S&L Podcast - #320 - We are Sword (We are Laser)

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The March tournament was so much fun, and in the end we'll read We Are Legion (We Are Bob) which is an appropriately fun book. We also talk about other podcasts that are cool to listen to (in ADDITION to this one, heh) plus our last thoughts on the beautiful complexity of An Unkindness of Ghosts.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Antinori Pian Delle Vigne Brunello Di Montalcino 2010

Veronica: A to Z 2014 Pinot noir from Oregon

I was gonna save this for Bare Your Sword, but I think it's much more appropriate for What Are We Drinking. Over on Twitter, Alex posted:

 

QUICK BURNS

Handmaid's Tale returns April 25 - New trailer out

Trailers and airdate for the BBC's TV adaptation of China Mieville's THE CITY AND THE CITY - begins on Friday 6 April on BBC2 in the UK.

Mark: Nominees for the 2018 Audie Awards (for audio books published in 2017) are up and the list has many categories. There is one S+L pick and several authors of past picks.

Fantasy
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
(Also Catherynne M. Valente is nominated for The Refrigerator Monologues)

SF
Provenance by Ann Leckie
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
and Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is also nominated in the Fantasy category, so why can't he get a break during S+L March Madness?

John (Nevets): I guess it is not a sure thing yet, but it looks like Amazon is trying to make The Three-Body Problem trilogy into a big budget TV series.

Could be interesting, but with the Chinese roots so ingrained in this franchise, I really hope they treat it right, instead of just making a cool movie off of a hot book. I guess I'm saying I hope it is more "Black Panther", or "House of the Flying Daggers" then "Ghost in the Shell."

Edit, sort of: I actually meant to put "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" instead of "House of the Flying Daggers", but on doing a quick refresher of the production on each, I sort of think I like the "House of the Flying Daggers" reference better, It was more fully Chinese produced, then CTHD

BARE YOUR SWORD

Lauren (Posted this in Quick Burns. It's not news so really doesn't belong there but it is interesting) Nisi Shawl wrote a "Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction"

It's from 2016, and I couldn't find it in past Quick Burns threads, but I just discovered it and thought it was a great resource for folks who are looking for inspiration for more diverse authors to read. There are plenty of books on here I've never heard of, and a whole bunch of these went immediately to my TBR list.

Changing tastes in author

Other book podcasts

Speaking of other podcasts, I wanted to take a moment to play a trailer for a podcast called Flash Forward. Check it out!

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

Book Briefing

Wrap Up

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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 - #319 - An Unkindness of Blurbs

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More Pratchett TV coming, and more Rothfuss books?  Plus more deep discussion about an Unkindness of Ghosts, including why blurbs may lead you astray.        

Download directly here.
        
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?        
Tom: Water        
Veronica: Homemade Whiskey Blend        
        
QUICK BURNS
        
Michele: The BBC announced it's picked up a six-part Discworld series. Deadline says it goes under the working title The Watch. The production company founded by author Terry Pratchett, Narrativia is co-producing and Simon Allen (Das Boot, The Musketeers) may write. The Watch is supposedly a procedural crime series set in Discworld's main city of Ankh-Morpock.  
https://io9.gizmodo.com/terry-pratchetts-discworld-is-finally-being-turned-into-1823424350    
        
Shad: Tor.com has a story where Patrick Rothfuss said that the Kingkiller Chronicles are a prologue to another set of books. No word on a release date for the end of the prologue, aka Doors of Stone.    
https://www.tor.com/2018/03/07/patrick-rothfuss-kingkiller-chronicle-prologue-the-doors-of-stone-book-3/    
        
Mark: Mark  First teaser trailer for Christoper Robin, a live-action Pooh tale from Disney.
https://nerdist.com/christopher-robin-teaser-ewan-mcgregor-winnie-pooh/    
also: A noir tale of Pooh told in tweets by Lavie Tidhar  https://twitter.com/lavietidhar/status/971164407270125568    
        
Julie: A new (8-part) adaptation of ‘His Dark Materials’ is in the works, according to Deadline. To be directed by Tom Hooper and to star Dafne Keen (from ‘Logan’) as Lyra. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda has been cast as Lee Scoresby. 
http://deadline.com/2018/03/the-kings-speech-director-tom-hooper-logan-star-sign-up-for-his-dark-materials-adaptation-1202319285/    
        
Silvana: Cover reveal and excerpt from Robert Jackson Bennett's new fantasy series: 
I really love his Divine Cities trilogy and it seems that the new series will be set (again) in urban areas (yay) and now instead of gods, we'll have industrialized magic (kewl). Release
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2018/03/new-series-from-robert-jackson-bennett-cover-reveal-and-excerpt/?cdi=4810E6D0B64805A9E0534FD66B0AA956&ref=PRH2028E2388CC9    

Terpkristin: Tad Williams has setup a crowdfunding campaign to make merch related to his books/series. Perks include a new short story, pins, shirts...     
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tad-williams-is-making-merch-entertainment    
        
BARE YOUR SWORD
        
Any @vaginalfantasy or @swordandlaser fans planning on attending @Dublin2019? Hoping to host another Worldcon meetup!    @liz_loves_lit    
        
30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced Interesting list, and one is @swordandlaser book of the month.    Silvana @silvaubrey    
https://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/news/03/06/lambda-literary-award-finalists/        
        
Fascinating discussion from @katemosse on Frankenstein ; or, The Modern Prometheus and influence over 200 years. Good to continue after reading it with @swordandlaser in January. #DubaiLitFest #frankenstein200 https://twitter.com/cferstat/status/969511974022402053/photo/1    Cameron @cferstat    
        
Solarpunk    
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19194883-solarpunk    
        
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION        
        
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
https://www.amazon.com/Unkindness-Ghosts-Rivers-Solomon/dp/1617755885/?tag=theswoandlas-20    

Book Briefing
https://www.patreon.com/posts/17203664    
      
AUoG: How much does the Blurb matter?    
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19247415-auog-how-much-does-the-blurb-matter-no-spoilers-please    
        
AUoG: spoilers, triggers and other warnings    
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19250076-auog-spoilers-triggers-and-other-warnings    

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    http://swordandlaser.com/picks/    
        
        

S&L Podcast - #318 - I Wanna Know What Love Is

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Tom tries to convince Veronica to fight hate, but A Wrinkle In Time has her questioning love's power.

Download directly here.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Hudson Four Grain Whiskey

Veronica: Bulleit Rye

QUICK BURNS

David: Nebula Award Nominees announced!

Lots of GREAT nominees, among both the novels and the shorter works!

Also Hugo nominations are still open I assume...

Kenley: Amazon is developing a series based on Iain M. Banks’ sci-fi novel Consider Phlebas

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Amazon has acquired the rights to another huge book: Consider Phlebas, the first installment of Iain M. Banks’s space opera Culture series. THR reports that Amazon will partner with British screenwriter Dennis Kelly (who created the critically acclaimed Channel 4 series Utopia), and that should the scripts for the series work out, it will order it directly to a series.

Silvana: Just in case you missed the last weekend's uproar about Terry Goodkind. Not cool, man. I see some other authors have commented about it in Twitter. Looks like both PR and professional disaster to me.

Tomp: It's interesting to see the POV breakdown on nationalities, gender, occupations and Ajahs.
It's also weird to see the word-count-outlier-chapter in "A memory of Light" (book 14). The outlier chapter is "The last battle" with a word count of more than 80,000 words.
Avoid reading the comments at the bottom if you want to avoid spoilers.

Iain: Tor reports new Richard K. Morgan book coming: Thin Air.

John (Taloni): Cover reveal and blurb for upcoming Gail Carriger "Custard Protocol" book Competence at her site. Accidentally abandoned!

All alone in Singapore, proper Miss Primrose Tunstell must steal helium to save her airship, the Spotted Custard, in a scheme involving a lovesick werecat and a fake fish tail."

Scott: Forgive me if someone posted this before, but the sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson will be released Oct. 30th, titled The Monster Baru Cormorant. He gives an interview here.

BARE YOUR SWORD

SWORD BRACKET
1 The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
2 Soulless by Gail Carriger
3 Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
4 Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
5 Jade City by Fonda Lee
6 Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
7 The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
8 All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

LASER BRACKET
1 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
2 Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
3 Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
4 Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
5 House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds
6 The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
7 Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
8 The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and other stories by Vandana Singh

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Book Briefing

WRAP UP

February Book: A Wrinkle In Time

AWIT: Charles Wallace

AWIT: Warm Blanket

AWIT: The Ending (Spoilers, Obviously)

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.

Thanks to Anna Parikka, Travis Falstad, and Jim Bell

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