The Sword and Laser

We kick off A Dance with Dragons a week early with a quick summary of the important stuff that happened in the last book, A Feast for Crows.  Don't worry if you don't want to be spoiled, we save it all to the very end and give lots of warnings.  But you have to tune in for some great Goodreads discussions, quick news, and of course the Calendar.

QUICK BURNS

Steven "Jumper" Gould's new novel 7TH SIGMA: genre-busting science fiction/western kicks ass

Neil Gaiman Reveals the Future of American Gods 

Machine of Death deadline approaches 

CALENDAR

7/12/2011 A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

7/19/2011 Star Wars: Choices of One By Timothy Zahn

7/26/2011 Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) by Jim Butcher

7/31/2011 Troika by Alistair Reynolds

BARE YOUR SWORD

Dance with Dragons accidentally ships early

The most complex lore?

Gateway Books for Future Scifi/Fantasy Lovers

BOOK PREVIEW

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

Speculative World Map for A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

The Song of Ice and Fire So Far: Part 1 - Ancient History 

The Song of Ice and Fire So Far: Part 2 - The Dragon Kings

A Song of Ice and Fire So Far Part 3: Thrones and Kings

A Song of Ice and Fire So Far Part 4: Swords and Crows

EMAILS

I have to say that I'm very curious about the sound effects others are offering for the calendar & book check-in.  I'm not very creative & don't expect to win.  However I did come across some effects that I'd like to share from www.audiomicro.com.   For the calendar the only thing I can think of is 'page flip by Soundjay'.   For the new member 'reaction cheer by Blastwavefx'.  For the book check-in 'foley book grab by Blastwavefx'.  All of these are wav format & very brief.  Because it's someone else's work, I don't know the legal issues for me to grab their work & send it to you for possible use.    What got me curious the most is the sound effects people are choosing for calendar & book check-in.  That curiosity is what lead me to see what sound effects are out there.

Robert M.

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Austin, Brian, David, PanamaJack, ViolinKnitter, Johanna, BravePixels, Frank, Leavey, Lynn, Dinre, Lorenzo, Ian, Ashley, Tero, Alex, Raul, Edvardas, Colin, Gumberkules, John, new Michaels 1, 2, and 3, aaaaand Jason. 

John -- Long time listener, first time caller. First let me say I love the 'cast. I especially love the pace and format Veronica and Tom have adopted. (Note: As I listen, I like to picture them as the VeroniTom, a two-headed book-hoarding winged creature. Try it yourself, it gives the podcast that added extra flair.)

ADDENDUMS

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.

S&L Podcast - #67 - Previously, on A Song of Ice and Fire...

Today we check in on Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Little Fuzzy power ballad, and get Tom to hold off on his Game of Thrones TV talk until the bitter end.

63 S&L Podcast - #63 - Save it for the end by swordandlaser 63 S&L Podcast - #63 - Save it for the end by swordandlaser

QUICK BURNS

Power-ballad for John Scalzi's new Little Fuzzy novel

Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made

GRRM gives a final status report on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

CALENDAR

5/24/2011 The Falling Machine, Andrew Mayer
5/25/2011 Chasing the Moon, Lee Martinez (Orbit)
6/3/2011 The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton Tor
6/7/2011 Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson
6/7/2011 Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk by Jean Rabe
6/7/2011 Jim and the Flims, Rudy Rucker (Nightshade Books)

BARE YOUR SWORD

Kindle is watching you!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms > On spellings and pronunciations

BOOK CHECK-IN

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

We'll be interviewing NK Kemison on next week's episode, post your questions for her on our Goodreads forum.

EMAILS

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I love the Game of Thrones discussions on your Sword and Laser podcast! I really like to hear a discussion of the show, and I think you guys do a good job of reviewing the episode, while still being mindful of those who haven't read the book (like me!). I don't really have people to discuss this with around me, and I don't have time to hunt down some discussion group on the internet, so your discussions are perfect for me.

Also, I agree with Veronica. I felt a lot of the past few book picks haven't been ""engrossing."" Sometimes, I just want to read a book that you can't put down, and that draws you in. (That would NOT be Blindsight.) I'm fine if it's not considered ""high brow"" science fiction.

Thanks for putting on the podcast!!

Paul

***

Tom and Veronica,

Had an idea for how you could cover some of the big releases coming up without having to read them as the official book. I listen to a video game podcast (Gamespot presents the Hotspot if you want to plug) that is a weekly show about the news and latest releases. In their main show they cover very generally the new releases but when there is a big release, most recently Portal 2, they put out an entirely separate episode they call a spoilercast. This way the listeners have a choice to listen or not listen and avoids the whole pesky fast forwarding through spoilers or even having to warn about spoilers at all because its the purpose of the show. Doing this allows those reading the book along with you to listen should they want or if any pick up the book later to go back to the episodes and listen along. I know Tom and Veronica, you guys are often taxed for recording time but I don't think that this ""spoilercast"" would have to be anymore than 10-15 minutes a week, or maybe just a one off 30 minute episode to recap the book when you've both finished. Let me know what you think.

Follow both of you religiously and love all your shows, Sword and Laser especially.

Alex

S&L Podcast - #63 - Save it for the end

This week we discuss how the Game of Thrones series is shaping up, how we make mental pictures of characters when we read, and the meaning of Hodor.

QUICK BURNS

Book Publishers, AOL To Launch New Book Recommendation Site

CALENDAR
5/10/2011 Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
5/10/2011 The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor)
5/17/2011 Embassytown by China Mieville
5/19/2011 The Order of the Scales by Stephen Deas
5/24/2011 The Falling Machine, Andrew Mayer (Pyr)
5/25/2011 Chasing the Moon, Lee Martinez (Orbit)

BARE YOUR SWORD

How do you imagine characters when you read a novel?

Epic vs. Epoc

Hodor.

BOOK CHECK-IN

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

N. K. Jemisin is an African-American female writer of speculative fiction. Her 2010 debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award and the 2011 Hugo Award, and was ranked #5 on Amazon's "editors' pick" list of the year's best ten works of science fiction and fantasy.

The Inheritance Trilogy
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010)
The Broken Kingdoms (2010)
The Kingdom of Gods (forthcoming in 2011)

S&L Podcast - #62 - A blonde Gimli running through my head