Is This Just Fantasy?

Robert E. Howard was a poor writer who died in tragedy; unknown. His creations, especially Conan of Cimmeria, destined to be forgotten. Until the vultures began to circle. Duncan leads Geordie on the incredible almost 100 year long story of how Conan was either stolen or rescued from obscurity by L. Sprague de Camp, and continued to be a figurehead of fantasy until today.

Duncan chronicles the many, many writers who tried their hand at writing the barbarian, from books, to movies, to comics.

This episode was made in response to a listeners question. If you have a question you'd like to hear discussed on an episode, please reach on [email protected], on our Instagram: @isthisjustfantasypodcast.

The fellas get together to discuss Brennan McClellan's cordite drenched debut, The Promise of Blood, the first book in the Powder Mage trilogy. The discuss some awesome action, fun characters and a promising beginning, as well as some... less than awesome, and even baffling parts.

This episode's release was delayed, so apologies. We won't say whose fault it was, but it wasn't Duncan's.

Song of Achilles was tied for the pod's best book in the history of the podcast, so what will the fellas make of its... prequel? Sequel? Midquel? Madeline Miller's crazy collage of Greek Mythology through the hawkish eyes of Circe. It's a beautiful tale covering millennia of isolation, sadness, love, and more sadness. They compare the it against Song of Achilles, they argue over the pronunciation of Circe (Duncan wins), and for a change it's Duncan who's teaching Geordie about Greek Mythology.

Before Geordie embarks on his trek through the wilds of Sweden, there to battle moose and attempt to order food using his very bad Swedish, the fellas settle in to wrap up their review of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. They cover Palpatine's revenge check-list, get important villain names wrong, and cloning logistics. Also how great The Last Command is.

The fellas cover the much anticipated finale to the Legacy of Orisha series by Tomi Adeyemi which began with the smash Children of Blood and Bone, They discuss how it measures up the the successes of the first book and the misses of the second. They cover conspicuous character absences and dropped themes, and an in-depth analysis on the author's differing approach to each book; Geordie brings up the Rise of Skywalker an unfortunate number of times, whilst Duncan schools him on Norse mythology in a shocking role-reversal.

The fellas carry on their Star Wars Legends marathon with Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn. They discuss Leia actually being allowed to do things in this book, get annoyed at there being too many lightsaber colours, Geordie gets bent out of shape about the name: "Katana Fleet." Speaking of shapes, I hope you like nerds discussing the different alphabet themed Star Fighters, because they spend more time talking about those than Luke Skywalker.

Much to Geordie's horror he has been compelled to read another Star Wars book. And worse yet... he likes it. The fellas review Timothy Zahn's continuation of the original Star Wars trilogy. They have their first encounter with iconic characters like Thrawn and Mara Jade, discuss wife-guy Han Solo, the significance of lightsaber colours, the presence of hot chocolate in the series, and Geordie vents his feelings on Star Wars fans.

The fellas journey across the desert to hunt a man in black and discuss the beginning of Stephen King's celebrated series: The Dark Tower. They cover their histories with King, uncover the surprising backstory behind the book's origin, discover a meta-twist neither of them saw coming, Geordie teaches Duncan about the Song of Roland, and they debate whether or not there was a goat-man in the book.

This is a fantasy novel, we promise, Duncan and Geordie gather round the northern hemisphere of Arrakis to discuss Frank Herbert's Science-Ficti,,, I mean Science-Fantasy epic, Dune. They discuss its astounding world building, its fascinating connection to real history, the intricacies of its world, spend an unusual amount of time talking about Brian Herbert, and discuss its incredible ending.

In the much anticipated follow-up to Empire of the Vampire, Geordie and Duncan get stuck into everything they love about it, and its a long book with a lot to love. They talk sincerity, big anime swords, massive retcons, twists, awesome art, difficult to pronounce Scottish names, and perhaps the funniest blunder in the podcast's history as Duncan completely misreads the ending of the book.