The Sword and Laser discussion

New year, so time for a new thread. If you posted anything in late December that you'd like for consideration for the next podcast you should re-post it here.

Hugo nominations are open. I created a thread, but here's the key info: "The deadline for nominations is 13 March 2020 at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time (2:59 am Eastern Daylight Time, 06:59 Irish time, and 8:59 pm 14 March 2020 New Zealand time). Although members of Dublin 2019 can nominate, only members of CoNZealand will be eligible to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners of the 2020 Hugo, Lodestar and Astounding Awards and the 1945 Retro Hugo Awards."

Thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I don't know if this is something for the Quick Burns, but I found this story - that's more about the business side of being an author - quite interesting...

Soooo, Andy Weir revealed in a refreshingly open and honest post on Faceboook that since January 1, 2020 the available audiobook for The Martian isn't read by R.C. Bray anymore but Wil Wheaton. The reason is that the old contract with the previous publisher Podium Publishing expired and Audible made a better offer for the audiobook rights, so Andy sold the rights to them. And Audible and Podium sadly didn't reach an agreement on the price of the existing recording, so Audible re-recorded it with Wil.

So sadly the old version seems to have vanished, but we do have a new one that's hopefully just as good! (Although I still seem to be able to listen to the old version in my Audible library)

I love Wil Wheaton and he'd probably have been a good choice if they were adapting this for the first time. RC Bray's narration was fantastic though. That's a real shame.

It's sort of how you can't get the Frank Mueller version of the The Gunslinger anymore.

Locke & Key Netflix trailer! https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-first-loc...

The saddest thing (for me, at least) about Audible re-recording The Martian is that it is now an Audible original and no longer available to libraries as an audiobook, which is how I first heard it.

I feel The Martian may be a case for the importance of physical products as digital only products can go "poof" from now to then...

Tamahome wrote: "Locke & Key Netflix trailer! https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-first-loc..."
Impressive in how close the visuals appear to be, it just brings the horrors of reading it all back (I'm a wimp.) And also sent me searching for Rachmaninoff preludes, that is some orchestration of that piece, so creepy that way.

taeli wrote: "The saddest thing (for me, at least) about Audible re-recording The Martian is that it is now an Audible original and no longer available to libraries as an audiobook, which is how I first heard it."

SHAME.

Jan wrote: "I feel The Martian may be a case for the importance of physical products as digital only products can go "poof" from now to then..."

Pretty sure if you bought the older version, that doesn't change, so this isn't much different to having a different version on an old cassette vs a new one.

Tamahome wrote: "Locke & Key Netflix trailer! https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-first-loc..."

*makes incoherent squeaking sound of mixed excitement and terror*

Jan wrote: "I feel The Martian may be a case for the importance of physical products as digital only products can go "poof" from now to then..."

Too many people support Audible, giving Audible all the power in this situation. Ditto Amazon.

Pretty sure if you bought the older version, that doesn't change, so this isn't much different to having a different version on an old cassette vs a new one."
You are right. The problem isn't that it could be vanishing, but that you can't trade the digital copies.

But now to something completely different:

The Willow series for Disney+ has started production!

Two new book releases:

* Invisible Library series book 6, "The Secret Chapter," by Genevieve Cogman.

* Wayward Children Series Book 5, Come Tumbling Down, by Seanan McGuire

Over several weeks last summer I would cycle home through Trinity Church Square in Southwark, noticing that they were filming something set in the 19th Century. https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/vie...

I just discovered that this was filming for the upcoming Joss Whedon TV series The Nevers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nevers
It is about a group of Victorian women in London with special powers.
Unfortunately it isn't linked to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss. The TV series of that book has been announced but is still in "development"

Jan wrote: "Pretty sure if you bought the older version, that doesn't change, so this isn't much different to having a different version on an old cassette vs a new one."
You are right. The problem isn't that it could be vanishing, but that you can't trade the digital copies."

Unless you have a physical copy or a DRM-free download, vanishing is an issue. Companies can and have pushed out updated versions, removed the files, and shut off the license servers removing access to all books. Amazon has done the first two. Microsoft and others have done the third. Your money doesn't buy a copy. It is a one-time lease payment with terms that can be changed at any time without notice or recourse.

If you guys want to discuss this top further, please create a new thread.

Rob wrote: "If you guys want to discuss this top further, please create a new thread."

Do you think it would be worthwhile having a separate "Quick Burns Discussion" thread?

We could keep this thread uncluttered and purely for news items and the other for responses.

We could try it, but most stuff doesn't go beyond a few posts and I don't bother saying much.

I figure if people really want to keep talking it's easy enough to make it's own thread.

Maybe we should make a new thread.

From The Hollywood Reporter: Hulu has ordered an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti Series. The adaptation will be co-written by Okorafor herself alongside Stacy Osei-Kuffour from the Watchmen series.

The 2020 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees have been announced:

The nominees are:
The Outside
Velocity Weapon
All Worlds are Real: Short Fictions
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea
The Little Animals
The Rosewater Redemption

There is a "new" Robert A. Heinlein novel coming out, March 24, 2020.
The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes

"Robert A. Heinlein wrote The Number of the Beast, which was published in 1980. In the book Zeb, Deety, Hilda and Jake are ambushed by the alien 'Black Hats' and barely escape with their lives on a specially configured vehicle which can travel along various planes of existence, allowing them to visit parallel universes.

However, unknown to most fans, Heinlein had already written a 'parallel' novel about the four characters and parallel universes in 1977 (which remained unpublished for various reasons but fortunately the MS survived). He effectively wrote two parallel novels about parallel universes. The novels share the same start, but as soon as they travel to a parallel universe, each book transports them to a totally different parallel world."

Apparently there was a Kickstarter to get it published.

(The Guardian) Unseen Robert A Heinlein novel reworks 'awful' The Number of the Beast
(Kickstarter) Robert Heinlein's Unpublished Novel

Nice article on Tor about the venerable SF RPG Traveller. Anybody here ever played that? I played it when it first came out and then on and off through the decades.
https://www.tor.com/2020/01/10/travel...

Just read the Christopher Tolkien has passed away aged 95. :(

Some SFF books entering the public domain this year:

The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

The Land That Time Forgot and Tarzan and the Ant Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Dream by H.G. Wells

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting

The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish

Comedian and historian Terry Jones, member of Monty Python, has died.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/ar...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, official trailer for the final season on Disney+ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLW2j...

Netflix making a Witcher anime film: https://io9.gizmodo.com/a-witcher-ani...

Trike wrote: "Comedian and historian Terry Jones, member of Monty Python, has died.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/ar..."

Better get a bucket. I'm going to throw up.

RJ wrote: "Trike wrote: "Comedian and historian Terry Jones, member of Monty Python, has died.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/ar..."

Better get a bucket. I'm going to throw up."

As long as you don't explode ;-)

The logo for the US Space Force looks suspiciously familiar (spoiler: it’s Starfleet): https://io9.gizmodo.com/leave-star-tr...

From NotDara: At Sundance premiered (another) movie re-imagining Peter Pan - this time with Alice in Wonderland thrown in for good measure: Come Away

Directed by Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt, Brave) Angelina Jolie and David Oyelowo play the parents of siblings Alice, Peter and David who imagine grand adventures playing in the woods outside their country home in Victorian-esque England until...

A trailer can be found here

Reviews seem to be mixed so far but the people involved (including Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michael Cain) make me interested despite the idea not being exactly new anymore.

The librarians made their 2019 genre book picks. Here's the full "Reading List:" https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-r...

That list includes runners-up and read-alikes for the winners from all genres.

In sci-fi they picked: A Memory called Empire by Akady Martine
In fantasy they picked: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Seth wrote: "The librarians made their 2019 genre book picks. Here's the full "Reading List:" https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-r...

That list includes ..."

How is the movie Speed a readalike? 😂

Although I do agree that The Goblin Emperor is a good readalike choice for A Memory Called Empire.

Trike wrote: "The logo for the US Space Force looks suspiciously familiar (spoiler: it’s Starfleet): https://io9.gizmodo.com/leave-star-tr..."

Actually, its a combination of USAF Space Command and NASA's emblems. The Star Fleet logo borrowed from them.

The story of Critical Role!
Former YouTube sibling of S&L (on Geek & Sundry), a group of self professed “Nerd Ass Voice Actors who plays Dungeons & Dragons” has up for preorder ‘The World of Critical Role”, by Liz Marsham.

Matt Mercer and friends have a nonfiction accounting of the players, characters, adventures both on and off the Tabletop.

This kind group of creators has defied all expectations and built a community of Critters (their fans) around a model of long form communal story telling, every Thursday night, through the medium of Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying.
I’m kinda excited!

Up for preorder at their link below.
https://critrole.com/hype-the-world-o...#!

Shawn D Whale wrote: "The story of Critical Role!
Former YouTube sibling of S&L (on Geek & Sundry), a group of self professed “Nerd Ass Voice Actors who plays Dungeons & Dragons” has up for preorder ‘The World of Critic..."

Today’s Quick Burns brought to you by the good folks at Critical Role, a division of Puns Are Fun, LLC.

The first episode of Picard is free on youtube: https://io9.gizmodo.com/star-trek-pic...

I loved this interview that Gizmodo did with Andrzej Sapkowski about The Witcher - it was so refreshingly direct and honest that I laughed out loud several times:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/i-do-not-like...

Highlights include:

Sapkowski: "I Do Not Like Working Too Hard or Too Long"

io9: What do you think translated best to screen in the show adaptation?
Sapkowski: My name appears in the credits. I cannot praise the show. It wouldn’t be decent.

io9: What do you feel didn’t successfully translate to screen in the show adaptation?
Sapkowski: I would have to be an idiot to say. My name appears in the credits.

io9: What was your reaction to learning your books were getting 500,000 reprints after the release of the Netflix show?
Sapkowski: How do you expect I answer this question? That I despaired? Shed tears? Considered suicide? No sir. My feelings were rather obvious and not excessively complex.

Maybe he's just trying to be funny, but it doesn't come over in text?
Put some emoji's in it, Andrzej. It's certainly getting attention.

New trailer for Locke & Key: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v0eb...

I don't recognize some of those keys.

At least 3 are new to me as well.

Head key, Music Box Key and Omega key I know

The Fire Key, one with a goblet and the flower shaped one are new.

Edit: Flower shaped one could be the Plant Key.

The 2019 Locus Recommended Reading List is out! https://locusmag.com/2020/02/2019-loc...

Sad that Tiamat's Wrath is not included in the SF category.

The list has been quite useful (at least for me so far) to find recommended works for the Hugo ballot, especially for novelettes and short stories.

There's a very cute article over at Tor.com:
British Police Seek “Rightful Owner” of The One Ring

"A police force in England recently put out a Facebook appeal to try and track down the owner of a “distinctive silver ring” that was recovered at a crime scene. The ring? A replica of the One Ring from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. [...]"

"In response to the flood of Tolkien fans replying with all of the quotes you were just thinking right now, the police force admitted that they “obviously need to brush up on our movie knowledge,” but closed with a ‘but seriously though’: “it is someone’s property and we would like to return it to whoever has had it stolen from them.”"

Studio Ghibli comes to Netflix: https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...

Over the next couple of months most of Studio Ghibli films will be available on Netflix... (well in most civilised countries, as long as you do not live in USA, Canada or Japan, snigger....)

The best anime director, in my opinion.

Tamahome wrote: "The best anime director, in my opinion."

You mean, Isao Takahata? 😏

RIP Kirk Douglas (although he made it to 103 years old).

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020...

Joseph wrote: "RIP Kirk Douglas (although he made it to 103 years old).

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020..."

A good long life with lots of good films. With quite a few SFF flicks, to boot.