Is This Just Fantasy?

The boys discuss the exciting follow-up to Nicholas Eames' Kings of Wyld. Immediately the debate is on, which of the two books do the lads enjoy more? They discuss characters arcs, the author's worrying increase in willingness to kill characters, evil bunny girls, Duncan's hatred of a fictional child and Geordie relating too much to falling for goth girls who just ain't good for you.

(Audio fixed) What an episode! Not only do the fellas enjoy an amazing fantasy novel, they also got a chance to land their first interview with an author. Nicholas Eames joins them to discuss his novels, his reading list, and the power of rock 'n roll, baby. Geordie and Duncan discuss this novel's comedy, pathos, fist-pumping action and unnecessarily emotionally stirring ettins.

Revisiting one of their favourite book series of the pod so far, the fellas check out the sequel to Green Rider by Kristen Britain, and it is... about time travel? Yeah, this episode is a bit of a curveball. Duncan grapples with his mingled disappointment and hope for the sequels, and tasks Geordie with determining whether this is the end of the road or whether to press on with the rest of the series.

It doesn't get much more 'E' for explicit than this one. The fellas discuss the conclusion to Berserk's Golden Age Arc and the fateful eclipse, where the flow of causality turns on a gyre. It's a heavy episode, where they discuss the Berserk's lofty themes alongside it's gratuity. Geordie is given the impossible task of defending the character of Wyald, Duncan denies that he ever said Griffith did nothing wrong, Geordie gushes for minutes straight about Hieronymus Bosch, William Blake, and the Saga of the Volsungs, and Duncan discovers that Berserk is not the nihilistic story he always thought it was.

That thing, it was too long to be called a podcast... so we split it in two. The fella's wrap up their Halloween booooooook club with the first part of their discussion of Berserk: Geordie's favourite fantasy series of all time and a first time read for Duncan. Covering the the Black Swordsman Arc till Guts' departure from the Band of the Hawk, Duncan and Geordie rave about Miura's genius penmanship, how Berserk ruined all western comic books, the '97 anime, and the marvelous nuances behind its characters and themes.

It's the first of two episodes in our annual Halloween boooook club. Geordie picked the Library at Mount Char completely by accident and what a triumph! The boys adored this book and they discuss: its humour, its intense metaphysical weirdness, its stubborn refusal to be compared with anything else, and the unbelievable fact that its the author's debut.

Sooooo due to Geordie trying to be a responsible book buyer, his copy of The Library at Mount Char hasn't arrived yet. Oh calamity, oh Bailey! But Geordie has a plan. He challenges Duncan to a first sentence challenge, where the fellas test the other to see if they can guess the fantasy novel from just the opening line.

Duncan plays dirty, Geordie plays too nice, and it's a pretty embarrassing showing all round. Nobody tell Duncan that Geordie heard about this challenge from TikTok.

“It is important, when recording a podcast, to ensure that you choose a book of sufficient quality." Duncan and Geordie are back from their holidays, ready to recount all the books they read and discuss 'Red Sister' by Mark Lawrence. Duncan is a big fan of Lawrence's, whereas Geordie thinks 'Prince of Thorns' is the most repugnant book he ever gave up on.

In addition to discussing the highs and lows of this book, the fellas discuss their summer reading, Duncan reveals he's never heard of iCarly, Geordie rants about authors who feel terribly clever for cribbing 'A Canticle for Leibowitz," and they spend an astonishingly large part of this episode discussing Naruto.

Hoo-boy! More racist than you thought. Yup, Robert E. Howard is tragically offensive in this 1936 novella. The fellas are left gutted, and with complicated feelings about Howard using his amazing writing for evil. Duncan gives a crash-course in Conan history, and talks non-stop about pastiche novels, and Geordie doesn't have the heart to tell him that he doesn't know how to pronounce "pastiche."

The curse is ended, we've got a good book! A great book! The fellas get lost in Geordie's vast love of Greek mythology, the wonderful love story of Achilles and Patroclus, One of the best episodes yet!

T/W: This episode contains discussions around the topic of rape, which is an important theme within the book.