Episode 2 - The Etched City

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   

Om Podcasten

The Sci-fi and Fantasy podcast from the best of futures! In this future, humanity has solved its problems and is now sending spaceships from Earth, not in a desperate attempt to escape the apocalypse but because we can do so in a spirit of hope and exploration. As a part of the Starship Alexandria Project, the far-future analogues of 21st century authors Emma Newman and Adrian Tchaikovsky have been tasked to make recommendations from the ship’s vast library of creative works based on the preferences of our 21st century counterparts. Each of us will take it in turns to nominate a book, film or similar work, and the other will play judge and give the thumbs up or thumbs down to be recommended across the fleet.