Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 22 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

Episode 22

This week's news respectfully looks at buff geek Henry Cavill's forthcoming Highlander movie, and Tom and Alice dive into all manner of good things sci fi and fantasy. This week's deep dive is all about translated works!

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

Alice Fraser - Calm World: Introduction to Meditation

Tom Neenan - Zeroes - David Reed

News

FILM Highlander

APP Zombies! Run!

What have you been enjoying?

FILM Under The Skin

Under The Skin - Michael Faber

Behooved - M. Stevenson

Trope on a rope - bikini armour / warrior maiden vagina chokehold

Jill Bearup - Just Stab Me Now

Sub genre deep dive - sci fi and fantasy in translation

The Odyssey

The Iliad

Beowulf - Maria Dahvana Headley

Beowulf - Seamus Heany

Asterix & Obelix

The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem

The Melting - Lize Spit

ANIME Neon Genesis Evangelion

TV Dark

The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko

FILM The City of Lost Children

Mines of Urrgh

FILM Elysium

FILM Mountainhead

Mr Men - Roger Hargreaves

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

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Alice is joined by Chris Skinner to discuss the work of Tamora Pierce. They also chat about Murderbot and Sarah J Maas - is Romantasy sexy enough?

Search for Chris’s show Mildly Informed in your pod feed now.

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Produced by Chris Skinner. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.

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Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 20 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

This week, it's all about neurodivergent heroes in sci-fi and fantasy!

Episode 20

This week's news features Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein movie, the new Predator: Killer of Killers movie and is gravity proof that life on Earth is actually a simulation?

Hear what Alice and Tom have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

Tom Neenan - The Hauntening

Tom Neenan Is Not All Men

News

FILM Frankenstein

FILM Predator: Killer of Killers

FILM Mountainhead

What have you been into?

TV Rick and Morty

Blood Song - Anthony Ryan

Witch King - Martha Wells

Sub-genre deep dive: neurodivergent heroes

Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

TV Bones

Temperance Brennan series - Kathy Reichs

A Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett

TV Star Trek

TV Red Dwarf

The mines of urrrgh

FILM Passengers

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Alice Fraser and author Patrick Lenton bring you episode 19 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

This week, we're looking at gender!

Episode 19

This week's news features The Wheel of Time getting cancelled, Lilo and Stitch doing surprisingly well at the box office, and a fantasy author caught using AI to write in her own style!

Hear what Alice and Patrick have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.

Host books

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

Patrick Lenton - In Spite of You

News

TV The Wheel of Time

FILM Lilo and Stitch

What have you been into?

Scholomance Trilogy - Naomi Novik

Blood over Bright Haven - M.L. Wang

TV Andor

Trope on a rope

TV Charmed

Sub-genre deep dive: gender

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan

TV Rings of Power

TV Xena: Warrior Princess

Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster Bujold

The Honorverse - David Weber

TV Deep Space Nine

Terry Pratchett Discworld series

Lady’s Knight - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

The Bright Sword - Lev Grossman

The mines of urrrgh

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Patrick Lenton.

📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan (The Mash Report, The Hauntening) bring you episode 18 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

This week, we're looking at experiments in form!

Episode 18

This week's news features the Highlander remake moving to Amazon, Sinners continuing to tear up the box office, and the sad introduction of AI-narrated audiobooks.

Hear what Alice and Tom have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.

Host book

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

News

FILM Highlander remake

FILM Sinners

What have you been into?

FILM Sinners

The Blacktongue Thief - Christopher Buehlman

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

Trope on a rope

Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

Sub-genre deep dive: experiments in form

The Book of Good Times - Hank Green

The Ship of Theseus - VM Straka

This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

SCP-3008

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Subcutanean - Aaron Reed

PODCAST - The Last Post

PODCAST - Revolutions

WEBCOMIC - xkcd

WEBCOMIC - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

PODCAST Beef and Dairy Network

PODCAST Welcome to Night Vale

Convince Me

The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

Redshirts - John Scalzi

The mines of urrrgh

FILM Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

FILM Wall-E

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton bring you episode 17 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

This week, we're looking at early sci fi and fantasy!

Episode 17

This week's news features the Apple TV+ series Foundation, a surprisingly sexual story about E.T. and how Margaret Attwood receiving an entertainment award may distract from similarities with current issues.

Hear what Alice and Eleanor have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.

Host books

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

Eleanor Morton - Life Lessons From Historical Women

News

TV Foundation

FILM E.T.

What have you been into?

The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle

Dinotopia - James Gurney

The Daughters’ War - Christopher Buelman

The Edge Chronicles - Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Sub-genre deep dive: early sci-fi and fantasy

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

The Last Man - Mary Shelley

FILM Elysium (diversion)

Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - Jules Verne

From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner

Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift

GAME: The Landlord’s Game

The Odyssey - Homer

One Thousand and One Nights / Arabian Nights

Le Morte d’Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory

Lud in the Mist - Hope Mirrlees

The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke

The mines of urrrgh

FILM Ghostbusters

Tintin

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Alice Fraser and fellow writer, podcaster and comedian Andrew Hunter Murray (QI, Private Eye, There's No Such Thing As A Fish) bring you episode 16 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

This week, we're looking at heroes operating outside of the law in sci fi and fantasy!

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• Explore the list of all books, games, films and TV series below.

Episode 16

In this week's news roundup of sci-fi and fantasy in the real world, there's an actual working bionic hand, actor Issa Rae says she could never fall in love with a chatbot, and there's also book news of an alien abduction Rom-Com!

Andrew has been enjoying the latest Star Wars series Andor and the Japanese epic kaiju film Godzilla Minus One, while Alice has been deep into reading Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen.

We, of course, bring you tropes galore! Hey, remember though, guys - humans are messy and you're going to love this back story about girls cross-dressing as boys to become attractive to other girls.

Alice's mines of urrgh this week is Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree, and they wonder should you edit on the fly while reading to your child and should books have newer editions without the discomfort?

Host books

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

Andrew Hunter Murray - A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering

News

Never Let Me Go / Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

I Got Abducted By Aliens And Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-com - Kimberly Lemming

What have you been into?

Andor

Godzilla Minus One

Wake of Vultures - Lila Bowen

Sub-genre deep dive: heroes operating outside of the law

Firefly

The Expanse

Alien series

Sleeper Beach - Nick Harkaway

Sabriel - Garth Nix

Judge Dredd

Hot Fuzz

Peter Pan

Jungle Book

Taltos - Steven Brust

V For Vendetta - Alan Moore

The Watchmen - Alan Moore

Minority Report

Star Wars

Trope on a rope

The World's End

Independence Day

Men In Black

Mad Max: Fury Road

Rings of Power

The mines of urrrgh

The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Andrew Hunter Murray.

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Hosts Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner bring you episode 15 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

This week, we're looking at actual parenting in sci fi and fantasy!

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• Explore the list of all books, games, films and TV series below.

Episode 15

In this week's sci fi and fantasy news, the new trailer for Predator: Badlands is pretty fantastic and horror movie Sinners starring Michael B. Jordan is doing huge things at the box office.

Chris had a really joyous time watching the stage production of Studio Ghibli's My Neighbour Totoro, and enjoyed bingeing the TV series Paradise. Alice has been laid on her back reading A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett and The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso.

Chris isn't keen on the trope of the thick cockney-sounding low level bad guys, and Alice notes the trope of kids being aged up and dropped back into the plot later on, or even people having previously undeclared secret children!

Alice's mines of urrgh this week is the comic book Phantom which she enjoyed as a child, but has not dated well unless you're particularly keen on white saviour complex.

For all of the books mentioned in the sub genre deep dive this week, please see the lists below!

Alice's book

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

Chris' podcast

Mildly Informed

News

FILM Predator: Badlands

FILM: Sinners

What have you been into?

THEATRE (/FILM) My Neighbour Totoro

A Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett

The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso

TV Paradise

Sub-genre deep dive: parenting

TV Raised by Wolves

MANGA Lone Wolf and Cub - writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima

TV Sweet Tooth

Heir to Sevenwaters - Juliet Marillier

GRAPHIC NOVEL Saga

FILM Beasts of the Southern Wild

GAME God of War

Tehanu - Ursula Le Guin

Broken Earth trilogy - N K Jemisin

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Thud - Terry Pratchett

The mines of urrrgh

COMIC - Phantom

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.

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Host Alice Fraser and James Colley bring you episode 14 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

It's a mushroom / plant life / flora core / sentient forest special!

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Episode 14

In this week's sci fi and fantasy/real world crossover news, is there life on distant planet K2-18B, and are dire wolves making a comeback?

James has been enjoying The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, while Alice has been dipping a toe into Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson.

In this week's Trope on a Rope section, the forced 'here's six months earlier' flashbacks are annoying James and Alice really wishes that people would just wear appropriate headwear in the desert.

Kurt Vonnegut's use of misogyny tarnishes James' otherwise love of the author, along with fatness being used as shorthand for evil of some sort.

For all of the books mentioned in the sub genre deep dive this week, please see the lists below!

Hosts' books

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

James Colley - The Next Big Thing

What have you been into?

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie

Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges

Mushroom Blues - Adrian M. Gibson

Sub-genre deep dive: plant life / flora core

The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

War of the Worlds - HG Wells

FILM Little Shop of Horrors

Hyperion - Dan Simmons

TV Farscape

‘Amnesty’ from Bloodchild and Other Stories - Octavia Butler

TV/GAME The Last of Us

The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett

TV Seeds of Doom - Dr Who episode

Blue Moon Rising - Simon R Green

GAME Botanica

GAME Strange Horticulture

GAME Caves of Qud

GAME Hollow Knight

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and James Colley.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Alice Fraser, and Tom Neenan bring you episode 13 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

Please take our listener survey so we can do even better: http://bit.ly/realmsunknown-survey

• All episodes are available in your podcast feed and on our YouTube channel
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• Explore the list of all books, games, films and TV series below.

Episode 13

In this week's news, Alice makes international front pages after she decides not to take a trip the US, Nanowrimo is cancelled (the organisation, not the event) and we may soon see more quality sci-fi from China.

Tom has recently been enjoying the start of season two of The Last of Us, while Alice has been distracting herself from real-life dystopian futures by dipping back into the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.

Tom's trope on a rope for this week is the oil pit fire scene, used way too often, while Alice's is the antisocial heroine.

In Mines of Urgh, Tom is looking for positive representations of limb difference, given that it's commonly used as a signifier for evil.

And listener Jen convinces Tom so convincingly to read The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, that he orders the book during the podcast record!

For all of the books mentioned in the romance in sci -fi sub genre deep dive this week, please see the lists below!

What have you been into?

TV - The Last of Us

Temeraire series - Naomi Novik

Convince Me

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Sub-genre deep dive: admin/bureaucracy

TV Star Trek

The Craft Sequence - Max Gladstone

FILM Terry Gilliam - Brazil

Vorkosigan Saga series - Lois McMaster Bujold

FILM Alien Romulus

TV Dr Who episodes The Sunmakers / Paradise Towers

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

GAME Papers Please

GAME Return of the Obra Dinn

FILM Shin Godzilla

Tyrant Philosophers series - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Landover series - Terry Brooks

The Traitor Baru Cormorant series - Seth Dickinson

Dagger and Coin series - Daniel Abraham

Terry Pratchett

FILM Amazing Grace

Mines of Urgh

Star Wars

Good Omens

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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.