S&L Podcast - #526 - Halfway Happy

LACon V(eronica) registration is open, the Philip K. Dick Award nominees are out, and we discuss why we're "halfway happy." Plus, we kick off I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom and wrap up The Book That Wouldn't Burn.

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WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

• Tom: Singapore Noodles

• Veronica: Olé!

QUICK BURNS

Clyde: There is a John Scalzi in the asteroid belt! He is rightfully chuffed. Link

Tamahome: The title for the sequel to The Strength of the Few was just announced. Hierarchy, Book 3: The Justice of One by James Islington. Link

Mark: More Sci-Fi TV from James S.A. Corey and friends. Prime Video is adapting The Captive's War series. Link

Mark: Registration for LACon V, where the next WorldCon is being held, ends January 31. If you want to nominate and vote for the Hugo Awards, a WSFS Membership is $50 and includes the Voting Packet with many nominated works. Link

Chris K (via Locus): The 2026 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced:

• Sunward, William Alexander (Saga)

• Outlaw Planet, M.R. Carey (Orbit UK; Orbit US)

• Casual, Koji A. Dae (Tenebrous)

• The Immeasurable Heaven, Caspar Geon (Solaris UK)

• Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Thomas Ha (Undertow)

• Scales, Christopher Hinz (Angry Robot UK)

• City of All Seasons, Oliver K. Langmead & Aliya Whiteley (Titan) Link

Tamahome: Books entering the public domain on Jan 1st, 2026 include Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, Gladiator by Philip Wylie, and the first Tintin graphic novel. Link

JasonB: Cory Doctorow shared a list of 20 public domain books that have been beautifully reformatted by volunteers at Standard Ebooks. Link

trpw: The Guild is being adapted into a musical for MTFestUK 2026, with Felicia Day reprising her role as Cyd/Codex. Link

BARE YOUR SWORD

Stephen expressed skepticism that well-planned plots with twists could be written by "pantsers." Scott replied that Nnedi Okorafor is a pantser who executed the complex structure of Death of the Author largely as it emerged, rather than through heavy revision. Stephen King is another famous pantser with a prolific output.

Paul let Veronica know that Canada has several 4D theaters, including one in Burnaby. He also noted that Amazon Kindle AI likely restricts copying output to prevent academic dishonesty, a major concern in university settings.

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Kick Off

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin. (Bookshop Link)

• Iain & Judge Ruth: Both noted the book briefing has them curious, though the premise sounds somewhat similar to Pargin's previous work, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits.

• Tassie Dave: Prepared to give the author a second chance despite mixed feelings on past reads.

• John Nevets: Excited to jump in after enjoying Tom’s previous recommendations.

Wrap Up (Spoilers!)

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. (Bookshop Link)

John Taloni enjoyed the connection to Teela (Livira's aunt) and the "three nickels" riff on the Phineas and Ferb meme.

ScottM praised the dual-perspective approach:

"The novel tackles some of the hardest questions we ever pose to the universe. Who do I hate and why? Who is my enemy? What does it mean to love? And at no point does it offer platitudes or easy answers."

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show! If you would like to support us, head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com.

S&L Podcast - #525 - The Beans That Wouldn't Burn

It’s all about the beans on this Sword and Laser. Chili, chowder, and more. We also find time to talk about books, specifically Mark Lawrence’s book that wouldn’t burn. But we don’t want to burn the beans either.

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WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

• Tom: Mushroom Chicken

• Veronica: German cookies

QUICK BURNS

Tamahome: Lord of the Rings is returning in 4D (shaky chairs). The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King will hit the big screen on Jan. 16-18 and Jan. 23-25, 2026. Extended editions will only be available during the first weekend.

hapahappiness: Book Riot just posted their 2026 Read Harder Challenge. I've participated in these challenges for a few years now and am pretty excited to see a square I'll get to check off immediately (aside from the "free square"). 😊

Tamahome: My Kindle iPhone/iPad app just got this "Ask this book" AI feature that lets you ask questions about the book you're reading (with or without spoilers). Authors will love it. (I don't know if it's actually trained on every ebook?). Please make a subthread!

Ziggy: TL;DR: The Denver Nuggets NBA team is hosting a Fourth Wing night on April 8th. Each ticket comes with a special Fourth Wing Nuggets jersey and custom Nuggets x Fourth Wing vellums. The VIP package includes a Wing & Claw book + a custom bookplate signed by @rebeccayarros, a live pre-game Q&A, and a live pre-game podcast with us—Fantasy Fangirls! A portion of each ticket package sold will be given to One October (@oneoctoberorg), which is a cause close to Rebecca's heart.

Mark: I'm not sure what the long-term impact this new Amazon policy may have. It seems like a good thing, but according to other articles, Amazon has also been strengthening DRM in Kindle devices.

Phil: John Varley passed away on Dec. 10th. I've enjoyed several of his books. The Ophiuchi Hotline, Red Thunder, The Barbie Murders, and Titan are all good reads in different ways. Titan is the first of a trilogy. The series is definitely SF but has a fantasy-type setting for part of it. Think Dream Park type of thing. It's been 40 years since I've read it, so don't hold me to details!

BARE YOUR SWORD

John: I am definitely part of the "beans in chili" brigade—usually both haricot and kidney beans. Nom nom. :-)

Stephen: In my wild club days when I was a young university lad, Tom's #1 World Famous Chili Burgers was my late-night meal. I prefer the no-bean chili but I'm not adamant about it.

Paul: I learned something about chili today. I always assumed that chili had beans in it by definition, and without beans, it's basically just a meat sauce. Where is this crazy alternate reality where beans in chili is sacrilege?? I guess I should thank S&L for expanding my horizons yet again. Usually, it's through the cool mind-expanding books, but every now and then, it's the food talk! Actually, come to think of it, finding out that there is root beer-flavored medicine in Europe was another recent mind-expanding moment. Thanks for breaking me out of my cloistered life of only chili with beans and only grape-flavored children's medicine!

SeréTW: I find it really interesting when needlecraft gets mentioned in books, particularly sci-fi. Does anyone have any favorite examples of needlework/art mentioned in sci-fi or fantasy?

crochetchrisie: Sort of SFF, but the Outlander series (especially the first season) has some awesome pieces... I still remember in the first book them using pee. So there's that.

SeréTW: There's a sci-fi book by Scott Meyer called Grand Theft Astro where the main character uses her sweater made from nanofiber as a tool. It's a very creative use of how "under the radar" skills and crafts can be subversive when used in untraditional ways.

tilltab (Judge Ruth): I haven’t read them yet, but these were two books mentioned in the Cut From Whole Cloth panel at the Glasgow Worldcon that I noted down: Torn by Rowena Miller and The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg.

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence (Bookshop.org link)

Stephen: Mark Lawrence also has a blog where he explains the ins and outs of publishing economics. He started the Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) that just finished its 10th year. Highly successful! All three books in the Library Trilogy are out. Book 2, The Book That Broke the World, took the series to another level. In fact, in April, Mark will have the first in a new series come out, Daughter of Crows.

John Taloni: Seems like this author knows science fiction history pretty well. The title reminded me of Fahrenheit 451, and the library echoes Bradbury's love for them. Overall, the book is giving me a Piranesi feel for the library itself. Also, Teela is an unusual enough name to make me think of Teela Brown from Ringworld. See the full discussion on Discord.

John Taloni: Also, I don't know where the magic school trope "Outsider better than children of stratified classes, deemed failure but picked by iconoclastic powerful professor" came from. But if I had a nickel for every time I saw it in an S&L book, well, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Tamahome: I don't really understand the point of the quotes that begin each chapter. I hear some of them are from the author's previous books. (John has lots of theories, but I don't want to give them away just yet...)

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show! If you would like to support the show, head to patreon.com/swordandlaser.

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com.