The Sword and Laser

This week we talk about the newest eReader from Amazon, as well as why we hold on to those old paper books, and we wrap-up Reamde (spoiler alert!) and kick off a new book!

QUICK BURNS

Kindle Fire is out! - our thoughts on e-readers

Keeping Physical Books in a Digital Age

Fiction can possibly alter personality

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

Did you list past reads when you joined Goodreads?

Biting off more then you can read

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Everything You Missed in the Hunger Games Trailer: 40 Awesome Images!

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Tentative Finish Date: January 2

BOOK WRAP-UP (Kind of)

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

EMAIL

Hi Tom & Veronica,

A few weeks ago, Ian Tregillis wrote an interesting blogpost about the upcoming publication of his second book "The Coldest War". Here's the link to his blog for the full story.

To sum it all up, he announced that the audiobook would be released on December 20, 2011 on audible.com. So I thought we could add it the calendar. For the ebook and ""dead-tree"" editions however, we will have to wait until June or July 2012. - Nicolas

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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 audible.com/NGP

S&L Podcast - #82 - On Fire

Is Neal Stephenson fantasizing revenge?  How does Patrick Norton read so preternaturally fast? Can you really make paper out of elephant dung?  All these questions and more exlpored on this episode of Sword and Laser.

QUICK BURNS

Art of the Hobbit: Never-Before-Seen Drawings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Terry Pratchett on Snuff

Mark Charan Newton's THE REEF released as an ebook

10 Debut Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels That Took the World by Storm

The Victorian Hugos: 1885
The Victorian Hugos: 1886

CALENDAR 

BARE YOUR SWORD

1Q84 paper texture

Reamde : Why terrorists?

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Grimm - the other fairy tale show

The 1986 infomercial for the Neuromancer movie that never was

BOOK PICK

Vote for the next book!

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S&L Podcast - #81 - Elephant paper

We're excited about Dragon*Con and our interview with Robert J. Sawyer.  In fact we're picking his book Flashforward as our next read, which we'll kick off next week. This week we wrap-up our last alternate selection, Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi.

QUICK BURNS

Joe Abercrombie and R. Scott Bakker fans needed

Scientifically accurate sf novels with help from NASA

CALENDAR

9/1/2011 Seed, Robert Ziegler (Night Shade Books)
9/6/2011 Legacy of Kings by C. S. Friedman
9/6/2011 Tears of the Sun: A novel of change by S. M. Stirling
9/13/2011 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
9/15/2011 War in Heaven by Gavin Smith
9/20/2011 Reamde, Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)

BARE YOUR SWORD

United Moon Colonies by Tom Merritt

Tamahome and Jenny on Sffaudio

Who's going to Dragon*Con this year?

TV and Movies

And three more roles for THRONES

BOOK Wrap-up

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

Next Book Pick: Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer

EMAILS 

Hey y'all,

Over in Goodreads I don't know if this has been discussed yet, so sorry if it has. I've seen people wonder about using the hide spoiler feature in threads that are clearly marked spoilery from the get go. I think it's still important to hide spoilers so people can decide to what degree they want to get spoilery. Also, perhaps more importantly, thread comments you make will appear in your friends' feeds and they won't be happy campers if a big nasty spoiler appears on their Goodreads home page after you comment on a spoilery thread. Keep up the good work, you guys have a lot of fun doing the show and it's contagious!

thanks,
Philip

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Hey Tom and Veronica,

Catching up on podcasts and I heard Veronica say she was interested in a listener's bad theatre experience, so I thought I'd share one I had recently. Like the letter writer, I've also had people wait outside the theatre for me because I've politely asked them to be quiet, but this one take the cake. I copied it from my tumblr, (Zombie Otaku), so I hope you don't mind.

So I decide to leave the house for once and go see one of those moving pictures that are all the rage with the kids today. There is an art house/indy film theatre not far from me that I’ve always intended on frequenting, so last night was the night.

So I arrive, and it’s all old people. Well, older than me. All gray hair, all wearing slacks and weekend plaid. I’m wearing a Ramones shirt and Chuck Taylors, so they of course check their wallets and ask their spouses if they locked the car.

I decide to commit to this place and get a membership. This way I’ll have to go, since I paid extra and I hate not getting my money’s worth. The woman looks pissed off at me, since this means she has to fill out out a card and laminate it. Somehow, she gets through this ordeal.

I go into the theatre, ready to see Midnight In Paris. A contingent of what I assume were lawn bowlers sit down across the aisle and start yelling at each other in Greek, even though they’re sitting beside one another. A man in thick rimmed black glasses glares at them, switches off his iPhone, and storms to a new seat.

I counted lots of thick, black rimmed glasses on guys checking their iPhones.

The movie finally starts. At this point the ancient seats start giving me back spasms. Still, I’m going to enjoy this movie. Twenty minutes in, something flies past the screen.

I look. It flies past the screen again. Then it swoops over my head. The audience all jump.

BATS.

Now I’m not watching the movie. I’m watching bats flying around the place. I count three of them. When they fly close to the projector, their silhouette fills the screen, and I wonder how many us will now be inspired to fight crime as Batman.

Then they start swooping. I can feel one just miss my head, impacting on the chair behind me. It screams, flops around, and takes to the air again. I’m out of my chair, deciding someone should tell management we’re under attack.

But a bat is flying in front of the door leading to the lobby. It’s bouncing back and forth between the walls, getting pissed. Then it flies at me, I duck, and run out into the lobby.

The manager jumps out of his chair in his office. “What’s wrong?”

“Bats are attacking the audience,” I say, because I wasn’t sure what else to say. Do we discuss the decline of art cinema first, then move onto the bat problem?

He looks into the theatre. The bats are flying fast and furious in front of the screen.

“Yeah, I see them,” he says. “They’re early this year.”

So this is normal.

“I’m just worried someone might get bit,” I said,

“Yeah, I hope not,” he replied.

Silence.

“Guess I’ll go back in,” I said.

“Okay,” and he went back to his office.

So in I went. I watched the bats a bit longer, especially when they hung on the screen and screeched. But then they disappeared, and I finally got to watch the film.

Sean Twist

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S&L Podcast - #73 - Fuzzy Nation Wrap-up