The Sword and Laser

Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont
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Sep 25, 2025 • 53min

#520 - Alternate Batman

Tom reports from the Matt Dinniman book event in LA, we kick off our Interview with the Vampire read, and share our last spoilery thoughts on The Hexologists and why we think the writing doorway is the strongest one for this book.
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Sep 11, 2025 • 31min

#519 - No Stomach for Old Salad

#519 - No Stomach for Old Salad by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont
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Sep 5, 2025 • 55min

#518 - Hugo Bump Yourself

#518 - Hugo Bump Yourself by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont
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Aug 15, 2025 • 37min

#517 - She Who Became Herstory

We get a history listen and revisit accents. And the clean blade battle is confirmed for WorldCon 2029. Plus our non-spoilery first impressions of She Who Became the Sun.
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Aug 3, 2025 • 53min

#516 - I Know What You Did Last Book Briefing

Why taste in books is like taste in food. Plus, our final thoughts on Joe Abercrombie's The Devils. And the Ruth-Veronica feud heats up. Also, Tom likes fish sticks. Literally.
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Jul 17, 2025 • 40min

#515 - The Details in the Devils

We cast The Devils, try to apologize to Ruth, and recall other food-related romantasy. Plus, Veronica has a shameful tequila revelation.
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Jul 4, 2025 • 1h 10min

#514 - The Rebirths of Wesley Chu

Wesley Chu joins us to talk about The Lives of Tao and Jan is back, so we have loads of news including Locus Award Winners and the British Fantasy Society shortlist. Plus Tom sings. We're all sorry about that. Also, we almost named this episode The Lives of Wesley Chu until we realized we had already done that in 2014.
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Jun 19, 2025 • 41min

#513 - A Civil War-burton

Everything is out of context. But we do have interesting thoughts about The Lives of Tao and lots of congrats for the winners and nominees of the Nebulas and more.
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Jun 5, 2025 • 32min

#512 - Deep Dish is SciPie

We speculate on how James Cameron will make The Devils and whether Frankenstein will be too scary for Veronica. And we further kick off The Lives of Tao.
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May 28, 2025 • 47min

#511 - Throw Me in the Corpse Hole

We discuss the return of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Frank Herbert’s posthumous SFWA Infinity Award, Audible’s AI narration plans and Amazon’s cancellation of The Wheel of Time—while nominating hamburg steak and vegan enchiladas and sharing listener stories from Matt Dinniman’s event. We round out the show with in-depth discussions of The Lives of Tao and Mickey 7.

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