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.
Category Archives: Sword and Laser
S&L Podcast – #177 – A Chat with Grand Master Delany
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.
S&L Podcast – #176 – Martians and Panda Pants
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.
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?
S&L Podcast – #175 Ann Leckie Wins it All
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.
Ancillary Sword arrives October 7.
S&L Podcast – #175 – Ann Leckie Wins it All
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.
Ancillary Sword arrives October 7.
Tom at BayCon May 23-26
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
S&L Podcast – #174 – A Wrap-up of Earthsea
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!
WRAP-UP WIZARD OF EARTHSEA
Finished it, loved it, more Earthsea please!
ADDENDUMS
The Sword and Laser Antholgy: You. Can. Buy it NOW!
S&L Video: Author Spotlight -N. K. Jemisin
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!
Sword and Laser at the Nebula Awards
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
FEATURED REVIEW: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Welcome to our Featured Reviews! In this series, we’ll be highlighting book reviews by the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica
Review by Caro (?)
Freedom, like anything else, is relative.
Why I read this book
Last year (2013) I read my first book from Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman, and loved it. The way she threw fiction elements while making a very impressive critique of society was amazing for me, and so I wanted to keep reading her work. The Handmaid’s Tale has been mentioned several times as an iconic part of her work and when I saw it on my recommended on Audible it was a no brainer to get myself a copy.
What the book is about
The book is set in a dystopian future, taking place mostly in what used to be Massachusetts. After a “terrorist” attack, a theocratic, Christian regime has taken over. Women have lost any right they might’ve had and all “sinners” (homosexuals, people who committed adultery, people of other faiths) have been either killed or “re educated” (are you cringing already?) . The story is told by a woman we learn to know as Offred, this implying that she is a possession of a man with Fred on his surname. Offred has been made a Handmaid which in this new country, more than servant, implies child bearer. It is explained through the book that due to chemical contamination, radiation and other factors, procreation has been in declined in the country, and hence the government have established that officials not only have a wife, but also access to women (the handmaids) that will carry their child, sort off surrogate mothers. After delivery, the child is given to the wife to raise. Offred’s destiny depends on her submission and her ability to bear children.
First impressions
Listening to this book was hard, mostly because of the way women are treated, but also because you feel that this speculative work of fiction could easily take place again (references to other theocratic regimes are easily spotted, particularly Iran). Jumps from present to past are sometimes abrupt, but it carries a good feeling of how train of thought sometimes takes place and, in my case at least, makes the connection with the protagonist even deeper. That type of writing made me feel pain, angst and helplessness as Offred was feeling them too.
Final thoughts
Is hard for me to put into words my final thoughts. See, I have a lot of feelings when I think of this book, but they are not easy to put into paper, simply because they touch so deep. But let’s try.
I felt rage as a woman, at to how women were treated. I’ve read some other reviews saying “well this would never happen; oh our society would never let this happen to women”. And yet look at all the contraception legislation in the USA, most of the definitions are being taken by male politicians, and people are going with it.
I felt afraid of this being a plausible thing, maybe not right now where I am, but somewhere in the world there is right now a totalitarian movement, feeding, slowly maybe, and growing and getting more and more powerful. There are things that seem to happen suddenly when you are far away, but is just because you weren’t in site to see the tiny changes that carried a big one. And this applies to any type of changes, positive or negative, particularly since this label is so subjective. The critic about how money was not physical anymore hit a stroke in me. I never thought about how I rely on plastic more and more. Not on credit, but I use my debit card most of the time and hence my contact with physical money has been decreasing more and more.
I felt sad at the different situations Offred had to go through, leaving her past behind, having so many memories, so many loved ones that she lost, almost overnight.
I felt a bit frustrated at the end of the book, because I wanted more closure, but at the same time, the way the author rounds the whole thing up, made me “forgive” the not knowing.
I loved Claire Danes as a narrator. At first I thought her tone was a bit flat, but this was at very beginning when the character was just stating facts. As emotions surged, as different characters appeared, so did new tones, new inflictions in her voice that made me get more into the whole story.
Nobody dies of lack of sex, is lack of love we die from