S&L Podcast - #229 - Taylor Swift is a Fremen

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We wrap up A Canticle for Leibowitz and explore all its science and religion feels. Also we welcome a new Expanse series cover, a new Gaiman baby and we discover why Taylor Swift IS the Kwisatz Haderach. 

Download direct here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Water    
Veronica: Vitamin B12    
    
QUICK BURNS

Shelfie Is Shazam For Your Bookshelf
    
SporadicReviews.com Next Expanse novel "Babylon's Ashes" cover-reveal! June 2016 is too far away!
    
Rob Secundus: Maybe not worthy of a segment, but alt-country/rock singer Ryan Adams just released a cover album of noted pop star and possible escapee from the realm of the fey Taylor Swift's 1989. Why does Adams think the T-Swiz is so succesful? Well, she's just like the Kwisatz Haderach!

Ryan Adams said, “There’s that special, very interesting ingredient where you hear a skeleton of the song, just the bones, and her voice, and you go, 'Well, of course, this person plays to 60,000 people.’ It’s like at the end of Dune, with Paul Atreides riding the Sandworm, and his eyes are all blue from the spice mélange. That’s totally how I see Taylor.”
    
Andy: Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer welcomed their child Anthony Gaiman on September 16th! 
    
terpkristin: So long, Oyster! The "Netflix of ebooks" is shutting down, and most of the team is apparently going to join Google. The co-founders were definitely hired by Google, but it seems that a bunch of the staff may have been, too. Will be interesting to see what Google does with this...if anything.    
    
terpkristin: Storybundle.com is doing a bundle of 11 books that were finalists or winners of the Philip K. Dick Award (honoring distinguished science fiction). It will be going on for the next 22 days, or until about mid-October. 
    
Warren: Scientists have for the first time confirmed liquid water flowing on the surface of present-day Mars.
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Hello!

I do my own podcast about games, gaming etc, recently there's been a metallic twang to the far end when recording our sessions via skype.

The sound in your podcasts is always superior. If its not terribly intrusive could you tell me what software you use to teleconference and record.

Thanks in advance.

Brian

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Ok, I'm sorry for this kinda silly question. My wife and I have noticed that a few recent SF/Fantasy novels have been using the word "sussurrus" and its other forms quite a lot. Rothfuss, Tregillis, Scalzi, and Graedon for example. We always tell each other when we encounter the word in a book or story and say "Gotcha, page XX!"

Is there some kind of inside joke being shared among the author community, or a ritual use of the word, maybe an homage to someone?

I hope bringing this up doesn't squelch or make anyone self censor, not our intention. Just chasing a silly phantom.

Thanks for your great site and podcasts!
Mike
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
Next month: The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson    
Quiz to tell you who you are in Baru's world    
How Evil SFF Empires Create Ideal Citizens    

Wrap-up

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. 
    
Rachel [Spoilers]
    
ACFL: What to make of the crazy ending?

ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons at patreon.com/swordandlaser 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.
    
 

FEATURED REVIEW: The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

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Welcome to our Featured Reviews! In this series, we'll be highlighting book reviews by the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica

Review by Emily Carlson

The Low-Down:    

In a multiverse where magic is the product of the rise and fall of three celestial bodies, things can get a little complicated. Characters’ power waxes and wanes with the movement of these satellites, but the world seems to have reached a balance. However, that balance is shattered when the fourth, dark satellite – Oma – begins ascending. Oma, the Worldbreaker. Last time Oma rose, continents were literally torn in half by its power, and it seems that this generation will be no different. 

The Mirror Empire follows Lilia, a girl from a dying universe with an amber sky, as she is hurled into a new and thriving universe in escape from the dark forces gathering in her amber world. But Lilia is far from safe in her new blue-skied universe because the armies she fled haven’t given up the chase.


Key Themes:

Genocide, multiverses, TRULY NOXIOUS WEEDS, gender and sexuality, mystical orphans, THE DOPPLEGANGER, celestial bodies (wink, wink), BLOOD


What’s Good:

Hurley has bitten off an awful lot with her ambitious Mirror Empire. And for those of us who are bored with a linear and predictable narrative, this is a very good thing. Hurley seems determined to supplant nearly every fantasy troupe, even down to her five-gendered social structure with group marriage and funerary cannibalism. These bold rejections of what we take for granted in our own society are illuminating in Hurley’s hands. 

Take for example the thirty-something, war-hardened general returning home from her tour abroad to her teenaged, undereducated, ornamental husband. On one hand, this seems very familiar to fantasy fans (Drogo and Daenerys, anyone?). But on the other, it is completely unexpected and frankly, appalling. Readers might swoon at the scenes of Drogo and Dany together, might even excuse the some of the harsh treatment that Dany receives from Drogo. However, when the general dominates her husband and when we see how isolated he truly is, it’s harder to wear those same rose-colored glasses. 

The result is a novel that is challenging, though inducing, and at times shocking. But very much worth the time of any fantasy reader ready for something different. 

What’s Less Than Good:

Hurley has bitten off an awful lot with her ambitious Mirror Empire. What is this novel’s greatest strength can be its most frustrating weakness. Switching characters, universes, and social structures can be very confusing. Hurley pulls it off with a surprising amount of ease, but readers can still get lost easily. 

Furthermore, although Hurley is making wonderful strides towards fulfilling the potential of the unique world she created, only time (and more novels) will tell if Hurley is able to pull this off with the finesse demanded when an author deviates this much from reality. In my mind, the farther an author strays from reality, the heavier the burden is to make all of that mental strain worth our while.  


The Final Verdict: 

Maintain focus. If you can do that, The Mirror Empire is definitely worth the read. But for those of us who don’t want to leave a book with a pounding headache (I mean… not really, but you get it) this may not be the novel for you. The world Hurley creates is rich, engaging, and completely surprising. It is worth the effort the novel will require from you, but know that this is not a mindless read. So much of the world in this book is utterly new that it is bound to leave most people feeling a little star-struck. 

The world Hurley builds takes on a personality of itself, much like another character you are getting to know. It would be easy for the human characters to fade into the background of the novel and let the newness of the world stun readers. However, the characters in the novel are utterly profound. They are likable and revolting in turn, but in a way which reminds us of our own little green planet with a blue sky. The true wonder of this book is not the differences Hurley creates between her worlds and ours, but the similarities. Somehow, Hurley has managed to create a story where even with a radically different reality to ours, we are able to relate to and care about her characters. 

If you’re willing to go the extra literary mile, Hurley promises to deliver even more mind-blowing confusion in the upcoming Empire Ascendant dropping in October 2015. 

S&L Podcast - #228 - Is Present Tense for Baby Brains?

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This week, things really go nuts when Veronica realizes that she likes Tom's book pick more than Tom does, which causes Tom to question everything he has ever known. Meanwhile, over on Goodreads, Thane questions whether present tense is the bane of genre fiction! Hmmm...

Download direct here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Yorkshire Gold Tea
Veronica: Candy Peaches (eating)

QUICK BURNS

Thane: Looks like BBC is doing The City and the City. A 4 part adaptation. The City & the City

Tamahome: I didn't know Octavia Butler's Dawn would be adapted to tv either.

Trike: Amazon is saying the first season of The Man in the High Castle will be available November 20, 2015. If you haven't seen the pilot, I highly recommend it. And I'm known as The Guy Who Hates Everything. (Which isn't true. I only hate MOST things. But this I love.)

Jason is referring to Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, when he says:  I just found this tidbit on tor.com. This sounds exciting, the novella is read by Robin Miles and she worked closely with the author to get the right sounds and inflection to world build. Here's the synopis: "Binti is a brilliant young woman who is the first of the Himba community to be offered a place at the galaxy’s finest institution of higher learning." There is also a spooky race of bad guys.  Has there ever been a collaboration with an author to make a book sound right? "    ---(Tamahome found the Tor link)  

Stephen: Mark Lawrence has started a new story on Wattpad. It is a free western fantasy told in 19 parts.

Elizabeth: Turns out Uprooted may contain True Facts: io9. Medieval Skeleton Found Dangling From the Roots of a Fallen Tree.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Present Tense - Can you dig it? 

Epic Fantasy with Romance?

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Dear Tom and Veronica,

I recently stumbled across a super-rad book from the University of Pennsylvania Press, ER Truitt's Medieval Robots, and I thought, what could be more Sword and Laser than that? I mean, ok, Space Dragons, maybe, and also actual laser swords. But still, Medieval Robots are probably the third most sword-and-lasery thing in existence. The title sounds like that of a really generically titled pulp, but it's actually a survey of automata in the Western Medieval world-- the fictional robots that feature in Medieval Romance and legend, the pseudo-fictional robots that feature in travelogues (turns out, the Middle East? Filled with robots!), and real, historical robots that were installed as curiosities in courts. Anyway, it's so rare that nonfiction stuff is relevant to the show that I thought I should share.
Rob S. 

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I recently started listening to NPR's Ask Me Another, where Jonathan Coulton is the house musician, and heard one of their older episodes. On their July 31, 2014 show, Saladin Ahmed was a guest. This reminded me of your Bonus Interview with Saladin in 2012. I have not seen a video of Ask Me Another, so we cannot be sure whether Saladin/Jonathan are one person, but we do know that there is proof that they have been in the same place at the same time.

In case you have the time, I have included a link to that episode. The clip in question is "Can't Place the Place Name."

Enjoy.

-John

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

ACFL: Walter Miller Jr.

A Science-Fiction Classic Still Smolders

ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons at patreon.com/swordandlaser 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.

FEATURED REVIEW: Nemesis Games (Expanse #5) by James S.A. Corey

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Welcome to our Featured Reviews! In this series, we'll be highlighting book reviews by the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica

Review by Robert Zak
Ed note: Review is mostly spoiler free, but reader beware!

Executive Summary: Best one yet! I've always enjoyed this series, but I really loved this book. My only complaint would I don't have more to read! I can't wait for book 6.

Audiobook: Jefferson Mays is back! Huzzah! Don't get me wrong, he's not one of my favorite narrators or anything, but he is good. And the guy they got to replace him for book 4 was not. I was considering switching to text for this book if that narrator was used again. Thankfully I didn't have to. 

His accents for Avasarala and Alex are excellent as always. Everyone else isn't really anything special. He has good inflection and reads in a nice and clear voice. Hopefully they'll be able to get him for all the future books.

Full Review
The Expanse books have been a lot of fun since I finally picked them up last year. However I was starting to feel like maybe it was running out of steam.

I liked Leviathan Wakes and thought Caliban's War was even better. However I felt Abaddon's Gate and especially Cibola Burn weren't as good.

I've grown tired of the rotating POV's with new characters to follow around. Part of the problem is that Avasarala and Bobbie were so great in Caliban's War, everyone that followed was a disappointment.

Not only that, but they didn't really feature in books 3 and 4 and I think that's a waste. Thankfully that's been remedied in this book. While they aren't POV characters again, they do feature fairly heavily in the plot, albeit Bobbie moreso than Avasarala.

The other problem was I always found at least 1 or 2 of the POV to be less interesting than the others. The best part is that instead of forcing the readers to deal with some new characters they won't like as much, they chose to make the other 3 POVs the remaining members of the Rocinante. Not only do we finally get in the heads of characters I've come to love in the last 4 books, but we get more of their backstories as well, especially Naomi and Amos. 

In fact if you haven't read The Churn previously, I'd highly recommend doing so before this novel. I think you'll get a lot more out of Amos's storyline if you do. I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite plotline. They were all just so good.

So apart from excellent choice for POVs what really makes this book so great is the focus of the story. The stuff with the protomolecule in the last four books has been interesting, but this book mostly takes a break from that.

The tensions have long been bubbling between the three human factions of Earth, Mars and The Belt/OPA have finally come to a head. And just when I thought I was enjoying this book, BAM! It somehow got even better.

This is a very different story than last four. That may upset some fans, but for me it breathed new life into a series that seemed in danger of losing its way.

Some characters in this book made me so mad! Others made me scared or nervous. Just seeing Bobbie and Avasarala made me happy. I hated having to stop listening each day, and I couldn't wait to start listening again. 

To me that's the sort of thing that pushes something from a 4-star rating into the vary rare company of a 5-star rating. It also put it solidly on my favorites shelf. I will definitely be listening to this one again.

If I had one complaint it's that it's over! I can't wait for book 6! If you found yourself not as happy with the last book or two, I highly recommend giving this one a shot, I really think it's best one yet!

S&L Podcast - #227 - Cherie Priest and the Caverns of Inspiration

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This weekend at DragonCon 2015 in Atlanta, we had the great fortune of chatting with Cherie Priest for an hour in front a live audience of Sword & Laser enthusiasts! Listen in to hear Cherie's rise from goth to glorious, the proper way to distinguish steampunk from goth, and why Lizzie Borden is not who you thought.

Then go buy her books!
Download direct show file here.

Vaginal Fantasy x Sword & Laser!

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This month, both of my nerdy online book clubs combined forces and chose the same book: Uprooted by Naomi Novik! You've already heard our wrap-up on S&L, but make sure you watch the slightly more unhinged episode of VF. We cover sexy times, casting, magical systems, and otter relations.

More of Vaginal Fantasy at our website!