The Sword and Laser

Veronica is on a "cleanse".  I think she may have suffered from the sheod and just doesn't want to admit it. But we review some of the best books of 2011, look at some hot new ones coming out soon, and wrap-up our final thoughts on Elantris.

QUICK BURNS

George R. R. Martin posts excerpt from Winds of Winter

The Wertzone Awards 2011

The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Comics Of 2011

THE WHEEL OF TIME is completed

Empire State: a phildickian noir detective/superhero/pocket universe novel

CALENDAR

The Ultimate Guide to January’s Science Fiction and Fantasy!

BARE YOUR SWORD

Hobbit eggs

What Else Are You Reading - January 2012

Sword & Laser Anthology

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

The Making of “The Hobbit” — Part Five

BOOK WRAP-UP

Elantris

Check in on 1Q84

EMAIL

Hey,

Can't sleep so listening to S&L and you guys are talking about the interminable 1Q84 and I just had to ask if you're listening at 1X or 2X? I've got a post coming up about how 2x saved my sanity and makes me impatient with normal speaking humans so would love to hear how you listen to audiobooks and podcasts.

Have a Merry!

Jason D.

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Hello Tom and Veronica.
I wanted to let you guys know that the whole series of the chronicles of narnia is available for free in audio for at this link.

The best thing is that it has the authorization from CS Lewis State, so download for the win!

Love the podcast. Keep up the good work.

Yannis from Chicago

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Veronica and Tom,

I read an interesting post:

Lovecraft’s racism & The World Fantasy Award statuette, with comments from China Miéville

It's an interesting account of accepting an award when the name on the award is that of a blatant racist.,p> What are your thoughts on this? How could anyone take any pride in accepting an award with Lovecraft's (or, for that matter, Hitler's or Stalin's) name on it. I know that I'd find it hard to have my name associated with anything ""Lovecraft"".

Excellent shows. I'm definitely a "laser" guy and I eagerly await each laser-centric read.

Mike from Fremont

NEW MEMBER HELLOS
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S&L Podcast - #86 - Elantris Wrap-up

We find out Lev Grossman's picks for the best SFF of the year, as well as welcome a new speculative fiction mag to the scene and review good things to use as a bookmark.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Veronica: 2008 Legón Ribera del Duero Roble
Tom: 2009 Les Portes de Bordeaux

QUICK BURNS

Fired Up: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fantasy

SFSite reports The Center for the Study of Science Fiction (CSSF), in association with the University of Kansas, will launch James Gunn’s Ad Astra, an online resource for authors, scholars and all those who are interested in speculative fiction in the summer of 2012.

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

What Else Are You Reading - December 2011 Edition

What do You Use as a Bookmark?

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Worst movies you've paid to watch on the bigscreen

BOOK CHECK-IN

Elantris

1Q84

EMAIL

Hi Tom and Veronica,

On the last S&L I listened to you were talking about Roy Dotrice recording A Feast for Crows to complete his narration of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Veronica mentioned that she had been lucky enough to have the same narrator in all of the multi-book series she has read via Audible. That is great as I can attest from much experience to how disconcerting that can be. I am legally blind, and as such can download digital or borrow cassette audio books from the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. (http://www.loc.gov/nls/) This is an awesome service that I have been using for over 30 years. Yes I used to borrow records. While they also try and use the same narrators within series, the problem is I am not a patient man. Since they do their own recordings new titles often take a good while to show up on the service. When you guys recommend a series that has been around for a while I will often start reading if via the NLS, but then I just can't wait when the newest edition comes out. Then I find myself turning to Audible for my fix. This happened recently with A Dance with Dragons, and I am now looking at my credits trying to decide if I should get the latest in the Kingkiller Chronicles series. The problem is it takes me probably 25 of the book to get over the difference in narrator's interpretation of the characters.

Sorry this is longer than I had anticipated, but I just wanted to weigh in on the issue and let you know about the NLS in case you weren't already aware of it and have other handicapped listeners who might be able to take advantage of it.

-Steve

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After listening to the two of you on some of your more recent podcasts and discovering that you also like games, I thought you might be interested in a five minute documentary that my daughter did as a grade 12 media project. It's based on the community of gamers at my store ""The Sentry Box"". We have about 7000 SF&F titles as well as the games which is why I thought of you. Since you are in the warm south, I figured you might be interested in what we do in the cold Canadian north in Calgary for fun.

I actually had nothing to do with anything in the video which is probably why it turned out so well. She just posted it and has had 500 views in four days so I'm pretty impressed and in awe of her skills.

Keep up the great work.

Gordon Johansen

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Hey Tom and Veronica,

I know you were both on the mailing lists for the GoT press kits when the series debuted, but I haven't heard you mention anything about the DVDs. My husband is a film & TV critic and he brought home a big box o' swag today, so with his permission, I thought I'd share some unboxing pics.

Here's a link to the whole set on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alterjess/sets/72157628490860895/

In the box:

House Baratheon seal & sealing wax
DRAGON EGG
House Baratheon notecards
press photos
DVD of first ep

I don't know if everyone got House Baratheon, or if HBO made up kits for other houses as well - I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to see a stag instead of a direwolf or dragon on the outside of that box.

(DVDs are on sale March 6, by the way, though it doesn't say so anywhere in the press materials!)

Love the show (awww, now I feel like I'm emailing you back at BOL),

Jessica of House HOLY CRAP I HAVE A DRAGON EGG ON MY DESK

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Martin, Alan, Paul, Seth, John, Vyktor, Amy, Therazor, Thomas, Andrew, Eric, Pete, Joseph, Imogen, Jacqueline, Natalie, Gary, Keith, January!

ADDENDUMS

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 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 - #85 - Bookmark this

We discuss the meaning of religion in Elantris, whether 1Q84 is boring or not, and why Ray Bradbury is so darn crotchety.

QUICK BURNS

Roy Dotrice records new edition of FEAST FOR CROWS audiobook

Rudy Rucker's autobiography: Nested Scrolls

Fahrenheit 451 becomes e-book despite author's feelings

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Elantris - Anyone else feel guilty?

Elantris - Favorite POV

Units of Measure in Fantasy

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Westeros: Total War needs some help

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 trailer

Lost Doctor Who Episodes Surface With Chumblies, Fish People

BOOK CHECK-IN

Elantris

1Q84

EMAIL

Hello Veronica and Tom,

I have been a long time listener to FrameRate on the TwiT network and have only recently been listening to The Sword and Laser, episode number 82 to be precise. Both this and the later episode have been enjoyable to listen to whilst on long plane journeys and idle time whilst building booths and trade shows. I must admit I finished the Elantris book in a few days and agree with Veronica when she stated this has a first book feel to it. Towards the end I found Sarene to be slightly grating and almost put the book down, but I am glad I pushed through the last twenty or so pages.

I was wondering if you had a few seconds to answer a question so I may learn from people possessing greater knowledge than I? I find myself with a two week break over Christmas and I was wondering if you could suggest any major series I could start getting into? (I have never read the Mistborn, the Way of Kings or Games of Thrones series, but really enjoyed the Dark Tower books.)

I hope you manage to find sometime during your busy schedules to answer my question and I look forward to the next episode.

Kind Regards,

Wilton

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Did you guys see this? A grad student of mine sent me the links and I though Tom in particular might enjoy it:

Part 1

Part 2

-- Dr. Timothy R

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Veronica and Tom, I wanted to reach out to you guys and let you know about our e-zine Flagship. Every other month (soon to be every month) for the last fifteen months we've put out an anthology of positive science fiction and fantasy short stories in both electronic text and audio formats. We were recently featured in Wired magazine's Geekdad blog and are looking for more places to get the word out about what we're doing.

-- Scott Roche

CALLS

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Chris (Cogitator X), Harm, Kieran, Tim, Urg, Dave, Emma, Brandon, Armando, Kristin, William, Darren, Michael, Marissa, Joe, Jon, Quinn, Chris, Dana, Stephen, Diego, Brandon, Jonathan, Chrys, Alex, Ruth, Shaun, Rob, Melissa, Patrik, Dirk, Link, Leslie, Tom, Peter, Amanda, Mel, Trey, Harry, Bob, Mecque (muh-kay), Kelly, Jack, Charles, Gary, Glenn, Codered, Bryan, Jonathan.

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 - #84 - Metric is for SciFi, Imperial is for Fantasy