tom merritt: coming upangels who drink, date, and fight crime. veronica belmont: yes and areal-life life sword and laser book club member horror story. and also, i spent 15 minutestrying to get my bangs perfectly even. perfectly. you don't want to miss this. it's the sword andlaser book club.
[rocket noise] [laser effect] veronica belmont: welcometo the sword and laser book club . i'm veronica belmont. tom merritt: i'm tom merritt. warning. watching this show may lead toan awesome list of amazing sci-fi and fantasy to read.
veronica belmont:that's right. if your reading list exceedsthe amount in your bank account, consult yourlocal librarian. tom merritt: that'sgood advice. each month we focuson one book that most of us read together. we'll be kicking that off ina bit, but let's start by checking our calendarof book releases. [music playing]
veronica belmont: lots of greatbooks coming out on november 13, starting with the"inexplicables" by cherie priest a recent guest onour author guide show. the "inexplicables" followswreck-em sherman in the wasteland around seattle yearsafter the blight of 1863. "errantry: strange stories" byelizabeth hand is a collection of dark strangeness fromthe summer isles to the cubicle next door. "outer space, inner lands" byursula k. le guin selects some
of le guin's best non-realisticstories. mercedes lackey and jamesmallory return to the world of "the obsidian and enduringflame" trilogies in "crown of vengeance-- dragon prophecy." and theannotated "sword of shannara," the 35th anniversary editionby terry brooks, is out november 13 as well. tom merritt: on november 20,"red country" by joe abercrombie should actuallycome out.
say this about logannine-fingers, he's probably not in this book as much asnicomo cosca, if at all. but "red country" will beout on this day anyway. and then on november 27, findout why no one will ever die again and everyone will want to,in the "fractal prince" by hannu rajanieme. also the return harry dresdenand the dresden files in "cold days" by jim butcher, futureauthors guide guest. the number of druids on earthdoubles in "trapped," book
five of the "iron druidchronicals" by kevin hearne. the dragon lords soaragain in "bard's oath" by joanne burton. and finally, on november 27,"steel's edge" by ilona andrews explores the edgebetween walmart and changelings, and more. veronica belmont: that mightseem like it is all the books, but it's not. let's start talking about thismonth's book pick, "the dirty
streets of heaven"by tad williams. [drum and horns] veronica belmont: yay. i'm excited about this one. tom merritt: i am too. veronica belmont: i'ma very big tad williams fan, as you know. tom merritt: you've beensaying this for years. so tad williams and robin hobbare the two authors that
you're always pushingas your favorites. and this is my chance toread tad williams. we read robin hobb earlier. veronica belmont: have you notread any tad williams before? tom merritt: i had not. i had not. and i have to say,i'm loving it. veronica belmont: ohso you're skipping ahead and reading already?
tom merritt: well, youknow november 1 was-- veronica belmont: i'malmost done too. tom merritt: and thisis a new book so you hadn't read this before? veronica belmont: no, i haven'tread this before. obviously. so first of all, this issupposed to be a trilogy. it's supposed to endup as a trilogy. tom merritt: this is the firstbook of the trilogy.
veronica belmont: so it's thefirst book in "bobby dollar chronicals." i think. no it's the bobby dollar book. so it's just the "bobbydollar books" trilogy. tom merritt: the legendof of bobby dollar. veronica belmont:bobby dollar. what i love about this so faris that it's got a real detective, noir, gum-shoekind of vibe to it. tom merritt: oh it's a totalraymond chandler-ish, dashiell
hammett feel to it. and i am a big fanof that genre. so i'm in right fromthe beginning. veronica belmont: so for thoseof you don't know, it's the story of bobby dollarand he's an angel. he's actually an advocate, whichis the kind of angel whose job it is to defend soulsafter they cross over out of the worldof the living. it's kind of like a trial.
there's an angel and thenthere's a representative from hell who is a demonprosecutor. and they battle itout in front of a judge, and then whoever-- tom merritt: who is aprincipality, i believe. if i get my angel lore right. veronica belmont: apparentlythey're supposed to be neutral. yeah, i don't see how that'sfair because they really seem
to be more on the angel sideof things, but whatever. and so they battle it outover your soul and whoever wins gets it. tom merritt: it's likea legal case. veronica belmont: it's exactlylike a legal case. tom merritt: and if the advocatedoesn't argue well on your behalf the case mightswing the wrong way. veronica belmont: exactly. tom merritt: but there'smitigating circumstances.
they include purgatoryin this book. so if you don't win the case,you could still get off with time in purgatory. you don't go straightto hell every time. veronica belmont: now tadwilliams said in a couple of interviews that it's not reallysupposed to be too catholic-y. it's definitely religious in asense, but it doesn't have any specific tie to anycertain religion.
tom merritt: well, that's what ithink is fascinating is that he's taking the structurestraight out of traditional religion. so there's heaven. there's principalities. there's certain levels ofangels, all that sort of a kind of thing-- kindof milton-esque. but it's not tiedto christianity as you might expect.
it sort of backs off on thatissue and says, no, we're not saying which religionthis really is. we're just kind of pulling alot of the angel and demon mythology, and leaving itup to you to figure out. veronica belmont: and something--i hope this doesn't give too much away. i don't think it does. but bobby dollar, at one pointsays that maybe depending on who has passed, maybe yourexperience is different.
maybe it's kind of more like theway you thought it would be in your own religion asyou were growing up. and so maybe it's all justperspective based on your assumptions. tom merritt: kind of the waywhen you're reading a book, you picture people differentlybecause you bring your own experience into a book. i thought that was aninteresting way of doing it. veronica belmont: the angelsdon't have all the answers.
tom merritt: especially theones on earth, right? veronica belmont: they knowactually very little about what's going on. yeah, there's earthboundangels and that is what bobby dollar is. and he definitely hasa lot of questions that he has out there. tom merritt: and if you'rewondering how can it be film noir with angels, the advocateangels are not the angels
you've met before. these angels are almostlike fedora-wearing, pistol-packing. they're the dirty streetsof heaven. the streets of heaven actuallyaren't that dirty. veronica belmont: they'reactually not that dirty in the book. tom merritt: but it impliesthe right thing. veronica belmont: yeah, ofcourse this is the kick-off
episode, so we don't wantto give too much away. but the main crux of the storyis that one day, the soul just doesn't show up for trial. and hell doesn't know whathappened, and heaven doesn't know what happened, andeveryone's like, where did it go? tom merritt: and then itgets worse from there. veronica belmont: andthen mayhem ensues. tom merritt: investigations.
like wait a minute, the wholesystem is falling apart. what's going on? veronica belmont: this is how ithas been since the dawn of time, and suddenly thesoul doesn't show up. tom merritt: now the other thingthat's weird --and maybe this is weirder for us becausewe're in the san francisco bay area-- but it takes place in the sanfrancisco bay area with one major difference.
so there's oakland and sanfrancisco, but instead of the south bay with the siliconvalley and san jose, it's sort of this kind of mirror imagein the north bay with this imaginary city called san judas,which is the third city in the bay area that doesn'tactually exist. if you're not familiarwith the bay area. it actually-- veronica belmont: do you knowhow many times i read this and i was like--
tom merritt: you're like,stanford isn't up there. veronica belmont: stanfordisn't there. tom merritt: palo alto isn'tin the north bay. veronica belmont: that doesn'tmake any sense. i'm confused. tom merritt: most people aregoing to read this and they're just not even going toraise an eyebrow. but for folks in this area, itwas like but how's that, that's in the--?
but it's already kind of abrilliant reflection because what are areas of the southbay in the san jose area actually become neighborhoodsin this fictional city of san judas. and it allows him a lot offreedom to create areas that fit the story perfectly without reflecting on real areas. veronica belmont: it's superfunny too, because he actually mentions street names likewhipple avenue and sandhill
road and places thatexist near us. tom merritt: they're justnot in the right place. veronica belmont: they're justnot in the right place. there was actually a "wired"interview that tad williams did recently where they talkabout the name san judas. the "wired" question was whydid you choose that name? and tad goes on to say, "wellpartially because everything around here, certainly most ofthe cities, were named by spanish missionaries, juniperoserra's people
and those after them. so most of the big cities incalifornia, san diego, santa barbara, san jose,san francisco are named after saints. but of course the nature ofthis particular kind of strange city, this slightlyodd, off-kilter, thomas pynchonian-land of a place wassuch that i wanted to name it differently. so san judas is actually saintjude the obscure, patron saint
of lost causes. but people constantly mistakethat judas-- you know the one who could see the missionariesnaming this place after st. judas, thaddeus st. jude. but that everyone would assumeit was named after judas iscariot, the guy whobetrayed jesus. so it seemed likea perfect fit. tom merritt: lost causes andbetrayer kind of mixes and muddles the metaphor.
and actually that's one of thethings that i think people are going to love about this bookis tad williams' ability to tell what is a verystraightforward, easily consumable story. it's not a story where you'resitting there like, whoa, this is so intricate andpynchonian. but it has these elements thathave a deeper level to them if you want to think about it. it's sort of like, hey thisstory is easy to follow if
you're tired. but if you really want to digin, there's something underneath for you toinform the story and make it a lot richer. veronica belmont: yeah, bobbydollar is a very interesting character too. i'm having a hard time pinningdown exactly how old he's supposed to be, if he'sin his 30s, if he's a little bit older.
i'm seeing him as more ofa grizzled kind of guy. but i think-- tom merritt: yeah, and you'retalking about his appearance too, not his actual angel age. veronica belmont: right. because he doesn't even know. another thing about angels isthey don't know anything about their life before theygot to heaven. they don't know who were.
they don't know what they did. all they know is that thisis their existence now. tom merritt: and one of thethings i think a lot of people will have fun with is it'sgoing to follow-- if you're familiar with thedetective trope-- it's going to follow that same thing ofthe guy goes out, tries to solve the crime, breaks thelaw, runs afoul of the authorities, the authoritiestry to keep him in line, he bucks the system.
veronica belmont: yeah,everyone's mad at him. everyone's mad at bobbydollar all the time. tom merritt: it's all of thatstuff straight out of humphrey bogart movies that you mightbe familiar with. but it fits into this angelicsystem which just makes it cool and weird, and is a lovelyspin on that kind of detective story. veronica belmont: yeah, heavenapparently is a pretty big bureaucracy.
tom merritt: yeah, alot of paperwork. veronica belmont: alot of bureacratic stuff going on there. it's a really fun book. i think you guys willreally enjoy it. it's not religious. some people may bebothered by that. if that's something that bothersyou, i don't really know how to help with that.
tom merritt: i think mostpeople, whether you're religious or not, can readthis and enjoy it. in fact father robert ballester,who's a regular host of an enterprise techshow on twit, when i recommended this to him, --he'sa jesuit priest-- was like, oh i'm buyingthat right away. he was way into it. veronica belmont: yeah,tad williams was actually surprised.
he said some religiousfolks love it. some hate it. some get really mad at me. some say how glad theyare that i wrote it. so it can go either way. build your own opinionabout it. check it out. it's a fun pick. tom merritt: that is ourbook for the month.
so if you're going to read it,read it along with us. and we'll check back at the endof this month to find out what you thought of bobbydollar and friends. but before we go we have a fewthings from our feedback, email, and on goodreadsto check in on. veronica belmont: yes,and a horror story with a happy ending. rachel writes, dear tom andveronica, it scares me how close i came to never findingsword and laser.
it started one night late asi was watching tv, which i hardly ever do any more, andleft the bbc on after "doctor who." actually, i watch "doctorwho" quite often. and an episode of "the nerdist"came on which i'd only ever seen once before,which happened to have felicia day on it. not too surprising who talkedabout her youtube channel, geek & sundry of course. tom merritt: hey, that's thechannel we're on right now.
veronica belmont: that's here. and wil wheaton's show,"tabletop--" tom merritt: i love that show. veronica belmont: --which iimmediately looked up and started watching. "tabletop," i mean. when i ran out of "tabletop"episodes, i started exploring the other shows on thiswonderful channel called geek & sundry.
tom merritt: oh, shucks. veronica belmont: andthen i found you. tom merritt: aw. veronica belmont:and i was lost. tom merritt: what? veronica belmont: i have foundlots of good books through word-of-mouth but there neverseemed to be enough friend recommendations to satiatemy book appetite. i now have so many books on myto-read list that i worry i
won't get to them all. i also found other people wholike to seriously, and maybe sometimes not so seriously,discuss genre books. now i feel so much moreconnected to people who love the kind of books i do. can't believe sword and laserhas been there all along and i never knew. thank you guys so much for whatyou do, for sharing your love of sci-fi andfantasy with us--
tom merritt: it's a horror storywith a happy ending. veronica belmont: --forpromoting the reading of genre fiction and inspiring morebook discussion. i love your show. and that is awesome. thank you so much. tom merritt: that is aheart-warming story for us because that's whatwe do it for. we do it so that people canfind more things to read.
we selfishly do it for ourselvesfor that reason. i wouldn't be reading tadwilliams right now if we weren't doing the show. i have to guess. and i'm so happy i am. veronica belmont: i know. i'm thrilled. that kind of email and letterjust makes your week, makes your month.
so thank you very much. i'm super happy you'reenjoying the show. and check out the audiopodcast too. tom merritt: thanks,very good. veronica belmont: evenmore discussion. oh and huge thanks to rael, whomade a 3d version of our set with us on it. and it is giant. it is like 3840 by2160 pixels.
it looks tiny there though. on our little screens itlooks tiny but it's actually quite large. tom merritt: it's going to looklarge to the people who are watching this on youtube. that's awesome. can one judge a bookby its cover? i worked at a bookstoreso i say yes. but trike started a post in ourgoodreads forum and says,
is it just me? i got an amazon email thismorning and had this feeling of deja vu all over again. look at all those coversimilarities. lots of folks pointed out thatthis has become common practice in the book industry. is the cover still important? it's hard to tell. look at this.
look at these "shadow blizzard,""way of the shadows." they're all the samehooded guy, "awakened mage," "the broken isles." even theterry brooks' "shannara" which is a great book but they pickeda cover that's like, hey we're trying to make it looklike "assassin's creed." veronica belmont: there was evensome classics like "romeo and juliet" that had very"twilight"-esque covers that they put them out withnow to kind of grab people's attention.
you know what? for that kind of cause,i'm happy to have it. if people are going to pick upa classic piece of literature because they think the coverlooks like "twilight" and actually enjoy reading thatclassic piece of literature, i don't care how they found it. it doesn't matter to me. yeah, maybe it's a little bitmisleading, but at the same time more power to themfor getting people
to read good stuff. tom merritt: what it points outto me is in this age of ebooks the cover isstill important. because when we're searchingthrough an amazon, or an audible, or barnesandnoble.comyou still look at those book covers. veronica belmont: sometimes. tom merritt: it still informsyour choice a little bit. which i think we all assume thatonce it's digital, book
covers forget it. it doesn't matter anymore butthat picture on the internet still matters. veronica belmont: i kind oflike it actually when i've been reading a book in ebookformat, and then i actually see the cover for the first timeand i get to say, oh, i didn't think that person lookedlike that at all or that's an interesting cover. tom merritt: i see themin the list when i
first download them. veronica belmont: well nowi do because i have a paperwhite. tom merritt: and ifi switch devices. veronica belmont: i didn'tuse that before. it used to just be the titleon the old kindle. tom merritt: see i read it ona tablet, so i see color. i see the color picturesall the time. veronica belmont: interesting.
and matt is asking, anyoneelse participating in nanowrimo this year? i thought maybe a thread startedhere would be a good idea to share progress and ideaswith other sword and laser listeners. i've never taken partin nanowrimo before. i became interested too latein the month last year, and i've been waiting sincethen to take part. i managed to write mondaythrough friday
every day of november. let's see how thatpans out for me. yes, i am doing nanowrimo. you are doing nanowrimo? tom merritt: i am goingto be doing it for the fourth year in a row. i have won it three times. veronica belmont: this is mysecond year and i won it the first year.
tom merritt: i've triedit every time. actually it's more than fourin a row, i think. but i have won it thepast two times. so this is my thirdyear in a row. i'm going for threewins in a row. wins meaning you write50,000 words. there's not a prize. so this show is alreadyin november. we're time travelingright now.
tom merritt: it's the secondday of november. veronica belmont: the secondday of november. so hopefully-- tom merritt: so i startedyesterday-- veronica belmont: you startedyesterday and things are going well? tom merritt: going great. how about you? veronica belmont: i'm alreadyhalfway done.
it's amazing. i just had a real sprint. no, that's not trueprobably at all. tom merritt: that'sgreat for you. veronica belmont: but i try toget at least the minimum amount of text done. i use scrivener as my writingapp, which is a fantastic app by the way too. you put in the amount of wordsyou need to write and the days
that you want to writethem in, and it breaks it down for you. it does the math. and then you can keep your wordcount up and it shows you how many days it will take itat that rate of writing. so it's really helpful to stayon top of everything. tom merritt: and the idea behindnational novel writing month is not that you actuallycome out with a perfect finished novel.
it's to get rid of theexcuses that you have for not getting started. so if you don't want to write abook then it's not for you. but if you're the kind of personwho's like oh, i'd love to write but, and you have allthese excuses, national novel writing month is saying, hey forone month every day write. just write every day. don't worry about editing. don't worry about plot.
don't worry about anything. just put words onto paper. and this is really true. by the end of the month you'llhave something worth shaping it into somethingelse later on. but we get this all the timefrom authors which is the biggest impediment to writingis taking the time to write. so this is a way to get you intothat habit of writing. veronica belmont: actually,and i won't spoil it for
people who are going to watchit, but robin hobb gives some great advice in our authorguide episode coming up. so check that out. tom merritt: yeah, so if you aredoing nanowrimo and you i need a pep talk, november9, robin hobb episode. veronica belmont: alright wellthat about does it for us. and make sure, like i said thatyou check out the author guide episode to robin hobb. but if you have questions forinterviews going forward make
sure you submit them to useither on goodreads or send us an email atfeedback@swordandlaser.com tom merritt: you don't wantto miss that do you? so don't fail yourself or us. subscribe. do it right now. it's our youtube channel. green button, up therethe corner, youtube.com/geekandsundry.
because you not only get us, youget "tabletop" and you get "the guild," and you get"written by a kid." there's great stuff up there. go subscribe! and then let us know.feedback@swordandlaser.com is our email address. and join in all the fun in thediscussion at our goodreads forum, goodreads.com. veronica belmont: bye.
see you guys next time. bye. get to writing. tom merritt: oh yeah. i'm going to do thatright now. [electronic music]
source
0 comments:
Post a Comment