A Meal of Thorns

If you read Dracula and thought: “I like the ancient shapeshifting nemesis and the homoerotic subtext, but I don’t like how subtle the sexual and national anxieties are,” you’re in luck! Editor, reviewer, and scholar Marisa Mercurio is here to talk about not-so-subtle horrors in Richard Marsh’s 1897 novel The Beetle. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Marisa Mercurio Title: The Beetle by Richard Marsh Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Chopin's "Minute Waltz" performed by Alfred Cortot Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Artur Rodzinski References: Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca & Don't Look Now Alex Woodroe's The Night Ship Tenebrous Press Bram Stoker's Dracula Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe, Charles Dickens, George Eliot E.R. Eddison's Zimianvian trilogy Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Kate Beaton’s “The Horror Of The New Woman” H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis The Fly films (Kurt Neumann 1958; David Cronenberg 1986) Phase IV directed by Saul Bass Robert Repino's Mort(e) The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas, and the “Valancourt Paperbacks from Hell” Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester Wilkie Collins The However Improbable podcast Marisa’s bluesky

If you read Dracula and thought: “I like the ancient shapeshifting nemesis and the homoerotic subtext, but I don’t like how subtle the sexual and national anxieties are,” you’re in luck! Editor, reviewer, and scholar Marisa Mercurio is here to talk about not-so-subtle horrors in Richard Marsh’s 1897 novel The Beetle. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Marisa Mercurio Title: The Beetle by Richard Marsh Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Chopin's "Minute Waltz" performed by Alfred Cortot Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Artur Rodzinski References: Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca & Don't Look Now Alex Woodroe's The Night Ship Tenebrous Press Bram Stoker's Dracula Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe, Charles Dickens, George Eliot E.R. Eddison's Zimianvian trilogy Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Kate Beaton’s “The Horror Of The New Woman” H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis The Fly films (Kurt Neumann 1958; David Cronenberg 1986) Phase IV directed by Saul Bass Robert Repino's Mort(e) The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas, and the “Valancourt Paperbacks from Hell” Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester Wilkie Collins The However Improbable podcast Marisa’s bluesky

We’re closing out this strange year with a “big-picture” episode: editor & critic Dan Hartland is on to talk about trends and directions—or lack thereof—in recent speculative fiction. We talk about the interesting spread of books & awards this year, do some armchair speculating about genre shifts & their accompanying arguments, and have some very insider-baseball discussion of what gets reviewed (or not) and why. And, of course, Dan and Casella talk about their favorite reads from 2025. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Dan Hartland Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Critical Friends podcast Gautam Bhatia's The Sentence Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall Award spread this year- see for instance SFADB Article on UK romantasy sales numbers Romantasy, LitRPG, Progression Fantasy, Baen Books Locus SFT= Speculative Fiction in Translation Strange Horizons issue on the NEA cuts and SFT Richard K. Morgan Orbus by Neal Asher Jenny Hamilton’s work at Reactor AO3= Archive Of Our Own When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift Metal from Heaven by August Clarke Niall Harrison’s review of Swift William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy Hugboxing vs Scab-Picking H.G. Wells Sylvia Park's Luminous Eva Meijer’s Sea Now, tr. Anne Thompson Melo The Booker Prize “Prestige TV in the Time of Climate Change” by Sarah Miller The Sopranos & Breaking Bad The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien Hannah Arendt & Baruch Spinoza John Wyndham & J.G. Ballard The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, tr. Sarah Moses Becky Chambers Colourfields by Paul Kincaid Margaret Killjoy's A Country of Ghosts The Expansion Project by Ben Pester The Goldsmiths Prize Olga Ravn's The Employees Jeff VanderMeer's Area X Ned Beauman BSFA short SF in translation award Translated Hugo Initiative Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva, tr. Rahul Berry Isaac Fellman's Notes from a Regicide Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors Christopher Priest Debbie Urbanski's Portalmania Thomas Ha's Uncertain Sons Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others Leyna Krow's Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids Ed Park's An Oral History of Atlantis Kelly Link, George Saunders, T.C. Boyle, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Elwin Cotman Deep Dream: Science Fiction Exploring the Future of Art, edited by Indrapramit Das Countess by Suzan Palumbo Annie Bot by Sierra Grier Erika Swyler's We Lived On The Horizon Adrian Tchaikovsky, Premee Mohamed Lincoln Michel's Metallic Realms Ed Park’s Same Bed Different Dreams

We’re closing out this strange year with a “big-picture” episode: editor & critic Dan Hartland is on to talk about trends and directions—or lack thereof—in recent speculative fiction. We talk about the interesting spread of books & awards this year, do some armchair speculating about genre shifts & their accompanying arguments, and have some very insider-baseball discussion of what gets reviewed (or not) and why. And, of course, Dan and Casella talk about their favorite reads from 2025. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Dan Hartland Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Critical Friends podcast Gautam Bhatia's The Sentence Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall Award spread this year- see for instance SFADB Article on UK romantasy sales numbers Romantasy, LitRPG, Progression Fantasy, Baen Books Locus SFT= Speculative Fiction in Translation Strange Horizons issue on the NEA cuts and SFT Richard K. Morgan Orbus by Neal Asher Jenny Hamilton’s work at Reactor AO3= Archive Of Our Own When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift Metal from Heaven by August Clarke Niall Harrison’s review of Swift William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy Hugboxing vs Scab-Picking H.G. Wells Sylvia Park's Luminous Eva Meijer’s Sea Now, tr. Anne Thompson Melo The Booker Prize “Prestige TV in the Time of Climate Change” by Sarah Miller The Sopranos & Breaking Bad The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien Hannah Arendt & Baruch Spinoza John Wyndham & J.G. Ballard The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, tr. Sarah Moses Becky Chambers Colourfields by Paul Kincaid Margaret Killjoy's A Country of Ghosts The Expansion Project by Ben Pester The Goldsmiths Prize Olga Ravn's The Employees Jeff VanderMeer's Area X Ned Beauman BSFA short SF in translation award Translated Hugo Initiative Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva, tr. Rahul Berry Isaac Fellman's Notes from a Regicide Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors Christopher Priest Debbie Urbanski's Portalmania Thomas Ha's Uncertain Sons Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others Leyna Krow's Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids Ed Park's An Oral History of Atlantis Kelly Link, George Saunders, T.C. Boyle, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Elwin Cotman Deep Dream: Science Fiction Exploring the Future of Art, edited by Indrapramit Das Countess by Suzan Palumbo Annie Bot by Sierra Grier Erika Swyler's We Lived On The Horizon Adrian Tchaikovsky, Premee Mohamed Lincoln Michel's Metallic Realms Ed Park’s Same Bed Different Dreams

We’re tracking down the wellspring of “dark academia” in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and plucking on threads that stretch out to current fantasy and science fiction literature, with reviewer Roseanna Pendlebury as our guide. Casella manages to throw some shade at Arrival, somehow, and also references Dumb & Dumber.   Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.   Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Roseanna Pendlebury Title: The Secret History Host: Jake Casella Brookins Music by Giselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork by Rob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Isaac Fellman’s Notes from a Regicide E.J. Swift’s When There Are Wolves Again Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker  Rebecca Campbell's Arboreality Simon Roy's Griz Grobus & A Star Called The Sun Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon Tartt’s The Goldfinch Euripides’ The Bacchae Jane Alison's Meander Spiral Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative Roger Ebert's review of Roger Avary’s film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction (which, we didn’t get into this in the episode, is sort of in the Expanded Secret History Universe) Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Sofia Samatar's The Practice The Horizon and the Chain R.F. Kuang's Katabasis & Babel Fellman's The Two Doctors Górski Marina & Sergei Dyachenko's Vita Nostra, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey Ceaușescu's bathroom Peter Farrelly’s film Dumb and Dumber Sir Arthur Conan Doyles’ Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" vs. Denis Villeneuve's film Arrival Becky Chamber’s To Be Taught if Fortunate Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch "All art is perfectly useless" C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces Samatar's A Stranger In Olondria and The Winged Histories Fellman's The Breath of the Sun Katherin Addison's The Goblin Emperor & sequels Dungeons & Dragons Roseanna’s Small Press Dispatch series at ARB Roseanna's blog Tolkien's Beowulf & The Tolkien Reader Lina Palera’s Seikilos Epitaph with the Lyre of Apollo, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0*   *Note that ARB & AMOT are generally distributed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, but will match the CC of any incorporated material for particular posts/episodes.