

The Sword and Laser
Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont
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!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 10, 2025 • 35min
#521 - The Portions Are Too Big!
We revel in the Lammy Awards, follow the tale of root beer, and discuss our first, or most recent, impressions of Interview with the Vampire.

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.

Sep 11, 2025 • 31min
#519 - No Stomach for Old Salad
#519 - No Stomach for Old Salad by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont

Sep 5, 2025 • 55min
#518 - Hugo Bump Yourself
#518 - Hugo Bump Yourself by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


