The Sword and Laser discussion

And it's.... June!

I'm currently a quarter into A Storm of Swords which makes my mission to complete the series before July 12th actually possible - although it will be close I guess. But there's a four-day weekend coming up for and a couple of back holidays in June, so that will give me more time.

No other books, though. The rest of my spare time is filled with trying to get done with my TV shows for the last season and practicing on my ukulele.

Re-reading A Game of Thrones again. Still reading The Last Ring-Bearer, Mindstar Rising and Neuromancer

Too many - but GoT is priority

Reading a lot for various bookclubs - In The Garden of Iden and The God Delusion at the moment, along with Malcolm Gladwell's What The Dog Saw, to be followed by re-reads of Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks and The Handmaid's Tale. I've also just got N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms from the library, and still have several books friends have lent me that need reading and returning - Mall of Cthulhu, Flash for Freedom and Whitehawk

I am also working on A Storm of Swords. I am listening to Boneshaker on Audible but I think I am going to stop because I just can't get into it. I am also reading Assassin's Creed: Renaissance which for a book based on a game has been surprisingly good.

I've burned through all the Haruhi Suzumiya books published in English, so now I face the choice of waiting six months for the next volume, or downloading a bootleg fan translation. Which would be illegal, so of course I shan't do it. <*whistles innocently*>

I think this month I am going to go on a Barbara Hambly binge. Dug out some of her books I have and going to plow through them. Hadn't read in many years. starting with The Time of the Dark

Finishing up the Audible version of The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. This one is looking like a possible 5 star book for me.

I just finished The Name of the Wind and like it a lot. It wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be -- it ended up being more Harry Potter than Tolkien, but those were just my misguided preconceptions. I plan on reading the sequel, but I will probably wait a while to give myself a break.
For now, I am going to start Embassytown, but I don't know how far I will get because I only have it from the library for another week.

I'm continuing my A Song of Ice and Fire re-read, I'm about 3/4 through A Clash of Kings. I'm also reading The Invention of Air which isn't as interesting as I'd hoped it would be. But it's short and I'm listening to it from Audible so I'll be done with it soon enough.

I am reading all 5 books in Lloyd Alexandra's The Chronicles of Prydain all in one.

I'm back from my vacation, where I made it through What I Was and Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories in audio format, read The Summer Book at the beach, and got halfway through The Passage, which I'm really liking!

I have The Dervish House left to read of the Hugo Award nominees, so I may tackle that next, but I have a graphic novel burning a hole in my pocket....

Anne wrote: "No other books, though. The rest of my spare time is filled with trying to get done with my TV shows for the last season and practicing on my ukulele. "

Ahem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?

Welcome back, Jenny. Which graphic novel is it?

Jenny wrote: "hem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?"

Good project. I might have to practice a bit more, but it's nice to have a goal.

By the way, I really liked The Passage, too.

Tamahome wrote: "Welcome back, Jenny. Which graphic novel is it?"

BodyWorld. I wish I could remember where I read about it!

And thanks!

Jenny wrote: "Ahem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?"

That's the best I can currently do. I only got my ukulele three weeks ago or so and I still need to get the hang of it. This is a slightly more major version of the sword and laser theme. I think the original uses minor chords, but I came up with this and it worked for me.

EDITED: I realized that I got the melody slightly wrong, so I did a re-record and this is the improved version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esexyj...

As a bonus you get a glimpse of my bedroom.

Anne wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Ahem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?"

That's the best I can currently do. I only got my ukulele three weeks ag..."

Awesome Anne!! way to go!

Anne wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Ahem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?"

That's the best I can currently do. I only got my ukulele three weeks ag..."

Very nice! Your rendition of the S&L theme on ukulele was great.

I think Veronica has a new theme song. Pretty soon you'll be singing love songs to Stephen Fry like Mollie Lewis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n_hke...

Tamahome wrote: "I think Veronica has a new theme song. Pretty soon you'll be singing love songs to Stephen Fry like Mollie Lewis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n_hke..."

Man, that's an awesome song. I'm totally humbled now. Got a lot of work to do and have my husband set up some recording equipment somewhen in the future.

Anne wrote: "That's the best I can currently do. I only got my ukulele three weeks ago or so and I still need to get the hang of it. This is a slightly more major version of the sword and laser theme. I think the original uses minor chords, but I came up with this and it worked for me"

That was amazing!!!

Anne wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Ahem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?"

That's the best I can currently do. I only got my ukulele three weeks ag..."

WOW!! I wish I had seen this yesterday... putting it on the blog now!

Update: On the blog!! http://www.swordandlaser.com/home/201...

Just finished Starman Jones on Audible, found it on sale before my vacation, it was a bit dated but a nice change of pace. Just started Ender's Gameon Audible and still trying read A Game of Thrones ahead of the HBO series. Still have to finish reading The Heroes.

Veronica wrote: "Anne wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Ahem. Can you play the S&L theme on your ukulele and send it to Tom and Veronica to put on the next podcast?"

That's the best I can currently do. I only got my ukulele three weeks ag..."

WOW!! I wish I had seen this yesterday... putting it on the blog now!

I love it, Anne! Woot! :D

Reading the Dictionary of Fantastic Art - I'm pretty familiar with the surrealists, but there's many artists in this little book I've never been exposed to - having fun making a list of artists I want to check out now. Mona Lisa Overdrive is also waiting in the wings.

Veronica wrote: "WOW!! I wish I had seen this yesterday... putting it on the blog now!"

Well, it wasn't *there* yesterday, so you couldn't have seen it anyway.

I am reading Ringworld then on to its sequel and the Doomsday book to finish out this week.

Jlawrence wrote: "I love it, Anne! Woot! :D."

Thanks, Josh. I'm glad you liked it.

Just finished Stuntman!: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life byHal Needham, now reading My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir by Dick Van Dyke. Taking a little break from scifi/fantasy.

On audible I just listened to Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. Interesting combo of superheroes and zombies. After all, what can you do when the zombie apocalypse happens and your local superhero might be one of the turned. :-D

Just finished Ringworld by Larry Niven and have started The Elfin Ship by James Blaylock.

70 pages in and its a great read. I hope my delivery of The Disappearing Dwarf by James Blaylock arrives soon.

Just finished Feed today, which I really enjoyed. Starting CryoBurn next, going with the theme of "Must read Hugo noms before July 12th!". 'Cause I'll be busy with this other big fantasy release that's coming out then, obviously. Which means that after Cryoburn will be The Dervish House and I'll bee done all the nominated novels. I also want to get through all the nominated graphic novels this month too.

After The Dervish House, it'll probably be I Don't Want to Kill You, so that I can be done that trilogy. I'd like to read Room soon too, since the Kindle edition finally became available. And at the end of the month Naamah's Blessing will be out, and I'll drop everything for it.

I'm also doing GoT in audio, and as usual, the War and Peace read-along for another 100 or so pages. :)

Amy, make sure you find our thread where we are discussing the Hugo nominees. I have the Dervish House to go.

I enjoyed Starbound last week as well as The Walking Dead graphic novel.

There are some hard-hitting elements in Haldeman's trilogy so far, but I'm reserving final judgement for his last book. I like many of the things going on in his story, but it just hasn't grabbed me completely yet, but the tension is there going into the final book.

The Walking Dead was a good way for me to revisit comic books, and I plan on reading the next HC volume. I'm excited about trying some other comics now that I know there's some decent writing out there.

Just working on the Riddle Master trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip, I found it in my basement among a lot of my college papers. I loved the series when I was in school and it is nice to blow the dust off of it. I have also just finished War Machine, which was ok, but I am debating picking up the next book in the series or not. One of my buddies also gave me copy of Doppelgangster which looks like the perfect "super"light read for an extended plane ride to eastern Europe next week. I am deliberately not picking up any more of the Hugo noms because I want "light" reads this month, I need some balance to the reams of work related reading.

Just started The Quantum Thief; re-opened The Name of the Wind at the beach last weekend and didn't chuck it into the Atlantic so maybe there's hope...

Kris wrote: "I think this month I am going to go on a Barbara Hambly binge. Dug out some of her books I have and going to plow through them. Hadn't read in many years. starting with [book:The Tim..."

Oh that sounds like fun. I spent the spring re-reading her works and through they still hold up. If you can find her Live Journal blog she has several post talking about how she came up with her ideas or about her life at the time she wrote the stories.

I'm currently reading Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files and I'm really enjoying it. I can't wait for the next book to come out later this year.
I just finished Magic Slays, a guilty pleasure series for me. It was a quick and fun read, great for the summer.

I'm reading A Land of Ash while also finishing up Opening Atlantis, which was last month's read for the sci fi & fantasy group. What I should be reading is The Wise Man's Fear which has been waiting for me on top of my TBR pile for a while now.

This month I am reading The Dark Frigate with my son. I am also reading The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Well of Ascension.

On Audible I am listening to A Feast for Crows.

Kevin wrote: "I am reading all 5 books in Lloyd Alexandra's The Chronicles of Prydain all in one."

I love that series. I have read it at least a half-dozen times and I am thinking about reading it again soon.

Allen Steele - Hex
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/06/09...
Can you say 'Dyson sphere'?

I've been going through A Storm of Swords since monday. Onwards with trying to get up to speed with the saga!

Fool Moon Book 2 in the Dresden File series on Audible
and then books 2,3 and 4 of the Game Of Thrones series.
Eventually I'd like to work in time to read Leviathan and
The Dervish House.
I've sort of given up on Blackout on Audible but I might pony up the money for the kindle book and hope its my listening skills that are interfering with my enjoyment of a book that a lot of others seem to love.

Tamahome wrote: "Allen Steele - Hex
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/06/09...
Can you say 'Dyson sphere'?"

I picked it up from Audible and expect to start it this weekend.

Joana wrote: "I've been going through A Storm of Swords since monday. Onwards with trying to get up to speed with the saga!"

I just finished this yesterday. The other books feel light in comparison. It's my favorite of the books so far though.

Sodon wrote: "Joana wrote: "I've been going through A Storm of Swords since monday. Onwards with trying to get up to speed with the saga!"

I just finished this yesterday. The other books feel light..."

Yeah. I just started A Feast for Crows and I was like "Oh, cool. Just 800 pages. This is *nothing*."

Yeah, A Storm of Swords is the big one. I'm around 25% through already. It's sooooo good :)

So funny to see others doing the re-read as well. I also started re-reading A Storm of Swords on Monday and am about 15% through. Definitely glad I'm re-reading, as there were some parts I'd forgotten.

I have gotten quite a bit of reading done in the last week. I finally read Ringworld thanks to the post on a sci-fi masters list which reminded me to.

I read Robopocalypse which I thought was excellent. As others have said similar in style to World War Z but with a little bit more continuity. With World War Z some of the characters you only saw once with Robopocalypse you go back to many of the characters a few years/months later.

I also read finished Hexed which was good. The series is filling my urban fantasy craving until the next Dresden comes out.

Just finished The Dervish House which I really really liked. I think it would be enjoyed by people who like William Gibson or Daniel Suarez and don't mind a little literary spin (meaning there is some descriptive language here and big words, heh). That was the last thing I needed to read for the novel category of the Hugo awards, so I'm done with that project for this year. (You can check out our Hugo 2011 discussion here).

On my to-read pile I'm considering The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and The Whore's Child.

Hmm, Dervish House might be too purple (in prose) for me. I like Scott Sigler's attitude that you shouldn't notice the words are there.