Introduction and welcome thread! Showing 801-850 of 4,412

[Aloha]

And I've considered lasik eye surgery. That covers sword and laser.

[Lorie]

Hi, I'm Lorie and I work at a library so being around books is a way of life. I can't imagine working anywhere else. :) I am a recovering WoW addict. I love Sci Fi, Fantasy, Cozy and Hard Boiled Mystery novels, Speculative fiction, Bios, historical...I like books!

A long time ago when we had money to have authors at our library a "new" author named Brandon Sanderson came to visit along with Dave Farland. I was able to join the librarians in taking them out for dinner and helping them with the reading/Elantris book signing. I told Brandon that I wasn't really into fantasy so he wrote a blurb on my copy of Elantris about how he hoped it would help me get into the genre. Recently I read Way of the Kings. It was so engrossing. I can't wait for the second book to come out.

I started reading 1Q84 a month ago but then I listened to R. A. Salvatore on Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast so I got sucked into Drizzt's world.

[jason]

Hi, I'm Jason. Husband, teacher and dad. Currently reading Sword of Shanarra. Avidly searching for something as good as Game of Thrones series (all have been read), with no luck.

[Jim]

Oh, hello. I'm Jim. I'm married and have a couple of kids. I love reading and writing, and language in general. I love classical literature, especially Victorian-Era horror fiction and early sci-fi novels. Something about the eloquence and the worldview of that time period fascinates me. Some of my favorite authors are H. P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, Joseph Conrad, and H. Rider Haggard. I just polished off 1Q84. Love the podcast!

[Nels]

Hey, I'm Nels. I'm a super slow reader and pretty much everything I read is sci-fi with a bit of fantasy (I'll let my GoodReads account give the details). I've also started writing a bit (like a really drawn out version of NaNoWriMo). But I write even slower than I read, so we'll see how that goes. I love audiobooks since I can listen at 2x speed and get through a lot more stories.

[Kerry]

Hello, I'm Kerry. I have been reading SciFi and Fantasy along ago as I can remember. I read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy when I was 10, and have since read it in German, Portuguese (Brazilian) and am looking for a Russian copy. My tastes are very eclectic, but in the end I still come back to the good stuff, i.e. Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I still don't mind a classical work here and there, but for the commute to work and while traveling nothing beats a good science fiction book. Am looking forward to upcoming recommendations and to next year's November writing month. Maybe I will finally finish my novel.

[Kdiggity]

Hello there, this is Kdiggity.
I didn't like reading when I was younger, but now I can't get enough. I love reading on my Kindle and through Audible... that's not cheating ;)

My favorite authors are Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, and Terry Goodkind.

Thanks Tom and Veronica for the podcast and this group!

[Raymond]

Hello there, I'm Raymond from Sweden.
I've been reading tons of books since i was a kid and it's one of my favorite things to do in my free time.

I got into SciFi and Fantasy through David Eddings and the wonderful A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Nowadays my favorite series are the Dresden Files and I've also greatly enjoyed the Malazan series.

I'm looking forward to start following and reading the books of the month, will start now in January.

[Daniel]

Hi I'm Daniel, I'm aussie and I love scifi and fantasy :) I need to escape to new world's each night to de-stress.. Yoroshiku everyone!

[Alex]

Hi, I'm Alex from the UK. I discovered the podcast a few months ago which introduced me to Nanowrimo for which I'm very grateful. I love any good fantasy or any great scifi. Brandon Sanderson, George RR Martin, y'know, the usual suspects.

[Brianna]

Hi, I'm Brianna.

I've been into fantasy since my Dad read me the Hobbit when I was five. I'm an avid reader which is why I'm getting a degree in Lit. My Favorite authors are: Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss,Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin.

[Danny]

Hi, I'm Danny.

I've been a fan of the SciFi and fantasy genres for years and am particularly a fan of Michael Crichton, the early Sword of Truth books, Orson Scott Card, the Hyperion series, and a few other odds and ends.

[Lee]

Hello all,
My name is Lee and I have been listening to Sword and Laser for a couple of years now and enjoy the introduction to new authors and books.

My favourite genres have always been Fantasy and Sci-Fi but I also stray into Horror (Stephen King), Navel (CS Forester and the Hornblower series), Acton/Adventure (Dan Brown, Stieg Larsson) and many others. Always trying to expand my horizons.

I have read a thousand books I am sure over the last 40-50 years and realized during a recent S&L podcast that you can track your book reading on the goodreads site.
I have amassed a large library of ebooks and audio books over recent years to add to my dead tree editions and just received a Kindle for Christmas this year.

I am hoping to use good reads to document the books I have read/listened to and the ones I still want to read. So many good series, many of them unfinished, and so many good authors who I have read some of their work and want to read more it is hard to keep track of it all. I also want to expand my interactions with this community to discover more great authors and books.

[Norman]

Greetings! I'm Sir Norman of Buursma... geek... dad... IT Guy... uh... wow, I ran out of steam fast. Okay, I like books. (Given.) I'm breeding and cultivating my own future nerdlings, I'm a super into the following:

Star Wars
Doctor Who
Dresden Files
Discworld
Neil Gaiman (when he's not being too depressing)
...uh... lots more I'm just blanking on it right now.

Book pet peeves?

Lack of humor. A LOT of the fantasy people seem to enjoy is kind of dark, especially "urban" fantasy, which is kind of like saying "hot girl in leather pants is angsty for 200 pages"... not my cup of tea... but I will forgive any cliché plot holes or set ups for a decent sense of humor, a British/Irish/Scottish accent and sarcastic dialogue.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone knows anything like that; I'm a HUGE audible/audio book fan so any great performances (which can make up for bad writing sometimes) you know of let me know!

-Norm

[Nathan]

Hi, I'm Nathan. I've read Fantasy/Sci-fi since my early teen years. I'd have a hard time pegging down a favorite author/series/book. I like Robin Hobb, Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, Jim Butcher, Brandon Sanderson, and many, many others.

[Dave]

Hi, I'm Dave from Wales UK.

I've been a huge geek most of my life, starting with Dr Who and Spiderman comics from an early age (still love both of these!!).

Current favourite authors are Jim Butcher, Tad Williams, Stephen King. Although it generally depends on what I'm reading at the moment.

[Ryan]

I am Ryan. I was born in 1975 in Chico California. By 1977, I stopped pooping my pants except for on special occasions. In 1980, I started Kindergarten where amongst other things; I learned to make wax paper art. At some point in the spring of 1982, I pant-zed Heidi Blackwelder and got sent home from school. A week later, I got into a brawl with Alan Green over a game of tether-ball and got sent home a second time. By the time I reached the third grade, I was a super ninja, and hopelessly smitten with my first real girlfriend, Cynthia Hoffelt, whom I also pantzed (apparently, she liked my assertiveness). At about the same time as my ninja exploits, I also honed my skills as a master break-dancer and learned to pick the lock on my mother’s freezer. In the fifth grade I told my very liberal teacher that I thought JFK was a philandering jerk, and made her cry (thanks television). In the sixth grade, I professed my love to my teacher’s daughter, who promptly ratted me out to “daddy”. That evening and every weekend thereafter (for at least a year), I toilet papered their house. Sometimes I would urinate in the gas tank of Mr. Z’s Porsche. He rode his bike to school a lot. In junior high, I defended a developmentally disabled kid by beating his assailant senseless with the edge of a lunch tray. In my eighth grade art class, I designed the packaging for the little known breakfast cereal “Prostituties” and was sent home for the third time in my scholastic career. High school was a blur, but I distinctly remember crafting a flamethrower and a dart gun out of an airbrush, learning to pick pockets and making counterfeit money in art class. After high school, I joined the Marine Corps and learned to march and crap in tandem with forty other guys’. I also learned to sew buttons on stuff, but promptly forgot. After the Marine Corps, I went to art school, rode a mountain bike down a mall escalator, got married, became an eBay addict, shaved my head, got divorced, grew my hair back, became a writer and moved to Oregon. I have also discovered where porn comes from, smoked a cigar in an igloo with my Grandmother, and learned to make stuff disappear.
When it comes to words strung together in the pattern of fantasy, I prefer the ramblings of Tad Williams, David Farland, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaiman, Santa Clause, Lewis Carol and a host of others whose names are not perched on the tip of my tongue.

[Jolea]

Hello all, I'm Jolea. I've been reading Sci-fi/fantasy since discovering Tolkien in the 70s. Funny, I refused to read the books because everyone was, and then finally picked them up. Silly me. Some of my other favorite authors are Terry Brooks, Roger Zelazny, and Frank Herbert. Now a days I read mostly Indie books along with the occasional new release, though I'm find those few and far between that I enjoy. I'm a big Star Wars/Star Trek fan. Read the books. Saw the movies.

Happy New Year to everyone!

[Aloha]

LOL! You're a rebel. Too bad you didn't keep your button sewing skills. That will probably be more useful than flame throwing.

Ryan wrote: "I am Ryan. I was born in 1975 in Chico California. By 1977, I stopped pooping my pants except for on special occasions. In 1980, I started Kindergarten where amongst other things; I learned to make..."

[John]

Hi guys. I'm a (semi) long-time listener, and lover of SciFi, but never found much time to read. With a new girlfriend, also a lover of books, came lots of opportunity to read, so I've been getting to work through my building scifi collection. I live near a good used book store with a nice scifi section (http://www.usedbooksuperstore.com/sau...) and was honored by several trips to the amazing FREE(!) book store The Book Thing in Baltimore (http://www.bookthing.org/), so I had been able to build up a fairly large backlog of books, even without any hope of getting to them, but now I can!

I recently finished Giants' Star by James P Hogan and The Hunger Games Book 1, and am now finishing up (and enjoying) Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. Up next (in order) is Snowfall by Mitchell Smith, Star Trek Voyager, No 10, Bless the Beasts by Karen Haber, then then People of the Wolf by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear (A series that constantly popped up in my perusing of used books, which got me interested).

I recently went through my whole collection (about 80 books), arranged them in the order I want to read them (a fun task!), and removed the ones I didn't have much interest in (about 30). I want to donate my unwanted books to The Book Thing (who's SciFi section was lacking last time I was there) if I can figure out a good way to get them from Boston to Baltimore, but I may be lazy and instead donate them to the local used book store.

I look forward to obsessively cataloging and tracking my reading list on GoodReads, and discussing them with fans of my favorite SciFi literary podcast.

[Cap'n Jack]

Hi everyone, Cap'n Jack here (no, not Harkness or Sparrow). I never seem to have time to read. I discovered S&L via Nerdist and thought, "hey, I like scifi and fantasy!", but I've been listening for months and feel left out because I am not reading the books!

I've been crazy about podcasts over the past year, and decided that I would try audiobooks. I'm listening to 1Q84 now thanks to my free download from signing up for Audible. Found some older audio books of classics I always had wanted to read too.

Anyway, I mostly read trades and graphic novels because I have more of a photographic memory and find comics quick and easy. The last books I read were LoTR and The Dark Tower, and that was several years ago.

This community looks pretty awesome and I'm looking forward to getting more awesome recommendations!

[Ryan]

Hello all, my name is Ryan and I am a newer fan of the S&L podcast. I havent read many of the books discussed on the show but lately there has been alot of talk of Sci-Fi and I am more of a fantasy junkie.

Some of my favorite authors include Joe Abercrombie, Salvatore, Conn Igullden and of course the late David Gemmell who will probably always be #1 to me.

Looking forward to reading more of this board, and listening to the podcast.

[Chris]

Hello, I'm Chris. I just got started really using the forums here and the goodreads website as a whole after hearing Tom and Veronica talk about SL on TNT. You both do great work!

I am a slow reader but have been picking more and more books up as of late. So I am going to try to keep up since it will be a reason to read. :) I am normally reading technology things more than anything really useful.

See ya around!

[Brian]

Hey, I'm Brian (Goodreads employee! :) ) and was primarily a cataloguer (no discussions etc.) till I joined. Sci-fi isn't my primary genre, but did get drawn into reading a few discussions about 1Q84, which I enjoyed (novel and the discussions).

David Mitchell is my current favorite author. Others slightly more relevant to this group are Dick, Bradbury, Stephenson, Gibson, Atwood.

May check out the podcast (feel free to convince me here ;) ) but will have to jettison a few others that are piling up (I think I probably need to watch/listen to something like 20 hours per week just to keep up right now :( ).

[Chuck]

My name is Chuck and my favorite authors are Terry Goodkind (Sword of Truth Series) and Arthur C Clarke. I'm a TWiT aholic and have only recently discovered Sword and Laser.

[eHawk]

Greetings... eHawk here. I'm a scifi/fantasy fan for sure. Stumbled across this group via the podcast (checked out the Patrick Rothfuss interview). So far so good!

I recently finished reading Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, which was awesome. (so fun!) I read a lot of books and a lot of comics.

[Sumx]

Hi, I'm Marcus.

During the day I work in wireless telecom as a technical architect. Most of my reading is done in the form of audiobooks during my commute, yard work, and dog walks - I've got my own direwolf (of sorts, ok, he's a Siberian Husky).

I also have a young daughter so most of my paper book reading is in the genre she likes - right now Winnie the Pooh is being read again, and I'm looking forward to future reads of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Oz Chronicles with her.

I get a lot of my reading list from the Sword & Laser podcast - thanks! I'm a huge fan of the public library and get most of my material from there.

[Vid]

Hello, I'm Vid. I come from Slovenia. I'm interested in every form of geeknes. My favourite writers are GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss, Robert A. Heinlein, Steven Erikson.

[Matthew]

Hi all, my name is Matthew. I've been listening to Sword and Laser since shortly after Veronica appeared on the Nerdist podcast. I've been reading SciFi since elementary school (Animorphs) and Fantasy since Junior High (The Blue Sword).

I just finished The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, and it got me nostalgic for American Gods. Other than Gaiman I'd have to say that Brandon Sanderson and George RR Martian are my current favorite authors. I've definetly been focused on Fantasy in the last few years, so hopefully this book club will get me reading more SciFi soon.

[Mike]

I'm Mike, aka mezmo, I'm a very fast reader, comsuming 2-3 novels on weekends, currently readingNicole Hamlett 2 novels on Grace Murphy on my Kindle Fire.

[ael]

i'm khalil; i just started listening after hearing veronica on gweek. i was raised entirely by goats, science fiction, and fantasy, but have been reading only nonfiction lately, so i'm excited to get tips on what's good in the genre these days.

[Ian]

Hey how's it going? I'm Ian, I have been listening since I heard about you all on The Nerdist poscast. I love reading all sorts of things and like to change genes quit often to keep things from getting stale. Lately its been a bunch of apocalyptic Sci-fi, must be a strange phase I'm going through. I work at a computer all day and this allows me to listen to books and podcast while I work so I am always looks for new stuff.
My favorite authors would have to be Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, and Neil Gaiman.

[Robert]

Hello!

My name's Robert and I'm a fantasy-aholic.

I had books confiscated by teachers in middle school and high school (when they caught me, mwahaha). I started at a young age with Narnia and "A Wrinkle in Time", but I consider my first true Epic to be "The Wheel of Time" which I started in 8th grade and as anyone familiar with the series knows, 15 years later I still haven't finished it.

I'm a gamer as well, working on building my first gaming rig in 9 years. Mostly RPG's - eagerly anticipating Diablo III - exciting stuff! I'm an avid MMO'er as well. I started on EverQuest and have yet to find one with that same feel..

I've been looking for discussion, and this seems right up my alley. I look forward to many fun and heated discussions with everyone! :-)

[Eric]

Howdy guys,

Just happened to hear someone mention that they heard about 1Q84 on the Sword & Laser podcast. Decided to check out the podcast which led here. I read mostly sci fi or weird non-fiction. Currently reading 1Q84 and The Search for God and Guiness. I tend to jump around sci fi series a bunch, I am on book 4 of Malazan, Book 4 of Game of Thrones, and kind of jumping around the Culture series. I am a programmer by trade and live in Atlanta with wife (big YA reader) and two kids.

-Eric (Cyanbane)

[Liam]

Hey tom and ronnie... I tend to like more the scifi books that tom mentions...I'm looking for another book to read....I really got into reamde rdy player one daemon n its sequel snow crash I like the one about mmorpgs i can't seem to find a good list of those types I was wondering if you or anyone else could give me a list....I have been listing to sword and laser a long while and other twit shows you guys are awesome...nice work ronnie on the game on beta with Brian... And tom your just funny in just about all the shows keep up the sarcastic awesomeness (a lil hurt ya didn't wanna help with my request at bringing sgu back into light) but anyways thanks in advance with any help or comments positive or negative ...."bad news is better then no news...". Cheers
- Liam Egan

[Walker]

Hello, I'm Walker,

Like most the other folks I'm seeing here I have been a Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan for as long as I can remember. I commute to work so I have begun digesting a lot more books via audio. Looking forward to whatever books come up next!

[Michelle]

Hi, I'm Michelle.
I've been in love with Sci-Fi/Fantasy/reading in general for years pretty much started when I was a kid in school. I've listened to the podcast for a while now and have just now actually joined the Goodreads group, better late then never!

[Tanvir]

Hello, everyone, I am Tanvir. I have loved book as long as I can remember. I am an education policy analyst and researcher by profession, and I have to travel a lot, which also gives me plenty of time to read. I love science fiction, fantasy, horror, mainstream fiction and non fiction as well. Plenty of favourite writers in science fiction and fantasy, some of them being Dan Simmons, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Neal Stephenson, David Gemmell, Patrick Rothfuss and Robert Sawyer. I hope to know about interesting books from this forum and share opinions and views on my favourite, and not so favourite ones! Great to be here with likeminded readers!

[Brad]

I AM HERE!

[Javier]

Hey everyone, my name is Javier. I know that I love the sci-fi/fantasy genres from a gaming and film perspective, but have honestly not picked up a book for more than a couple hours. Was pointed in the direction of Sword and Laser along with GoodReads to help kickstart what the hell I'm going to read. It's quite overwhelming out there and I hate to stick to "the popular stuff", if possible. Although I am starting my journey with A Song of Ice and Fire as well as have my eye on a few "classics" to start up.

Really looking forward to giving reading a serious chance. Also, props to Sword and Laser, only been listening for a few episodes and I'm enjoying it so far!

[Martin]

Happy 4k everybody!
...as I just noticed that the number of members has passed four thousand.

[Brad]

I should mention that I just started listening to the podcast and have downloaded every episode.

[Jacen]

Hello. I'm Ryan. Heard about the show from the Nerdist podcast and have to say that I love it.

I'm in wichita, KS, and reading has been a passion of mine since about the first grade. I still have the first book I read by myself.

My favorite authors are Robert Jordan, Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind, and Terry Prachett.

[Michael]

Martin wrote: "Happy 4k everybody!
...as I just noticed that the number of members has passed four thousand."

Wow - nice!

[David]

Hi, I'm David.

I am also a person who always has to have a book with them or several! Fortunately with my trusty tablet and e-reader,(yes I have both) this is less of a problems now days. I heard about this podcast and group from listening to TWIT (This Week in Tech)and have been really enjoying it!

[Adrienne]

Hi, I'm Adrienne,

I'm a big fan of Veronica & Tom from TWiT & Rev3, so this was an easy podcast to get into.

I'm currently working my way through The Song of Ice & Fire. I've re-up'd my Audible membership, and my 'first' book selection was Elantris. Looking forward to it.

Some of my favorite writers are Diana Gabaldon, Jim Butcher, Lewis Carrol, George R.R. Martin, and Jean Auel.

[Noomninam]

Hello, all.

Back in the dawn of time, I was without a doubt the only kid in my junior high school who belonged to the Science Fiction Book Club. For purposes of scale, the original Star Trek series was a *current prime time show* then! A pre-PC proto-geek, in other words.

Eventually the flat, predominantly military characters and lifeless writing of most pop sci-fi in those days drove me away from the genre. Early in high school, though, I happened upon the incredible Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, curated by Lin Carter. Still have my paperback copies of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, and others. Note: Anything you can find with that imprint is guaranteed
great!

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller brought me into the universe of modern literary fiction, and I spent time immersed in Nabokov, Pynchon, Durrell, Burroughs, Hemingway, many others. And backtracked into Tolstoy and other classics.

Since then in reading I've rambled freely among the realms the lit-fic, fantasy, and -- since Gibson, Sterling, and other cyberpunk authors raised the bar on sci-fi/speculative fiction. Addiction to Leo LaPorte's TWiT network brought me through the side door to Sword and Laser -- enjoying the podcast and discussion as a lurker for some time now.

I work as a proofreader and copyeditor in a graphic design group, am active in recreational cycling clubs, and scuba dive when chance permits. Like everyone else, have half a novel and half a screenplay in the drawer. Hey, I'm working on it!

[Joseph]

Hey all sir's and female creatures, I'm Joe and reside on the South Coast of England, UK.

Sherlock Holmes (books and BBC version :D not RDJ/Ritchie...) & Doctor Who fan, and reader of books; I even attempt to write them now and again.

The books are usually Fantasy (Joe Abercrombie, Pat Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Tolkien), Historical or Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett.

Studying English Lit at University so my reading is mainly "literary" stuff but I intermingle it with things I actually want to read. :)
I've also never read a comic book in my life......sorry. :L

[Joseph]

Hi! Just discovered the podcast and thought I should join the group. I've been reading mostly SF and fantasy for as long as I can remember (I just about filled an entire checkout card for The Pool of Fire and its predecessors when I was in elementary school). Like Noomninam above, I'm a huge fan of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series -- I have the full set and read all of them even though some of them were pretty thick going (I'm looking at you, The Shaving of Shagpat).

Currently wrapping up the Hunger Games trilogy; before that, it was Asunder and The Shattered World, amongst others. I'm looking forward to discussions and recommendations and all of that other good stuff . . .

[Andy]

Hey There, I'm Andy.
I've been a loyal listener to the show since the beginning but just got around to joining the group officially. I actually write and draw comics about a kind-hearted little owl and I'm a huge fan of fantasy and sic-fi and I'm so glad to be a part of this amazing group! :)