A Meal of Thorns 28 – EXCESSION with Abigail Nussbaum
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Abigail NussbaumTitle: Excession by Iain M. BanksHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:VectorLos Angeles Review of BooksThe GuardianStrange HorizonsLawyers, Guns & MoneyWarren ZevonAsking the Wrong QuestionsAbigail’s Track ChangesColourfields by Paul KincaidNina Allan’s Granite Silence and The Art of Space TravelEd Park’s An Oral History of AtlantisBanks’ Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, & The Player of GamesFully Automated Luxury Gay Space CommunismStar TrekJohn le CarréAndorTransmentation Transience by Darkly LemOutside Context Problems & Aggressive Hegemonizing SwarmsStanislaw LemKubrick/Clarke's 2001Paul Kincaid's biography of BanksMaurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things AreC.J. CherryhYudhanjaya Wijeratne's Salvager booksGreg EganAnn Leckie's Imperial RadchYoon Ha Lee's Machineries of EmpireBanks’ Look to WindwardAbigail's BlueskyKim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the FutureNed Beauman's Venomous LumpsuckerNeal Stephenson's Termination Shock
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1:08:43
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1:08:43
A Meal of Thorns 27 – 40,000 IN GEHENNA with Arkady Martine (and a 4th Street Fantasy Report)
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Arkady MartineTitle: 40,000 in Gehenna by C.J. CherryhHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:Vote in the Ignytes!Our episode with Archita MittraA Memory Called Empire, A Desolation Called Peace, Rose/House, "Three Faces of a Beheading"Mick Herron’s Slow HorsesPip Adams' AuditionAndré Alexis’s Other WorldsThomas Ha’s Uncertain SonsStephen Sondheim's AssassinsCherryh’s Cyteen, Downbelow Station, ForeignerWatsonian vs. Doylist readingsThe Faded Sun, Hunter of WorldsLeonard Cohen's "The Future"Theodore Sturgeon's "The Golden Helix"Internet Science Fiction Database (ISFDB)Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Rocannon's WorldJoanna Russ's The Female ManAnne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of PernSerpent's ReachAmal El-MohtarAnaïs Mitchell’s HadestownEmmanuel Levinas & Martin BuberOctavia E. Butler"Third Person Intense Internal"Jane Alison's Meander, Spiral, ExplodeElizabeth BearAnn Leckie, Tamsyn Muir, Jeff VanderMeerAncillary JusticeLois McMaster BujoldSeth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant & our episode on itMax Gladstone's Craft SequenceA Pattern LanguageDavid Brin, Vernor VingeArkady's BlueskyLouis Kahn4th Street FantasyViable ParadiseWisconWesley AndrewsThe BriarSK CoffeeBogart's DoughnutNortheast Tea HouseDreamHavenUncle Hugo’sDelany's The Jewel-Hinged Jaw and The Motion of Light in WaterCherryh's Wave Without A ShoreGreg Egan's PhoresisKathy Mar's "Forty Thousand in Gehenna" from the album "Finity's End and other Songs of the Station Trade"Wizards vs. Lesbians episode with Ann Leckie on C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner
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1:20:47
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1:20:47
A Meal of Thorns 26 – DEATH OF THE AUTHOR with andré m. carrington
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: andré m. carringtonTitle: Death of the Author by Nnedi OkoraforHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:andré’s Speculative Blackness, The Black Fantastic, and Audiofuturism (forthcoming)The Eaton ConferenceMalik Gaines & Alexandro Segade's cosmic opera Star Choir, based on the work of Octavia E. ButlerHanna Yanagahira's To ParadiseTochi Onyebuchi’s Harmattan SeasonGeorge R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and FireN.K. JemisinMichael Zapata’s The Lost Book of Adana MoreauTom Hanks’ That Thing You DoAndew Stanton’s Wall-EBecky Chambers' Monk & RobotOlaf StapledonKim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Futureandré's BlueskyAudio.futurism Instagram
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1:14:06
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1:14:06
A Meal of Thorns 25 – THE HUGO NOVELS & NOVELLAS with Roseanna Pendlebury
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Roseanna PendleburyTitles: The 2025 Hugo Novel & Novella ListHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:Hugo Novella Finalists:The Brides of High Hill by Nghi VoThe Butcher of the Forest by Premee MohamedNavigational Entanglements by Aliette de BodardThe Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia SamatarThe Tusks of Extinction by Ray NaylerWhat Feasts at Night by T. KingfisherHugo Novel Finalists:Alien Clay by Adrian TchaikovskyThe Ministry of Time by Kaliane BradleyService Model by Adrian TchaikovskySomeone You Can Build a Nest In by John WiswellA Sorceress Comes to Call by T. KingfisherThe Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson BennettThe Clarke Award listPaul Kincaid’s CoulorfieldsRoseanna’s “A Path Through the Landscape” for A Reader of Else, plus Paul Kincaid’s “The Books That Made Me” for Through the dark labyrinthNnedi Okorafor’s BintiCasella’s idea of a Hugo for Best Translated WorkRenay's Hugo Spreadsheet of DoomAlex Jeffers’s A Mourning CoatLorraine Wilson’s Last to DrownThe Ursula K. Le Guin PrizeThe Ignyte AwardsPremee Mohamed’s The Siege of Burning GrassVajra Chandraskera’s RakesfallJared Pechaček’s The West PassageSeth Dickinson’s Exordia and The Traitor Baru CormorantEmet North’s In UniversesEden Robin’s Remember You Will DieScott Guild's PlasticAliya Whiteley's Three Eight OneT. Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel booksMarie Brennan's A Natural History of DragonsRobert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities and Founders trilogiesAdrian Tchaikovsky’s House of Open WoundsGreg EganCharlie Stross's Neptune’s BroodZachary Gillan’s “Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism”Foz Meadow’s A Strange and Stubborn EnduranceRoseanna's review of Someone To Build A Nest InBrad Wright’s TravelersHelen MacDonald and Sin Blaché’s ProphetRoseanna’s Small Press Dispatch columnNerds of a Feather
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1:27:46
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1:27:46
A Meal of Thorns 24 – THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU with Maia Gil′Adí
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Maia Gil′AdíTitle: The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael ZapataHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughReferences:Palgrave SFF: A New CanonThe Zombie ArchiveDoom Patterns: Latinx Speculations and the Aesthetics of ViolenceAugustina Bazterrica's Tender is the FleshFernanda Trias' Pink SlimeKazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me GoColson Whitehead's Zone OneToni Morrison's BelovedFernanda Melchor's Hurricane SeasonIndrapramit DasBrendan Shay Basham's Swim Home to the Vanished & Casella’s reviewMariana Enriquez's Our Share of NightFredric JamesonChicago Review of Books AwardsIlana Masad’s “Holocaust Beach Reads” for The Maris ReviewJason (Friday the 13th)Simón BolívarAugust Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, C.L. MooreMoebius/Jean GiraudAncient AliensBlake Crouch’s Dark Matter & adaptationStuds TerkelUS Occupation of the Dominican Republic, 1916Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoJonbar pointsAimee Pokwatka's Self-Portrait with NothingLavie Tidhar's The Circumference of the Earth & Unholy LandRob Nixon's Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the PoorSesshu Foster's Atomic AztecsMaia on Bluesky
A critical book club from the Ancillary Review of Books. Host Jake Casella Brookins invites writers, scholars, and critics to discuss thorny works of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres.
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