The Sword and Laser discussion

New thread for 2026.

Post your SFF Book news for consideration to be included in the next podcast

Over at HumbleBundle you can get a 14 book bundle by Adrian Tchaikovsky (if you liked Children of time) that ends in 4 days.
It's two series: Shadows of the Apt, Echoes of the Fall and the novel Guns of the Dawn.

There is a Johnscalzi in the asteroid belt! 💫
He is chuffed.😊
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/1...

It's that time of year... Registration for LACon V where the next WorldCon is being held, ends January 31. If you just want to nominate and vote for the Hugo Awards, WSFS Membership Only is $50, and you will receive the Voting Packet with copies of many nominated works.

Best Fancast: Awarded for any non-professional audio- or video-casting with at least four (4) episodes that had at least one (1) episode released in the previous calendar year.

https://www.lacon.org/register/

Via Locus:

The 2026 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced:

Sunward, William Alexander (Saga)

Outlaw Planet, M.R. Carey (Orbit UK; Orbit US)

Casual, Koji A. Dae (Tenebrous)

The Immeasurable Heaven, Caspar Geon (Solaris UK)

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Thomas Ha (Undertow)

Scales, Christopher Hinz (Angry Robot UK)

City of All Seasons, Oliver K. Langmead & Aliya Whiteley (Titan)

https://locusmag.com/2026/01/2026-phi...

Matt Dinniman, of Dungeon Crawler Carl fame, is the guest and subject of the latest episode of the Barnes and Nobel podcast: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/c...

The Immeasurable Heaven sounds like a crazy space opera.

Since sharing a humble bundle here a few months ago, I'm now getting their ads pushed to me, which means I've got another good SFF one: Fierce Women of SFFH
64 books featuring a bunch of authors including Nalo Hopkinson, Elizabeth Bear, Jo Walton, Kate Elliot, Nancy Kress, Mira Grant and Sarah Langan including 12 award winning books (Hugo, Stoker, Nebula, etc) for $24.82 CAD. Proceeds go to Active Minds, a leading nonprofit promoting mental health for young adults ages 14-24.
I was a little late posting though, so it's only available for 4 more days.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/fi...

Library awards came out for all sorts of books this week. Here's their genre-fiction selections:

Fantasy

Winner
“The Knight and the Moth: The Stonewater Kingdom: Book One” by Rachel Gillig (Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)

In a world ruled by godlike Omens, Sybil tells the fortunes of others by repeatedly drowning in divine waters. When her fellow seers start disappearing, she and a gargoyle companion join a young king’s retinue to seek the truth.

Read-alikes: “The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow, “Godkiller” by Hannah Kaner, “The Jasmine Throne” by Tasha Suri

Short List
“Greenteeth” by Molly O’Neill (Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)
“The Raven Scholar: Book One of the Eternal Path Trilogy” by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)

“Red City” by Marie Lu (Tor, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)
“The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)

Winner
“Automatic Noodle” by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)

In post-independence California, the eccentric robot employees of an abandoned restaurant seize the opportunity to build something of their own by illegally opening a noodle shop. Enthusiastic support from the community saves the day when review bombing and anti-robot sentiment almost kill their fledgling business.

Read-alikes: “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers, “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (novelette), “You Sexy Thing” by Cat Rambo

Short List
“The Heist of Hollow London” by Eddie Robson (Tor, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)
“Hole in the Sky: A Novel” by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House)

“When We Were Real: A Novel” by Daryl Gregory (Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
“Where the Axe is Buried: A Novel” by Ray Nayler (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers)

Saw this pop up on Kickstarter — a new tabletop game is being created based on Naomi Novik’s Temeraire novel series, which is her “Napoleonic Wars with dragons” world. Way back in 2013 (holy cannoli!) Sword & Laser read the first book, His Majesty's Dragon.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Magpie Games is excited to bring you Temeraire: The Roleplaying Game, the officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game set in the world of the Temeraire novel series by Naomi Novik!

Rise into aerial battle. Fly to lands across the world. Face treachery and deceit, alongside honor and nobility. Find your love and fight for it. Save nations by the sweat of your brow and the strength of your scales.

In these pages you will find setting information seeded with plot hooks for your game, numerous character types representing the variety of characters fans love from the British Aerial Corps, and even the rules for playing a dragon!

I feel like this was talked about already but just in case: Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere has been optioned by Apple TV.

From the man himself: https://youtu.be/VBQmStfWDVE

Apple TV makes the best Sci-Fi, hands down, everyone else is a distant second place, so there’s a good chance this will be good.

Project Hail Mary final trailer, theatres, March 20.

https://youtu.be/P0XN3-n-2Lo

Heeere’s Rocky!

A certain Matt Dinniman is the guest on V. E. Schwab's podcast, No Write Way, kicking off its fourth season.

S4 E1- Trapping Matt Dinniman: A Hippopotamus, Bass Strings, and Pizza-Blasted Goldfish

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

https://heinleinsociety.org/andy-weir...

The Heinlein Society has awarded Andy Weir the 2026 Robert A. Heinlein Award, bestowed for outstanding published works in science fiction or technical writings that inspires the human exploration of space.

Sharon Lee won it last year. Looking at the previous winners. She wrote a lot of space opera with Steve Miller.

Via Reactor.com:

Finalists for the 2025 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction

As chosen by judges Maurice Broaddus, S. B. Divya, and Maryelizabeth Yturralde, the finalists are:

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press)
The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella (Lethe Press)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow)
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (DAW Books)
Luminous by Silvia Park (Simon & Schuster)

The winners will be announced April 17, during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

https://reactormag.com/2025-los-angel...

Via Locus:

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the final ballot for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix (Berkley)
King Sorrow, Joe Hill (William Morrow)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
Girl in the Creek, Wendy N. Wagner (Tor Nightfire)

This is just the novel award.

Here's the link for all the other awards: https://locusmag.com/2026/02/2025-bra...

Just saw that Dan Simmons (Hyperion, The Terror) passed away from a stroke last Saturday. He was 77. The Hyperion series is on my top 10 favorite book list and I recently read Olympos. I saw on Discord someone say that he's been revealed to be a white supremist which makes mourning him problematic, but I did enjoy his writing.

Phil wrote: "Just saw that Dan Simmons (Hyperion, The Terror) passed away from a stroke last Saturday. He was 77. The Hyperion series is on my top 10 favorite book list and I recently read Olympos. I saw on Dis..."

I thought the Guardian's obituary addressed the white supremacy thing pretty well. Hard to say what his beliefs really were, but seems like he had some criticism for all sides of the political spectrum in his writings.

Seth wrote: "Phil wrote: "Just saw that Dan Simmons (Hyperion, The Terror) passed away from a stroke last Saturday. He was 77. The Hyperion series is on my top 10 favorite book list and I recently read Olympos...."

For those interested this is the Guardian obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

The Nebula Award finalists have been announced.

https://nebulas.sfwa.org/9192-2/

The Nebula Award for Best Novel

When We Were Real, by Daryl Gregory (Saga)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK)
Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow; Gollancz)
The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh (Tor; Orbit UK)
Sour Cherry, by Natalia Theodoridou (Tin House; Wildfire)
Wearing the Lion, by John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia)

The Nebula Award for Best Novella

Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle, by Renan Bernardo (Dark Matter INK)
The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia)
The Death of Mountains, by Jordan Kurella (Lethe)
Automatic Noodle, by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom)
But Not Too Bold, by Hache Pueyo (Tordotcom)
“Descent”, by Wole Talabi (Clarkesworld 5/25)

The Nebula Award for Best Novelette

“Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh”, by Marie Croke (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/9/25)
“Uncertain Sons”, by Thomas Ha (Uncertain Sons)
“We Begin Where Infinity Ends”, by Somto Ihezue (Clarkesworld 2/25)
The Name Ziya, by Wen-Yi Lee (Tor)
“Never Eaten Vegetables”, by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld 1/25)
“The Life and Times of Alavira the Great as Written by Titos Pavlou and Reviewed by Two Lifelong Friends”, by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 3-4/25)

The Nebula Award for Best Short Story

“Through the Machine”, by P.A. Cornell (Lightspeed 5/25)
“Six People to Revise You”, by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny 1-2/25)
“In My Country”, by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 4/25)
“The Tawlish Island Songbook of the Dead”, by E.M. Linden (PodCastle 2/18/25)
“Because I Held His Name Like a Key”, by Aimee Ogden (Strange Horizons 6/16/25)
“Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything”, by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots 5/25)

The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

The Tower, by David Anaxagoras (Recorded Books)
Gemini Rising, by Jonathan Brazee (Semper Fi Press)
Wishing Well, Wishing Well, by Jubilee Cho (Atthis Arts)
Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Into the Wild Magic, by Michelle Knudsen (Candlewick)
Goblin Girl, by K.A. Mielke (self-published)

The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing

Spire, Surge, and Sea, by Stewart C. Baker (Choice of Games)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, by Guillaume Broche, & Jennifer Svedberg-Yen (Kepler Interactive), Developer: Sandfall Interactive, Sandfall S.A.S.
Hollow Knight: Silksong, by Ari Gibson & William Pelen (Team Cherry)*
Dispatch, by Ashley Jeffalone, Suzee Matson, Chris Rebbert, Chad Rhiness, & Pierre Shorette (AdHoc Studios)
Hades II, by Greg Kasavin
(Supergiant Games)
Blue Prince, by Tonda Ros (Raw Fury, Developer: Dogubomb)

The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

KPop Demon Hunters, by Danya Jimenez, Maggie Kang, & Hannah McMechan (Netflix)*
Sinners, by Ryan Coogler (Warner Bros Pictures)*
Severance: “Chikhai Bardo”, by Dan Erickson & Mark Friedman (Apple TV+)*
Pluribus: Season One, by Vince Gilligan (Apple TV+)*
Superman, by James Gunn (Warner Bros Pictures)*
Murderbot: Season One, by Chris Weitz (Apple TV+)*

The Nebula Award for Best Comic

Second Shift, by Kit Anderson (Avery Hill)
Carmilla Volume 3: The Eternal, by Amy Chu (Berger)
Helen of Wyndhorn, by Tom King (Dark Horse)
Fishflies, by Jeff Lemire (Image)
Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone, by Jessica Maison (Wicked Tree)
Strange Bedfellows, by Ariel Slamet Ries (HarperAlley)
The Flip Side, by Jason Walz (Rocky Pond)
The Stoneshore Register, by G. Willow Wilson (Berger)

The Nebula Award for Best Poem

“Though You Always Are”, by Linda D. Addison & Jamal Hodge (Everything Endless)
“They Said Robots Are”, by Casey Aimer (Penumbric 6/25)
“The World To Come”, by Jennifer Hudak (Strange Horizons 12/22/25)
“The Mourning Robot”, by Angela Liu (Uncanny 9-10/25)
“Care for Lightning”, by Mari Ness (Uncanny 1-2/25)
“To Be the Change”, by Nico Martinez Nocito (Strange Horizons 3/10/25)

Dungeon Crawler Carl is officially in development for Peacock by Seth MacFarlane’s company with Christopher Yost writing.

Dungeon Crawler Carl’ TV Series From Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door, Chris Yost Lands at Peacock (EXCLUSIVE)
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/dung...

Yost co-created the character X-23 and has written films like *Thor: Ragnarok*.

Animorphs TV series is in development with Ryan Cogler as executive producer.

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/anim...

Amazon is ending their service for Kindle device older than 2013 (seriously this is so infuriating)

https://www.techradar.com/tablets/ere...

Silvana wrote: "Amazon is ending their service for Kindle device older than 2013 (seriously this is so infuriating)

https://www.techradar.com/tablets/ere......"

Just damn. More enshittification from Amazon. Just one more reason to move my book purchases elsewhere.

The 2026 Locus Awards finalists have been posted. 10 titles each in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult, First Novel, Translated Novel, and more! Sword and Laser picks making the cut are The Devils by Joe Abercrombie and The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson in Fantasy, plus Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz in Novellas.
https://locusmag.com/2026/04/2026-top...

Spotify launches direct-links to Bookshop to allow users to buy books.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/spo...

This come shortly after they launch the page-match feature that lets you scan the physical page you're on and stream your audio straight from that point.

I guess I'm not terribly excited that another tech giant has decided to compete with bookstores, but on the other hand, they're going through Bookshop, which is kinda nice?

Can I have the audiobook tell me what page it's on, lol? I guess with the ebook I could search for the words.

Good Omens s3, Amazon Prime, May 13

https://youtu.be/kpKkh64jgPI

New character introduction, name of… ::checks notes:: …Jesus.

The Dog Stars, theatres, August 28

https://youtu.be/cmzVY1goqwQ

Based on the book: The Dog Stars

Isn't that Keannu's rock band? I think they have a new album.

2026 Hugo finalists have been announced!
https://www.lacon.org/hugofinalists/

The Raven Scholar, this month's pick, was nominated for Best Novel and author Antonia Hodgson was also nominated for the Astounding Award. The previous month's pick, Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz was nominated for Best Novella.
Previous S&L authors Scalzi, Heather Fawcett, and Max Gladstone were nominated for Best Series: Old Man's War, Emily Wilde, and The Craft Wars, respectively. Alas, Sword and Laser didn't make the cut for Best Fancast, so we'll try again next year.

I’m so happy for „The Everlasting”! If we would not have read Alix Harrow before I would start a serious campaign for TE in the March Madness. :-)

40 years after Octavia Butler asked that her own novel not be reprinted - it's getting reprinted:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment...

I sometimes think about how much control an author's wishes should have after their death. It's neat that her fans get to read a "lost" book, even one that the author disliked. On the other hand, I also admire how Terry Pratchett's estate carried through with his wishes not to have his unfinished works published (as I recall they drove over his hard-drive with a steam engine?).

Seth wrote: "40 years after Octavia Butler asked that her own novel not be reprinted - it's getting reprinted:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment......"

Thanks for the share, Seth. Interesting read.

Just saw that Master Alvin, the seventh and last book of the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, has come out. It's been 22 years since the previous book, The Crystal City, was released. I really enjoyed the first few books in this series but the last couple didn't grab me as much. Hopefully it's a good wrap up.

Screenrant released an article crowning "Circe" by Madeline Miller as the best / most popular Fantasy Novel of the past Decade based on Goodreads data. The definition for “most popular” in this context is "books with the highest total shelving and an average rating above 3.5 stars, published from 2017 to the present."

And based on the same metrics "Fourth Wing" by Rebecca Yarros is the most popular Romantasy novel.

https://screenrant.com/goodreads-offi...

From Locus Mag:

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus has won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in the Fiction category. Quoting the Pulitzer jury the book is a “breathless novel of World War I, a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence.”

https://locusmag.com/2026/05/2026-pul...