S&L Podcast - #245 - Terry Pratchett Helps Us Feel Better
/We're very excited about the debut of our first Sword and Laser Inkshares collection book, The Life Engineered by JF Dubeau. We're a little bummed that Tom forgot to bring more than water to drink. We're super-excited about the Nebula Award nominees. And we were a little bummed at some of the reactions to The Sword of Shannara. But Vickie helped us out with an amazing Terry Pratchett quote, and all was well in Swordandlaserville.
Download file here!
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Water
Veronica: Hot Toddy
QUICK BURNS
The Life Engineered is out today!
Andy (and Tamahome)The Dark Tower movie has a release date! January 13, 2017
Rob: Nebula nominees are out
Nokomis.FL The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have announced that John Hodgman will be Toastmaster at the 2016 Nebula Awards Weekend, the 50th anniversary of the Awards, to be held May 12-15, 2016.
Sandra: Fans of Leigh Brackett can now own "The Book of Stark", a collection of novels and short stories about space adventure Eric John Stark!
BARE YOUR SWORD
"Hi guys - I'm sure I should be more on top of things and post this on Reddit or something. I love the show and am glad to support it on Patreon. I thought you might be interested in a pretty cool fundraiser with a great SciFi twist that I learned about. Geeky Giving (geekygiving.org) is raising money for the Barrow Neurological Institute by getting SciFi writers and artists to create short stories and artwork inspired by the work done at Barrow. In exchange for a small donation, you receive periodic bundles of stories. They just published their first bundle with stories by Mary Robinette Kowal, Karina Cooper, Edward Ashton, and Sierra Dean. I love it when things I love, SciFi, can support not-for-profit organizations. Thanks!
Mitchell"
Recommended Utopian Scifi Novels
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
KICKOFF
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
All The Birds in the Sky Tumblr
WRAP-UP
Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
"I was listening to ep 243 and your discussion about Sword of Shanarra aping LotR. I'm surprised you didn't bring up the following Terry Pratchett quote regarding Tolkien and fantasy:
“J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
– Terry Pratchett, A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction (p. 112)
It has really helped give me perspective when I think a book is too much like LotR. We frequently forget how huge LotR is in shaping all subsequent fantasy.
Vickie"
ADDENDUMS
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