S&L Podcast - #88 - Titillate the Audience

The wine sort of gets to Veronica and she says some outrageous things, but not nearly as outrageous as what's going on in Rule 34.  What up with that? Ah well. If it's not Scottish it's crap.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

V: 2005 Toasted Head Cabernet Sauvignon 

T: 2009 Les Portes de Bordeaux

QUICK BURNS

Distrust That Particular Flavor: William Gibson's long-overdue essay collection

Photos from the first science fiction convention, 1937 

Science Fiction’s predictions for the year 2012 

Beyond the Wall exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

CALENDAR 

BARE YOUR SWORD

Sexist Fantasy Book Covers 

Who would you pick to make first contact? 

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

WB Sets Up ‘Ready Player One’ Rewrite From Eric Eason - Thanks Kev!

Masterpiece Mystery! - new Sherlock Holmes 

BOOK CHECK-IN

First Impressions of Rule 34

Scottish accent 

EMAIL

I may be old fashioned, but I have a pretty hard distinction between reading and listening.  I have listened to quite a few books but I always stumble over saying that I ""read"" the book.  I always say I ""listened to"".  
Yet, when I listen to S&L, it seems like you interchange these terms.  Tom has mentioned that he is ""x"" hours in to a book, does that mean that he is not reading it but listening to it?  Is there / should there be a distinction between these two mediums?  If I listen to a podcast, can I say I read it?  What if it had a transcript but I listened to the podcast?  Would it count then?

I recently finished reading The Hunger Games, which I did on the Kindle Fire.  I don't have an issue with digital books; actually I found out that I prefer it.  I recently heard 2 Jim Butcher books, which I also enjoyed.  However I would not say that I read the Butcher books or state that I listened to The Hunger Games.  
Am I goofy on this or do others have the same reaction?

Thank you,
Steven K

---

Hey guys, 
Just started listening to you guys recently and I like what I hear. I am impressed by how many books you guys can read so quickly. 

I do have a question for you. Most of my ""reading"" is done through audible.com and just made a startling discovery!!! My audible library is made up of ALL male authors. Each one is great and I am not lacking in Genre diversity, only in gender diversity. Being Female myself, it would be nice if my library would reflect that. So, with the exception of Anne McCaffrey ( i have plenty of her paperbacks), what female authors would you recommend? Spy thrillers is my favorite genre, but, I will take anything in the science fiction or fantasy novels. Classics are welcome too!! Please help before someone accuses me of being a sexist!! 

MR

Veronica's Answer: Laurie R. King, Gail Carriger, Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin

Tom Adds: Andre Norton, Ursula K. LeGuin

---

Hey Tomronica and Veronitom! Just thought I'd ramble at you for a bit. Where to start? I've been listening to your podcast for a couple of weeks now and I love it! I remember someone making the comment about the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson being similar in his books. There's a good reason for it. All his books are in the same universe and each is a ""shard"" as he puts it.

I have a couple of book suggestions. On Basilisk Station by David Weber. It's the first book in the Honor Harrington series. Also Live Free or Die by John Ringo. It's the first book in the Troy Rising trilogy and they are all hilarious! You can get this book and all the others from the publisher Baen for free. I have no idea how that is pronounced.

I have a leftover gift membership to Audible and I have no one to give it to. I thought you guys could use it for a contest. The offer expires February 28th. All I need is the email address of the winner. Have doing everything you are doing!

Michael

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

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ADDENDUMS 

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Best Sellers.

For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook, to give you a chance to try out their service.

For a free audiobook of your choice go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.  

S&L Podcast - #88 - Titillate the Audience

S&L Podcast - #87 - Kick-off Rule 34 by Charles Stross

It's a quick episode to kick off our new book selection, Rule 34 by Charlie Stross.  We find we have a lot in common with Mr. Stross. And yes Rule 34 is the meme you're thinking it might be.

QUICK BURNS

2012 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award Nominating Ballot

CALENDAR

BOOK KICK-OFF

Rule 34 by Charles Stross

Charles Stross

We'll wrap it up on Feb. 13th.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Ian, Robert, Eric, Liam, Walker, Michelle, Tanvir, Brad, Javier, Martin, Michael, David, Adrienne, Noomniman, Joe

New email address! feedback@swordandlaser.com

S&L Podcast - #87 - Kick-off Rule 34 by Charles Stross

S&L Podcast - #86 - Elantris Wrap-up

Veronica is on a "cleanse".  I think she may have suffered from the sheod and just doesn't want to admit it. But we review some of the best books of 2011, look at some hot new ones coming out soon, and wrap-up our final thoughts on Elantris.

QUICK BURNS

George R. R. Martin posts excerpt from Winds of Winter

The Wertzone Awards 2011

The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Comics Of 2011

THE WHEEL OF TIME is completed

Empire State: a phildickian noir detective/superhero/pocket universe novel

CALENDAR

The Ultimate Guide to January’s Science Fiction and Fantasy!

BARE YOUR SWORD

Hobbit eggs

What Else Are You Reading - January 2012

Sword & Laser Anthology

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

The Making of “The Hobbit” — Part Five

BOOK WRAP-UP

Elantris

Check in on 1Q84

EMAIL

Hey,

Can't sleep so listening to S&L and you guys are talking about the interminable 1Q84 and I just had to ask if you're listening at 1X or 2X? I've got a post coming up about how 2x saved my sanity and makes me impatient with normal speaking humans so would love to hear how you listen to audiobooks and podcasts.

Have a Merry!

Jason D.

---

Hello Tom and Veronica.
I wanted to let you guys know that the whole series of the chronicles of narnia is available for free in audio for at this link.

The best thing is that it has the authorization from CS Lewis State, so download for the win!

Love the podcast. Keep up the good work.

Yannis from Chicago

---

Veronica and Tom,

I read an interesting post:

Lovecraft’s racism & The World Fantasy Award statuette, with comments from China Miéville

It's an interesting account of accepting an award when the name on the award is that of a blatant racist.,p> What are your thoughts on this? How could anyone take any pride in accepting an award with Lovecraft's (or, for that matter, Hitler's or Stalin's) name on it. I know that I'd find it hard to have my name associated with anything ""Lovecraft"".

Excellent shows. I'm definitely a "laser" guy and I eagerly await each laser-centric read.

Mike from Fremont

NEW MEMBER HELLOS
Chad, Meripen, Richard, Charlie, Blaine, Chad, Russell, Casey, Drew, Chris, Aloha, Lorie, Jason, Jim, Nels, Kerry, Kdiggity, Raymond, Brad, Daniel, Alex, Brianna, Danny, Lee, Ray, Norman, Nathan, Dave, Ryan, Jolea, John, Cap'n Jack, Ryan, Chris, Brian, Rachel, Chuck, eHawk, Marcus, Shannon (Morse! Snubsie!!), Vid, Matthew, Mike aka mezmo, Khalil

S&L Podcast - #86 - Elantris Wrap-up

S&L Podcast - #85 - Bookmark this

We find out Lev Grossman's picks for the best SFF of the year, as well as welcome a new speculative fiction mag to the scene and review good things to use as a bookmark.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Veronica: 2008 Legón Ribera del Duero Roble
Tom: 2009 Les Portes de Bordeaux

QUICK BURNS

Fired Up: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fantasy

SFSite reports The Center for the Study of Science Fiction (CSSF), in association with the University of Kansas, will launch James Gunn’s Ad Astra, an online resource for authors, scholars and all those who are interested in speculative fiction in the summer of 2012.

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

What Else Are You Reading - December 2011 Edition

What do You Use as a Bookmark?

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Worst movies you've paid to watch on the bigscreen

BOOK CHECK-IN

Elantris

1Q84

EMAIL

Hi Tom and Veronica,

On the last S&L I listened to you were talking about Roy Dotrice recording A Feast for Crows to complete his narration of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Veronica mentioned that she had been lucky enough to have the same narrator in all of the multi-book series she has read via Audible. That is great as I can attest from much experience to how disconcerting that can be. I am legally blind, and as such can download digital or borrow cassette audio books from the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. (http://www.loc.gov/nls/) This is an awesome service that I have been using for over 30 years. Yes I used to borrow records. While they also try and use the same narrators within series, the problem is I am not a patient man. Since they do their own recordings new titles often take a good while to show up on the service. When you guys recommend a series that has been around for a while I will often start reading if via the NLS, but then I just can't wait when the newest edition comes out. Then I find myself turning to Audible for my fix. This happened recently with A Dance with Dragons, and I am now looking at my credits trying to decide if I should get the latest in the Kingkiller Chronicles series. The problem is it takes me probably 25 of the book to get over the difference in narrator's interpretation of the characters.

Sorry this is longer than I had anticipated, but I just wanted to weigh in on the issue and let you know about the NLS in case you weren't already aware of it and have other handicapped listeners who might be able to take advantage of it.

-Steve

----

After listening to the two of you on some of your more recent podcasts and discovering that you also like games, I thought you might be interested in a five minute documentary that my daughter did as a grade 12 media project. It's based on the community of gamers at my store ""The Sentry Box"". We have about 7000 SF&F titles as well as the games which is why I thought of you. Since you are in the warm south, I figured you might be interested in what we do in the cold Canadian north in Calgary for fun.

I actually had nothing to do with anything in the video which is probably why it turned out so well. She just posted it and has had 500 views in four days so I'm pretty impressed and in awe of her skills.

Keep up the great work.

Gordon Johansen

-------

Hey Tom and Veronica,

I know you were both on the mailing lists for the GoT press kits when the series debuted, but I haven't heard you mention anything about the DVDs. My husband is a film & TV critic and he brought home a big box o' swag today, so with his permission, I thought I'd share some unboxing pics.

Here's a link to the whole set on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alterjess/sets/72157628490860895/

In the box:

House Baratheon seal & sealing wax
DRAGON EGG
House Baratheon notecards
press photos
DVD of first ep

I don't know if everyone got House Baratheon, or if HBO made up kits for other houses as well - I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to see a stag instead of a direwolf or dragon on the outside of that box.

(DVDs are on sale March 6, by the way, though it doesn't say so anywhere in the press materials!)

Love the show (awww, now I feel like I'm emailing you back at BOL),

Jessica of House HOLY CRAP I HAVE A DRAGON EGG ON MY DESK

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Martin, Alan, Paul, Seth, John, Vyktor, Amy, Therazor, Thomas, Andrew, Eric, Pete, Joseph, Imogen, Jacqueline, Natalie, Gary, Keith, January!

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 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 - #85 - Bookmark this

S&L Podcast - #84 - Metric is for SciFi, Imperial is for Fantasy

We discuss the meaning of religion in Elantris, whether 1Q84 is boring or not, and why Ray Bradbury is so darn crotchety.

QUICK BURNS

Roy Dotrice records new edition of FEAST FOR CROWS audiobook

Rudy Rucker's autobiography: Nested Scrolls

Fahrenheit 451 becomes e-book despite author's feelings

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Elantris - Anyone else feel guilty?

Elantris - Favorite POV

Units of Measure in Fantasy

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Westeros: Total War needs some help

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 trailer

Lost Doctor Who Episodes Surface With Chumblies, Fish People

BOOK CHECK-IN

Elantris

1Q84

EMAIL

Hello Veronica and Tom,

I have been a long time listener to FrameRate on the TwiT network and have only recently been listening to The Sword and Laser, episode number 82 to be precise. Both this and the later episode have been enjoyable to listen to whilst on long plane journeys and idle time whilst building booths and trade shows. I must admit I finished the Elantris book in a few days and agree with Veronica when she stated this has a first book feel to it. Towards the end I found Sarene to be slightly grating and almost put the book down, but I am glad I pushed through the last twenty or so pages.

I was wondering if you had a few seconds to answer a question so I may learn from people possessing greater knowledge than I? I find myself with a two week break over Christmas and I was wondering if you could suggest any major series I could start getting into? (I have never read the Mistborn, the Way of Kings or Games of Thrones series, but really enjoyed the Dark Tower books.)

I hope you manage to find sometime during your busy schedules to answer my question and I look forward to the next episode.

Kind Regards,

Wilton

---

Did you guys see this? A grad student of mine sent me the links and I though Tom in particular might enjoy it:

Part 1

Part 2

-- Dr. Timothy R

---

Veronica and Tom, I wanted to reach out to you guys and let you know about our e-zine Flagship. Every other month (soon to be every month) for the last fifteen months we've put out an anthology of positive science fiction and fantasy short stories in both electronic text and audio formats. We were recently featured in Wired magazine's Geekdad blog and are looking for more places to get the word out about what we're doing.

-- Scott Roche

CALLS

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Chris (Cogitator X), Harm, Kieran, Tim, Urg, Dave, Emma, Brandon, Armando, Kristin, William, Darren, Michael, Marissa, Joe, Jon, Quinn, Chris, Dana, Stephen, Diego, Brandon, Jonathan, Chrys, Alex, Ruth, Shaun, Rob, Melissa, Patrik, Dirk, Link, Leslie, Tom, Peter, Amanda, Mel, Trey, Harry, Bob, Mecque (muh-kay), Kelly, Jack, Charles, Gary, Glenn, Codered, Bryan, Jonathan.

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 - #84 - Metric is for SciFi, Imperial is for Fantasy

S&L Podcast - #83 - Lady Lair

We bid adieu to one of the great fantasy writers of all time, bit off more than we can read, and learn how to pronounce Elantris properly.  Sort of. Also we rename Veronica's Lady Cave. 

QUICK BURNS

Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011
Science fiction author Anne McCaffrey dies at 85
First woman to win a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.

Tailchaser’s Song Animated Feature

Norwegian bookseller begins selling e-books on memory cards, for some reason

Martin Fan Letter in Fantastic Four Comic

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Why do people write fantasy?

Biting off more then you can read

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Skyrim, the black hole of time

Neil Gaiman On The Simpsons

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 behind-the-scenes vid
A first look at GAME OF THRONES Season 2

BOOK CHECK-IN

The Elantris Portal on Brandon Sanderson's website

Sanderson's Female Protagonists

Early thoughts on 1Q84

EMAIL

Hello! My name is Sean Hollenhors and I work at a bookstore in Salem, OR (The Book Bin). I'm a regular Sword & Laser listener and heard you mention collecting first edition hardcovers. We recently revamped our rare book room and put out a plethora of new signed, first edition and rare hard covers. I'm attaching some photos to show off the space as well as some of the titles we have. Give me holler if there are titles you're having trouble finding...we might be able to help! We have an ever expanding selection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books.

Cheers!
--Sean
The Book Bin

---

Hey fellas, love the show, I adore you guys.

So I totally missed the release of Christopher Paulini’s final book of the Inheritance series 10 days ago. It was totally off my radar. I couldn’t believe you guys hadn’t mentioned it because it’s, like, the 2nd biggest fantasy release this year (by biggest, I mean commercial sales). So I went back and listened to the last 3 podcasts and realized it was never mentioned in any of the upcoming release calendar announcements. Apparently it was off your radar too.

Now, I’m pretty certain you guys aren’t some kind of fantasy snob elitist hipsters that dismissively blow off commercial juggernauts for more underground indie stuff. Perhaps you just didn't care much for the other books in the series. To me they’re a bit meh, but still quite enjoyable. Maybe the Eragon movie abomination left you emotionally so scarred that discussion of the upcoming book in the series would dredge up too many horrible memories. Whatever the case, I would’ve thought that you’d at least mention the thing. After all, talking about fantasy books is like, your job ;o) ß this is a very tongue in cheek winky smiley, FYI.

david C

Voicemail from Jenny! She tells us about a cool podcast hosted by Brandon Sanderson at Writing Excuses.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Nadine, Duncan, John, Kendrick, Jason, Al, Isaiah, Roman, Robert, Sarah, Mary, Ed, Michel, John Paul, Justyna, Chip, Davis, Austin, Mitch, Beelissa, Brian, Eric A., Ryan, Lexy, Martin, Joey, Fiona, L.S., Nicholas, Suhail, Joe, Chris, David, Phil, Brandon, Michal, Kim, Tora, Ryan, Gresst, Claudio, Scott, Kendra, Lloyd, Mike, Kurt, Stephen, Michael, Matthew, Andres, Chris, Matt, Luke, Scott, Graham, Paul, Morgan, Chris, Brett, David, Colin, Shawn, Lore, Terry, Nick, David, Malachi, Azizul, Zaid, Graham!

S&L Podcast - #83 - Lady Lair

S&L Podcast - #82 - On Fire

This week we talk about the newest eReader from Amazon, as well as why we hold on to those old paper books, and we wrap-up Reamde (spoiler alert!) and kick off a new book!

QUICK BURNS

Kindle Fire is out! - our thoughts on e-readers

Keeping Physical Books in a Digital Age

Fiction can possibly alter personality

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Did you list past reads when you joined Goodreads?

Biting off more then you can read

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Everything You Missed in the Hunger Games Trailer: 40 Awesome Images!

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Tentative Finish Date: January 2

BOOK WRAP-UP (Kind of)

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

EMAIL

Hi Tom & Veronica,

A few weeks ago, Ian Tregillis wrote an interesting blogpost about the upcoming publication of his second book "The Coldest War". Here's the link to his blog for the full story.

To sum it all up, he announced that the audiobook would be released on December 20, 2011 on audible.com. So I thought we could add it the calendar. For the ebook and ""dead-tree"" editions however, we will have to wait until June or July 2012. - Nicolas

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Nadine, Duncan, John, Kendrick, Jason, Al, Isaiah, Roman, Robert, Sarah, Mary, Ed, Michel, John-Paul, Justyna, Chip, Davis, Austin, Mitch, Beelissa, Brian, Eric A., Ryan, Lexy, Martin, Joey, Fiona, LS, Nicholas, Suhail, Joe, Chris, David, Phil

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audible.com/NGP

S&L Podcast - #82 - On Fire

S&L Podcast - #81 - Elephant paper

Is Neal Stephenson fantasizing revenge?  How does Patrick Norton read so preternaturally fast? Can you really make paper out of elephant dung?  All these questions and more exlpored on this episode of Sword and Laser.

QUICK BURNS

Art of the Hobbit: Never-Before-Seen Drawings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Terry Pratchett on Snuff

Mark Charan Newton's THE REEF released as an ebook

10 Debut Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels That Took the World by Storm

The Victorian Hugos: 1885
The Victorian Hugos: 1886

CALENDAR 

BARE YOUR SWORD

1Q84 paper texture

Reamde : Why terrorists?

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Grimm - the other fairy tale show

The 1986 infomercial for the Neuromancer movie that never was

BOOK PICK

Vote for the next book!

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Sam, Sheala, Jared, Michael, Bree, Kristin, Kodai, Tracy, Reuben, Christina, Mark, Joshua, Chip, Everitt, Emma (aka Liliy), Jonathan

S&L Podcast - #81 - Elephant paper

S&L Podcast - #80 - All Hallow's Read

We wrap up Ready Player One, give away a Kindle, get psyched up for NaNoWriMo, and discuss whether virtual worlds will lead to the decline of cvilization. Ready Player One spoiler's ahead!

QUICK BURNS

These Are the Greatest Geek Books of All Time, Readers Say

WINNERS: 2011 World Fantasy Awards and Lifetime Achievement Winners

CALENDAR

See what's coming up.

Sean sent in an email and an MP3 with some books to add to the calendar.

Hey T&V,

Here are a few upcoming books that would make interesting additions to the calendar:

15 November - Ten Billion Days and a Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse

13 December - Spice and Wolf Novel 5 by Isuna Hasekura

24 January - Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel by Mizuki Nomura

BARE YOUR SWORD

Virtual Reality and the end of Civilization

Was I-rok underused, or overused?

All Hallow's Read

TV, Movies and video games

James Cameron's Fantastic Voyage is a doomed 'love story'

WILD CARDS optioned for a movie

BOOK Wrap-up

Ready Player One

Giveaway Announcement? Winner! Icelord!

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Casey, Amanda, Michael, Ian, Erik, Scotty, MonkeyButler, Michael, Michael, Alan, Rich, Ben, Noel, Jay, NCGrimbo, Robert, Micah, Philip, Vaugh, Andy, Zach, Stephen, Nathaniel, Domenico, Ken, Joshua, Sean, Matthew, Bill, Kyle (aka Khet), Nick, Eric, Erica, Ed, Quasar, Richard, Jon and Maxwell!

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 - #80 - All Hallow's Read

S&L Podcast - #79 - Sell me this Doctor

Wherein Tom decides to spend $1,000 on an Alastair Reynolds book, Veronica decides to become an author, and we remember "that comedian". It's a chatty episode, a little longer than some have been, but we hope you find it chock full of goodness.

QUICK BURNS

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd Edition) goes live

Agatha H and the Airship City: Girl Genius book is a cross between a comic and a prose novel

Cover art for BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH by Alastair Reynolds --- Tom's excited about this series

SF Authors Predict Computing's Future

CALENDAR

Oct. 18 2011
Aloha from Hell, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Oct. 20 2011
The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding
Oct. 25 2011
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 
Oct. 27 2011
The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Initiate’s Trial by Janny Wurts
Nov. 8 2011
The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson
Stands a Shadow by Col Buchanan
Endurance, Jay Lake (Tor)

Get the full calendar

BARE YOUR SWORD

Neal Stephenson - Feminist?

Siri brings nerd humor to iPhone

NaNoWriMo 2011

TV and Movies

Sell me on Dr. Who

Who watched The Walking Dead?

Giveaway Announcement

Write a pitch for a NaNoRiMo story, we'll pick a winner randomly from this thread. You have until October 31st to post, and you could win a Kindle!

EMAIL

Tom and Veronica,

Every once in a while Tom mentions that he's always looking for books. I've also come to the conclusion from a few subtle hints that have been dropped here and there that he's a baseball fan. So I'd like to add the following to Tom's reading/listening queue (as the Audible version of this is a fine performance: Summerland by Michael Chabon, winner of both a Hugo and a Pulitzer (not too shabby and a thoroughly uncommon combination). YA fantasy (though as a middle-aged geek, I enjoyed the heck out of it as well) about trans-dimensional travel, elves, dwarves, magic, good, evil, and baseball. Not just baseball, but baseball as a metaphor for life.

Who knows, it might even be an excellent selection for S&L.

Love the podcast, even though I can't always keep up on the reading.

Yours in geekdom,

George Van Wagner, occasionally known as GVDub in various places on teh intarwebs.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Dave, David, Louise, Mike, Amir, Jason, Ben, Cappy, Rebecca, Gregory

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 - #79 - Sell me this Doctor

S&L Podcast - #78 - I fixed it!

It's time for SciFi writers to get up and help science, according to Neal Stephenson. We also seem to have had the idea of starting a wiki for Ready Player One.  Now if we only had the energy to do it.  And one broken link gets two podcast hosts into an epic battle of fixing.

QUICK BURNS

Science fiction writers have a job, and it’s time to do it, says Neal Stephenson

TV and Movies

Ready Player One to become a movie?

Downton Abbey

Game of Thrones casting: Ygrette

CALENDAR

Oct. 18 2011

Aloha from Hell, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager)

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Oct. 20 2011

The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding

Oct. 25 2011

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 

The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

BARE YOUR SWORD

Steve Jobs/James Halliday

Virtual Online Schools .. Why not?

Play Ready Player One online (quest spoilers)

BOOK CHECK-IN

Looks like we'll wrap up Ready, Player ONe either next week or the week after. Which would you rather?

And Tom gives a quick review of The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

EMAILS

Hi, I just discovered your podcast and I'm listening from the first episode. It's full of geeky goodness and I've enjoyed every episode so far. However, I discovered that the MP3 for podcast 25 is unavailable. Would you be able to check the link in your spare time or perhaps send the MP3 via email?

Thanks,

Chris

____________

Macrologia: @Veronica I think that, whenever on @swordandlaser, you should be referred to as Deathstalker Commander by @acedtect.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Jim, Franck, Wes, Corey, Garrett, Gordon, Ramon, Anthony!

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 - #78 - I fixed it!

S&L Podcast - #77 - Ready Player One and Reamde Kick-off

It's an episode chock full of twists and turns with an incredible ending you won't see coming. Unless you've listened before. We end with the email address. But HOW do we get there? Well for one, we talk about video games as storytelling. For another we kick off Ready Player One and Reamde as our new books. And finally..... well that would be a spoiler.

QUICK BURNS

FLOWCHART: Navigating NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Ursula K. Le Guin has a brand new reason to be scared of immortality

The Top 10 Books Lost to Time

CALENDAR

10/4/2011

Salvations Reach by Dan Abnett

Infidel, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)

10/7/2011

Heirs of the Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky

10/11/2011

The Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge (Tor)

Snuff, Terry Pratchett (Harper Collins)

The Cold Commands, Richard K. Morgan (Del Rey)

10/18/2011

Aloha from Hell, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager)

10/20/2011

The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding

10/25/2011

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 

PS The calendar is now available on the website.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Most accessible Stephenson book?

Games as Storytelling
Jason from Bethesda comments

TV and Movies

The Enders Game movie puts out casting calls for 10 characters — including Ender!

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 promo

BOOK Kick-Off

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

EMAILS

Hey Veronica and Tom,

The reason I'm writing is because after 2 years, I finished my 3rd book, first fiction, a novella titled Trapped in My Zombie Body. The cover is being designed now, and I will have it going out digitally in mid-October, paperback in November. Moreover, I'm donating 50% of royalties to Child's Play Charity.

Synopsis:
Imagine your body no longer listened to you. You were trapped, experiencing the world in a new way: without any control over your actions. It's a world filled with sleep deprivation, mind games, and unthinkable acts. Welcome to my world.

By the way, I publish under my legal first name, Mario, rather than my nickname, Andy, just FYI. I look forward to hearing from you guys!

Cheers,
Mario Lurig, aka Andy in Colorado

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

York, Brandon, Kyle, Matt, Joshua, Another Brandon, Lindsey, Rob, Walter, Simon, Esther, Joe, Brian, The Duchess, Adiel, Sophie, Another Joshua

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 - #77 - Ready Player One and Reamde Kick-off

S&L Podcast - #76 - Interview with Tad Williams

Subtitle: Veronica goes "SQUEEE!!!"

Since practically the first moment we discussed doing the book club, Veronica has told me how Tad Williams was the foundation of her fantasy reading history.  Today, we get the pleasure of talking with Tad about what he writes, how he writes, and why he's become the godfather of Sword and Laser.

QUICK BURNS

Congrats to Peter Dinklage!

The Mountain is recast, plus some new villains for THRONES

German student creates an illuminated edition of THE SILMARILLION

AN EVENING WITH NEAL STEPHENSON

CALENDAR

9/20/2011 Reamde, Neal Stephenson
9/20/2011 Goliath, Scott Westerfeld
9/22/2011 The Islanders by Christopher Priest
9/27/2011 Ganymede, Cherie Priest (Tor)
9/27/2011 The Hum and the Shiver, Alex Bledsoe
9/27/2011 The Immorality Engine by George Mann
10/1/2011 Manhattan in Reverse by Peter F. Hamilton

INTERVIEW

Bay Area-based Tad Williams is the author of many outstanding books, including several series, such as Memory Sorrow and Thorn, Otherland, and Shadowmarch. On a personal note, his novel Tailchaser's Song was the book that basically got Veronica interested in fantasy in the first place! Follow him on Facebook!

BARE YOUR SWORD

In your discussion on the use of German in FlashForward, I cringed when you pronounced “jawohl”. It is pronounced like “yah-VOLE”, and is something you would expect to hear on Hogan's Heroes reruns, or in the phrase ""Jawohl, mein Herr!"", but I never heard it in Germany when I lived there for several months in the mid 80's.

I love your podcast,

Kevin Hansen

----

Hi Tom and Veronica,

As promised, here's a small pronounciation lesson for some of the German words that you talked about in the last episode.

If you have any more questions, just ask.

Have a great day and looking forward to the next podcast, Anne.

----

"Sword and Laser" in different languages

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Gantt, AJ, Michael, Joseph, Adam, and Daric!

BOOK PICK

Next time we'll kick off: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. And Reamde, if you're so inclined!

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 - #76 - Interview with Tad Williams

S&L Podcast - #75 - FlashForward Wrap-up

We have a huge calendar to get through.  Some great books are coming out this month! Plus we wrap up Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer and with all the great conversations on Goodreads, we have a lot to say! Also a fruit fly died in the making of this episode.  He is survived by several thousand other fruit flies.

QUICK BURNS

Book Review: The Man Who Found Zero: Early Science Fiction and Weird Fantasy from The Black Cat, 1896-1915

Twitter’s literary superstar, @MayorEmanuel, will tweet a science fiction short story tomorrow

CALENDAR

9/13/2011 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
9/13/2011 Prospero Regained, L. Jagi Lamplighter
9/13/2011 Highest Frontier, Joan Slonczewski
9/13/2011 How Firm a Foundation, David Weber
9/15/2011 War in Heaven by Gavin Smith
9/15/2011 Briarpatch, Tim Pratt
9/20/2011 Reamde, Neal Stephenson
9/20/2011 Goliath, Scott Westerfeld
9/22/2011 The Islanders by Christopher Priest
9/27/2011 Ganymede, Cherie Priest (Tor)
9/27/2011 The Hum and the Shiver, Alex Bledsoe
9/27/2011 The Immorality Engine by George Mann

BOOK WRAP-UP

Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer

Foreign Language Pet Peeves - Anne

Tech in 20 years - Vladimir

Determinism vs. free will - Josh

TV and Movies

World War Z begins filming in Glasgow - Nick

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Kevin

BARE YOUR SWORD

Hi Tom and Veronica,

Hey where do you get the info for the Calendar segment you have? Is it a website? I looked on Goodreads and didn't see anything related to that.

This would be a useful site to bookmark.

Thanks,

Jim
From Boston.

---

Hi Veronica and Tom,

I recently downloaded the .mobi version of United Moon Colonies from archive.org and was saddened by the formatting. The .mobi file kept all the ""United Moon Colonies"" headers and the pages numbers from the original file. The problem is that they must have been treated as plain text when the original file was converted in .mobi and .epub, so now they pop up right in the middle of sentences.

It really bothered me, I'm a bit OCD-ed sometimes : I like things neat. Because of this and the fact that I am not a big fan of pdf reading on the Kindle, I decided to reformat the whole thing to make it more comfortable for me to read. It took a bit of work but I think I straightened it all out. At least I hope I did, although I'm sure there must be a forgotten line break hidden somewhere.

Anyway, I may not be the only one bothered by the archive.org files, so I thought I'd submit these reformatted .mobi and .epub to you so that you may do with them as you please.

As for the cover, I used the one Sean submitted on the Goodreads thread, credit where credit is due :) It would be easy enough to change it back to the original one if needed.

Anyway, I thought it might interest you and might make the reading more enjoyable for other people. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Tom Merritt book to read :)

Keep up the good work.

Nicolas.

United Moon Colonies ePub

United Moon Colonies .mobi

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Matt, Xenphi, Mitch, Jon, Armando, Marc, Craythur, Judy, Cynthia, Jenny, Kevin, George, David, Roy, Carlos, Stephen, Paulo, Andrew, Officer Friendly, Heather and Mike.

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 - #75 - FlashForward Wrap-up

S&L Podcast - #74 - Live at DragonCon with Robert J. Sawyer

Dragon*Con is one of our favorite times of year, and 2011 was no exception! We had the wonderful opportunity to interview Hugo and Nebula-award winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer. This was especially fortuitous, considering we're reading FlashForward for the book club this month (ok... that was no coincidence). 

There are no Quick Burns or Bare Your Swords this week, but thanks to everyone who sent in questions for the interview. Pick up Flashforward at a library or book store near you, and join in on the discussion on Goodreads!

Also, check out previous Dragon*Con interviews, including David Gerrold and Timothy Zahn! 

S&L Podcast - #74 - Live at DragonCon with Robert J. Sawyer

S&L Podcast - #73 - Fuzzy Nation Wrap-up

We're excited about Dragon*Con and our interview with Robert J. Sawyer.  In fact we're picking his book Flashforward as our next read, which we'll kick off next week. This week we wrap-up our last alternate selection, Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi.

QUICK BURNS

Joe Abercrombie and R. Scott Bakker fans needed

Scientifically accurate sf novels with help from NASA

CALENDAR

9/1/2011 Seed, Robert Ziegler (Night Shade Books)
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
9/13/2011 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
9/15/2011 War in Heaven by Gavin Smith
9/20/2011 Reamde, Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)

BARE YOUR SWORD

United Moon Colonies by Tom Merritt

Tamahome and Jenny on Sffaudio

Who's going to Dragon*Con this year?

TV and Movies

And three more roles for THRONES

BOOK Wrap-up

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

Next Book Pick: Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer

EMAILS 

Hey y'all,

Over in Goodreads I don't know if this has been discussed yet, so sorry if it has. I've seen people wonder about using the hide spoiler feature in threads that are clearly marked spoilery from the get go. I think it's still important to hide spoilers so people can decide to what degree they want to get spoilery. Also, perhaps more importantly, thread comments you make will appear in your friends' feeds and they won't be happy campers if a big nasty spoiler appears on their Goodreads home page after you comment on a spoilery thread. Keep up the good work, you guys have a lot of fun doing the show and it's contagious!

thanks,
Philip

-------

Hey Tom and Veronica,

Catching up on podcasts and I heard Veronica say she was interested in a listener's bad theatre experience, so I thought I'd share one I had recently. Like the letter writer, I've also had people wait outside the theatre for me because I've politely asked them to be quiet, but this one take the cake. I copied it from my tumblr, (Zombie Otaku), so I hope you don't mind.

So I decide to leave the house for once and go see one of those moving pictures that are all the rage with the kids today. There is an art house/indy film theatre not far from me that I’ve always intended on frequenting, so last night was the night.

So I arrive, and it’s all old people. Well, older than me. All gray hair, all wearing slacks and weekend plaid. I’m wearing a Ramones shirt and Chuck Taylors, so they of course check their wallets and ask their spouses if they locked the car.

I decide to commit to this place and get a membership. This way I’ll have to go, since I paid extra and I hate not getting my money’s worth. The woman looks pissed off at me, since this means she has to fill out out a card and laminate it. Somehow, she gets through this ordeal.

I go into the theatre, ready to see Midnight In Paris. A contingent of what I assume were lawn bowlers sit down across the aisle and start yelling at each other in Greek, even though they’re sitting beside one another. A man in thick rimmed black glasses glares at them, switches off his iPhone, and storms to a new seat.

I counted lots of thick, black rimmed glasses on guys checking their iPhones.

The movie finally starts. At this point the ancient seats start giving me back spasms. Still, I’m going to enjoy this movie. Twenty minutes in, something flies past the screen.

I look. It flies past the screen again. Then it swoops over my head. The audience all jump.

BATS.

Now I’m not watching the movie. I’m watching bats flying around the place. I count three of them. When they fly close to the projector, their silhouette fills the screen, and I wonder how many us will now be inspired to fight crime as Batman.

Then they start swooping. I can feel one just miss my head, impacting on the chair behind me. It screams, flops around, and takes to the air again. I’m out of my chair, deciding someone should tell management we’re under attack.

But a bat is flying in front of the door leading to the lobby. It’s bouncing back and forth between the walls, getting pissed. Then it flies at me, I duck, and run out into the lobby.

The manager jumps out of his chair in his office. “What’s wrong?”

“Bats are attacking the audience,” I say, because I wasn’t sure what else to say. Do we discuss the decline of art cinema first, then move onto the bat problem?

He looks into the theatre. The bats are flying fast and furious in front of the screen.

“Yeah, I see them,” he says. “They’re early this year.”

So this is normal.

“I’m just worried someone might get bit,” I said,

“Yeah, I hope not,” he replied.

Silence.

“Guess I’ll go back in,” I said.

“Okay,” and he went back to his office.

So in I went. I watched the bats a bit longer, especially when they hung on the screen and screeched. But then they disappeared, and I finally got to watch the film.

Sean Twist

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Carl, Graeme, Boots, Eric, Jess, Alden, William, Karen, Adrienne, Kristin, Chris, Joel, David, Jez, Heather, Scott, Richard, Jason, Matt, Ben, Isla (Eye-LA), Jay.

S&L Podcast - #73 - Fuzzy Nation Wrap-up

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

S&L Podcast - #69 - 100% Dinklage

We're stoked about more than just A Dance with Dragons this week.  The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is going online for free next year! Comic-Con is coming, which means awesome YouTube videos! And we sing a welcome to the newbies in our GoodReads forum.  But you should listen anyway.

QUICK BURNS

George R.R. Martin confirms 'Dunk and Egg Vol I'

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction online and free

All the Coolest Events You Can’t Miss at Comic-Con 2011

CALENDAR

7/19/2011 - Star Wars: Choices of One By Timothy Zahn
7/26/2011 Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) by Jim Butcher
7/31/2011 Troika by Alistair Reynolds
8/2/2011 The Diviner by Melanie Rawn
8/2/2011 Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

BARE YOUR SWORD

A Long Time & a Bad Memory

Tyrion: Chapter 1

From Singularity into La-La Land?

BOOK CHECK-IN

Veronica is at 36%. Tom is significantly behind her.

EMAILS

Starting at about 11:00 in the S&L podcast number 68, Tom said something like, "Those are three book trilogies, there's lots of examples of those. Addams is at least a five book trilogy." All with a straight face. Have fun, Rob

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Don, Don, James, Sarah, Melissa, Jenny, LordofSquirrels, Maranas, Tom, Ricardo, Mike, Dave, Grant, Scott, Nix, Costa, Mario, Peter, Gheric, Robert, Mojo, Ian, Jim, Slowfox, Zach.

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 - #69 - 100% Dinklage