Realms Unknown

By The Bugle

Fantasy, Sci Fi and speculative fiction, observed through the comedic lens of The Bugle. Become a Bugle subscriber to enjoy this show ad free and help us thrive.

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FAQs about Realms Unknown:

How many episodes does Realms Unknown have?

The podcast currently has 29 episodes available.

Realms Unknown episodes:

July 29, 2025 Arthurian legends // Perfume // The Dark is Rising
Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton are your guides for this week as they traverse through manner of fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!

They discuss Arthurian legend in fantasy (and some sci-fi), David Bowie's tights in Labyrinth, and audible sharpness (*insert your own sword noise here!*)

📚 Buy recommended books here! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

NEWS
FILM The Odyssey
TV Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING?
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Emperor’s Blades - Brian Staveley
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam - Megan Bannen

TROPE ON A ROPE - audible sharpness
FILM Robin Hood

SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - Arthurian legends
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
FILM The Sword and the Stone
FILM Star Wars
FILM Harry Potter
TV Merlin (Sam Neill)
FILM Monty Python and the Holy Grail
PODCAST Camlann
TV The Rottentrolls
TV Sir Gadabout - The Worst Knight in the Land
FILM The Green Knight
The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
POEM The Dragons of Dinas Emrys - Pendaran
TV Merlin (BBC)
COMIC Camelot 3000

MINES OF URRGH
FILM Labyrinth
Avalon series - Marion Zimmer Bradley

📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton.
📧 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.
...more
36min
July 22, 2025 Disguises // Superman // Quantum Leap
Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!

We discuss the use of disguises in genre fiction, the hot commie summer, and ominous portents that have double meanings.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING?
FILM Superman
Buffalo Soldiers - Maurice Broaddus

TROPE ON A ROPE - ominous portents that have double meanings
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Deadly Education - Naomi Novik

SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - disguises
FILM Snow White
FILM Superman
A Court of Thorn and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
TV Quantum Leap
TV Foundation
FILM Smile
FILM Smile 2
TV Doctor Who - Terror of the Zygons
TV Orphan Black
Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Song of the Lioness series - Tamora Pierce
TV Secret Invasion
FILM Mission: Impossible series
TV Doctor Who - World Enough and Time

MINES OF URRGH
FILM Johnny Mnemonic

📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
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.
...more
37min
July 15, 2025 Red Sonja // Medieval Fayres // Funny Fantasy
Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and podcasting legend Chris Skinner for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!

We discuss medieval fayres (jousting, anyone?), K Pop Demon Hunters and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Our Trope On A Rope is characters who learn to fight way to easily, and then the one who can land the lucky punch with zero training.

We also get the ick thinking about Red Sonja.

Our genre deep dive is comedy in speculative:
All Discworld Books
Rick and Morty
Red Dwarf
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
All My Friends Are Superheroes
Gideon The Ninth

📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Laura Turner. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.
📧 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.
...more
41min
July 08, 2025 Redemption Arcs // Comics // Resident Alien
Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and US comedian and podcaster Jackie Kashian for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!

NEWS
Isles of the Emberdark - Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

WHAT ARE YOU INTO?
GAME Clank!
GAME Lords of Waterdeep
Sabriel - Garth Nix
Lirael - Garth Nix
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
Sinister Booksellers of Bath - Garth Nix
Dragonsong - Anne McCaffrey
Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey
Dragondrums - Anne McCaffrey
The Dolphins of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
A Forbidden Alchemy - Stacey McEwan
COMIC The Uncanny X-Men - Gail Simone
COMIC Ironwood - Bill Willingham
COMIC Jack of Fables - Bill Willingham
COMIC Oglaf - Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne
COMIC Giant Days - John Allison

TROPE ON A ROPE
COMIC Thunderbolts
COMIC Lucifer
COMIC Secret Six
COMIC 100 Bullets
COMIC The Boys

DEEP DIVE - redemption arcs
The Chronicles of Severian the Torturer - Gene Wolfe
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
Illusions - Richard Bach (Messiah story)
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein (Messiah story)
MOVIE Thunderbolts*
MOVIE Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence
COMIC - Lucifer
TV Lucifer
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
TV Resident Alien
COMIC Irredeemable - Mark Waid
COMIC Incorruptible - Mark Waid

MINES OF URRGH
FILM You’ve Got Mail
FILM Pillow Talk
FILM Casablanca

📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Jackie Kashian.
📧 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.
...more
41min
July 01, 2025 Flintlock fantasy // 28 Years Later // Culturepunk
Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 24 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

Episode 24
This week's news covers the Squid Game USA spinoff, Disney suing AI image generator Midjourney, and a mother suing Disney after a Stormtrooper scared her child, causing injury. Hear what Tom and Alice have been enjoying recently, men slaps and silly old women with health issues are the tropes on the rope this week and they venture into the 'mines of urrgh'. The sub genre deep dive is flintlock fantasy - combining gunpowder-era warfare with magic!

And hear the EXCLUSIVE breaking news as Tom coins what may be a brand-new genre - culturepunk. You (possibly) heard it here first!

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

News
TV Squid Game USA

What have you been into of late?
FILM 28 Years Later
Gods of Blood and Powder - Brian McClennan
FILM M3GAN 2.0

Sub genre deep dive - flintlock fiction
TV Sharpe
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - K. J. Parker
The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne - Brian Staveley
GAME Dungeons & Dragons Spelljammer
TV Shadow and Bone
Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
The Cardinal’s Blades - Pierre Pevel
The Phoenix Guards - Steven Brust
Five Hundred Years After - Steven Brust
GAME Assassin’s Creed

Mines of Urrgh
FILM 28 Years Later
FILM Severance
FILM Predator
FILM Snow White

Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
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.
...more
42min
June 24, 2025 Side characters as leads // Final Fantasy // Magician
Alice Fraser and James Nokise bring you episode 23 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!

Episode 23
This week's news covers The Odyssey, Masters of the Universe and the Highlander remake, and James and Alice dive into all manner of good things sci fi and fantasy. The sub genre deep dive is all about side characters as leads!

Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
James Nokise - PODCAST The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior

News
FILM The Odyssey
FILM Masters of the Universe
FILM Highlander

Ads
GAME Hero’s Quest
GAME Police Quest
GAME Space Quest

What have you been enjoying?
GAMES Final Fantasy
Lirael - Garth Nix

Sub genre deep dive - side characters as leads
PLAY Rosencratz and Guildenstein Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
TV Dollhouse - Joss Whedon
The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
GAME Final Fantasy XII
Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold
FILM Solo
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolf
TV Star Trek: Lower Decks
Redshirts - John Scalzi
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Magician - Raymond E. Feist

Mines of Urrgh
The Belgariad - David Eddings
FILM The Sword and the Sorcerer
FILM Close Encounters of the Third Kind
FILM Popeye
FILM Masters of the Universe

Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and James Nokise.
📧 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.
...more
39min
June 17, 2025 Translated works // Under The Skin // Bikini armour
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

Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
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.
...more
41min
June 11, 2025 Deep Dive: Tamora Pierce
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.

Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.
📧 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.
...more
37min
June 03, 2025 Neurodivergent heroes // Murderbot // Guillermo del Toro
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

Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
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.
...more
46min
May 27, 2025 Gender // Scholomance // Honor Harrington
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

Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
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.
...more
45min

FAQs about Realms Unknown:

How many episodes does Realms Unknown have?

The podcast currently has 29 episodes available.

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