Archive for May, 2011

Tablets are all the rage but they haven’t driven cell phones out yet.

Current Geek Episode 163: Pakistani Starfleet Explorers

Today we check in on Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Little Fuzzy power ballad, and get Tom to hold off on his Game of Thrones TV talk until the bitter end.

63 S&L Podcast – #63 – Save it for the end by swordandlaser 63 S&L Podcast – #63 – Save it for the end by swordandlaser

QUICK BURNS

Power-ballad for John Scalzi’s new Little Fuzzy novel

Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made

GRRM gives a final status report on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

CALENDAR

5/24/2011 The Falling Machine, Andrew Mayer
5/25/2011 Chasing the Moon, Lee Martinez (Orbit)
6/3/2011 The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton Tor
6/7/2011 Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson
6/7/2011 Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk by Jean Rabe
6/7/2011 Jim and the Flims, Rudy Rucker (Nightshade Books)

BARE YOUR SWORD

Kindle is watching you!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms > On spellings and pronunciations

BOOK CHECK-IN

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

We’ll be interviewing NK Kemison on next week’s episode, post your questions for her on our Goodreads forum.

EMAILS

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I love the Game of Thrones discussions on your Sword and Laser podcast! I really like to hear a discussion of the show, and I think you guys do a good job of reviewing the episode, while still being mindful of those who haven’t read the book (like me!). I don’t really have people to discuss this with around me, and I don’t have time to hunt down some discussion group on the internet, so your discussions are perfect for me.

Also, I agree with Veronica. I felt a lot of the past few book picks haven’t been “”engrossing.”" Sometimes, I just want to read a book that you can’t put down, and that draws you in. (That would NOT be Blindsight.) I’m fine if it’s not considered “”high brow”" science fiction.

Thanks for putting on the podcast!!

Paul

***

Tom and Veronica,

Had an idea for how you could cover some of the big releases coming up without having to read them as the official book. I listen to a video game podcast (Gamespot presents the Hotspot if you want to plug) that is a weekly show about the news and latest releases. In their main show they cover very generally the new releases but when there is a big release, most recently Portal 2, they put out an entirely separate episode they call a spoilercast. This way the listeners have a choice to listen or not listen and avoids the whole pesky fast forwarding through spoilers or even having to warn about spoilers at all because its the purpose of the show. Doing this allows those reading the book along with you to listen should they want or if any pick up the book later to go back to the episodes and listen along. I know Tom and Veronica, you guys are often taxed for recording time but I don’t think that this “”spoilercast”" would have to be anymore than 10-15 minutes a week, or maybe just a one off 30 minute episode to recap the book when you’ve both finished. Let me know what you think.

Follow both of you religiously and love all your shows, Sword and Laser especially.

Alex

Hosts: Tom Merritt and Scott Johnson

If Chad doesn’t get us in his dictatorial domination of new media, thumb-cats will!

Guests: Chad Johnson and Jennifer Ozawa

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/fc.

Got a prediction of your own? Guest you’d like to see? Question for the show? Email us at [email protected].

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 57:49

If you’re sending them off into the world on their own, don’t leave them without these five things.