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.

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.

Download direct link here!

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!

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WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Snowdrift: Orchard Select Hard Cider   
Veronica: Bulliet Rye    
    
QUICK BURNS
Ian: Sword and Laser pick Annihilation won Best Novel Nebula!

Joanna 
In 2013, the University of Illinois Press launched a new series of scholarly books: The Modern Masters of Science Fiction, a series dedicated to studying the men and women who shaped modern science fiction literature.

Nick: The Martian first teaser trailer/clip
    
John
IDW Publishing teases comic project with William Gibson
    
David H.
Chaz Brenchley won the Lambda Award for Bitter Waters for Best LGBT SF/F/H Book (it’s a collection).

    
Brendan: Goodnight Dune

Sky 
Stealing Rob’s post from another group that shall not be named – New Riyria Chronicles book and chance for bonus goodies like awesome t-shirts. Due to various deadlines, Mr. Sullivan has decided to self-publish the 3rd Riyria Chronicles book and is doing a Kickstarter.    
    
BARE YOUR SWORD

I am new to the Sword & Laser podcast and just really podcasting in general. It’s amazing to find a medium where similar interests are explored and expounded upon. Having said that, I’m slowly catching up from earlier podcasts on Sword & Laser but upon listening to the Elizabeth Bear author spotlight I learned that your a fan of Grimdark (Abercrombie). I’m a huge fan of the genre and have read and found the following authors/books truly fascinating: Abercrombie (First Law), Heroes, Best Served Cold, Brent Weeks (Night Angel), Brian McClellan (Powder Mage Trilogy), Brian Staveley (Emperor’s Blades), Luke Scull (Grim Company), and most recently Mark Smylie (The Barrow) which was amazing but yet found certain parts uncomfortable to get through. Right now I’m reading Marc Turner’s (When The Heavens Fall).

Based on your experience with Grimdark and the Fantasy genre and what I have been reading, I was hoping you could shed some light on some other author’s and their books that would fit the mold of what I am currently reading.

I’m really looking forward to what you have to say. Thank you so much for your time. Hopefully I’ll be able to get up to speed on the podcast shortly enough. Thanks for your time.
Best,
Paul

— 
    
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    
    
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett    
    
S&L Podcast – #192 – Sexual Experiences with Robert Jackson Bennett    
    
ADDENDUMS    
    
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons at patreon.com/swordandlaser Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser    
    
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks.
    

SWORD & LASER AT THE BAY AREA BOOK FESTIVAL IN BERKELEY!

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!