The Sword and Laser discussion

New Thread for a new year. Please share your SFF news here.

Forgive me if this was already posted in the 2020 thread, but Audible is running a 2-for-1 sale through 11:59am GMT -0500 today.

https://www.audible.com/special-promo...?

David Weber is hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a tweet from Harry Turtledove:

"Harry Turtledove
@HNTurtledove
David Weber is in the hospital. COVID.
Fuck the whole complete entire world."

https://twitter.com/HNTurtledove/stat...

John (Taloni) wrote: "David Weber is hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a tweet from Harry Turtledove:

"Harry Turtledove
@HNTurtledove
David Weber is in the hospital. COVID.
Fuck the whole complete entire world."..."

Wow that sucks. He is my go to author whenever I want to read some good honest exciting Laser.

UK’s new commemorative coin honoring H.G. Wells whiffs hard. American designer gives his The War of the Worlds tripods four legs and The Invisible Man a top hat.

Oops.

https://www.tor.com/2021/01/05/royal-...

Not exactly news, perhaps, but a neat group of authors describes how they think about world-building in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Not sure if this will go out in time. But Universal are temporarily putting some of their classic films on YouTube for free.
https://www.nme.com/news/film/classic...

Dragonlance Nexus is reporting that a New Dragonlance book by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman will be coming July of 2021

https://dragonlancenexus.com/news/

They have additionally posted on twitter listings for it on both Google Books and Amazon showing the date as 29 July 2021. Listing is as yet untitled.

I am very curious how offensive it will be in the end

I don't know if it belongs in the Quick Burns, but Lotus Mag has published on their website an article with a short introduction into Science Fiction in Germany.

Unfortunately not many German science fiction authors mentioned in the article have been translated into English and a quick search by me basically only brought up Andreas Eschbach's The Carpet Makers and Frank Schätzing's The Swarm. But maybe this will change in the future.

Polygon has released their list of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of 2020.

Polygon recommends 16 books from "Shorefall" by Robert Jackson Bennett over "Riot Baby" by Tochi Onyebuchi to "The Salvage Crew" by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne. In addition there's also a list of more than 20 runners up - enough reading material for a while!

TheOneRing.nethas posted the official synopsis for Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings series.

The synopsis unfortunately doesn't tell us that much except that it's set in the second Age thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and "follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of Evil to Middle-Earth" - but one particular snippet in the synopsis, that the show "will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged", has fans speculating that the show will be about the forging of the Great Rings and The One Ring to rule them all.

The show is set to start filming for seasons 1 and 2 in New Zealand this month (the pilot has already been shot and is currently in post production).

According to Deadline the "Powder Mage" trilogy by Brian McClellan is set to be adapted as a TV Series. A network or streaming service doesn't seem to be attached so far.

https://deadline.com/2021/01/utopia-f...

Jan wrote: "According to Deadline the "Powder Mage" trilogy by Brian McClellan is set to be adapted as a TV Series. A network or streaming service doesn't seem to be attached so far.

https://deadline.com/2021..."

Too early to be excited but I am eager to see how they would portray all the magicking in it! The series has one of the coolest magic I've read.

Jan wrote: "TheOneRing.nethas posted the official synopsis for Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings series.

The synopsis unfortunately doesn't tell us that much except that it's set in the second Age thousands o..."

Cautiously optimistic. I would 100% read a trilogy by JRR Tolkien on the 2nd Age; that would be amazing. The period of Middle Earth history is ripe for a great story. But, can the writers pull off turning the history that Tolkien wrote, into good storytelling? We'll see...

Silvana wrote: "Too early to be excited but I am eager to see how they would portray all the magicking in it! The series has one of the coolest magic I've read."

I am a bit worried about the show looking at the production companies. They only seem to have Reality TV and cheap SciFi Channel stuff on their record (and a bunch of Stargates for the show runner), so I am not really expecting the next Game of Thrones here. But Stargate has been fun at times, so maybe...?

Tor have a blog post with details of books to be released in 2021

https://www.tor.com/2021/01/12/sleeps...

There were a couple I was aware of and looking forward to A Desolation Called Peace and Fugitive Telemetry but most were new to me, and one that was especially interesting The Witness for the Dead which is a return to the world of The Goblin Emperor

Queen’s Gambit showrunner to adapt Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow as a limited series on FX.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/quee...

Trike wrote: "Queen’s Gambit showrunner to adapt Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow as a limited series on FX."

*Blink*

Now, THAT is something I will rush to see. They had better do it right. As straight from the book as you can get for TV. This is one property that does not need to be "interpreted" as, say, happened to The Watch. Not even cutesy changes like The Hobbit. Just straight up.

The Sword & Laser Wiki has 200 pages!

https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...

Mark wrote: "The Sword & Laser Wiki has 200 pages!

https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki..."

I went to have a look but I am only seeing 199 pages. Que? Is there a secret page for "secret people" Mmmm :-D

John wrote: "Mark wrote: "The Sword & Laser Wiki has 200 pages!

https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki..."

I went to have a look but I am only seeing 199 pages. Que? Is there a secret page for ..."

No secret page. The wiki web pages sometimes need a force reload to update properly.

Mark wrote: "The Sword & Laser Wiki has 200 pages!

https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki..."

I guess I'm responsible for the majority of those. 😉

At an educated guess I'd say I've made over 150 pages 😮 and contributed to at least another 10+ pages

and I'd say Mark has contributed to more pages than me 180+

I sneak in after Dave creates the pages and translate them from the original Australian.

Mark wrote: "I sneak in after Dave creates the pages and translate them from the original Australian."

Fair dinkum, cobber!

truth, dude

Mark wrote: "I sneak in after Dave creates the pages and translate them from the original Australian."

We prefer our lingo to be called Strine 😉

Trike wrote: "dinkum, cobber!"

2 words I've never used, or crikey 😉

Mark wrote: "truth, dude"

struth, maaaaate 😉


We'd better quit before a moderator tells us off 😜

Tassie Dave wrote:
"We'd better quit before a moderator tells us off 😜 "

No worries

Mark wrote: "John wrote: "Mark wrote: "The Sword & Laser Wiki has 200 pages!

https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki..."

I went to have a look but I am only seeing 199 pages. Que? Is there a sec..."

I just went back and had a look and tada, there it is. \o/

Thank you to the folks who maintain the wiki. When I have the occasional need I prefer to look up what I need there there as it is simple and easy to navigate.

Some good news for once. According to Harry Turtledove, David Weber has recovered from Covid.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...

Ursula K. Le Guin will be on a commemorative US postage stamp.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/ursula-k-le-g...

Painted by artist Donato Giancola, it is a portrait of Le Guin in front of a scene from The Left Hand of Darkness.

——
Edit: I took a quick look at the list of people honored on US stamps and came up with this list of SFF authors and filmmakers:

Buzz Aldrin
Stephen Vincent Benet
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Frank Capra
Charlie Chaplin
Dr. Seuss
Jim Henson
Washington Irving
Jack London
Edgar Allen Poe
Rod Serling
William Shakespeare
Mark Twain
Billy Wilder

...pretty light on women SFF writers.

The Hollywood Reporter is - uhm - reporting that 'John Wick' creator Derek Kolstad is currently writing a live-action TV series based on the 'Dungeons & Dragons' Roleplaying Game

This is a separate project to the Paramount feature film that's in development with Chris Pine as the lead attached. No further details are known about this new project.

So apparently Hollywood was gaming during covid, and got some ideas brewing.

John (Nevets) wrote: "So apparently Hollywood was gaming during covid, and got some ideas brewing."

Coming soon, Animal Crossing: The Movie.

The Rock as Tom Nook
Dame Judy Dench as Isabelle
Danny Devito as Mr. Resetti
Queen Latifah as KK Slider
Adam Beach as Leif
Mahershala Ali, Kelly Clarkson and Ming-Na Wen as various islanders.
Chris Evans as a fish.

Trike wrote: "John (Nevets) wrote: "So apparently Hollywood was gaming during covid, and got some ideas brewing."

Coming soon, Animal Crossing: The Movie.

The Rock as Tom Nook
Dame Judy Dench as Isabelle
Danny..."

I would totally see that movie!

Jan wrote: "The Hollywood Reporter is - uhm - reporting that 'John Wick' creator Derek Kolstad is currently writing a live-action TV series based on the 'Dungeons & Dragons' Roleplaying Game"

It is still just a pitch, so a long way from being an actual thing.

I know we usually don't do news on writing contests, but as we lately talked a lot about more positive or hopeful depictions of the future, I thought the Imagine 2200: Climate fiction for future ancestors writing contest may be interesting to some Sword & Laser readers.

Contest organizer Grist describes the contest as follows: "Imagine 2200 draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, as well as Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer futures, and the genres of hopepunk and solarpunk. We especially want to see — and share — stories that center climate solutions from the most impacted communities and bring into focus what a truly just, regenerative future could look like."

Jan wrote: "I know we usually don't do news on writing contests, but as we lately talked a lot about more positive or hopeful depictions of the future, I thought the Imagine 2200: Climate fiction for future an..."

Loving this!

The nominees for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award have been announced.

The nominees are
Failed State by Christopher Brown
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
Dance On Saturday by Elwin Cotman
Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds
Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The winner will be announced April 21 during this year's virtual Norwescon.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, is 10 years old today.

Jan wrote: "The nominees for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award have been announced.

The nominees are
Failed State by Christopher Brown
The Book of Koli by [author..."

I guess it's time to put The Book of Koli in my wish list.

Variety reports that the production companies "Stampede Ventures and "wiip" have partnered to adapt the first book in Gareth L. Powell’s epic sci-fi novel series “Embers of War” as a television show.

From the Goodreads page for "Embers of War": "The warship Trouble Dog was built and bred for calculating violence, yet following a brutal war, she finds herself disgusted by conflict and her role in a possible war crime. Seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organisation dedicated to rescuing ships in distress."

Breck Eisner (director of several Expanse episodes) is attached. No network is currently involved.

According to Variety the ‘Tales of Dunk and Egg’ by George R R Martin are now in early development at HBO.

No writer or other talent is currently attached to the project, but according to Variety it is a high priority for HBO as it's still seeking to build on the success of “Game of Thrones.”

However, there have been several Game of Thrones related projects at HBO already that were in early development and ultimately got dropped by the network, with only the for 2022 slated “House of the Dragon” series about the early days of the Targaryens in Westeros surviving,

Mark wrote: "Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, is 10 years old today.

"

Wow, might be time for a re-read.

I read Embers of War, first of a trilogy, accessible space opera: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've seen the 2nd book Fleet of Knives sitting in my book store popular spinning rack all year.

Peter F. Hamilton will be collaborating on a book with Powell too, although they seem opposite kinds of writers, with Hamilton being more dense. Light Chaser (only 144 pages!)

Tamahome wrote: "I read Embers of War, first of a trilogy, accessible space opera: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've seen the 2nd book [bookcover:Fleet of K..."

Tamahome, you’ve been posting in the wrong forums a few times now. Might want to check your settings or something.

I'm responding to Jan's news about Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War (both series name and first book name) being adapted to television.

Tamahome wrote: "I'm responding to Jan's news about Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War (both series name and first book name) being adapted to television."

Ah. Without quoting the previous replies, they look disconnected from the thread.

Tamahome wrote: "I read Embers of War, first of a trilogy, accessible space opera: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've seen the 2nd book [bookcover:Fleet of K..."

Oh I forgot about that series! Really enjoyed Embers of War. I need to read the 2nd one!

Update to my last quick burn, apparently Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have worked a licensing deal with Wizards of the Coast for a new Dragonlance Trilogy. The new trilogy will return us to the beloved characters of the original trilogy. The books will published by Del Rey Books. Attached link is the announcement from Tracy Hickman's website.
https://trhickman.com/dragonlance-cla...