Would you like to be in a George R. R. Martin Book? Got $20K? Don’t mind being killed? Good. You can help wolves. Also we give our first impressions of Brian McClellan’s The Promise of Blood and talk Geekomancy with Michael Underwood. 

Direct download!

QUICK BURNS   
    
Maddadam TV Series – Chris    
    
2014 Audie Winners (Audible) – Daniel
    
WINNERS: 2014 Ditmar Awards
    
Author Jay Lake has passed away – Joe Informatico
    
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN WILL KILL YOU GAME OF THRONES-STYLE FOR $20,000

PICKS    
    
Tom’s Reading On The Steel Breeze by Alistair Reynolds    
    
Veronica is reading Marie Brennan’s The Tropic of Serpents (a Memoir by Lady Trent) and just finished Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig, and Lions of Al-Rassan by GGK.    
    
What Else Are you Reading June    

Find more upcoming releases at swordandlaser.com/calendar    
    
BARE YOUR SWORD
    
Anyone else find reading about sex (in fiction) and/or reading profanity to be awkward? – Eric
    
Summer climate fiction – “cli fi” for short – genre reading list – Nokomis.FL
 
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    

July book pick is up for a vote. We’re reading Octavia E. Butler. Voting ends June 22. 
    
The Promise of Blood

WARNING: Hachette and Amazon are having a fight which may affect shipping times for print copies. Might want to buy print copies elsewhere for the time being.    
    
Everyone’s favorite hobby: casting – John    
    
People and Places for $200, Alex – Daniel (rhymes with Taniel) 
    
First Impressions – Rabindranauth    
    
ADDENDUMS

Buy the Sword and Laser Anthology!    
    
Cross-promo Boing Boing podcast    

David Weber joins Tom Merritt at BayCon to talk about the origins of his writing, the journey of Honor Harrington and how he relies on his fans.

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We intersect with Mr. Samuel R. Delany at the Nebula Awards to talk about his writings, old and new, and the role of science fiction, plus more stimulating conversation.

Download the podcast here!
Samuel R. Delany’s Facebook page.

 

Veronica is back from China to regale us tales of motorboating pandas, but first we announce our June book pick and wrap-up The Martian by Andy Weir. Is it as scientifically accurate as so many say? We get an aerospace engineer’s perspective. 

Direct download here!

Watch the hangout here on YouTube.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    

Tom: Smithwick’s     
Veronica: Anchor California Lager    

QUICK BURNS  

So what do you think of this year’s winners?
Nebula Winners    
Former PC Gamer editor Gary Whitta is writing a Star Wars film    
LOCKE LAMORA TV series in the works: update    
FINALISTS: 2014 John W. Campbell Memorial Award    
H.R. Giger passes away    

PICKS    

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi    
Dreams of Gods & Monsters    

Find more upcoming releases at swordandlaser.com/calendar    

BARE YOUR SWORD   

Godzilla (2014)    
Fan-Made Trailer For Jim Butcher’s Next Dresden Files Book    

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION    

June book: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan
WARNING: Hachette and Amazon are having a fight which may affect shipping times for print copies. Might want to buy print copies elsewhere for the time being.    

Order Promise of Blood from Powell’s
Order Promise of Blood from Amazon

Brian McClellan interview on Sword and Laser   

Wrap-up the Martian    

Peril overload.    
think a movie adaption is possible?    
— Ridley Scott in talks to direct Matt Damon in The Martian    
What does NASA think about The Martian?    

We chat with Ann Leckie mere hours before she wins a Nebula award, about what it’s like to get so many awards, and what’s coming next for fans of her award-winning novel, Ancillary Justice.

Download show here!

 

Ancillary Sword arrives October 7.

We chat with Ann Leckie mere hours before she wins a Nebula award, about what it’s like to get so many awards, and what’s coming next for fans of her award-winning novel, Ancillary Justice.

Download show here!

 

Ancillary Sword arrives October 7.

Memorial Day weekend I’ll be in San Jose for BayCon 2014! The theme this year is Honor, which is in no small part because the writer guest of honor is creator of Honor Harrington himself, David Weber. There’s lots more honor to go around as well with Artist Guest of Honor is Ursula Vernon, and Fan Guest of Honor Sally Woerhle. 

I’ll be succeeding Veronica Belmont as toastmaster. That’s some big toast to fill. Her’s where I’ll be popping up throughout the weekend. 

Friday May 23

1:30 PM Opening Ceremonies, Ballroom A

5:00 PM Doctor Who: Why it is still going strong 50 years later? Camino Real

8:00 PM Meet the Guests,  Ballroom E-F

Saturday May 24

11:30 AM Interview with Writer Guest of Honor David Weber, Ballroom E-F

3:30 PM Internet of Things on Saturday Camino Real

5:00 PM KickStarter and How to use it successfully, Camino Real

Sunday May 25

10:00 AM Interview with Toastmaster Tom Merritt, Ballroom E-F

11:30 AM Battling Creationism and Pseudoscience, Stevens Creek

5:00 PM  BoF: Podcasting BayCon 2015, Lafayette

Veronica is traveling in China, so we pre-recorded this episode and took the opportunity to properly wrap-up A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin. We also kick off the rest of The Martian and promise to be better about these sorts of things once Veronica is back. Still, on the bright side, we are putting in practice a ton of great suggestions from the audience. Yay audience!

Download show here!

WRAP-UP WIZARD OF EARTHSEA

The ending

Finished it, loved it, more Earthsea please!

ADDENDUMS

The Sword and Laser Antholgy: You. Can. Buy it NOW!

N. K. Jemisin writes fiction that reads like history in the best way. But could it also be romance? We ask N. K. Jemisin that and how she’s able to keep a day job and still write amazing fiction. We also find out what trope she’d like to give a rest. It’s our season finale and we couldn’t think of a better person to help us wrap things up in style!

Download audio here. 

Download video here.

The Nebula Awards weekend is coming up in San Jose May 15-18, with the awards themselves announced Saturday night the 17th.

Although Veronica is out of town, Tom will be there with Josh Lawrence to interview as many authors as we can trick into sitting down and chatting with us.

So far we’ve managed to get a few. If you’d like to suggest what we should ask, here are the links to the Goodreads threads where you can post your questions.

Scheduled
Emily Jiang
Ken Liu
Ann Leckie

Tentative
Samuel Delany
Dr. Gregory Benford