The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu What makes an award winning short story? Ken Liu’s short story is the first work to win the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy award. This story is phenominal and Reid and Isaac cannot recommend it enough. If you have not read it, please do to before listening to this … Continue reading Ep031 The Paper Menagerie →

With Morning Comes Mistfall by George RR Martin A story of loss on a planetary scale. George RR Martin balances planetary scales with personal feelings in this story of heartbreak, set against a planet with tides of mist. Leave It To The Prose looks at George RR Martin’s 1973 short story, a story that stands … Continue reading Ep030 With Morning Comes Mistfall →

Leave It To The Prose Leave It To The Prose, your podcast for science fiction, fantasy fiction, and speculative fiction. Every other week we discuss one or more works of speculative fiction and dive into how this work conveys character, plot, tone, and the fundamentals of storytelling. In this Episode we look back at 2019 … Continue reading Ep029 Leave It To The Prose – Year One Finale Year Two Teaser →

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens A greedy, frugal man is visited by a ghost and three spirits on Christmas Eve and learns the importance of generosity and kindness. Isaac and Reid discuss this classic Christmas ghost story that blends the line between folk tale and modern materialism. A Christmas Carol is a story that … Continue reading Ep028 A Christmas Carol →

Red Rising by Pierce Brown The story of a red, the lowest of the low classes, as he impersonates a gold, the gods of the future, and seeks to overthrow the hierarchical society that has conquered the solar system. Isaac and Reid discuss how Darrow the red rises from his small mining community to take … Continue reading Ep027 Red Rising →

A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow Alix E Harrows capture’s the magic of reading in the story of a librarian helping a young man in need. Isaac and Reid discuss the witchcraft of books against the backdrop of the award winning short story ‘A Whitch’s Guide … Continue reading Ep026 A Witch’s Guide to Escape →

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse Imagine a world after the oceans have risen and the gods of the previous times have taken physical forms. In Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning we follow monster hunter Maggie as she seeks to find the witch who is creating people-eating monsters. Along the way Maggie meets up with unconventional … Continue reading Ep025 Trail of Lighting →

Lovecraft Selection Four short stories by H.P. Lovecraft: The Alchemist, The Nameless City, The Hound, and The Ritual. Isaac and Reid discuss these stories as well as how horror can be done well – or perhaps poorly. We break down how horror needs characters we care about, a payout at the end, escalation, and more. … Continue reading Ep024 Lovecraft →

Dracula by Bram Stoker A quick sensation in its own time, Dracula by Bran Stoker became a cultural phenomenon due to Hollywood’s adaptation. In this episode of Leave It To The Prose Reid and Isaac discuss how potentially lack luster source material can manifest into an archetype.                 … Continue reading Ep023 Dracula →

The Court Magician by Sarah Pinsker Is magic real? This is the question posed by Sarah Pinsker’s short story The Court Magician, in which a young boy turns into a magician after learning all of the street tricks that have been nothing more than an illusion. As the magician uses real magic the moral questions … Continue reading Ep022 The Court Magician →