The Sword and Laser discussion

We check in on who's winning the tournament. A vikings kids book! Where it's stabbing time! We talk a little bit about Iron Widow, and wrap up Shadow of the Gods.

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Re: Outraged that the Hugo’s western committee members never even read the books they censored?

They should never have censored the lists in the first place. Imagine somebody saying, “At least they did a really thorough job of all that unethical censoring.”

On the other hand, it is good Dave McCarty did a similar half-assed job on cooking the stats else all of this may have never come to light.

Oaken wrote: "Re: Outraged that the Hugo’s western committee members never even read the books they censored?

They should never have censored the lists in the first place. Imagine somebody saying, “At least the..."

They didn’t censor based on book content but rather the actions of the author. Like not visiting Tibet.

Or writing in Chinese and being recommended in a. Chinese magazine. Scum bags.

Neuromancer was the first Book read for the Sword and Laser Podcast.

The first 3 books were pre-podcast and online only.

Speaking of Neuromancer, is anyone up for an alt read together? I'd love to reread it and I suspect we have some time for the TV show. It would be fun to get this group take on it.

There's a reading order for Neuromancer. Some of the short stories in Burning Chrome proceed it. Just an FYI.

I believe that the Bloodsworn Saga (the trilogy that The Shadow of the Gods is part of) is just one long story split into 3 parts. Book 2 ends in a cliff hanger too. Wait until book 3 is out before starting them.
With that said, I have really enjoyed reading them. I guess one of my doorways (wheelhouses?) is setting.

William Gibson's narration of Neuromancer is on archive.org. His intentions might come through a little better through his voice.

Haaa, love it! My brain is pretty much Filking all the time. It's mostly doggerel. Occasionally it comes up with something worth putting down. Glad Our Hosts enjoyed the l'il Stabbing Seax song.

I think I read somewhere that before a battle skalds would tell a saga that ended in a cliffhanger to rile up the warriors into a berserker frenzy.

I had to look up the Roman Empire meme to see what it was all about... It has the same kind of vibe as asking men what they think of Beyonce, which is also a trend I just learned about. Basically, a litmus test of how basic or problematic a man is.

So what would be the SFF version of a toxic-masculinity litmus test?
Maybe asking what a guy thinks about Hermione? Or whether or not there's too much nudity in the Game of Thrones series? Or asking who their favourite SFF heroes are and seeing if they name any women?

Ask how often they think of the sad puppy affair?