Langdon and Eden kick things off by talking about the uses of awards - how to follow them, what they're good for, and why! Then, they dive into John M. Ford's parallel reality version of cyberpunk with Web of Angels, his debut novel. Phone lines that span galaxies, crazy weird space opera, and a rough book that brims with passion! Music played: Heruvim - Arammu https://heruvim.bandcamp.com/track/arammu Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - Radioactive Dreams https://chatpile.bandcamp.com/track/radioactive-dreams
Naruto run with us to the local picture house to watch a double bill of Ari Aster's Eddington and Zack Cregger's Weapons, with Kayte Terry of the excellent Tender Subject podcast. Music by Umulamahri: https://umulamahri.bandcamp.com/album/learning-the-secrets-of-acid-2
Langdon and Eden discuss the too-often bland and safe nature of science fiction and fantasy before diving in to a work that's anything but, "One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve"! Body horror, familial obsession, and finally being at peace with yourself mix in this arresting and clever novella about a man sawed in half! Music played: Rintrah - Fearful Symmetry https://rintrahmusic.bandcamp.com/track/fearful-symmetry Kayo Dot - Oracle By Severed Head https://kayodot.bandcamp.com/track/oracle-by-severed-head
Ishiguro season is done now that we've reached 2022's Klara and the Sun, the heartwarming story of a M3gan learning what it is to love. We also talk about Anime, for Satan. Music by https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/changelings
This time around, Langdon and Eden peer into the world, which is actually many things and not just one (and that's good!) Then, they take a look at Ursula K. Le Guin award nominee, Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon! Weird spaceships, radical politics, interesting AI, and a lot of emotions mix in this short story suite! Music played: Hypomanic Daydream - Dissociative https://hypomanicdaydream.bandcamp.com/track/dissociative Editrix - The Big E https://editrix.bandcamp.com/track/the-big-e
Langdon and Eden kick things off by asking the important questions: which member of the Friends cast would you follow into battle? They also discuss the inherent futility and horror of war. Then, they tackle Roger Zelazny's weird and feverish Creatures of Light and Darkness, touching on elements of myth, explosive prose, attention to detail, and Zelazny's unfortunate misogyny. Music played: Mathilde - Kepler- 186f https://mathilde-blackmetal.bandcamp.com/track/kepler-186-f Imipolex - Martian Blood Mother https://imipolex.bandcamp.com/track/martian-blood-mother
We made it - the podcast's personal favourite Kazuo Ishiguro book, The Buried Giant. It turns out a book about memory and genocide is kind of relevant to the world today, but we set it as part of Ishiguro's grand project of showing how Britain is bad and should sink below the waves. Music by Planning for Burial Theme tune by Caina
Gareth and Eden explore Nisi Shawl's Everfair, a mostly successful attempt at writing better, less racist, and more "complete" historical fiction. Nuclear dirigibles, proto-socialist societies, cool knife-hands, and lots and lots (and lots) of character PoVs mix and mingle with geopolitics and complex racial identities! Music played: Knives - PHD https://knivesnoise.bandcamp.com/track/phd
Eden flies solo on this episode, diving deep into the masterful, subtle, and rich Growing Up Weightless by the criminally under-read and under-recognized John M. Ford. Lunar politics, coming of age, and weird interstellar drives clash in this unique, hard sci-fi bildungsroman! Music played: Changeling - Changeling https://changelingofficial.bandcamp.com/track/changeling
Langdon and Eden kick things off by discussing their favorite Metallica tracks and also how good Metallica really are. Then, they dive into Oliver K. Langmead's "Calypso", a beautiful, if limited, verse novel about terraforming, memory, personhood, and endings. Music played: Slave Agent - Forced to Suffer https://slaveagent.bandcamp.com/track/forced-to-suffer Grails - Silver Bells https://grails.bandcamp.com/track/silver-bells
The Kazuo Ishiguro season continues with maybe his least known, maybe his least liked work: Nocturnes. Sitting between the mega-hit Never Let Me Go and the critical blockbuster The Buried Giant, this book is often overlooked and, maybe, it kind of deserves to be? But first, we talk GAMING - specifically Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, because our woke Marxist schools taught us that everything is a text. Music by Hedvig Mollestad Trio, theme tune by Caina.
Are books... dangerous? A lot of people think so, from Moms For Liberty to the mostly-imaginary internet spectre of the censorious Puriteen. Lyta Gold joins us to talk about which books are most dangerous and which might be able to redeem the act of reading. Theme tune by Caina: https://cainaband.bandcamp.com/ Danger is our Patreon's middle name: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Eden and Langdon both exist (maybe) and with this snippet of existence, they discuss the historiography of the Paris Commune on the left and suggest a proper position (empathy) towards its hopes and failures. Then, they discuss the beautiful and problematic "Five Ways to Forgiveness" by Ursula K. Le Guin, a short story suite about slavery, feminism, war and Hain. Music played: Object Unto Earth - Alas I Hop Along https://objectuntoearth.bandcamp.com/track/alas-i-hop-along Cave Sermon - Hopeless Magic https://cavesermon.bandcamp.com/track/hopeless-magic
Olga Tokarczuk's first book since winning the Nobel prize in Literature is deeply feminist folk-horror with more than a little influence from Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Is it just a fun ghost story or a warning about how the Male Loneliness Epidemic(tm) will end in tragedy. More importantly, does Langdon yearn for the production lines?
This time around, Langdon and Eden discuss what can be done in our personal lives, regardless of the potential for a revolution or any feelings of hope and despair. Then, they dive into the mesmerizing verse-prose of Jason Guriel's Forgotten Work, a novel in heroic couplets about the power of music, obsession, cult followings, and sick teleportation technology. Music played: Kyros - Esoterica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQGbHdn_SJ0 Max Cooper - The Sun in a Box https://maxcooper.bandcamp.com/track/the-sun-in-a-box-2
One of the greatest fantasy epics of the 21st century ends here, with Alex Pheby's mind-bending Waterblack. We go in-depth into the trilogy and the surprising inspirations behind its central themes. Also, Skibidi Toilet. Music by Homeskin: https://homeskin.bandcamp.com/track/blood-to-disk Theme tune by Caïna: https://cainaband.bandcamp.com/
Ready to get DAMP? Sophie Sleigh-Johnson's Code: Damp explores fucked Anglo vibes through the work of sitcom legend Leonard Rossiter, star of Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Buy it from Repeater Books here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/code-damp-an-esoteric-guide-to-british-sitcoms/
Y'all ready to get DELEUZIAN? Victoria Brooks' Silicon God is a goopy, rhizomatic book about time mistresses from the future and a bunch of stuff that we definitely can't talk about here. Music by Phrenelith: https://phrenelith.bandcamp.com/album/ashen-womb
Why is Guan Yu so powerful? Which Universal Movie Monster tastes best? How can you get somebody to enjoy Brutal Death Metal? Will Communism win? Our audience has asked all of these questions and many more, and we tackle them all with our trademark professionalism and focus. Music by Wrekmeister Harmonies Theme tune by Caina.
Langdon is joined in the Wizard's Tower by Kayte Terry of Tender Subject and Jon Greenaway of Horror Vanguard to discuss Robert Eggers' tale of a Dracula trapped in a world he never made, looking for love in all the wrong places. Music by Ambrose Akinmusire