The Sword and Laser discussion
Introduction and welcome thread!
message 2751:
by
Chris Pacheco
(new)
May 10, 2013 02:22PM
Hi my name is Chris and I have been reading science fiction and fantasy for over 20 years. I really love the podcast and it has revived my interest in books. My favorite authors currently are Kim Harrison, David Wong, Neal Stepenson, William Gibson and Douglas Adams.
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Hi I'm Joby and am a long time fantasy reader and hope to get some good sci-fi recommendations as I do not read a lot of it
Thanks charlton glad to be onboard. Love the idea of talking about books instead of reading and having no one to talk to about them.
Hi this is Vishnu, I have joined today! I am working in an IT Company and just like anyone! I have
recently written a book "Bhagavad Gita for Dummies"
-its a book based on common man's view and self
evaluation with bhagavad gita. I just added a short
story "Read in 19 Minutes" a sci-fi thriller. Both
the books are published as Ebook. Its also available
in Goodreads!
Truthfully, i am new to reading and i am new to
writing. However i would write something, which
every common man can relate to including a science Fiction. I am happy to introduce myself and thanks for
the opportunity!
READ in 19 Minutes
You can download from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
with coupon code PT56E , free till 20 may 13. A short read science fiction for 10 min. read... Appologize if i entered book details wrongly here!
Hi everyone, I'm Julian.I've been an avid reader of fantasy and scifi since I got my hands on The Never Ending Story when I was a child. I really love the old scifi, specially Asimov, from whom I've read pretty much all his work - but been reading more current books since a friend introduced me to the Ender series. On the fantasy angle I read pretty much everything I get my hands to.
On the other hand, I tend to read a lot of history, and historic novels. I also game quite a bit, specially RPGs, and since now shooters come with good stories, I've been diving on those as well.
I'm kinda of new to goodreads, this been the first group I join. I just saw some of the videos you made for Geek and Sundry; was very upset to know that you were taking a break just as I came to find you, but good to know that there's this place.
My first language is Spanish, and although I tend to read things in English if that is it's original language, most of my deadtree reading is done in Spanish, just because availability :p
Julián wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Julian.I've been an avid reader of fantasy and scifi since I got my hands on The Never Ending Story when I was a child. I really love the old scifi, specially Asimov, from whom I..."
Bienvenido Julián,
Lo mismo para mi, la mayoría de los libros que leo son en inglés dado que vivo en el extranjero :)
Hi'ya,Julian welcome to S&L.
Hello! I've been actually participating a while now, but realized I haven't made an introduction (at least I think so, if I'm repeating myself, sorry...). Anyway, I'm Anna and I'm originally from Finland, but living in France at the moment. I found the Sword and Laser through Geek and Sundry and Vaginal Fantasy. I did drop Vaginal Fantasy books off my reading list, because there were many I didn't like, or only liked somewhat, but I've now read 3 books for this group and I've loved every one of them :)I've always loved reading and read pretty much anything. I've actually found sci-fi and fantasy as a grown-up, maybe because no one in our family really read them and I had a bit of a bad experience with fantasy when I was younger. Luckily it's never too late :) I really love character driven books, I can appreciate plot driven ones too, but really: I need good characters to love a book.
I especially want to thank Tom for introducing me to Downbelow Station.
Hi all! I'm going by the username Tsedai.I found out about Sword and Laser through the Geek & Sundry channel, after a friend had me attend a panel at a local convention. Started by watching the YouTube shows, now I am listening to all the old podcasts.
I am pretty much an all-around nerd (I love reading, I'm getting into tabletop gaming, I like to make costumes, and I have several degrees in chemistry). I have to say that reading fantasy novels really started me down the path of geekdom though. I always liked reading fantasy and science fiction stories when I was younger (Pamela F. Service, Patricia C Wrede, and Bruce Coville especially), but I have to say reading Tamora Pierce when I was 11 years old was the strongest influence on my love of the fantasy genre.
I started reading The Wheel of Time when I was 13, and Robert Jordan has been my favorite author ever since. I also consider Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin, and Patrick Rothfuss to be among my favorite authors at the moment.
Obviously I fall a bit more on the sword side of things, but I do like science fiction as well. One of the best things about the S&L podcast is that I get introduced to new authors or sub-genres that I wouldn't have otherwise known about. I am hoping that I can expand my list of favorites as I work my way through some of the old book club picks or read books by some of the authors who have really interesting interviews. I also want to try and start reading the book of the month picks eventually, but right now I am just trying to get caught up on the podcast and some of the older book choices.
Hello, I'm Adem. Currently listening to the foundation series by asimov. I can't say I have a favorite author, but I enjoy a good scifi or fantasy read. Looking forward to finding some good reading material.
Adem wrote: "Hello, I'm Adem. Currently listening to the foundation series by asimov. I can't say I have a favorite author, but I enjoy a good scifi or fantasy read. Looking forward to finding some good readin..."
I love the Audio version of the Foundation series! One of my favorite audio's - listened to it probably 20 times over the years.
Hello! I'm Olivia, I live in Peoria, Illinois and I enjoy reading several genres including sci-fi and fantasy. I like Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg Bear, Ben Bova, David Brin, and more.
Gracias por las bienvenida Carolina :)
Hello,Olivia,Scott,Adem and Tsedai welcome to S&L.
Hello I'm Michal (Paitlan). I live in Odense Denmark. I learned about Sword and Laser from Wil Wheatons Tabletop on Geek and Sundry. I Love Tabletop games and D&D and I have been an avid fantasy reader all my life. In the last couple of years I kind of lost interest in reading books, but the hunger for books are back thanks to the awesome shows of Sword and laser podcasts/video and Vaginal Fantasy.I am looking forward to be reading some well written sword and laser books, and I have even decided to read some vaginal fantasy books which I never have done before. Looking forward to that.
Some of the Authors i have read and liked are Raymond E. Feist, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Maththew Reilly.
On the to read list right now is
Hugh Hiwey "Wool".
Patrick Rothfuss "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise man's Fear"
George R.R. Martin "Game of thrones series"
Hello,I'm Peter and I've been a sci-fi fan for many years. I'm glad I found this group and I look forward to exploring the varied ideas and comments.
H. Peter Alesso
Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space
Howdy.I'm Michael or Todd (or M.). I've been a fantasy and science fiction reader ever since my dad gave me a copy of THE HOBBIT back in the fourth grade. There was no turning back after that...Much to his chagrin and the chagrin of the professors of my Creative Writing program in college. (I tried writing realism, honestly I did... my brain is just wired for the fantastic.)
My favorite genre writers are Steven Erikson, Harlan Ellison, Steven Brust, Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Butcher, and Ramez Naam. Outside of genre, I like Tim O'Brien, Flannery O'Conner, and Hemingway.
I'm here because I've seen Sword and Laser a couple of times, and I'm always on the lookout for hidden gems of genre fiction that may otherwise slip by me.
Hello, everyone! I'm Yoky.I began reading at quite a young age, don't remember exactly since when, but I remember that what I liked most were the books that allowed my imagination to "explode". When I read the Lord of the Rings when I was a teenager, my mind blew off, and so I kept on reading fantasy and, later on, sci-fi.
Nowadays, I'm trying to get back to writing, and am also trying to find new books and new authors to add to my reading experience.
I've been following S&L for some time now, and I'm really glad I found this group. I've never been much of a network socialite, but this seemed like a nice community to start with. So here I am.
Hope this turns into a great experience.
PS: Love the podcast. Keep it up, Tom and Veronica!
Hi everyone,I'm David. I write Sean Yeager Adventures - a YA high energy, action, sci-fi series with comedy. I've published two titles to date.
I also read a lot. Favs being Iain Banks, Philip K Dick, Asimov and other genres such as Jonathan Stroud, Tom Sharp, Philip Pullman etc.
Best
David
Sean Yeager and the DNA Thief
Sean Yeager: Hunters Hunted
Legacy of Krazatan: Book I: A Hero's BirthMy name is Tylor Kranyak, a fantasy writer and author of Legacy of Krazatan - Book I: A Hero's Birth. I'm also the one who created the in-book map and all the artwork for the cover.
(Edit: I've just read the rules of the forums and have since posted a summary of my book in the Author Promo section.)
To be honest, between trying to promote my first book and getting my second one written I don't have as much time to read as I used to, but at the moment I'm trying to get through Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, which I'm absolutely loving. As for what I hope to get out of this group, I guess it's the same as any other author. I'd like exposure for both me and my book, and maybe find some inspiration for some of my future books as well. While I can't promise I'll be very active on this forum, I can promise that when I am active I'll do what I can to help out my fellow authors.
Hello Tylor,D.M.and Yoky welcome to S&L.
Hi,my name is Isabell. I like all kinds of books, but most of the time I am drawn towards fantasy and sci-fi. Those are the kinds of books, helping me relax after a "long" day of studying and sometimes they even stop me from studying.
Some of my favourite authors are Lukyanenko Sergei, Terry Pratchett, Walter Moers and so many more.
Hey William,I study law in germany.
Are lawyers as villainous in Germany as they are in the states?
They are as evil as they come, at least that's the popular opinion. Let's hope I'll be the good kind of lawyer, if I really pursue that path to the dark side!^^
Howdy. I'm Robbie. I like good beer, great tobacco, bad chess, worse golf, books, my wife, my daughter, and the University of Tennessee.I'm a mathematics teacher and girls fast pitch softball coach at a local high school. I spend my free time teaching at an alternative school and a community college. I began my working life as an electrical engineer, and I am the walking contradiction to the adage, "Those who can't do, teach." I just happen to like teaching more than I like "do-ing."
:) -ra
Saw the videos on Geek & Sundry, so I thought I'd give this group a try. Although I have to admit, I'm not familiar with a lot of the fantasy titles mentioned. I'm definitely more on the laser side of things. I worked in a used bookshop for 11 years, & right now I'm at the tail end of a BA Honours degree in English literature. My focus being contemporary / postmodern American lit. Which is where most of my sci-fi leanings come from. Authors like Don Delillo, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman (one of the few fantasy-oriented writers I enjoy), etc. Afterwards I'll probably move on to my Masters, possibly focusing on a topic centred around the notion of genre and boundaries.
For Sci-fi media in general, I've enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-Files, Blade Runner, Doctor Who (somewhat. I've only seen the new series, none of the previous 8 doctors), graphic novels like The Watchmen.
I've also read a lot of Robert Anton Wilson, whose material tends to blur the boundaries between sci-fi and weird theory. Whether its his fiction or his philosophy, there's always a big heaping amount of weirdness in his books.
A cool, unknown read for me was a book called Jerusalem Poker by Edmund White. It came into the shop one day & it looked odd enough to interest me. I haven't been able to track down his other books, but he only wrote a small handful.
As for the fantasy aspect, other than Neil Gaiman my interest tends towards the medieval / historical rather than sword and sorcery. Particularly the Icelandic family sagas, the Norwegian kings sagas of Snorri Sturluson (which do incorporate many supernatural aspects), and the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. I don't read much modern fantasy. The last fantasy books I can recall reading where the first 6 Elric novels by Michael Moorcock way back in high school. I read the Hobbit a couple of years prior, but Tolkien seems more stale in comparison to the dark anti-hero of Moorcock. There's my confession; I was never able to finish Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The simplicity of the material and the banality of it all proved to insurmountable of an obstacle. I was able to at least get through a couple of George RR Martin's books, even if I wasn't entirely thrilled with them. I did read a handful of Conan novels in my youth, but seeing as how they were mostly the Sprague De Camp edited versions, I'm not sure I can fairly judge Robert E. Howard's works. Although the character has held little appeal to me.
I've also read a fair bit of Gothic / horror novels; HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Castle of Otranto, etc.
On my current list of to-read books are mostly some more Icelandic sagas, particularly since I'll be enrolled in a Viking focused lit class next year. General rule of thumb, if its got Vikings and Viking history, I'm all for it.
Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality series has been on my must-read list, but I never seem to get around to it.
I'm also into a fair bit of the graphic novels. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and the like. The Invisibles is another on my "to read someday" list, if I can ever get around to getting the trades. The early Hellboy stories (when Mignola was actually drawing them) are good. Not exactly groundbreaking writing, but entertaining enough.
Good evening, everyone. Although I write a weekly zoology blog, I do get the time to read fiction every now and then. At the moment, I'm mostly reading modern space opera and hard-ish sci-fi. So more towards the laser than the sword, although I do read both.
A flip through the books currently sitting in my to-read pile reveals a lot of Alastair Reynolds, Neal Asher, Ken Macleod, and Charles Stross, but that's mainly because they're the ones I currently happen to be catching up on than for any longer-term reason.
Counting up, to put them on my Goodreads bookshelves reveals that I have around 90 Doctor Who novels - almost all from the 1990s, when the series was off the air. I dare say this must mean something...
Welcome to S&L, Jamie,Douglas and Robert Isaac.
Hello all!My name is Kristen. I'm relatively new to Goodreads and to Sword & Laser (which I came to by way of the Geek & Sundry show and then the podcast). I lean more towards the sword side, but I've also read a fair amount of sci-fi. As far as my reading in the last few days, I just finished "The Lies of Locke Lamorra" and "Wool" and I finally bought "Name of the Wind" and then made up for lost time by binge reading it in about 24 hours! Now I'm afraid I'll have to wait to start "The Wise Man's Fear" until I can afford to devote another full day. I have no self control when it comes to a good story. :-)
Other than that I'm looking forward to the monthly book picks and hopefully to some reading choices a little out of my comfort zone.
Kristen wrote: "Hello all!My name is Kristen. I'm relatively new to Goodreads and to Sword & Laser (which I came to by way of the Geek & Sundry show and then the podcast). I lean more towards the sword side, b..."
welcome!
Greetings!My name is Beck aka Furbish Lousewart (any Schroedinger's Cat Trilogy readers out there?). I am a mechanical engineer and I like me some video games, science fiction and ice hockey! I also wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo last November, which I will perhaps post in the Author Promo section at some point.
So, I hope it wouldn't be a major faux pas to ask a few questions concerning Audible here... I've found their service to be a bit confusing after first hearing about it on the podcast last week. So if you subscribe ($15/month), you get a "credit" each month - when you buy a book with this do you keep it forever? And, in regards to whispersync, if I use one of my monthly credits to get an audio book, and then simply buy the Kindle version - will that sync up for me?
Thanks guys for any advice and I apologize for squeezing in questions like that to my intro! :S I look forward to being a part of the community!
Mod
Only certain books do whispersync. There are some caveats to using it. I haven't used it myself.
Hi, I'm Jon. In middle school I learned how to walk while reading. I do menial work at a library and tend to lurk in forums more than I discuss. I love GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss, John Scalzi, Peter David, A. Lee Martinez, Naomi Novik and Brandon Sanderson. I love good world building and tend to dislike military science fiction.
Welcome to the S&L group Jonathan and Furish.
Thanks for the info! And thank you for the welcoming! :)
Howdy!I'm Paul S. Kemp. I write sword and sorcery novels, Star Wars novels, and Forgotten Realms novels. I recently gave up cigars (WOE!), but did not give up single malt scotch (HUZZAH!). I've lurked a long time and thought I was overdue to say hello.
Paul
Hey Paul,welcome to the S&L group.
Hi,I'm William reader of both sword and laser. My favorite is Zelazny's Lord of Light. As I'm incapable of getting rid of books I'm glad to have an e-reader as they take up so much less room.
Hey all, I'm David, and I like books.I've been reading fantasy/sci-fi for over 2 decades. Andre Norton, Roger Zelazny, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Jordan, and more; I've read a ton of authors and love the genres.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
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A Canticle for Leibowitz (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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John Scalzi (other topics)
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