We discover a whole new world of books to add to our reading lists thanks to the Hugo award nominations, and we dive into further discussion about what makes for hard scifi. The answer is, well, difficult.

QUICK BURNS

THE HUGO AWARD NOMINEES YOU CAN READ RIGHT NOW — FOR FREE

BSFA Awards

The GAME OF THRONES title sequence

10 of the most badass dragons ever

CALENDAR

4/26/2011 Will Super Villains Be On the Final? Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
4/28/2011 Titus Awakes by Mervyn Peake and Maeve Gilmore
5/3/2011 The Inheritance by Robin Hobb
5/3/2011 Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris – A Sookie Stackhouse Novel
5/10/2011 Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
5/10/2011 The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor)
5/17/2011 Embassytown by China Mieville

BARE YOUR SWORD

Is this truly ‘hard’ sci-fi?

How did you like the new Doctor Who show?

BOOK CHECK-IN

Blindsight by Peter Watts

EMAILS

I’m glad that I listened to your podcast. I also expected more out of the 1st episode, but welcomed the confusion/unanswered questions. I look forward & hope future episodes will fill in those blanks to keep me interested with new confusion/unanswered questions. I also agree about the 15 minutes before the premiere, what was that supposed to be anyway? LOL

I was about to get the books or ebooks to read, seriously thinking about it anyway. After listening to your podcast & hearing about the differences, I think that would add unwanted confusion. I’m not a S&L frequent listener or fantasy book reader, I wanted to hear about Game of Thrones. I may decide to hold off on the show & decide to read the book anyway. Then watch the series. Not sure yet. Probably normal having differences between the book & series, but it’s new to me. At least I know not to read while watching.

Thanks for the education.

Robert

***

Hey, V&T…

Hate to sound like a PR flack (I’m not…just a reader) but I stumbled upon a real gem of a story at the Kindle store called “”Out Of The Dark”” by first-time author Lee Doty, and was impressed enough to write to you guys about it.

I took away hints of Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson, a big helping of Jim Butcher, a pinch of Tim Powers, and some essence of Elmore Leonard (all favorite authors), but this rookie manages to retain his own strong voice…and with humor no less!

Mr. Doty displays the writing chops of a veteran…pacing, character development, dialogue…all first class. No lasers, but swords, martial arts, and unconventional firearms are all employed to great effect without overwhelming the storyline.

According to his Kindle page he’s a certified geek (programmer) who wrote this novel during the daily train commute to and from his day job, and he’s self-published on the Kindle (good angles for an interview?)

Judging by the Kindle discussion board he’s still enthusiastic enough to answer all his readers’ emails personally.

Read the book for sure, but think about getting him on the podcast as well.

Cheers. Jon

ADDENDUMS

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Hosts: Tom Merritt and Scott Johnson

Find out the best way to be weightless and live forever with Aaron and Mary on this episode of FourCast.

Guests: Aaron Newcomb and Mary Varn

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 fourcastpodcast@gmail.com.

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Running time: 58:14

We’ve been playing Portal 2 quite a bit, so we talk non-spoilery about that, then get very spoilery about the new Doctor Who season and finish off with mostly non-spoilery talk of Game of Thrones on HBO.

Get the episode at this link: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/EastMeetsWest249WereNotDeadYet/eastmeetswest249.mp3

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt

Broadcast engineer, Internet guru and advocate for community broadband, Tim Požar, is this week’s guest.

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We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes.

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Running time: 48:58