Entries in george r.r. martin (11)

S&L Podcast - #72 - Interview with Kristian Nairn (Hodor!)

No book pick this week, but we do have a special interview with the man who plays Hodor in the HBO series Game of Thrones.  We'll find out what he had to do to get the role and how he thinks Hodor thinks. Plus a look at the Hugos and a new book recommendation engine.

QUICK BURNS

Joe Abercrombie's next book gets a title

Can 32,000 Data Points Yield The Perfect Book Recommendation?

New China Mieville book gets a title 

Hugo winners, 2011

CALENDAR

8/23/2011 - The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara By Terry Brooks
8/23/2011 - The Power of Six (I Am Number Four) By Pittacus Lore
9/6/2011 - Legacy of Kings by C. S. Friedman
9/6/2011 - Tears of the Sun: A novel of change by S. M. Stirling

TV and Movies

For Croatian ASoIaF and GoT fans

3 new actors for GAME OF THRONES, plus Hellboy wants a part

INTERVIEW

Kristian Nairn plays Hodor on the HBO series Game of Thrones. He's also a DJ and WoW player!

Did he ever just wish his character was mute so he could stop saying "Hodor!"? Also, did he answer a casting call? If so what was the character description? -- Nick

Since this is his first major role, I'd like to know a bit about the casting process. How did he land role? What was the audition like? (a lot of Hodoring one would expect) --  Tero

I'd like to know how much say he had in his dialogue. No, seriously. There was a distinct lack of Hodoring in the show and I'd really like to know if he was involved in any discussions on how much Hodor is too much Hodor. I'm wondering whether they were toning it down to not grate on people, or if they just didn't have time to explain his backstory and didn't want people wondering about it until they'd had a chance to. -- Been

As a fellow big guy (6'7"" and about 280) did he have problems walking around the castles? I almost knocked myself out walking through a castle in Wales wearing a baseball cap. I walked strait into a stone door frame I could not see b/c the hat bill blocked it. Can only imagine how tough that would be with someone riding piggy back. -- Alden

Do you think that Hodor has intense internal thought but is unable to communicate it effectively? He can clearly understand what other people expect of him and can look after himself in other ways. -- Michael

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals.   For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #72 - Interview with Kristian Nairn (Hodor!)

S&L Podcast - #71 - Dance with Dragons wrap-up

Yes this week we wrap-up our thoughts on "A Dance with Dragons" and there is quite a bit to talk about. Meantimes there's other stuff in the worlds of Swords and Lasers, including a couple top 100 book lists to debate. And debate them we do!

QUICK BURNS

NPR: Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

S&L Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles

Write an adventure novel in three days, the Michael Moorcock way

CALENDAR

io9 complete guide

8/16/2011 The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind

8/16/2011 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

8/17/2011 The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley

8/18/2011 By Light Alone - by Adam Roberts

8/23/2011 The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara By Terry Brooks

8/23/2011 The Power of Six (I Am Number Four) By Pittacus Lore

BARE YOUR SWORD

Cooking Ice and Fire

TV and Movies

Eureka Cancelled

Six more for THRONES

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Spoilers Imminent)

EMAILS

Veronica,

I would like to urge you to listen to Little Fuzzy with an open mind. The story is neither misogynistic, nor racist and I think that you may just find it delightful. Piper's work, like that of Asimov and Heinlein, is a product of the 60's. The characters smoke and drink martinis. True, there aren't many female leading characters. The lead female character is named Ruth and she is no secretary. She is a powerful lawyer and central to the plot. For the early 1960s I'd say this was fairly progressive.

The cast of human characters is also fairly diverse racially and culturally. Piper envisioned a universe that was not America-centric and numerous characters have Muslim or Hindi names or were the products of interracial marriage. By the standards of the day, this would be considered very progressive.

What might throw you is the fact that the story is indeed dated. The good guys and bad guys are pretty well defined and protagonist Jack Halloway is not flawed in the way that people expect a good character to be. He's something like an old cowboy, I suppose. Some of the technology is humorously dated -- he has to run his movie film through a portable processing lab, for example.

The story addresses some very deep social issues, mainly what constitutes humanity. How do we decide when to confer human rights to non-humans?

This book was the first sci-fi novel I read as a kid. The gateway drug, one could say. I've been hooked ever since.

Side note: You'll remember that during the live interview with David Gerrold at DragonCon last year, he mentioned that he had originally called his creatures Fuzzies but had to change the name to Tribbles because of the H.Beam Piper novel. Also, much of Piper's work is available for free as it has slipped into the public domain.

Anyway, I had to speak up for one of my very favorite authors. Thanks for your awesome podcast. I hope to see you guys again at DragonCon this year.

-Rick Parker

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Colleen, Josh, Nathanael, Dave, AJ, Steve, Mark, Rasputin, Ryan, Keith, Emma, Doug, Otto, Lou, T.K. Kenyon, Sam, Jonathan, Su-min, Hector, Laurie, Kevin, Robert and Elinor.

BOOK CHECK-IN

A Dance with Dragons

About Jon Snow

The Maesters speculation

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #71 - A Dance with Dragons Wrap-up

S&L Podcast - #70 - A Dance with 50-70 Percent of the Dragons

We're not done with the old George R.R. Martin book just yet, but we actually got a chance to see the guy in person, and met some of you folks too!  And ate Mexican Food! We have no complaints about life now. Except for the series Alphas

QUICK BURNS

Stannis and Melisandre cast for GAME OF THRONES

Davos joins THRONES

Tad Williams talks to George R.R. Martin

Pottermore launches competition to select beta users

Alastair Reynolds to pen DOCTOR WHO novel

Attack the Block makes fighting aliens cool again

World Science Fiction Travel Fund

CALENDAR

8/2/2011 The Diviner by Melanie Rawn

8/2/2011 Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

8/9/2011 The Magician King: A Novel by Lev Grossman

BARE YOUR SWORD

A Dance with Dragons > Loss of Focus (I just don't care anymore)

Finished Series (read last two or three posts

TV and Movies

Alphas, more like Al-Blahs

Falling Skies is on (Spielberg produced)

Harry Potter 7 Part 2 (spoilers?)

BOOK CHECK-IN

A Dance with 50%-70% of the Dragons

EMAILS

I don't know if you talked about this before, but it always irks me that you're using percentages when talking about how far along you are in an ebook. Perhaps you should solicit suggestions for a word that defines an ebook page in your forum. Here's my suggestion:

Fage |fāj|
noun
a page in an ebook reader or ebook application of arbitrary size. I'm currently on fage 364 of 1,663 in The Wise Man's Fear iBook. ORIGIN early 21st century: from English fake page.

Cheers,
uv.

---------------

Hi Tom and Veronica!

I was wondering if you were planning to have another Sword and Laser meet up in Atlanta during DragonCon?

From Jenny C.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Gary, Andy, Fattius, Clifford, Jay, Michelle, Gabriel, Mike, Tom, Chaines72, Jeremy, Dustin, Austin, Roger, Karen, William, Skip, Chris, Paul, Nathaniel, Andrew, Max, Antti, Ewan, Michael, Alyssa, Trike!

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

S&L Podcast - #70 - A Dance with 50-70 Percent of the Dragons