The Sword and Laser

We're kicking off our brand new book selection, Blindsight, by Peter Watts! We don't have too many Quick Burns today... mostly just GoT news. Would you expect anything less?

QUICK BURNS

OMG GAME OF THRONES STARTS APRIL 17
Map of the free cities.

CALENDAR
4/12/2011 After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughan

4/12/2011 "All the Lives He Led, Frederik Pohl (Tor)

4/19/2011 "The River of Shadows by Robert V.S. Redick

4/21/2011 "The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham

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

BARE YOUR SWORD

The Kingkiller Chronicles > Penny Arcade Comic

Novels About People Playing Videogames

Geek Smackdown: George R.R. Martin disses on Lost

sword and laser question ( sales credit)

BOOK KICK-OFF
Blindsight by Peter Watts

From Wikipedia: Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Peter Watts, published by Tor Books in 2006. On 29 March 2007, it was nominated for the Hugo Award in the Best Novel category.[1] Watts has also released the novel online under the by-nc-sa Creative Commons license.[2] The novel deals with a crew of astronauts investigating an extraterrestrial entity and explores the nature of identity and consciousness. The title refers to blindsight, a neurological condition with implications for philosophy of mind.

The Chinese Room scenario features prominently in the book.

EMAILS
Thanks to Harold for making us an Infostripe!

S&L Podcast - #58 - Blindsight Kick-off

Giveaway for The Once and Future King books! Post to the thread to win.

    
QUICK BURNS    
    
Did Harry Potter Really Steal All These Story Ideas?   
    
Worst book ever to win a Hugo   
    
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist Tells the Tale of the World’s First Computer   
    
    
BARE YOUR SWORD - feedback from the audience    
    
What makes Arthur so great?   
    
Alternate History   
     
  
BOOK KICKOFF / WRAPUP   
    
We wrap up The Once and Future King and The Princess Bride .
    
Next book! - How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel by Charles Yu   
    

EMAILS

  
Just listened to Episode #46 where it was asked at what point is there good books to start off to get into Discworld. I too have been wondering how to get into reading Terry Prachett's books, so I did a little search and found this post from the Guys and Gals at BoingBoing. http://boingboing.net/2007/09/30/pratchetts-discworld.html#. Thought you might like it if someone has not already suggested it.

Thanks for all the hours of shows! Love everything you both do.

Chris

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Just listened to episode 46 and heard you pondering about where to start in the Discworld series. Well as someone who has absorbed the entire works of Terry Pratchett (TP) I would advise you not to worry about it and just jump into the series where ever you feel like.

The Discworld novels do not occur in chronological order with one underlining storyline.  Each book is its own individual story which just occurs within the Discworld universe. Characters constantly re-appear throughout the series however each book focus on one main character, therefore never encountering any of the characters before will not hinder your enjoyment.

However the Tiffany Aching books are aimed at younger audience than the rest of the discworld series, which results in the books having a different feel. Therefore I would recommend you to check out some of TP’s other works such as Guards, Guards, Interesting Times, Witches Abroad or Going postal to get a true feeling for the series.

YoYo

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Terry Pratchetts Author's Note in ""Lords and Ladies"":

By and large, most Discworld books have stood by themselves, as complete books. It helps to have read them in some kind of order, but it's not essential. This one is different. I can't ignore the history of what has gone before. [...]

So Pratchett has always tried to write the books Discworld books is such a manner that you can pick it up wherever you'd like. You might enjoy a couple of references and inside jokes if yu've read the whole series, but you shouldn't let it stop you if you're new to Pratchett. Especially not when it comes to the Tiffany Aching series.

In all fairness it is possible to group together ""series"" within the Discworld series that you might like to read in order. So that the handful of books starring Captain Vimes of the City guard would be more rewarding to read in their proper order, but it's entirely unimportant whether you read these before or after the books about the Lancre Witches. The Tiffany Aching books constitutes such a saga.

Martin
    
Thanks also to Gavin, Curt and Rob who wrote in about Pratchett orders as well! Kate also posted this helpful chart in the forums.

ADDENDUMS    

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Our pick: METAtropolis: Cascadia

   
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No more Arthur! - The S&L Podcast #47

Well folks it's wrap-up time for The Moon is Harsh Mistress and... sadly... Veronica hasn't finished.  But we wrap up anyway and Tom makes a shocking revelation that lets Veronica off the hook.  And he finished Moon, so it's not that.

QUICK BURNS        
        
New ‘Game of Thrones’ teaser (video)   
        
Why a universe-hopping entrepreneur may be your next big hero       
        
William Gibson reveals a "secret experiment" in his Bridge Trilogy, and ponders A.I.      

Gibson dropped some hints about a little stealth tie-in to Zero History  that's going to happen on Twitter soon. Let's just say that you should keep an eye on the Twitter accounts @gaydolphin1 and @gaydolphin2 - those of you who've read the novel know what those accounts are related to.
       
BARE YOUR SWORD - feedback from the audience        
        
Why did he die? (SPOILERS)
        
Human Judgment vs. Machines
        
The City & The City is a missed opportunity (SPOILERS)   
        
BOOK WRAP-UP      
        
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Veronica still has not finished, she's prepared for her flogging. Tom's thoughts?    

NEW BOOK

We're taking suggestions from Classic Fantasy on Goodreads then we'll put it up to a vote.  
        
EMAILS      
        
Hi Veronica, Tom
I will try and keep it pithy but I get "wordy" sometimes. :) I asked
the question at dragon con if future podcasts could contain a 5 minute
segment looking back at classic epic fantasy of the 70s and 80s when
readers were starving for good reads. I was thinking of producing my
own podcast on this subject but you guys have built a nice listener
base so you can do more with this than I.

In October, Stephen R. Donaldson will be releasing his newest novel,
"Against All Things Ending", the third book in a four book series that
completes the tale of Thomas Covenant he began in 1977 with the book
"Lord Foul's Bane". In the 70s & 80s Donaldson sold over 40 million
copies and was second only to Tollkien at one time. These books are
GOLD.

Another retro author with an impending release is Katherine Kurtz, who
will soon release the third book of her "Chylde Morgan" trilogy. This
is also a tale that began back in the 70s.

These two great authors have been overshadowed by Jordan and Martin
but are easily their equals or better. Please put these on your
reading list and introduce this generation's readers to some classic
epic fantasy.

If I can be of any assistance in the production of this segment please
don't hesitate to let me know.

Regards,
Roman Thompson 

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Veronica and Tom,
A late addition, but just finished reading Accelerando by Charles Stross. The Earth and the inner planets are completely deconstructed and rebuilt into data storage and processing power for the digital needs of the human race. So, voluntary, resource savvy, non-Armageddon style Earth recycling.

Regards,
Peter Hourigan

The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_(novel)

Plot concepts
In Accelerando, the planets of the solar system are dismantled to form a Matrioshka brain, a vast computational device inhabited by minds inconceivably more complex than naturally evolved intelligences such as human beings. This proves to be a normal stage in the life cycle of an inhabited solar system; the galaxies are filled with Matrioshka brains, communicating via wormhole networks. Lesser intelligences may live unmolested around brown dwarf stars.
 

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I just listened to #40. I highly recommend Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in the audio version. I got this at my library and it was very good. Don't give up on the somewhat boring beginning, it's a superb story.
 
Thanks for the great podcasts!
 
Peggy Poellot

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This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals.   For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.

We suggested:

The City and The City, by China Mieville, read by John Lee

Zero History, by William Gibson Narrated by Robertson Dean

And by our Partner Sticker Fu.  Use the code Sword1 and get 10% off the stickers at www.stickerfu.com     

Veronica gets spoiled - The S&L Podcast #42