S&L Podcast - #485 - Triangles Are Stronger

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The Nebula Award nominees are out! Should we re-read Neuromancer? Veronica explains Type I, II, and III fun. The truth behind Cordelia's Honor. And our final thoughts on Iron Widow.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

Tom: Homemade guacamole
Veronica: Cadbury creme eggs

QUICK BURNS

Geoff: The Nebula Award finalist list is up!

Jan: As deadline reports: Michael Ende's ‘The Neverending Story’ is to be adapted again as a series of live-action movies.

Vernor Vinge, a titan in the S&F literary genre and a multiple Hugo winner, has passed away.

Roberator: Butterfly in the Sky Trailer Celebrates Reading Rainbow’s Legacy

Liqorice: For the low, low price of $1,550 you can name a character in the next Scalzi book (Edit: finished with a winning bid of $4,050.)

Oaken: Tanith Lee was named the winner of the 2024 SFWA Infinity Award. This honour is awarded posthumously to writers who passed away before they could be considered for the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. Last year's winner was Octavia E. Butler. S&L has read books from both authors in past years.

Oaken: Libraries struggle with the rising cost of e-books. The move with e-books to a model where libraries pay a higher price and/or have to deal with a cap on checkouts for each purchase is causing funding issues. Parties on both sides have a legitimate concern: publishers and authors want to be paid while government agencies want to maximize access to materials for their constituents.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Calvey: Speaking of Neuromancer, is anyone up for an alt read together? I'd love to reread it and I suspect we have some time for the TV show. It would be fun to get this group take on it.

Tamahome: William Gibson's narration of Neuromancer is on archive.org. His intentions might come through a little better through his voice

Charles: Believe that the Bloodsworn Saga (the trilogy that The Shadow of the Gods is part of) is just one long story split into 3 parts. Book 2 ends in a cliff hanger too. Wait until book 3 is out before starting them.

Veronica's Type of Fun (Books edition)

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

April Book Pick (Tournament Winner)

Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Shards of Honor

-- Amazon

Barrayar

MARCH WRAP UP (Spoilery)

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Amazon Link

How I Thought It Would Go

Audiobook Narrator

Her Spirit Pressure, IT'S OVER 18000!!!

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 - #484 - It's Giving "Mad"

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We check in on who's winning the tournament. A vikings kids book! Where it's stabbing time! We talk a little bit about Iron Widow, and wrap up Shadow of the Gods.

Download directly here.


WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?

Tom: Tortellini with Pork Ragu
Veronica: Doritos


QUICK BURNS

March Madness Check in

Tamahome: Neuromancer coming to Apple TV

Oaken: BSFA announces shortlist of nominees for their 2024 awards

Mark: Announcing the finalists for the first annual Libby Book Awards, aka The Libbys

Seth: Felicia Day wins! Third Eye is the best audio-drama of the year according to the Audie Awards. Obviously this is really a win for the hype from her Sword and Laser appearance.

John (Taloni) For fans of the Spiderwick Chronicles: Disney+ has sold the completed first season to Roku, so it won't be permanently shelved like Batgirl or Coyote v Acme. H/T: Loscon

Jan: Rick Riordin has confirmed that Netflix has let their option for his Kane Chronicles series of novels lapse

Jan: Adrian Tchaikowsky will also no longer cite his 2023 Hugo win for Children of Time as best series due to a huge number of Chinese entries being disallowed and removed so that he considers the shortlist vor voting entirely unreliable and therefore he cannot consider himself to be a Hugo winner.

Mark: David Dastmalchian Joins Alexander Skarsgård In Apple Sci-Fi Series ‘Murderbot’ Will play Gurathin

Mantissa: There is an interesting interview with Martha Wells at Locus Magazine.

Mark: R.F. Kuang’s Babel Optioned for On-Screen Adaptation

BARE YOUR SWORD

John (Taloni)

And if we're doing Alien kid's books, why not Viking animated cartoons? I'm thinking like Dora the Viking. But instead of calling out The Map, it's The Seax! (going with the secondary pronunciation ""sax"" instead of what we all thought the first time, say-ax or see-ax.)

When adventure's on the go,
And it's stabbing time you know,
What'll it be? The seax! Say it again. The seax!
When there's places you should be
And it's killing time, you'll see
What'll it be? The seax! Say it again. The seax!
I'm the seax, I'm the seax
(He's the seax, he's the seax)
I'm the SEAX!

terpkristin: This episode got me through most of my workout today. Thanks for that!! :) And then I wanted hot chocolate and Girl Scout cookies but instead I had Szechuan crispy beef.

On the Hugo stuff, I was one of the ones expecting controversy with it being in China, but what I found most egregious in the leaked emails was the Western committee members deciding that books should be withheld--without reading the book. For someone to say "this shouldn't be in" without reading a book is RIDICULOUS.

The February BOTM isn't working for me. I've put it on the backburner. I know that my usual doorways are plot and characters and I just don't even want to read it. Maybe one day I'll get back to it

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

MARCH PICK
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Amazon Link

Final Thoughts (Spoilery)
Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
Amazon Link

LaszloJamf: Thoughts uncaged
First the good:
The Norse setting was cool with lashings of authentic detail.
The fights were gripping and Orka was an outstanding seax wielder.
The vaesen were creepy and I’m glad they reappeared at the end.
The bad:
Multiple view points slow this book down. I felt the two war bands were really similar and the Elvars blood grim did not really add anything.
The descriptions got kind of samey and we often just had lists of what weapons people were carrying.
3/5 but I’m gonna read the next book as vaesen are supposed to have greater part"

Decado:
Regardless of my gripes, I still enjoyed the book overall. I didn't think it felt slow like a lot of people did. I think Varg's chapters were my favorite, followed by Elvar, though I'm very interested to see where Orka's story goes now. All in all I would give it a 4/5 and I will definitely be continuing the trilogy."

Gristle McNerd
Oh come on, ending on a cliffhanger? I just finished
I do want to know what happens, but I'm not sure I want it enough to expose myself to more awkward prose about viking stuff"

The Hunger of the Gods


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