Episodes

  • Episode 2 - The Etched City
    May 9 2025
    For our second episode of Starship Alexandria, Adrian puts forward KJ Bishop’s weird fantasy novel The Etched City (2004) for Emma to read and consider. Other talking points: A short discussion about spoilers and different thresholds depending on the work being considered The challenges involved with reading and writing secondary world fantasy due to vocabulary Adherence to historical accuracy when writing historical fantasy Adrian's manifesto for the unacknowledged sub-genre "fantastical realism" Media Mentions: Dungeons and Dragons, tabletop role-playing game, Gygax et al Perdido Street Station, book, China Mieville Ambergris series, books, Jeff Vandermeer Viriconium series, books, M John Harrison A Man of Shadows, book, Jeff Noon Tyrant Philosophers series, books, Adrian Tchaikovsky Our next episode will look at: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin (1971) Adrian's music recommendation: Minus Sixty-One by Woodkid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcJepz3QW0 Emma’s latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance Adrian’s most recent book: Shroud https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shroud-adrian-tchaikovsky/7656869 Follow us at: Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.emmanewman.co.uk Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com
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    51 mins
  • Episode 1 - The Kraken Wakes
    Apr 2 2025
    For this very first episode of Starship Alexandria, Emma puts forward John Wyndham’s classic SF novel The Kraken Wakes (1953) for Adrian to read and consider (published in the US as Out of the Deeps.) Other media mentions: The War of the Worlds, HG Wells Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Aliens franchise, dir. Ridley Scott, James Cameron et al The Quatermass franchise, dir. Various, written by Nigel Kneale A Mission of Gravity, Hal Clements Blackgate Adventures in Fantasy blog https://www.blackgate.com/2020/07/16/these-two-books-are-not-the-same-john-wyndhams-the-kraken-wakes-and-out-of-the-deeps/ That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote, KJ Bishop Our next episode will look at: The Etched City, KJ Bishop (2004) Emma’s music recommendation: Jennifer, by Everything Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEIhJM-atiI&ab_channel=EverythingEverything Emma’s upcoming book: The Vengeance https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-vengeance-emma-newman/7713374 Adrian’s most recent book: Shroud https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shroud-adrian-tchaikovsky/7656869 Follow us at: Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.emmanewman.co.uk Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com
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    49 mins