The Sword and Laser

Really, most of the episode is about The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan:

UPDATE: Hopefully the file will work now in iTunes!



We disucssed the paralells to other fantasy worlds like Lord of the Rings and even World of Warcraft. We also passed along Randy's post from the Ning site about the Robert Jordan convention which you can find out more about by visiting
www.AgeofLegends.net.

But then we got to talking about Watchmen near the end and one thing led to another. It all came back around to Robert Jordan though as we discussed Sean O'Hara's Ning thread called Sexbots and dragons.

Speaking of the Ning group, we called out a couple of user-created groups that aren't related to official book club selections. Take a gander at the Alternate History group if you like to pretend things are different than they way they really are. And a really cool group that crosses TV fandom with literature, The Lost literary references group.

Finally we settled on Frank Herbert's Dune as the next book. We'll kick it off in the April episode, so if you have any questions, or non-spoiler thoughts for newbies to the book, let us know here in the comments

#017 - The S&L Podcast: Let's talk about ...er... sex?

As promised in the most recent podcast, our good friend Ryan (a.k.a. TuxOtaku) has set up a Sword and Laser IRC channel! Here are the details:

Server: irc.revision3.com
Room: #swordandlaser

We'll be doing some scheduled chats soon, but otherwise feel free to pop in and say hello from time to time! Just be mindful of spoilers (in fact, let's keep current book discussion to a minimum unless otherwise noted).

This week we check in on the beginning of the Wheel of Time series. Veronica's ahead of me and says the thing really picks up right after the point I stopped. Which makes me think she's just trying to get me to start reading again. Which is fine. One of the problems is I'm reading Watchmen at the same time in advance of the movie. I'll share a few impressions about that with you as well. We also discuss the book Daemon as reviewed on Slashdot. Should it be our next book choice?

Finally we take some reader comments, including a Wheel of Time Drinking Game and someone calling the last book "pants." We're pretty sure that means he didn't like it. Welcome to the wonderful world of monthly Sword and Laser! Woo-hoo! Pant



Special thanks to Jonathan Coulton for the use of his song, Mr. Fancy Pants! Go buy it here!

#016 - The S&L Podcast: Pants!