We had a fantastic time at Dragon*Con! Thanks to everyone who showed up for the recording, and Timothy Zahn for being an outstanding guest. Special thanks to Swoopy and Derek for inviting us in and helping us out tremendously, Jon for running about the room with a mic so we could the excellent audience feedback, and to all the folks in the Dragon*Con podcasting track who helped us sound perfect. Plus a SUPER thanks to Kathryn for designing and obtaining the t-shirts and Kim for helping us drag them around and distribute them.
QUICK BURNS
New Hitchhiker’s Guide book “not very funny”
Ariel: post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery adventure
Casting for Game of Thrones HBO pilot!
BARE YOUR SWORD – feedback from the audience
Mixing Media Alters My Brain – Posted by aldenoneil on September 2, 2009 at 12:22pm A phenomenon occurs occasionally, where I’ll be reading a book concurrently with playing through a videogame, and my reading of the novel is effected. This time around it’s Warcraft III and The Forever War. Reading through a description about a certain base under construction, all I could envision was little soldiers with low polygon counts and blocky grey buildings rising whole from the surface. I don’t believe that was the author’s intention.
Of course it occurs with movies – reading through The Lord of the Rings will never be the same for any of us, for example – but videogames present a more stylized vision, which really f*cks my sh*t up, for lack of a better phrase. It really points to how subjective an experience reading a novel is.
Does this happen to anyone else? Milder forms include casting actors or friends in roles, or envisioning natural settings as versions of places that you’ve actually been to. That’s why descriptions of nature scenes have always been difficult for me; I live in a bubble.
http://swordandlaser.ning.com/group/videogames/forum/topics/mixing-media-alters-my-brain
District 9
Posted by Chris Maler on August 23, 2009 at 8:45am Okay, maybe I’m jaded but I don’t get it. District 9 was a complete let down to me. I left the theater feeling like I’d seen that theme done a dozen times, usually more successfully . I don’t want to drop any spoilers, so I won’t go into detail, but for someone who is into sci-fi, District 9 presents well trod themes in a typical, unimaginative manner. The CGI was pretty interesting, but that’s about the only notable thing for me. I didn’t dislike the movie, but jeeze I’ve seen people raving about it like it’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’d rather watch a rerun of Enemy Mine or Alien Nation.
http://swordandlaser.ning.com/forum/topics/district-9
ENGAGE – Interviews with interesting characters
Timothy Zahn – Our guest is SciFi author Timothy Zahn. He won the Hugo award in 1984 for his novella Cascade Point but is best known for the very popular Star Wars sequels known as the Thrawn Trilogy. They were authorised by Lucas and took place after Return of the Jedi. He has also written the Dragonback series and the Conquerors Trilogy, about a war between humans and aliens.
Listener Questions
What would the galaxy be like if Grand Admiral Thrawn had won? Would it be better or worse than how its turned out under the New Republic?
I’d like to know what he’s reading, and what he’s read this year. I know I bought the first Dresden Files book on Michael Stackpole’s recommendation after he read the galley.
ADDENDUMS
T-Shirts: We’re desciding the best way to distribute them on the Internets, but everybody who attened our panel at Dragon*Con got one.
Tagline: Different worlds, different discussion
Designer: Kathryn Parker
Next episode – Forever War recap and kickoff of the next book, which will be Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.