Claim OwnershipAppendix N Book Club
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Jeff, Hoi, and a rotating roster of special guests discuss the adventure, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and weird fiction that inspires our gaming
170 Episodes
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Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss C.J. Cherryh's "Gate of Ivrel", healing salves, claustrophobic third-person narratives, planetary-scale, parallels to Elric and Birthgrave, focusing on interiority over physical descriptions, precise and consistent language choices, endings that work, the Glorantha setting in Runequest, moving campaigns to different settings, hunger as a riveting threat, Night of the Leepus, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", independent presses, Victorian architecture, one-thing-after-another type of books, Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom books, Edgar Allan Poe horror stories, graphic novel adapatations, recurring dreams and locations, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, weird townsfolk, barrel monsters, the Hexcrawl of Unknown Kadath, Gene Wolf and the Book of the New Sun, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Howard Andrew Jones's "The Desert of Souls", Hannibal from Carthage, first-person narratives, medieval Baghdad, Harold Lamb, the outsider vs the insider as the protagonist, making prayers at the proper times, fire magic, Oriental Adventures, historically-grounded fantasy, using perspective to spice up situations, Sign of the Labrys, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Jack Vance's "Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden", incorrect uses of words or advanced neologisms, having less reading time in our adult lives, feeling like anything can happen, the Brothers Grimm, worlds where horrific things happen, toxic masculinity, Tolkien's influence, creating a sense of peril in combat, attacking the character sheet, the Dying Earth setting, proto-Arthurian stories, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss L. Sprague de Camp's "The Fallible Fiend", futtering spouses, the maps in front of fantasy novels, fleshed-out characters, missile weapons, Dave Arneson's rules, picking spells other than Fireball, flavorful book titles, historical fiction with magic, older styles of writing, fantasy novels as reflections of their time, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Gretchen Felker-Martin's "Manhunt", visceral horror-thrillers, section transitions, interchangeable characters, physical descriptions of characters, depictions of trans genitalia, sexualizing a wide varieties of body types, TERFs and anti-vaxxers, replacing PCs with NPCs, the Broo in Runequest, overland exploration in Forbidden Lands, parental access restrictions in libraries, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Katherine Kurtz's "Deryni Rising", sarcophagi, achieving literary liftoff, the Brandon-to-Demos scale, fantasy worlds with real-life historical cultures, female fantasy authors writing under their own names, scattered hidden magical races, Empire of the Petal Throne, AD&D psionics, counterspells, adventure hooks to clear a character's name, Dragon Magazine and White Dwarf Magazine on archive.org, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss James Enge's "Blood of Ambrose", obscure words from classic languages, Scooby Doo episodes, slowing down for character development, The Book of the New Sun books, magic from alchemy, flying horses, world maps, DCC spell corruption, blood that catches fire, other notable works by the author, trial and error, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss H. Rider Haggard's "She", the smell of the flame, Haggard's other works, "the things dudes won't do for a hottie", the city of Cambridge, the good earthy feminine logic, being torn between two ill-fated women, the lost race genre, the tombs of an ancient civilization, quaint local customs, being unalive (instead of undead), democracies and tyrants, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Charles R. Saunders's "The Quest for Cush", the Swahili glossary, the shame of the King County Library system, fiction as gaming supplements, inversions of traditional sword and sorcery, Burroughs's Mythic Africa, the Mary Sue problem, Greeks in Egypt, a dungeon under quicksand, responsible and dilligent city guards, Imaro as a demigod,, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Edgar Rice Burroughs's "The Gods of Mars", John Carter in a blond wig, repetitiveness in Edgar Rice Burroughs's works, French words, female characters' screen time, the Tree of Life, fainting characters, early examples of megadungeons, helpful ghosts, constantly escalating tension and perils, authors inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs, wish-fullfillment protagonists, and much more!
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Dan Simmons's "Hyperion”, listening to audio books at work, Vaults of Vaarn, prescient fiction, choosing whether or not to continue on with fiction series, the Dying Earth, ambiguous endings, failed attempts at humor, the author's current politics, chase scenes, Shadowdark, roasting bestsellers, reading books outside of our comfort zone, plans for the future of the show, and much more!
This episode is dedicated to Rick Byrne. Please consider sending a gift to support Leukemia research at UCSF: UCSF Foundation, PO Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145 or make a gift online at makeagift.ucsf.edu. Please be sure to note that the gift is in memory of Rick Byrne to support the Leukemia research of Dr. Neil Dunivan.
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Michael Moorcock's "The Mad God's Amulet, Michael Moorcock's love of arcane texts, action scenes, hyperviolence and gore, following expectations, whimsical supporting characters, battles over land and sea, reskinning monsters for science-fantasy, a device that can unlock any lock, the Devil's Rejects, our friend Rick Byrne, and much more!
Robert Poyton joins us to discuss Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô”, October horror films, the etymology of Hygaxian words, Howardian prose, varied treasures, the French "oh là là", the literary influences of Clark Ashton Smith, the diversity of intersecting cultures in North Africa, African nations, horse nomads, cult generators, unearthly treasure hoards, and much more!
Tim Mendees joins us to discuss Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”, the dangers of massive hardbacks, literary rabbit holes, the Dorset dialect, cursing those who have wronged us, classist hypocrits, the couragousness that comes with conviction, interdimensional travel through reflective surfaces, interesting and flavorful spells, failing sanity rolls, faerie rewards, and much more!
Brian Yaksha joins us to discuss Robert Asprin's "Thieves' World", the give and take of what you're going to give to the audience, fantasy shared worlds, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar, Aragorn's tax plan, Machiavelli, passing off as older for added credibility, rotating GMs, bespoke stat blocks, power levels, player character points of entry, random tables, and much more!
Goran Gligovic joins us to discuss Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars", Asterix and Obelix, the Library of Wonder, Tarzan, being 30 for as long as you can remember, main characters as blank canvases, Robert E. Howard, the Fighting Man class in OD&D, when to embrace realism and when to eschew it, Frank Frazetta's action scenes, gargoyles taking a piss, a brightly dressed Elric, and much more!
Becky Annison joins us to discuss Lloyd Alexander's "The Book of Three", the Dungeons and Dragons movie, dwarven guides, Welsh myth, characters with firm personality hooks, spaghetti westerns, the Black Cauldron, clear linear mission paths, giving each character their moment, changing the stakes of successes, horror mechanics, destroying books or cards for art, and much more!
Brad Kerr joins us to discuss Jack Vance's "Cugel's Saga", virtual tabletops, Brom, pompous vocabulary, whimsical characters, world-class worldbuilding, being nickel-and-dimed by the boss, moving from one grift to the next, interesting mounts, making monsters more mysterious, D&D 4E, being your own boss, and much more!
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you missed the d&d spell soul jar, which places a creature's soul in an item or other creature. it might not be in DCC. but if you played Skyrim, and who hasn't, you're familiar with soul trap.
I enjoyed you nerds way too much.