
Read along with the Sword and Laser book club! From classic science fiction to the latest gritty fantasy, we cover it. Subscribe for book discussions, author interviews, hot releases, and news from the genre fiction world!
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| Publishes | Twice monthly | Episodes | 399 | Founded | 18 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | ArtsBooks | |||

We check in on our June reading of Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Why do romantasy people like this? Veronica is making a tincture. And we have fun coming up with a Sci-Fi/Fantasy equivalent of the EGOT.
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Tom and Veronica remember when they read a book. It was called Slow Gods by Claire North. And they're definitely not just reading the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book instead of that one or the next one, Red Rising.
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Jan has taken over the show and is exhibiting the personality of the AI from Dungeon Crawler Carl. Veronica hates awards. Tom puts the butt before the horse in deference to Veronica's theory of good things happening. And we don't wrap up Slow Gods, b... more
The Hugo voting is open! The Guild is coming back! Is "best and most popular" actually fair? Is it right to defy a dead author's wishes? Tom risks Octavia Butler's ghost to explain. Plus, we share our opening thoughts on Slow Gods by Claire North.
H... more
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Do you want to have a happy drive to work on a Monday? Listen to this show! Veronica and Tom are my people. Great book picks to fill your TBR list.
Just love this show with Tom and Veronica! However it is sort of a good news-bad news deal. The bad news is your other book club is not nearly as cool and S
Heard since Tekzilla and BuzzOutLoud these guys are the best - even when V works for evil empires like Adobe (formerly freeware PS 0.99) and EA (digesters of creative sources).
There's a place you can go where the cool kids know
The best in sword and sorcery can be found
It’s easy to see it’s the place to be
If you want to get your rocketship off the ground
There’s hobbits, goblins, and dragons galore
Time travel, aliens, robots, and more
So pick up a book and you’ll get hooked
There’s something for everyone
Now maybe your tastes run to dystopian wastes
Or alternate histories where dogs rule the world
Perhaps you fancy some necromancy
Who do the voodoo? Well, you do,... more
I’ve been binge listening to all the S&L episodes throughout the pandemic and have finally caught up! It was great fun listening to Tom and Veronica chat about books and sci-fi/fantasy news. Listening to them was therapy during the pandemic, with each episode like a time capsule - made me so nostalgic! Discovered plenty of books and new authors, too!
Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.
How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.
Apple Podcasts | #193 |
Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.
Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.
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A long-running, book-club–style show that blends speculative fiction discussion with news, author interviews, and community feedback. Episodes commonly cover new releases, genre trends, reader comments, and debates about representation, publishing ethics, and the broader world of science fiction and fantasy. A standout aspect is the duo's warmth and banter, which keeps conversations accessible even when tackling complex topics; the show also actively promotes reader communities, live events, and ongoing patron-supported content. Potential listeners can expect thoughtful book analysis, timely genre news, and a welcoming, club-like atmosphere that emphasizes community and discoverability.
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The Sword and Laser launched 18 years ago and published 399 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
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Recent guests on The Sword and Laser include:
1. Wesley Chu
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