The Sword and Laser discussion

Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings, tells us about the inspiration for his worlds, his domain name, how translation has helped him as a writer, and why silkpunk is a thing (but probably not the thing you’re thinking).

http://swordandlaser.com/home/2016/4/...
https://www.patreon.com/posts/5090294...

Thanks for addressing my question! I'll try to read the second book then

I had trouble getting all the way through The Grace of Kings, although there were parts I liked quite a bit. I'm starting to get tired of the epic fantasy pattern of a fragile peace dominoing into war that inexorably takes over the known world.

Which is a pity, because I think I rather like the silkpunk aesthetic, and this interview with Ken Liu was super interesting. If he writes something else a lot shorter or less war-oriented that's silkpunk, perhaps I will like that better.

Loved the interview, though I was already an unabashed Ken Liu fan, so it wouldn't take much for me to love it. ;) Didn't know Liu was a Red Sox fan. Makes me like him all that much more. I don't know how V could have switched loyalties like that. ;) :P

A panda in red socks playing baseball sounds cute :-)

Until you Google it, and it's just some fat dude in tight pants ;-)

Great interview. It makes me wish I enjoyed his book more.

Agree with Joanna on the shorter part. I did enjoy the silkpunk technology and hope he would include more of those in the next novel.

I wish, however, I structured my question better as I was aiming to question the polygamic practice in the book (which annoyed me alot).

Just took a 45 min walk outside in the chill in my vibrams on the grass and took in the whole episode.

Speaking of the .pizza domain, Steve Gibson just tweeted http://file.pizza , an encrypted brower-to-browser file transfer site. It gives cute urls with pizza ingredients. Although I can't get it to work, lol.

Silkpunk sounds like what Paul Weimer calls "Silkroad Fantasy" http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/tag/... I believe Elizabeth Bear wrote a trilogy in that genre, Eternal Sky. https://www.goodreads.com/series/7225...

Ken gives me hope that if I'm a good programmer, I could be a good lawyer. But the schooling always sounded frightening.

Tamahome wrote: "Just took a 45 min walk outside in the chill in my vibrams on the grass and took in the whole episode."

I had a small but appreciable uptake in happiness just imagining that. Thank you. :) Tamahome and S&L in the grass in Vibrams.

Tamahome wrote: "Speaking of the .pizza domain, Steve Gibson just tweeted http://file.pizza , an encrypted brower-to-browser file transfer site. It gives cute urls with pizza ingredients. Although I can't get it to work, lol.."

That idiot is still around? He was a constant thorn in my side from 2000 to 2001. grc.com still looks like it was written in 1998. What is he up to now?

I thought silkpunk is eastern steampunk, with technology and stuff.