The Sword And Laser (audio)

We wrap up our thoughts about Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey. And we discuss why calling a character a “Mary Sue” has become meaningless and impedes constructive conversation.

A newly-discovered short story from W.E.B. Dubois called “The Princess Steel” seems to anticipate elements of Game of Thrones and Doctor Who. Plus, we kick off the book with the talking horses!

Author Chuck Gannon joins us on the show this week to talk about his most recent work in the Caine Riordan series (Raising Caine), as well as helping the government figure out the future as part of SIGMA. This is one busy guy, let me tell you.

We wrap up what people thought about Time and Again by Jack Finney. Some loved the imagery, some got bored, and some thought he was just too hard on New York City.

We interview Mallory O'Meara, producer and screenwriter for Dark Dunes Productions, about Yamasong: March of the Hallows, a movie about an automated girl and tortoise warrior, with puppets, Nathon Fillion’s voice and more. We also discuss her love of horror fiction, and how weird it is that her grandparents have a torture shack in the woods! http://swordandlaser.com/home/2015/11/16/sl-podcast-235-how-to-become-a-turtle-puppet-horror-master

George R R Martin will only say that Game of Thrones will end in a bittersweet way. We’re pretty sure we know what that means. Also Chinese Nebula Award winners and our first impressions of Time and Again by Jack Finney.

At Con-Volution 2015 we sat down with author/podcaster/publicist Jaym Gates and talked about her unique perspective on publishing from within and without.

We wrap up our October book pick, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Some people find the hero less than heroic. Some people find the genre less than fantasy. So why did Tom like it so much? Is HE a traitor? Also a short story vending machine and why we're so jealous of Ann Leckie's good taste. http://swordandlaser.com/home/2015/10/27/sl-podcast-232-is-this-book-a-traitor-to-its-genre

We have a delightful conversation with Catherynne M. Valente about decopunk, book awards, and why she fears spoiling herself about her own stories while she’s writing them. Her decopunk book Radiance is out now! Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser. You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks/. http://swordandlaser.com/home/2015/10/20/sl-podcast-231-can-an-author-spoil-herself

We cheer for Patrick Rothfuss winning the Hollywood game, jeer a little at Spielberg refusing to put a Delorean in the Ready Player One movie and peruse with careful academic curiosity a study showing the increase in empathy caused by reading.

With the huge success of the film adaptation this month, we thought it would be fun to travel back in time to our interview with The Martian author Andy Weir and Influx author Daniel Suarez.

We wrap up A Canticle for Leibowitz and explore all its science and religion feels. Also we welcome a new Expanse series cover, a new Gaiman baby and we discover why Taylor Swift IS the Kwisatz Haderach.

This week, things really go nuts when Veronica realizes that she likes Tom's book pick more than Tom does, which causes Tom to question everything he has ever known. Meanwhile, over on Goodreads, Thane questions whether present tense is the bane of genre fiction! Hmmm...

This weekend at DragonCon 2015 in Atlanta, we had the great fortune of chatting with Cherie Priest for an hour in front a live audience of Sword & Laser enthusiasts! Listen in to hear Cherie's rise from goth to glorious, the proper way to distinguish steampunk from goth, and why Lizzie Borden is not who you thought.

We’re happy for the Hugos, sad for the last Terry Pratchett novel, and J.R.R. Tolkien has a new book. Plus, we wrap up Uprooted by Naomi Novik and make our peace with a trope. Full show notes: http://swordandlaser.com/home/2015/8/26/sl-podcast-225-embrace-the-manic-pixie-dream-witch

We chat with J-F Dubeau, author of The Life Engineered about why we should keep calm and build more robots. Also the good news of more Game of Thrones coming to TV thrilled the live audience at Nerdtacular 2015 as did our surprise host-swap! And thanks to Matt Avery of The Tadpool for the album art inspiration ;) Recorded before a live studio of nerds, and thanks to Jeff Cannata of We Have Concerns for joining in!

Scott Sigler’s Alive is out, and even though he didn’t mean it as Young Adult fiction it’s turned out that way. And even though he didn’t mean it to be Science Fiction, it’s turned out that way too! Find out why this all happened and why he’s happy with all of it.

This week we congratulate several more authors on TV deals, one author on getting to write more movie books, and another author on having too many potential movie deals. We also come to the conclusion that Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is all the genres.

We have an eyewitness report from the ALA conference in San Francisco, our initial thoughts on Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and Neil Gaiman will write some episodes for the American Gods TV series. Thank American Gods!

Ellen DeGeneres is apparently interested in adapting Naomi Novik's Uprooted as a film. But, we all know there's a long road from "interest" to "released." Just ask Neil Gaiman. The good news is Gaiman's American Gods is finally green-lit for TV! So there's hope. Unless you're a god from the Continent! More about that as we wrap up The City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.