S&L Podcast - #487 - Have We Reached Critical Maas?

/

OMG all of the top bestsellers are romantasy! What order should you read series in? Does it matter? Also why is Veronica telling Tom to suck it? Or did we misunderstand. Tune in and find out!

Download directly here!


WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

Tom: Cheesy Stuffed Pasta Shells
Veronica: Bahn mi


QUICK BURNS

Jan: Business Insider has an article on the success of the Romantasy Genre called "Sarah J. Maas is the bestselling author of 2024 so far — and other romance and fantasy authors are right behind her"

Jan: From LocusMag: The Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) has announced shortlists for the 2024 Romantic Novel Awards, including the Romantic Fantasy Novel Awards (not Romantasy Awards ;-) ):

Jan: Forbes has released their list of the 30 greatest book series of all time

Jan: Nautilus has an interesting article asking N.K. Jemisin, Andy Weir, Lois McMaster Bujold, David Brin, Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross whether Science Fiction is shaping our Future or not (or how much and where).

Richard: Small Press Distribution Shuts Down

Trike: Dark Matter, Apple TV, May 8.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Stephen: Alas, I am a Dodger Fan. Although I am a true fan of all things baseball. But enough about baseball. A couple of years ago I did a Summer of Bujold, but only did the Fantasy side of her books, but not the Science Fiction mostly because of the book order debate. I am a big fan of her current novella series Penric & Desdemona.

Trike: Currently listening to Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne, which takes place in the same world as the Iron Druid series, but features a wizard who’s from Glasgow. Narrated by (American) Luke Daniels who is doing yet another spectacular job switching between numerous accents.

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Hint about May pick
April Book Pick (Tournament Winner)

Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Shards of Honor
Amazon version
Barrayar

what’s on the menu?
I didn't vote for him....


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 - #486 - Pre-re-read

/

Will Veronica and Tom make it to Glasgow? Not after that embarrassing German pronunciation. And after talking some baseball, they dig into non-spoilery discussion of Cordelia's Honor.

Download directly here!


WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

Tom: Amboy Crispy Burger

Veronica: Leftover Easter candy

QUICK BURNS

Julie: 2024 Hugo Awards Finalists announced.

Mark added in Discord:

And this year's Sword & Laser Awards Bump™® goes to The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

Jan: The German SERAPH awards 2024 have been announced.

CountZeroOr posted some excellent details and recommendations in the Discord related to two genre fiction words being added to the OED.

Mark: The 2024 Philip K. Dick Award Winner Announced

BARE YOUR SWORD

"Stephen: I paused Iron Widow mostly because I had another book come in, Empire of the Damned which I really wanted to read right away, and the angst of the main character kind of ground on me, but I hope to get back to it, not on the high priority list, however. (Baseball season started and I am taking Thai Language classes, so this year might have a few DNF books)

As for the March Madness winner, I got the 2 books from the Audible Plus feature, so no Audible credit burned on this Book of the Month

Dave: Timing for watching baseball in SE Asia must be a bit interesting

Stephen: Yeah, night games are on at 6 am for the East Coast teams and 9 am for the West Coast Game. Only problem is day games which generally means Saturday and Sunday Late Nights. "

@petergarner@mastodon.world

@acedtect @swordandlaser Well, I’ve got Neuromancer on hold at the library, so I plan to reread it again after (gulp) 40 years (WTF?) You should too! Hoping it holds up better than the Foundation Trilogy! 😬

Are you two kids coming to Worldcon in Glasgow this year? I'm thinking of heading up to it (I live about an hour from Glasgow) and I would love to meet both of you if you're able 🥰 If not, then another time and another day it shall be lol 😋🥰👍👊

Mike Sedmak on Patreon

If there are any other blind or reading disabled members, you can find the combined book on NLS BARD titled as "Vorkosigan saga. Books 2-3”

Seré on Patreon

Wow, I never realized these book briefings existed. I cannot believe how useful this is. So first, my apologies for being ignorant of the very good work you are doing and thank you so much. I really am just perpetually seréndipitously rediscovering Sword & Laser. It's been a great ride."

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

April Book Pick (Tournament Winner)

Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Shards of Honor

-- Amazon

Barrayar

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