joe Abercrombie and The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson in Fantasy, plus Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz in Novellas.
Silvana: Amazon is ending their service for Kindle devices older than 2013.
Seth: Spotify has launched direct links to Bookshop, allowing users to buy books. This comes shortly after they launched the page-match feature that lets you scan the physical page you're on and stream your audiobook straight from that point. I'm not terribly excited that another tech giant has decided to compete with bookstores, but on the other hand, they're going through Bookshop, which is kind of nice.
Trike: Good Omens S3 — Amazon Prime, May 13. New character introduction, name of… ::checks notes:: …Jesus.
Trike: The Dog Stars — in theatres August 28. Based on the book The Dog Stars.
BARE YOUR SWORD
Ruth: I made a DNF shelf on Goodreads years ago and it currently has 97 books on it. I'm an enthusiastic Lemmer — if a book isn't doing it for me, I'll just stop reading it and try something else instead. Life is short, and my TBR shelf is long.
Paul: That should be on a shirt or something: Life is Short. My TBR is Long. DNF it. (Or the S&L exclusive version: Lem it.)
Scott: I wanted to share this article regarding Animorphs and the Disney+/Ryan Coogler adaptation in the works. I remember reading some of the early ones, likely when my younger kids were discovering them. I was struck that they had the marker of one of those series that took children seriously.
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Kick Off Slow Gods by Claire North — Bookshop
Wrap Up The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson — Bookshop
Mark: Goddammit Donut! Now I have to read the next book in the series and it doesn't have a release date yet — some time in 2027 perhaps? On Goodreads, the second volume, The Fox in Winter, has 40 ratings and 30 reviews, even though it doesn't exist. What's this world coming to?
Jan (as of Chapter 16): I am suspecting the emperor. He's described as savvy, but his decisions are very strange and suspicious. He is painting a huge target on Neema's back constantly, which would be very convenient if he was involved. If she hadn't been poisoned and left the island in a timely manner, she probably would have been the main suspect due to her demotion — and if he knows about it — her little "problem." Maybe she would have just been killed before a proper investigation. Making her a contender and allowing her to lead the investigation also seems very ill-advised, but if he ordered the murder himself, it could explain why he'd want to give the public more reasons to suspect her.
Iain Bertram: My money is on Neema's (Toads') assistant. I think she is the exiled twin whom the dog soldier pulled a Snow White on. I think the emperor wants a commoner on the throne to complete his changes.
Liquorice: I just finished Yasila's backstory. Probably completely out in left field, but the idea in the back of my mind is that Visitor Pyke — not Andren — is Roku and Yana's father. Pyke helped her escape because she was pregnant by him. Pyke is at the contest to stop Roku from becoming Emperor because (a) he hates Roku for betraying Yana, and (b) that means Roku is really a Dragon and his ascension would bring back the Eight. Gaida was killed by Yasila/Pyke to put in place a more acceptable candidate for Emperor that the Dragons could live with.
Jan: Yeah, no, I didn't see that coming! What the… The twists and turns in this book… Wow!
ADDENDUMS
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