S&L Podcast - #373 - Generation Sword & laser

We’ve got picks from librarians and the public domain! Plus we’re excited for Gideon the Ninth and we have our final thoughts on the January pick, In the Company of Others.

Direct download here!

QUICK BURNS

Trike:
Some SFF books entering the public domain this year:

The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
The Land That Time Forgot and Tarzan and the Ant Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Dream by H.G. Wells
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish

Tamahome: Netflix making a Witcher anime film

From NotDara (aka Jan): At Sundance premiered (another) movie re-imagining Peter Pan - this time with Alice in Wonderland thrown in for good measure: Come Away

Directed by Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt, Brave) Angelina Jolie and David Oyelowo play the parents of siblings Alice, Peter and David who imagine grand adventures playing in the woods outside their country home in Victorian-esque England until...

A trailer can be found here

Reviews seem to be mixed so far but the people involved (including Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michael Cain) make me interested despite the idea not being exactly new anymore.

Seth: The librarians made their 2019 genre book picks. Here's the full "Reading List:"

That list includes runners-up and read-alikes for the winners from all genres.

In sci-fi they picked: A Memory called Empire by Akady Martine
In fantasy they picked: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

BARE YOUR SWORD

Tamahome: .@swordandlaser "read all the hugo nom's" solution @readingenvy

Benedict says: Why oh why can’t we just have a weekly S&L? I can’t wait so long between each episode. Maybe it’s their voices... Hey Tom, set up a group chat once a week. Me, you and Belmont. We can just kick it? @swordandlaser :joy: #BooksYo

Hello to @alterjess, @LinzDreams, and @BookishRabbit0 for letting Cat Valente know you all found out about her books through Sword and Laser! So happy you're enjoying her work!


BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

February Pick
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Book briefing

FINAL THOUGHTS
In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda

S&L Podcast - #372 - Hmmm... hmmm.

We’ve got Hugo nominations open! And a new Heinlein novel. I mean “new” to everybody but him, we guess. Plus, we kick off In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Chamisul Soju

Veronica: 2 month old Yellow Tail Chardonnay

QUICK BURNS

terpkristin: Hugo nominations are open. I created a thread, but here's the key info: "The deadline for nominations is 13 March 2020 at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time (2:59 am Eastern Daylight Time, 06:59 Irish time, and 8:59 pm 14 March 2020 New Zealand time). Although members of Dublin 2019 can nominate, only members of CoNZealand will be eligible to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners of the 2020 Hugo, Lodestar and Astounding Awards and the 1945 Retro Hugo Awards."

Jan: I don't know if this is something for the Quick Burns, but I found this story - that's more about the business side of being an author - quite interesting...

Soooo, Andy Weir revealed in a refreshingly open and honest post on Faceboook that since January 1, 2020 the available audiobook for The Martian isn't read by R.C. Bray anymore but Wil Wheaton. The reason is that the old contract with the previous publisher Podium Publishing expired and Audible made a better offer for the audiobook rights, so Andy sold the rights to them. And Audible and Podium sadly didn't reach an agreement on the price of the existing recording, so Audible re-recorded it with Wil. So sadly the old version seems to have vanished, but we do have a new one that's hopefully just as good! (Although I still seem to be able to listen to the old version in my Audible library)

Tamahome: Locke & Key Netflix trailer!

John (Taloni) Two new book releases:

* Invisible Library series book 6, "The Secret Chapter," by Genevieve Cogman.

* Wayward Children Series Book 5, Come Tumbling Down, by Seanan McGuire

TRP: Over several weeks last summer I would cycle home through Trinity Church Square in Southwark, noticing that they were filming something set in the 19th Century.I just discovered that this was filming for the upcoming Joss Whedon TV series The Nevers It is about a group of Victorian women in London with special powers.

Jan: Hulu has ordered an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti Series. The adaptation will be co-written by Okorafor herself alongside Stacy Osei-Kuffour from the Watchmen series.

Jan: The 2020 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees have been announced.

Louie: There is a "new" Robert A. Heinlein novel coming out, March 24, 2020.
The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes

BARE YOUR SWORD

HOGFATHER, Terry Pratchett. The master of “tell all the truth but tell it slant” has DEATH explore the true meaning of a holiday and the importance of fantasy and belief. Also, everything is better with giant flying hogs. @swordandlaser

@swordandlaser Happy New Year. Thank you for another year of Lord & Swasery Goodness.

From Rob: Here's the final summary from the S&L World Builders group:
We had a total of 26 people who donated via our team, 4 anonymously.
We totaled $4,263.10 in member donations, plus another $1,212.60 in matching donations for a grand total of $5,475.70!

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

In the Company of Others by Julie E. Czerneda

Book briefig