The Sword and Laser

With the huge success of the film adaptation this month, we thought it would be fun to travel back in time to our interview with The Martian author Andy Weir and Influx author Daniel Suarez.

We wrap up A Canticle for Leibowitz and explore all its science and religion feels. Also we welcome a new Expanse series cover, a new Gaiman baby and we discover why Taylor Swift IS the Kwisatz Haderach.

This week, things really go nuts when Veronica realizes that she likes Tom's book pick more than Tom does, which causes Tom to question everything he has ever known. Meanwhile, over on Goodreads, Thane questions whether present tense is the bane of genre fiction! Hmmm...

This weekend at DragonCon 2015 in Atlanta, we had the great fortune of chatting with Cherie Priest for an hour in front a live audience of Sword & Laser enthusiasts! Listen in to hear Cherie's rise from goth to glorious, the proper way to distinguish steampunk from goth, and why Lizzie Borden is not who you thought.

We’re happy for the Hugos, sad for the last Terry Pratchett novel, and J.R.R. Tolkien has a new book. Plus, we wrap up Uprooted by Naomi Novik and make our peace with a trope. Full show notes: http://swordandlaser.com/home/2015/8/26/sl-podcast-225-embrace-the-manic-pixie-dream-witch

We chat with J-F Dubeau, author of The Life Engineered about why we should keep calm and build more robots. Also the good news of more Game of Thrones coming to TV thrilled the live audience at Nerdtacular 2015 as did our surprise host-swap! And thanks to Matt Avery of The Tadpool for the album art inspiration ;) Recorded before a live studio of nerds, and thanks to Jeff Cannata of We Have Concerns for joining in!

Scott Sigler’s Alive is out, and even though he didn’t mean it as Young Adult fiction it’s turned out that way. And even though he didn’t mean it to be Science Fiction, it’s turned out that way too! Find out why this all happened and why he’s happy with all of it.

This week we congratulate several more authors on TV deals, one author on getting to write more movie books, and another author on having too many potential movie deals. We also come to the conclusion that Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is all the genres.

We have an eyewitness report from the ALA conference in San Francisco, our initial thoughts on Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and Neil Gaiman will write some episodes for the American Gods TV series. Thank American Gods!

Ellen DeGeneres is apparently interested in adapting Naomi Novik's Uprooted as a film. But, we all know there's a long road from "interest" to "released." Just ask Neil Gaiman. The good news is Gaiman's American Gods is finally green-lit for TV! So there's hope. Unless you're a god from the Continent! More about that as we wrap up The City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.

We talk with author Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger, about why healers are never the hero in genre fiction and how she decided to change that. We also press her for baked brie recipes and discover how the Foo Fighters helped shape Octavia Leander.

First off we now have a 100% record picking Nebula-award winning books for the club. That’s 100% of the last two years. So take note Nebula-wanters! Also we’re very excited about a new series from University of Illinois Press called the Masters of Science Fiction. You can find out William Gibson’s secrets!

Peter Orullian wears many hats. He is an author, musician, and has worked for many years at Microsoft on the XBox team. Today we talk about his series The Vault of Heaven, get the scoop on his all-time favorite music, and hear why Peter believes there is no such thing as writer's block.

We congratulate John Scalzi on his book deal (while Veronica teases about his Lock In Sequel’s title), applaud Ernest Cline’s choice of audiobook narrator and have polar opposite opinions about Leigh Brackett’s “Sword of Rhiannon.”

We talk with Rachel Aaron about why she doesn't worry about genre anymore and how she had to fight the siren song of Warcraft to become a professional writer.