Wizards & Spaceships

In this episode, we talk to Jordan S. Carroll about his new book, the Sad and Rabid Puppies, and how to avoid getting your sci-fi co-opted by fascists. Show Notes: Jordan’s Twitter: https://x.com/JordanSCarroll/ Jordan’s Bluesky: jordanscarroll.bsky.social Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt Right by Jordan S. Carroll Kaleidotrope Elizabeth Sandifer: Eruditorum Press and Neoreaction a Basilisk but why not just go ahead and read everything she’s written? Camestros Felapton’s The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War

How do you begin your epic sci-fi, fantasy, or horror story? How do you grab a viewer or reader’s attention, introduce your characters and world, and avoid the dreaded infodump? To discuss these questions and much more, we talk to Shiraz Janjua, host of the YouTube channel How the Novel Starts. Show Notes: How the Novel Starts Shiraz's website Shiraz's Instagram Bulwer-Lytton Awards Reading and Watching List: George Orwell, 1984 Karen Russell, Swamplandia Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell William Gibson, Neuromancer Michael Chabon, Yiddish Policemen's Union Vajra Chandasekera, The Saint Of Bright Doors Frank Herbert, Dune JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings  Christopher Nolan, Inception George Lucas, Star Wars

In this episode, we interview absolute legend Ken MacLeod about utopias in science fiction. And yes, we're talking about the Culture. Of course we're talking about the Culture. Show Notes: The Early Days of a Better Nation Russian Cosmism Utopia and the Return of History Postwar as the war generation's utopia China 2019, just before the pandemic Reading/Watching List The Culture, Iain M. Banks News From Nowhere, William Morris Half-Earth Socialism: https://www.half.earth/ Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin The Green-Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar Red Star by Alexander Bogdanov Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis Desert by Anonymous The English Utopia by A.L. Morton Utopia by Thomas More Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach Elysium (2013) The Creator (2023) Noon Universe by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky We by Yevgeny Zamyatin Lenin Lives by Philip Cunliffe Merrie England by Robert Blatchford Ministry For the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

In this episode, we talk about meeting sentient extraterrestrials: The challenges of communication, what first contact stories say about our own Earthbound society, and why the aliens won't return our texts. David's recommendations: "Darmok" (Star Trek TNG) "The Inner Light" (Star Trek TNG) The Day the Earth Stood Still Arrival The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell Rachel's recommendations "Species 10-C" (Star Trek Discovery) Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky Attack the Block Xenogenesis Trilogy (Lilith’s Brood), Octavia E. Butler Blindsight, Peter Watts

In this episode, we're talking about the Space Western! Was Firefly cancelled too soon or is it massively overrated? Why does it continue to grip the Nerd Imagination? Is it even okay to use Western elements in SFFH?Credits: Shamelessly stolen from Star Trek's "Spectre of the Gun," the Expanse Season 1 trailer, UFO Cowboy's official trailer, and Firefly's "Jayne's Town." The background music clips are "Somewhere In the Dark" and "Western Showdown" by Holizna and licensed under Creative Commons.