We realise right off the top of the show that we need to start planning for our 100th episode. Soon! We also figure out why SciFi is sometimes better than reality and dish what we thought of The Hunger Games movie. Also: GAME OF THRONES!!!
We're psyched to interview Scott Lynch, who, spoiler alert, is the Scott who gets welcomed in the new member hellos too! Plus we delve into the Ender's Game controversy and pick good audio books for road trips.
EMAIL Hey there! I am an assistant librarian at Parman Library here in San Antonio, TX. I was wondering, since you guys have quite the following, if you could have an option on your site or goodreads site where people can submit their book groups/social clubs for others to search for. For instance, I have a science fiction book group at our library called Escape the Earth! and if it were listed on your site, which gets a lot of traffic from SF fans, it would bring my community closer together in our nerdom. Just a thought… Been enjoying the podcast!
Tyler D. Lutz ---
Hey Tom and Veronica. Congrats on the video show, I'd actually always hoped we'd see a video show (though I always imagined it would have been a TWiT.TV show). Anyway I have a couple of thoughts. 1. You mentioned the video show needing to be pretty strictly PG. Do you feel this is going to have a real impact on the book choices? 2. What's going to happen with Game of Thrones TV discussion? I'd really like you to think about doing a separate small 10-15 minute audioshow after each episode and drop them in the podcast feed. Anyway really looking forward to the video show. Jason (Australia). ---
I know you cant talk about it on sword and laser because of your sponsor but I think people should know about http://librivox.org/ It is a website that is trying to record all public domain books into audio books and then publish them on the web under creative commons. People can volunteer to read books or chapters and upload them back to the site. They are all surprising well done and although not on the same level as paid versions. They are very easy to listen to, unlike computer synthesized voices. I first heard about from the roku channel on the nowhere man's privet channel page http://thenowhereman.com/roku/ I would love to know what you think about it Thanks -Andrew
We're all giddy about our new video show at Geek and Sundry, but we promise there's more to the episode than just that. Though if you have questions about what the video show means, hopefully loads of them are answered right off the top of the show. We also dig into Lies of Locke Lamora (though we don't wrap it up quite yet) and help save SciFi. Literally.
I had the honor of getting to see Tom and Veronica at the WonderCon signing this Saturday. Tom gave me a shirt and I thought it was just an XL when he gave it to me, but was elated to see it was an XXXL when I checked it later. I'm so used to free giveaways being so small on me and most people overlook us big boys. I'm a big fan of all that you and I can't thank you enough.
Literally a Big Fan,
Mike P.
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Tom and Veronica,
I'm very excited about your video podcast, and all teh geek and sundry goodness coming. But I have one concern: Is there a 'what we're drinking' section? If there is no drinking to begin the show, it can't really be an S&L podcast, can it?
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.
We talk about some cool SciFi maps from the US to Westeros tonight. Plus, the Syrah may get to our hosts, but they think they know both why we like heroes, and when it's OK to hate an author's politics but like his story. we also are continually impressed with Terry Pratchett.
I'm very pleased you're currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. I read it about a year ago and immediately followed up with the awesome sequel ""Red Seas Under Red Skies"". It was that book that got me more into the Fantasy genre and as I explored online I found your podcast. I saw this recent post on Scott Lynch's blog regarding some of his early development of the Gentlemen Bastard series and thought it would be interesting to mention on the show:
I found this post particularly interesting as I will be taking part in this years NaNoWriMo, inspired by your attempts last year, and I plan on making extensive notes beforehand.
Keep up the good work.
Matt
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Hi, this is Chris from Poland again. I wanted to mention that the Discworld Reading Order Guide that I maintain and which you mentioned once on the podcast has been updated to version 2.1 and is available on the Discworld Fanatics website. Since you sometimes mention Pratchett, your listeners might want to take a look at the new Guide.
We chat with author and magician Andrew Mayne. And we mean he's actually amagician, not just magical with stories, although also that. Plus we talk about the best ways to sign Kindle books.
Hi, this is Chris from Poland again from the ""No, I fixed it!"" debacle :-P. I'm now all caught up with the podcast. I just graduated from English Studies at the University of Warsaw. I thought I'd send you guys my MA Theis, as it deals with the cyberpunk fiction of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson (the novels "Neuromancer", "Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age").
The Thesis explores the themes of innocence and individualism in American fiction and cyberpunk in particular. Check it out if you're ever bored enough to start reading an academic paper ;-).
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.
Well it's an amazing kick-off to a great fantasy novel, but Tom can't stop himself from embarassing admissions, and Veronica is shocked into speechlessness. So it's that kind of episode.
I've been catching up on a few weeks of podcasts, so feel free to ignore this if you've moved on from the ""is listening to an audiobook really reading?"" issue. My relevant background is that I am a cognitive neuroscientist and an avid audiobook listener (I joined audible.com in 2001...)
Anyway, from a scientific perspective, all the claims that brain handles audio differenetly from the written word are true but entirely meaningless to this debate. The problem is that unless you have some well-formed argument about what a difference in neural patterns signfiies, its meaningless to base any claim by stating simply that the ""brain handles x differnetly from y"". The reason for this is that, at some level, the brain handles nearly everything differently from everything else.
For example, reading aloud and reading silently activate the brain in different ways. As does reading reading in your native tounge vs. a newly learned langauge. Same with braille vs printed words. Or with reading off paper vs. off a computer monitor (neural activity can actually get entrained to the refresh rate). Brain activity in ""fast readers"" can differ from that of ""slow readers."" Kids' brains handle reading differently from adult brains. Brain activity during reading can change following a stroke... And so on. If there is one ""right"" kind of brain activity for reading, there is probably only one person who has ever really read (my money is with Jonathan Franzen….) Point being: saying that brain activity is different when listening vs. ""reading"" tells us nothing particularly useful.
On the other hand, much more meaningful questions could be asked, like: Do people remember the text better when it is read to them vs. when they read it themselves?Are details remembered better?Does the author intent come through better in one medium vs. another? Are people more likely to ""skim"" in one medium vs. another?After some time do people forget how they ""read"" the book? (that is, years afterwards, is the content stored seperately from the delivery method).
These are actually answerable questions and it would be interesting if someone did this research. But I can say from my own experience that there are times when audio is clearly the ""better"" method. One obvious example, is that I know how to pronounce character names and places. Anyway, love the show,
Jordy
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Hi Tom and Veronica,
Love the S&L podcast, keep up to good work.Brandon Sanderson posted a blog entry about the release date of A MEMORY OF LIGHT
As a Wheel of Time fan, I can't wait, hope it doesn't get delayed but i respect the need to finish this off right.
BTW: are my recommendations for an S&L book pick
Sword: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
Laser The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Veronica, thanks for introducing me the Alex Craft series in your new book club, looking forward for more good stuff.
Lastly here is book rec I think you will both enjoy immensely but probably doesn't fit the book club profile, it takes place in a post Zombie outbreak world in which civilization didn't collapse largely thanks to bloggers and the lessons learned from George Romero! the book is called Feed by Mira Grant (Newsflesh Trilogy #1) it's a clever, intelligent book, just look at the cover.
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.
We talk about the importance of scientists and writers partnering up as well as debate the distinction between science fiction and science fantasy. And we wrap up Rule 34 by Charles Stross. Did our opinons turn? Listen and find out.
So the idea started with one of the guys calling the other ""girly-man"". So to keep a fight from starting I gave a quick class on how all males are 50% female do to the X chromosome. I have seen shows where a person goes through hormone replacement therapy as part of their gender change and are shocked by the changes in their personalty. Has there ever been a book where someone ""grew"" a man with two ""Y"" chromosomes? A ""fe"" free male so to say. If not, I am sure it would be a great idea for some book. Part of it sounds like something China or North Korea would to make a super soldier.
If nothing else maybe they could just be put in charge of the House of Representative. (inside joke for Tom and another show)
Signing off from Afgahnistan, SSG Michael Mugler"
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"Hi Tom & Veronica, I heard you talking about the Baen free library on the last episode and wanted to mention that for years Baen included CD's with some of their hardback books that included ebooks versions not only of that book but other Baen books.
I always thought it was a great way to encourage fans to try other authors as well as additional books in the series and Baen encouraged people to share the CD's with friends. A fan has put together an archive of all the CD's online at http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com for those of us who own the Baen hardbacks its an easy way to get all of the CD's content in one place. Since the CD's were distributed freely it appears to be a completely legal way to get a number of free books from Bean that are not available for free in their store.
Not sure if this is show worthy material since I have not heard if Baen has commented on the website either way though it has been mentioned on Penny-Arcade before. Regardless I highly recommend Baen as they are a company who seems to understand the benefits of digital distribution and go treat their customers much better than most publishers with reasonably priced ebooks combo packs and free books. Brandon
P.S. Keep up the great work on the show!!"NEW MEMBER HELLOSScott, Manuel, Brad, Aubrey, Erik, Jeane (pronounced Genie), Ryan, Chris, Bob, Shane, Nick, Stan, Susan, Barry, Jess, Paul, Thomas, Ted, Robbin, Terje (pronounced TARE-yuh), Mira, Mason, Stuart
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.
Do you want to know how to fake being an expert on something geeky? We examine some tips from io9 on folling the geeks, plus Tom explains how he's legally reading a book that won't be sold in the US until the summer. And Veronica has some kind words for John Scalzi. One of those words is boobies.
Sugar Inc. Launches DistrictSugar, their portal for all things Hunger Games
BOOK CHECK-IN
Tom finished Rule 34 - liked it much better the last 2/3 Veronica is about 65% of the way through, is enjoying it much more now as well. Officially wrap-up coming next week.
Veronica is also reading Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn, for Vaginal Fantasy
EMAIL
I have always loved to read, but ten years ago I lost my sight andhave since become a voracious audiobook listener. I use the term“read” when discussing books all the time which has on occasion causedsome to try to correct me by telling me that I did not read the book Ilistened to it. For which I always reply… The eyes are a medium inwhich the brain reads they’re merely a way to input externalinformation not the body part that reads it and yes I understand thatdifferent parts of the brain are used to identify such externalinformation, but in the end it is the brain that reads no matter theway in which one obtains the information. So when a blind person oraudiobook listener says that they’ve read a book it doesn’t matterwhether they used their eyes, ears or fingers because no matter theway they did it it is still their brain that read it.
Love the podcast and keep up the good work!
-Aaron
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Dear Veronica and Tom,
I was catching up on my Sword and Laser listening last night and two of the conversations in the last podcast inspired me to write in with a book suggestion. Another Email mentioned On Basilisk Station, first book in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. We're big Weber fans in my household, and most recently my husband and I have been working through Weber's Safehold Series, which begins with Off Armageddon Reef. In this series Weber has combined his typical Military Sci-fi setting with a Historical setting. There are swords, and yes, there are lasers, though there is no magic (but there are dragons, kinda) so your mileage may vary.
Unfortunately Off Armageddon Reef is not available as part of the Baen Free Library, but it is available on Audible. I've read it and listened to it, and enjoyed it greatly both ways. I know it's not the only book out there to tackle a fantasy styled setting from a sci-fi point of view, but I think it'd be a great way to introduce some David Weber to Sword and Laser.
Thanks as always for the great podcast, I'm excited to see what book you all pick next!
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.
We do it all in this episode, from congratulating grand masters, to debating the powers of the mind, to talking about sexy fantasy. Hopefully that last is not too shocking.
I've enjoyed listening since I picked up on it last fall. Keep up the good work.
On your last podcast, an email mentioned On Basilisk Station, the first book of the Honor Harrington series. You may be interested that infomyth.com has the first ten books of the Honor Harrington series in ebook form available for free download. They are presented in only lit and rtf formats, but since there is no DRM, I converted them to epub using calibre.
Naoki
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Not really feedback, but I love both authors and found the interview really interesting.
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.
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.
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
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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
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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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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!
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.
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
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.
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
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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
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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.
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
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.
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
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Did you guys see this? A grad student of mine sent me the links and I though Tom in particular might enjoy it:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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Macrologia: @Veronica I think that, whenever on @swordandlaser, you should be referred to as Deathstalker Commander by @acedtect.
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