S&L Podcast - #542A - It's a Guy-Fi Thing

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Attack of the clowns, cheese on cheese, brain teeth. We click with Jisoo and learn how to sing Diggy Diggy Hole. We speculate on what Guy-Fi is, and we kick off Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom.

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WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

  • Tom: Chili Mac

  • Veronica: Smashed Carrots

JAN (I MEAN QUICK) BURNS

Any news or announcements:

Jan: Via File770: The 2026 Sidewise Awards have been announced and the Best Long Form Alternate History of the year is Ten Incarnations of Rebellion by Vaishnavi Patel, which according to Goodreads "imagines an alternate version of India that was never liberated from the British" and is "told as ten moments from [the protagonist]'s life that mirror the Dashavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu." The Special Achievement Award went to Ronald D. Moore for bringing alternate history to television through the shows For All Mankind and Star City.

Jan: Via File770: The 2026 Dragon Awards Winners have been announced! Winner in the category Best Science Fiction Novel is Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman. Best Fantasy Novel is Twelve Months by Jim Butcher. And the Best Alternate History Novel Award goes to The Winds of Fate by S.M. Stirling.

Jan: The Rise of LitRPG: Why Everyone Suddenly Wants to Read Numbers Going Up. Reactor has a really interesting look at the rise of LitRPG, and how a genre built around video game mechanics went from niche web fiction to a major force in fantasy publishing. It touches on everything from why LitRPG seems to do so well in audiobook format to how the genre has evolved beyond its internet roots. And don't worry, the article doesn't just focus on the Dungeon Crawler in the room either.

Stephen: The very last Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde, Dark Reading Matter, is set to be released October 6, 2026. It would be nice in celebration to finally pick The Eyre Affair as a Book of the Month.

Scott: The National Book Award for Fiction Longlist is out. As normal, the longlist spans genres, including speculative fiction, as well as works that are hard to categorize. Of note to the Sword & Laser audience, Marlon James, author of previous BotM pick and National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf has a novel on the 2026 longlist.

Mark: Murderbot: The First Graphic Novel by Martha Wells will be Kickstarted! Launches October 15, 2026.

Jan: Via Publishers Weekly: Podium Entertainment—the audiobook publisher of genre fiction and self-published authors that became wider known as the publisher of the first audiobook of Andy Weir's The Martian—has been acquired for $400+ million by private equity firms Flexpoint Ford and Shamrock Capital (yes, the infamous equity firm that feuded with Taylor Swift). Publishers Weekly writes that "As part of the deal, Podium is partnering with the nonprofit Ownership Works to give all employees an ownership stake in the company." So there's that at least.

Jan: Follow Up on the quick burns regarding The Booker Prize longlist for 2026: The End of Everything by M. John Harrison has actually made it to the Booker Prize Shortlist and is now among the 6 finalists!

Jan: "The Bookseller" sees "A special edition Ragnarok" coming this fall! Which just means that there will be a lot of special editions with gorgeous covers and (probably) printed edges for mega fans, from a Limited Deluxe Edition of Rebecca Yarros’ short story collection Threshing Day to new versions of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire! But the article on fall publishing trends (that are apparently mostly but not exclusively Romantasy related) also brought to me a term I didn't know yet - "Guy-Fi"! I still don't know what that is exactly, but it seems to be "Science Fiction for Male Audiences" - who could imagine something like that even exists!

Jan: "The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death" by Helen Marshall has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. From the Jury Citation: "This brilliant literary fantasy plunges the reader into a dark and brutal world of glamour and danger as we follow a young woman and her grandmother in their attempts to tame Death."

Jan: The Guardian has an article on "How to make a bestseller", where the authors come to the shocking conclusion that bestseller success is heavily shaped by marketing - with cover design (NEON!), blurbs, bookstore placement and especially exposure on BookTok, YouTube, Instagram and podcasts being carefully optimized. And leading to often very similar looking cozy crime and romantasy covers and marketing campaigns.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Feedback from the audience:

Ruth: "What, no “what are we listening to?” segment?! I was hoping to hear Tom’s rendition of the latest K-pop bops! (My current favourite is the new song from Jisoo, “Click”, and the music video features a robotic Jisoo reviving some robot friends at an abandoned amusement park, so it’s at least vaguely on-topic for our new book of the month)."

Thomas Alvarez: "I listened to this not live and enjoyed it. That's my feedback. :-)"

Peter from Brampton, Canada: "To confirm, I listened through the full Discord episode as a podcast. Episode gave me after-talk vibes. Love the show. Yes, I did listen to the full Discord chat from the Patreon RSS feed. (Ok, I jumped by 30 seconds until the technical issues were resolved). I second the suggestion of The Buffalo Hunter for October. Fits the spooky requirement and has lots to talk about."

Mike: "...and decided to make your inbox less lonely by getting out my quill and writing an old-fashioned email. Hopefully, I can make it to some of them live in the future."

Shane: (Emailed in)

BOOK OF THE MONTH KICKOFF

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom | Bookshop Link

Patrons stick around for the book wrapup for last month's pick. If you're not a Patron, the book wrapup will come as a separate episode next week.

ADDENDUMS

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