Show Notes

Music Credits

The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith Show Notes Synopsis 02:48 // Themes 19:01 // Spheres // Speed of communication // Emotional and factual communication // RPG 25:58 // Dramasystem // Malandros // Lag // Next 49:34 // Cocaine Nights Music Credits Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive Samples:…Read more Episode 54: The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith

Big Planet by Jack Vance Show Notes Synopsis 01:05 // Themes 04:25 // Big Planet is Big 04:27 // Kaiju and Cthulhu 05:56 // Superstition 06:48 // Expanding consciousness 08:48 // And then there were none 10:01 // Games 10:12 // Dramasystem 11:27 // Further Afield 12:40 // Carcosa 13:54 // The Black Hack and…Read more Episode 53: Big Planet by Jack Vance

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll Show Notes High and low fantasy definitions 01:03 // Synopsis 02:32 // A digression 04:05 // Synopsis resumed 05:05 // Themes and roleplaying 10:43 // Pale Assassins, Hope and Nabokov 12:16 Pale Assassins blog post (April 2017, DepartmentV) The Prisoner of Zenda (Nov 2016, Fictoplasm) Pale Fire (April…Read more Fictoplasm episode 52: The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll

This is the first of a series looking at secondary worlds that exist as known fiction inside a primary, fictional world. In this episode Ralph tackles Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, and talks to Becky Annison about her game When the Dark is Gone. Show Notes The Magicians by Lev Grossman When the Dark is Gone,…Read more Episode 51: fiction within fiction, part 1 (The Magicians, When the Dark is Gone)

This is our 50th episode! Not doing anything special, just sipping a gin and talking about Michael Faber’s Under the Skin. Show Notes Under the Skin by Michael Faber Under the Skin (film) directed by Jonathan Glazer Synopsis 00:56 Themes 05:22 Ben Hopkins and The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz Displacement Isolation Corporate Greed Duality…Read more 404: Under the Skin by Michael Faber

Ralph briefly discusses three pre-apocalyptic novels, with the conclusion that all that matters is how much time you’ve got left. Show Notes Three works of fiction 01:00 The Last Policeman by Ben Winters 01:30 Hard Sun 03:40 The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu 06:30 Remarks 08:55 Summary 12:30 Links This episode is partially inspired…Read more 4.03: The Last Policeman, Hard Sun, The Three Body Problem

Rhi and Paul join Ralph to talk about Iain M. Banks’ Excession and The Culture. Post-scarcity, intelligent starships, body modification and first contact. Show Notes Excession (and other Culture novels) by Iain M. Banks Rhiannon Lassiter, Paul Mitchener and Ralph Lovegrove Overview of The Culture 00:50 Synopsis of Excession 05:40 Themes 12:05 Diverging human cultures…Read more Episode 4.02: Excession by Iain M. Banks

Rhi, Josh and Ralph talk about books they’re reading, and other things. (I know, it’s not January, it’s May) Show Notes Rhi has been reading What Makes This Book So Great? by Jo Walton and Heriot by Margaret Mahy, and has just started Imaginary Cities by Darran Anderson. She’s looking forward to reading The Refrigerator…Read more Episode 4.01: what we’re reading, new year 2018

Ralph talks about running Cthulhu Dark: Annihilation at Concrete Cow, the differences between Jeff Vandermeer’s book and Alex Garland’s film, and managing player expectations in one-shots and beyond. Show Notes Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer // Annihilation by Alex Garland Planning Cthulhu Dark: Annihilation Annihilation the movie 00:45 // Differences between novel and film 03:15 //…Read more Episode 4.00 Annihilation Redux