Be The Serpent

On this week's episode, we're discussing historical fantasy, and Freya makes a truly brilliant point about what this genre really IS. The tentpoles today are The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley, A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly, and “Duende” by astolat.

What We’re Into Lately

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Glitch

A Marvelous Light by Freya Markse!

Tor.com

Dr. Manhattan

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

Hornblower by C.S. Forester

Loveless anime

“Dangerous If Unbound” by astolat

Person of Interest

Hamilton 

Black Sails

Downton Abbey

Temeraire series by Naomi Novik

P.G. Woodhouse books

Judging accuracy with the Bill and Ted test

Hild by Nicola Griffith

Georgette Heyer’s books

The Hornblower books by C.S. Forester

A Dalliance with the Duke by AMargeurite

An Ever-Fixed Mark by AMarguerite

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

The Glamourist Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

For Next Time

The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce

Transcription

The transcript of this episode is available here. Thank you as always to our lovely scribes for their hard work! 

On this week's episode, it's time for another extravaganza of questions from our darling listeners! What's Freya's favorite nonfiction book? How quickly can Macey bring up chaos theory? Will Alex make any progress convincing their cohosts to wear snek onesies for the digital Hugo ceremony?

What We’re Into Lately:

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Untamed fanfic

Scum Villain fanfic

The English Game

Other Stuff We Mentioned:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

The City Born Great by N. K. Jemisin

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

The Divine Cities series by Robert Jackson Bennett

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Seanan McGuire’s swamp

Ness from Strange Horizons

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzalez

Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott

Watching the English by Kate Fox

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Johnathan Gottschall

Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

The works of Diana Wynne Jones

Stargate: Atlantis

Laminar flow

The Harry Potter series

Yuri!!! On Ice

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

RPF

Frank/Gerard

Thor/Loki

Leto/Ghanima

Supernatural

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

Kylo Ren/Rey

Viable Paradise Writers Workshop

Dangerous If Unbound by astolat

Person of Interest

freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose by synecdochic

House Proud by astolat

Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy

The new serpent taxonomy: which astolat fic are you?

The Untamed

Unseen Academicals

Does God Play Dice? by Ian Stewart

For Next Time:

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

Transcription:

Click here for the transcript of this episode! Thank you as always to our beautiful, glamorous team of scribes!

On this week's episode we're a lil loopy from quarantine, but we're still having fun! We're talking about non-human protagonists this week, with the tentpoles for discussion being The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood, All Systems Red by Martha Wells, and the film Ratatouille.

What We’re Into Lately

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

Birarley by Aster Glenn Gray

The Unconquered City by K.A. Doore

perhaps even friends by hirokiyuu

The Great Pottery Throw Down

Even more Untamed fic

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings

Stardew Valley

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Pikelets

Dream Daddy

Persona 5

The Great British Bake Off

Homestuck

Farscape

Person of Interest

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

Kushiels’ Dart by Jacqueline Carey

WALL·E (2008)

The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers

Zootopia (2016)

“Bright: The Apotheosis of Lazy Worldbuilding” by Lindsay Ellis

The Redwall books by Brian Jacques

Robin Hood (1973)

One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

The Aristocats (1970)

The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

The Good Place

Teaching empathy to engineers

Star Trek

Babylon 5

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Cats (2019)

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Unnatural Order by Alyssa Wickramasinghe and Alis Franklin 

Victory Condition by astolat

Shrek (2001)

Draco is a veela

Harry is raised by X

The Witcher

For Next Time

Nothing! It's the Episode 60 Extravaganza!

Transcription

The transcript for this episode is available here. Thank you once again to our priceless, invaluable scribes! You're the best

Welcome back to campus, students! It's the episode about college AUs and university settings! On today’s episode, we’re discussing The Student Prince by FayJay, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, and the pilot episode of The Magicians.

What We’re Into Lately

Band Sinister by K. J. Charles

Stormsong by C.L. Polk

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun fic

The Untamed fic

The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat aka 肉包不吃肉

All nighters and Irn Bru

The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers

The Lady’s Not for Burning by Christopher Fry

The Student Prince by FayJay -- podfic version

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Drastically Redefining Protocol by rageprufrock

Merlin

Juxtaposition

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Sneaking into events for free food

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

College AU shenanigans

American University Hellscape

Community

Advanced Ambulatory Ichthyology by gyzym

Two ducks per student

For Next Time

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

Transcription

The transcript for this episode is available here. Please applaud your scribes, all of them made it onto the Dean's List this semester for their hard work.

On this episode, we are shifting into a more serious register to talk about plague narratives. In light of the current pandemic, we urge you to check in with yourself before listening to this episode--are you doing okay? Are you good to listen to this right now? Please take care of yourself, and don't listen to this episode right now if it'll be an emotional overload for you. It'll always be here for you later.

That said, the tentpoles for this episode are:  The Monster of Elendhaven, The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, and the eighth episode of the first season of X-Files, called “The Ice.”

What We’re Into Lately

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings

Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

Moontangled by Stephanie Burgis

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass

Paris or Maybe Hell by basingstoke

Scum Villain fanfic

Other Stuff We Mentioned

malariotherapy

Episode 60 Extravaganza!

The Untamed

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Children of Men by P.D. James

Blindness by José Saramago

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Newsflesh series by Mira Grant

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

Handshaking

Con Crud

Handwashing

Zombies

Kingdom

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Epidemiology

“With Fire in Their Eyes” by Askerian

“House of the Living” by astolat

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

For Next Time

The Student Prince by fayjay

Transcription

The transcript of this episode is available here. Seriously, though, special thanks to our scribes for tackling this one.

On this week's episode, we're diving into a very self-referential discussion of the metatext! Tentpoles this week are the film The Handmaiden, the fanfic “Steve Rogers at 100,” and A Choir of Lies by our very own Alexandra Rowland.

What We’re Into Lately

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri

The Impossible Contract by K. A. Doore

Georgette Heyer

The Untamed

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xu

Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xu

The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild

1917

Eddie Izzard bit

Pirates

Overinvested

Written by the Victors by Speranza

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

Person of Interest (or, the Husbands and Wives show)

For Next Time

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Transcription

The transcript for this episode is available here! Appreciate your local scribes and their hard work by reading their margin comments--they've been metatexty this whole time, wow!

On this week's episode, we're talking about bureaucracies! Macey brought a fun little game so Alex and Freya could use their imaginations! We're also talking about two great tentpoles: Going Postal by Terry Pratchett and the Harry Potter fanfic “Little Red Courgette” by blamebrampton.

What We’re Into Lately

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 

astolat

Joy of Life

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Untamed

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

“Little Red Courgette” by blamebrampton

Tor.com

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke

The New Oxford American Dictionary

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Cambridge Analytica

Leverage

The IT Crowd

A Memory Called Empire

Machineries of Empire series

BtS Episode 7

Loreena McKinnit

Jupiter Ascending

Bureaucracy Scene

Zootopia

Three Parts Dead

Harry Potter book series 

Little Britain

“The Office Job” Leverage ep.

City of Blades

BtS Episode 29

The West Wing

Parks and Rec

Yes Minister

The Thick of It

Veep

For Next Time

A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland

Transcription

The transcript of this episode is available here. Thank you, scribes!!!

On this episode, we're discussing portal fantasies! We're yelling about how mad we are at Aslan! We're finding out Freya's middle name! We're talking about some great tentpoles: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, “Every Heart a Doorway” by Seanan McGuire, and the 2005 movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

What We’re Into Lately

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women 2019 movie

Learn My Lesson by Katee Robert

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Our Story’s Just Begun by aishiteru

Flesh and Blood exhibit

“Sunflowers” by Anselm Kiefer

The Untamed series

etymologyplayground on AO3

Other Stuff We Mentioned

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

“Every Heart a Doorway“ by Seanan McGuire

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie

Danger Mouse series

Silk and Steel anthology

The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Wayward Children by Seanan Mcguire

‘The Girl That’s Never Been’ Filk song by Vixy & Tony (Michelle Dockrey)

‘Wicked Girls’ song by Seanan McGuire

Restoree by Anne McCaffrey

Isavalta series by Sarah Zettel

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones

Doctor Who TV series

Quantum Leap TV series

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Stargate film & TV series

Farscape TV series

Star Trek Voyager TV series

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Naruto anime

Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

Homestuck webcomic

The Sims videogame

For Next Time

Little Red Courgette by blamebrampton

Transcription

The transcript of this episode is available here. Thank you as always to our beauteous, heroic scribes for making this happen!

On this episode, the Serpents are welding themselves to their bullshit with the help of a friend, glamorous guest star and kickass editor Ruoxi Chen! We're yelling about the Chinese fantasy drama, The Untamed! Welcome to Year Three of the podcast!!

What We’re Into Lately

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

SV Wishes by Feynite

Letterkenny

“Linger in the Sun” by etymologyplayground

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Macmillan Publishers

The Lymond Chronicles series by Dorothy Dunnett

Captive Prince trilogy by C. S. Pacat.

Tor Publishers

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by 墨香铜臭

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Mo Dao Zu Shi audio drama

Guardian

Oh My General

“A Civil Combpaign” by Ariaste (two combs reference)

Tall Once More In The Spring Wind by Fayjay

Books by Robert Jackson Bennett

Nirvana In Fire 

Count of Monte Cristo

NIF on Viki

Empresses in the Palace

For Next Time

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Transcription:

The transcript for this episode is available here. We're dramatically grabbing the wrists of our darling scribes (Tess, Sara, Kelle, Millie) and staring yearningly into their eyes as they play our love song on a hill somewhere.

WHAT'S THIS? An episode on a Wednesday that isn't an Episode Wednesday!? Yes, it's true! Last year we pitched in to help our esteemed colleagues at Strange Horizons with their Kickstarter by pledging to do a special episode if they reached a certain landmark amount of donations. This week, we're bringing you that episode and talking about three amazing short stories that Strange Horizons published! The tentpoles this week are “Hunting the Viper King” by Kathryn Harlan, “Regret, Return, Reignite” by Audrey R. Hollis, and “Truth Plus” by Jamie Wahls.

What We’re Into Lately

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Altogether by Brill Harper

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

Hoshigaki by writer168

Five Kingdoms for the Dead by Evil Is A Relative Term

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers

The Good Place

Hadestown

Good Omens

Connections (TV series)

Schitt’s Creek

The Great British Bake Off

Other Stuff We Mentioned

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

How We Got To Now by Steven Johnson

Connections by James Burke

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Supernatural

The Legend of Taliesin

“Many Hearted Dog and the Heron Who Stepped Past Time”

A Paradise Built in Hell 

“What We Named the Needle” by Freya Marske, in Analog

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin

“Road: A Fairytale”

“Super Little Dead Girls” by Nino Cipri

“Remains” by Basingstoke

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

“Wrap Me in Oceans Wide” by Marissa Lingen

“Notes on a Resurrection” by Natalia Theodoridou

“The Wind Whispers Secrets To The Sea” by Jordan Kurella

“Sequestration; Vitrification” by AJ Lucy

“The King’s Mirror” by M.K. Hutchins

“Cassandra Draws the Four of Cups” by Ruthanna Emrys

“Who Has Never Loved a Gentle House?” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

“Sublet” by Ian Kappos

For Next Time

It's back to your regularly scheduled on-our-bullshit with next week's episode, which is still about The Untamed!

Transcription

The transcript for this episode is available here. BONUS THANKS to our scribes for taking on this bonus episode!