S&L Podcast - #316 - Why'd Ya Do It, Ernie?

We share our memories and thoughts on the passing of Ursula K. Leguin. We also talk about how silly it is to think anybody but George R. R. Martin truly knows the release date for Winds of Winter, and discover the true villain of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Air

Veronica: Temptation 2013 Zinfandel

QUICK BURNS

RIP Ursula K. Leguin

Nokomis.FL - Winds of Winter is coming......September 6th. ? The story came from The Strand bookstore's website on NYC. Several other sites reported the same story, i.e

Trike: The next project by Dennis Villeneuve, director of the superb Arrival and better-than-expected Bladerunner 2049, is going to be a new adaptation of Dune. He says his goal is “Star Wars for adults.”

BTW, if you haven’t seen the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, I highly recommend it. That guy was a crazy person, and the influence of that failed project was felt in most of the sci-fi movies released in the 1970s and 80s, including Star Wars.

Darren: Anyone else pick up that Google are now doing audiobooks. There's no subscription option like Audible which Google are touting as a good thing (personally I get quite excited when the credits turn up), and there's no whisper-sync which I don't use much myself but I know others do.

I'm sure the ongoing conflict between Amazon and Google is going to play into this at some point, just as long as they don't start pulling apps from each others services then having another option out there can only be a good thing (surely?).

Not bought anything from them yet so no idea what the service, quality, usability is going to be like.

Anyway, it's 50% off your first purchase until Feb 26th.

Mary: Yay! It looks like MaddAddam could be back on! (And yes, I call these Sci Fi even though Ms Atwood doesn’t like the term.)

BARE YOUR SWORD

S&L BOOK CHALLENGE

Rob was sad because we didn't mention the challenge last time. You have to create new shelves that feed into your challenge totals -- we're competing to see who can get to 10,000 Sword OR Laser books first! (Veronica named hers sl-laser and sl-sword respectively).

From Sean Lookielook (the Rob and Tassie Dave of Vaginal Fantasy, btw): "When you join the challenge you make a separate bookshelf for that challenge. Just name it "2018 sword challenge" or whatever. It doesn't matter what it's called; it's just for your reference. Only books that are on that shelf AND have been marked as "read" (i.e. they are on your "read" bookshelf with a "date read" set in 2018) count toward the challenge."

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

February Book: A Wrinkle In Time

Book Briefing

Final Words on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

FOTMP (1818) part 3 chapter 4

Veronica has problems with this chapter too, also this story is basically Doomsday Book at this point (everyone is dead).

FOTMP: Why'd Ya Do It, Ernie? (Whole book spoilers)

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way 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/picks

S&L Podcast - #315 - Philip K Dick Move

Goodbye Shannara, hello The Blade Itself TV show? Also Moby Dick and Philip K Dick have different problems, and what the monster in Frankenstein might truly represent.

Download directly here.
    
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Fantasy Scotch  
Veronica: Fantasy Bailey's    
    
QUICK BURNS
    
Thane: Viacom cancels Shannara TV show
    
David: Rumour that The Blade Itself is being made for TV/Film.
    
Trike: The adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Nightflyers is coming to Syfy in the US and Netflix everywhere else.
    
Dara: HBO confirms you won't be getting your Game Of Thrones finale this year
Best comment: "Man, who's writing this final season? George RR Martin?"
Best response: "Low hanging fruit."
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
"Hi, Tom and Veronica.  Love your show, which I found by looking through
the long list of last year's Hugo nominations for other worthy podcasts
to listen to.

In your podcast #314, you speculated on the opening of Frankenstein
being influenced by Moby Dick. That seems really unlikely, unless Mary
Shelley had a time machine, since Moby Dick wasn't published until
1851.  Nice try, though.

Dave W"    
    
Philip K Dick accuses Stanislaw Lem of Communist conspiracy
"He [Lem] was “probably a composite committee rather than an individual.” Dick's evidence for this denouncement was that “[Lem] writes in several styles and sometimes reads foreign, to him, languages and sometimes does not.” And the conspiracy spread further still: “The Party operates (a U..S.] publishing house which does a great deal of Party-controlled science fiction.”    
    
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Book Briefing
    
This was different than what I expected
"I was mostly surprised as to how quickly the actual experiment was over. It felt like "And then everything worked and holy sh*t, what a monster, f*ck it, dude, I'm outta here". I was prepared for a detailed description and a lot of building up what I thought was one of the most important scenes of the book and then it was over so fast."    
    
Oh My Goth!
    
ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way 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/picks.

S&L Podcast - #314 - Not-So-Young Frankenstein

It's a whole new year of books, and we have some suggestions! Plus the science behind Westeros and the amazing 200-year-old Mary Shelley.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Tea

Veronica: Coconut Water

QUICK BURNS

24 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Add to Your January Reading List

The Wertzone: New Steven Erikson book and interview

The University of Bristol used a climate model to simulate Westeros. 

BARE YOUR SWORD

Favourite S&L Books of 2017

Christmas Day with the Supremes and Tech's Message

Harry Potter by predictive keyboard....

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Book Briefing

The Wertzone: Science Fiction just turned 200

Which edition?

Changes between 1818 and 1831 version

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way 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/picks.