We bid adieu to one of the great fantasy writers of all time, bit off more than we can read, and learn how to pronounce Elantris properly.  Sort of. Also we rename Veronica’s Lady Cave. 

QUICK BURNS

Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011
Science fiction author Anne McCaffrey dies at 85
First woman to win a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.

Tailchaser’s Song Animated Feature

Norwegian bookseller begins selling e-books on memory cards, for some reason

Martin Fan Letter in Fantastic Four Comic

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Why do people write fantasy?

Biting off more then you can read

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Skyrim, the black hole of time

Neil Gaiman On The Simpsons

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 behind-the-scenes vid
A first look at GAME OF THRONES Season 2

BOOK CHECK-IN

The Elantris Portal on Brandon Sanderson’s website

Sanderson’s Female Protagonists

Early thoughts on 1Q84

EMAIL

Hello! My name is Sean Hollenhors and I work at a bookstore in Salem, OR (The Book Bin). I’m a regular Sword & Laser listener and heard you mention collecting first edition hardcovers. We recently revamped our rare book room and put out a plethora of new signed, first edition and rare hard covers. I’m attaching some photos to show off the space as well as some of the titles we have. Give me holler if there are titles you’re having trouble finding…we might be able to help! We have an ever expanding selection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books.

Cheers!
–Sean
The Book Bin

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Hey fellas, love the show, I adore you guys.

So I totally missed the release of Christopher Paulini’s final book of the Inheritance series 10 days ago. It was totally off my radar. I couldn’t believe you guys hadn’t mentioned it because it’s, like, the 2nd biggest fantasy release this year (by biggest, I mean commercial sales). So I went back and listened to the last 3 podcasts and realized it was never mentioned in any of the upcoming release calendar announcements. Apparently it was off your radar too.

Now, I’m pretty certain you guys aren’t some kind of fantasy snob elitist hipsters that dismissively blow off commercial juggernauts for more underground indie stuff. Perhaps you just didn’t care much for the other books in the series. To me they’re a bit meh, but still quite enjoyable. Maybe the Eragon movie abomination left you emotionally so scarred that discussion of the upcoming book in the series would dredge up too many horrible memories. Whatever the case, I would’ve thought that you’d at least mention the thing. After all, talking about fantasy books is like, your job ;o) ß this is a very tongue in cheek winky smiley, FYI.

david C

Voicemail from Jenny! She tells us about a cool podcast hosted by Brandon Sanderson at Writing Excuses.

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