As you guys know, we don’t typically post reviews here on the website, and this is mostly because Tom and I rarely have time to read books outside of the actual book club. However, we’d love to feature reviews from you, our audience!
If you think you’d like to submit a book review for the blog, head over to the Reviews FAQ and learn more! We think this will be a great way to highlight other books as well as highlighting the talented writers we have in our very own community!
We kick off our March book pick, Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, ponder the brief career of Jonathan Ross as LonCon MC, and discover that at least Houghton Mifflin thinks SciFi is lit.
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Yorkshire Gold Tea
Veronica: Napa Smith Brewery Wheat Beer
QUICK BURNS
Another Layer of J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s Book Onion
Science fiction and fantasy are now officially part of American Literature
FINALISTS: 2013 Nebula Awards (With Free Fiction Links!) – SF Signal
FINALISTS: 2013 Aurealis Awards – SF Signal
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Lara Takes On HBO and Game of Thrones in an Open Letter | Saurian Saint
The Wertzone: GAME OF THRONES Season 4 fan trailer
NBC’s ‘Heroes’ is coming back | Inside TV | EW.com
BOOK KICK-OFF
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
Altered Carbon Wikipedia article
Richard K. Morgan Wikipedia article
BARE YOUR SWORD
Did you get to read fantasy in school?
Written accents annoying or what?
Anthology cover reveal.
Download direct link here for audio!
It’s our author guide to Max Gladstone! If you want an author who knows how to work the financial crisis into epic fantasy and is handy with a sword, Max is your man. We also get the final word on a showdown between him and Scott Lynch. You won’t believe who really runs the economy.
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We are very excited to show you the cover art for the Sword & Laser Anthology! Created by artist Cliff Nielsen, each globe within this crazy storage center is a self-contained world. This is how we think of the Anthology itself: twenty worlds that you can easily lose yourself within.
So yes, this means we are almost ready to send the Anthology out into the world! Just wrapping up a few tiny edits, waiting on some blurbs, and then it will be out into the universe! We hope you love it as much as we loved putting it together.
We chat with Bill Gourgey, who’s Glide Trilogy does not settle for a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic world. What happens AFTER the post-apocalyptic dust settles!? We also find out how a tech analyst ends up writing genre novels and poetry. You won’t believe his answer! Or maybe you will. You probably will. But you won’t know what it is, unless you watch/listen to the show!
We’re back!!! Welcome back to the space castle, everybody! HUGE thanks to our Kickstarter supporters for making this possible. In our first episode of Season 2, we talk to Wool Omnibus author Hugh Howey. Find out how not to get shoved outside, how George R. R. Martin motivated Hugh’s career, and his number one editing tip.
Direct MP3 download here.
Subscribe to the YouTube page here!
Or via iTunes!
Other file formats here!
Hugh Howey caused quite a stir with his findings about independent authors, but what does it mean for us readers? We also talk about the Wizard of Earthsea feminism implications and have an exciting election for the March book pick! There is a gavel involved.
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale
Veronica: Vina Robles Red Blend
VIDEO SHOW COMING THURSDAY OMG!!!!!
QUICK BURNS
Self-published ebooks: the surprising data from Amazon
Most Amazon bestselling authors aren’t making minimum wage
WH Auden told JRR Tolkien to cut the love story from Lord of the Rings
Daemon And Influx Author Daniel Suarez On Why Innovation Has Stalled
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Read Them Now, Watch Them Later: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Adaptation Watch
More on the Redshirts TV Series
What was cut to make the “unfilmable” book Winter’s Tale into a movie
BOOK CHECK-IN
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin
BARE YOUR SWORD
Looking for more firearms in “High” Fantasy
Hi Tom & Veronica,
Listening to Gregory A Wilson talk about his daughter’s name made me think of my own family. I was named after Jessica Atreides (Dune), putting me in the odd position of being named for a sci-fi character AND having one of the most common girls names of my generation.
I passed the nerd legacy onto my own children as well – my son’s middle name is Zaphod (as in Beeblebrox) and my daughter is named Aeryn (after Aeryn Sun from Farscape). Hopefully she won’t resent me for it the millionth time she has to spell it out loud for someone.
Love the show,
Jessica
We chat with Gregory A. Wilson, author of The Third Sign, about his newest novel Icarus and the graphic novel based on it that he and artist Matt Slay are working on. It’s about a being who falls from the sky to save a world from tyranny. We also find out if he named his daughter after one of his own fictional characters.
Hey all, Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard is coming out Feb. 20 so Viking press gave us 5 copies to giveaway! The book comes out Feb. 20, so we’ll pick that day to announce a winner drawn at random from respondents to this thread.
To enter, head over to our Goodreads thread entitled “If you were a recently freed dragon, what’s the first thing you’d do?“
Listen to the show or check back in the thread on the 20th to find out who wins!
This time around we’re kicking off our February book pick, A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin. If you’re looking for the first tale a of a boy who attends a school of wizardry, we’ve got the goods, as well as what Ms. Le Guin, who wrote her book in 1968, thinks of Ms. Rowling. Plus The Clarion Workshop deadline is looming and USC and Intel make one author’s world come alive.
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Bikini Blonde Lager
Veronica: 2011 Plantagenet Shiraz Omrah
QUICK BURNS
Announcing the instructors for the 2014 Clarion Writers’ Workshop
SF writing competition: a world without the Normal Curve!
British science fiction book awards lurch towards gender parity
Intel Leviathan Project
This interactive chart maps out all the storylines in The Hobbit
CALENDAR
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods gets a brand new TV deal
BOOK KICK-OFF
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Wikipedia entry for ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’
Ursula K. Le Guin’s website
March Poll launched, vote on what our book should be!
April will be a book picked by our Kickstarter backer Bryan Benson!
BARE YOUR SWORD
What fictional items would you decorate a room with?
Adding “lem” to the dictionary
EMAIL
Hi Guys,
I listened to TNT for a long time and really enjoyed Tom’s narrative about tech and the tech industry. I just returned to TNT from a short hiatus to discover that Tom is no longer there. It’s only been a couple of episodes but it doesn’t feel the same. I don’t think TNT will be the same without Tom.
Anyway…. I remembered Tom use to mention S&L from time to time on TNT and figured I’d give it a try. I downloaded and listened to my first S&L episode (#160) today and liked what I heard.
I use to submit articles in the TNT’s sub reddit from time to time. Not sure what the official way is to submit for this show but I just read a book I thought was very relevant to discuss you guys had about how Fantasy and Scifi are so tied together and how (as Tom mentioned) it even mixes into Horror sometimes.
I thought this book was really cool for just that reason. It’s got pirates it’s got sudo time travel it’s got monsters. Take a look!
Mike E.
Kevin Singer – The Last Conquistador