S&L Podcast - #444 - Cut Thieves and Purses

The Hugos are here and lots of very deserving winners. A roguish story bundle. Are TV shows worse than an ending? Our first thoughts on How High We Go in the Dark, and our last thoughts on Rivers of London.

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QUICK BURNS

Iain: Hugo Winners Announced

Jan: Dragon Con has announced the winners for the 2022 Dragon Awards

John (Taloni) SFWA has a story bundle up, theme The Renegades of Tomorrow

CountZeroOr: AMC is doing a new prestige animated series from Ken Liu.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Carin Ruff @carinr

Interesting discussion about Aaronovitch writing a Black protagonist in the latest ep. I confess it had never occurred to me as an issue because the incomparable Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as audio narrator completely displaced the author in my mind."

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Stephen: Moving and books do not go together. I would have liked to have saved my First Editions and signed stuff, but the airline had a 50 Lbs limit on 1 suitcase which shot down that notion. Downside of moving halfway around the world. The upside? A major upgrade in my living standards. (Stephen moved from From Los Angeles to Samut Prakan (Just outside Bangkok) Thailand)

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Endings

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

KICK OFF

How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Amazon

2 Chapters in: I hope the story pays off

Book Briefing

Wrap Up?

Rivers of London (Midnight Riot) by Ben Aaronovitch

Amazon

RoL: Worldbuilding the "real" world

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 - #443 - The Land of MoarTor

We get more Tor now and possibly more Lord of the Rings movies. Plus a nuanced discussion of representation in a book when the author is white.

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WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: San Pellegrino
Veronica: Del Dotto Vineyards

QUICK BURNS

Mal pointed out that a company called Embracer has bought Middle Earth. Specifically, Middle-earth Enterprises, which handles most of the rights to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Jan: Amazon announced that "The Fellowship of the Ring" as read by Andy Serkis will be available for free on its voice-powered devices through October 13, 2022 as a promotion for their new Rings of Power series.
"Just say: 'read The Lord of the Rings Book One'"

Jan: Goodread's Most Anticipated Fantasy & Science Fiction Books of Fall

Jan: Tom Doherty Associates (with it's main imprint "Tor Books") is rebranding as Tor Publishing Group

Jan and Mark both submitted: DragonCon has announced the 2022 Dragon Awards nominees .

Jan: Charlize Theron and Alfonso Cuarón are attached to "Jane", an Amazon Prime "biopic" based on the personal life of Philip K. Dick from Dick's daughter Isa Hackett and told from the perspective of the author's twin sister, who in reality died six weeks after birthy-Horror-2022-Maguire-Susan/pid=9767201?_zs=qMspW1&_zl=AkaV8

BARE YOUR SWORD

Two out of Two Ruths agree, Cruises are great

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth-

The appeal of a cruise, to me, wouldn’t be the ‘being stuck on a boat’ part, but the part where I would get to visit lots of different places without going anywhere (once I’ve travelled to the ship itself). The places I want to visit would all be brought magically within easy reach of my ‘hotel’ room. I think that would be nice.

And Ruth wrote

Same. (and talked about a summer 2020 cruise she had booked that got canceled then added) Maybe one day the stars will align and I’ll get to go on the Writing Excuses cruise around the Caribbean with Mary Robinette Kowal. That would be awesome.Subject: Rivers of London synchronicity

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Thanks for (finally!) picking RoL. Great reason to go back to the beginning of the series and re-listen to the audiobook. In a strange synchronicity, the same day I got to Peter and Nightingale seeking out XXX, this article appeared about the drought in England and how it’s affected the source of the Thames.

Dale

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Beth Mitcham
@MitchamBeth
·
Jul 31
TERRA NULLIUS, Claire C. Coleman. Too depressing at first, but I perked up when I recognized the world-conquering aliens. I mean, everyone was still doomed, but at least there were aliens! Good writing that spawns good thinking = good SF.
@swordandlaser

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

What should Tom pick for September? Tom has to pick the book in the next few days so jump in that Discord with ideas!

Rivers of London (Midnight Riot) by Ben Aaronovitch (Amazon link)

Molly started a great discussion about what folks think of a white CIS male author (Aaronovitch) writing a BIPOC main character (Peter).

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/