Legendary Pants Book Club

This week, Mariah and Matthew discuss the spectacularly spooky Carrie by Stephen King. For our Halloween episode, we wanted to do something a little scary.  So, who better than the legendary Stephen King to give us a good fright?  Join us this week as we try a truly terrifying beer and enjoying a horribly horrifying tale. Ratings:  Mariah: ****   Matthew: *** Liner notes: Shining trailer recut; CRISPR Next week: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

This week, we’re talking about Neuromancer by William Gibson.  Mariah is off this week, so Mr. Shawn Stanford will be joining me. So, Neuromancer is one of my all time favorite books, and one of father’s, too.  Indeed, we actually ran a little long here because we had a pretty good conversation.  Gibson pioneered cyberpunk, and he did an amazing job. I tried a new recording method here as dad was not in the same room as me.  It was a little spotty at times, but mostly seems to have worked out.  I’ll refine it for next time we do something remotely, hopefully. Liner notes: Moore’s Law via Wikipedia. Next week: Carrie by Stephen King. Drop us a line: bookclub@legendarypants.net

This week, we take a look at Lock In by John Scalzi.  We also take some time to introduce ourselves because, hey, it’s episode four, so you deserve some background. Lock In was actually the first episode we recorded.  However, we were still pretty rough on what we wanted to do back then, so we held it back and released Shades of Milk and Honey instead.  This week, we’ve decided to re-record our Lock In episode and provide our listeners with our insights into this book. Scalzi is a personal favorite of mine, especially among contemporary writers.  His style is delightfully pulpy, yet his themes and stories are intricate, deep, and profound.  His dialogue is snappy and his action is gripping and well paced.  In short, Scalzi totally rocks. Liner notes: Nothing particular this week. Next week: Neuromancer by William Gibson.

This week, we take a look at Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming.  We’re a bit shorter than our usual length, but it’s correlative to Bond’s skill as a spy. Audible, several months ago, released all of the original James Bond novels with semi-famous British voices as narrators.  Mariah and I had both read Casino Royale when we first heard about them, and liked that book a lot.  This one?  Eh, not as much. Oh well, they can’t all be winners! Liner notes: Rory was not in Star Wars.  In fact, he wasn’t even born yet. Next week: Lock In by John Scalzi.

This week on the Book Club, we delve into The Martian by Andy Weir. Now, Mariah and I had both read this books a good while ago. However, we wanted a really knock-out solid episode, and we both really liked the book, so we decided to read it again. We also got a fresh perspective from Rob “Kiokri” Beach and his wife, Kelsey Beach. They have both just finished the book for the first time, and join us on this week’s show. Coincidentally, we recorded this episode on the same day that the Matt Damon movie adaptation released. We haven’t seen it yet, but boy do we want to. As a courteous warning, this week’s episode does contain a higher-than-average number of F-Bombs, mostly due to this book’s opening line. If you’re squeamish about such things or have young, sensitive ears around, you may want to give this a skip. As always, this is a book review, so if you haven’t read the book, the plot will most likely be ruined. Comments?  Send us a line!  bookclub@legendarypants.net Liner notes: Apollo-Soyuz was not a rescue mission, but a deliberate collaboration. Matthew seems to have been conflating this science fact with the plot of the science fiction movie Marooned. Next Week: Live and Let Die by Ian Flemming

Welcome to the first episode of what will, hopefully, be an on going podcast about books. What’s our goal?  Well, my wife, Mariah, and I want to run a book club, but we don’t want to bother with the inconvenience of dealing with other people.  Seriously, it’s always other people who screw everything up.  So, inspired by a strange desire to do a podcast, we decided to read a book together and record our discussions about it.  After we were able to keep it up for a couple weeks, I looked into hosting and, well, here we are. The views expressed in these podcasts absolutely express those of Legendary Pants because, let’s face it, I’m running the show around here. Okay, so what book are we doing for our debut cast?  Why, Shades of Milk an Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is an author I’ve heard speak many times on the Writing Excuses podcast.  I’ve heard her describe her books as “Jane Austen with magic,” and immediately thought that it would be something Mariah would enjoy.  Sure enough, I was right, and this episode of LPBC was recorded.  Hopefully, Ms. Kowal either won’t mind us getting everything wrong about her book, or will never hear this tripe (likely the latter).  But what can we say?  We’re pretty pleased with it, and hopefully you will be too. Liner Notes:  The fancy term for the dressmaker was “modiste.” Next Week:  We’ll be talking about The Martian by Andy Weir.