Joining Alice Fraser this week is the mighty Tom Neenan (The Mash Report, The Hauntening).

The subgenre deep dive this week looks at bodies / good use of embodiment - such as body swapping in Altered Carbon or Cronenbergian body horror. Tom espouses that 2025 has seen the greatest summer for cinematic horror in recent memory, discusses the trope of befuzzled kings leaving a trail of chaos in their wake, and feels a bit eurrgh about campery being shorthand for villainy.

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

NEWS

FILM Red Sonja

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING IN YOUR BRAIN?

FILM 28 Years Later

FILM Bring Her Back

FILM Weapons

FILM Together

Swordheart - T Kingfisher

TROPE ON A ROPE

Befuzzled kings and the chaos they leave in their wake

Looking in the mirror, pulling at something and creating a Cronenbergian horror

SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - bodies

FILM Looper

FILM Together

TV Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy

TV Doctor Who - Into The Dalek

FILM Tusk

PODCAST Smodcast

Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis

Ghost In The Shell

Dune - Frank Herbert

TV Alien: Earth

FILM Ex Machina

MINES OF EURRGH

Campery to mean villainy

FILM Jupiter Ascending

TV Twilight

FILM The Little Mermaid

FILM The Lion King

FILM Robin Hood

FILM The Fifth Element

📯 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]

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

Alice Fraser is joined this week by Jen Prokop from the Fated Mates romance podcast, so expect a lot of romance recommendations and tropes!

The subgenre deep dive looks into interesting uses of POV, and Jen is uncomfortable with the increasing use of violence in romance books but enjoyed the romance elements in recent films Superman and Sinners.

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

NEWS

Who Is Elara Voss?

FILM Highlander

TV Outlander

Epic Games secures legal win against Google

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING IN YOUR BRAIN?

Superman

Sinners

TROPE ON A ROPE

Jack Reacher series - Lee Child

The Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - single POV

The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemison

Not Your Sidekick - C.B. Lee

Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie

The Baby Dragon Cafe - A.T. Qureshi

The Baby Dragon Bakery - A.T. Qureshi

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

MINES OF EURRGH

Girls and their dragons

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros

Jack West Jr series - Matthew Reilly

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

📯 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 Jen Prokop.

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

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

Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan are your guides for this week as they traverse through manner of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!

They discuss time loops in sci-fi, the tropes of hypersexualised futures and post-coital never-nudes, and whether prison 'relationships' belong in the mines of urrggh!

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

NEWS

FILM Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

FILM Spider-Man: Brand New Day

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING?

FILM Sinners

FILM Bring Her Back

TROPE ON A ROPE

Hypersexualised futures

FILM Blade Runner 2045

FILM Showgirls

FILM Starship Troopers

FILM The Fifth Element

Never nudes in sexy scenes

FILM Sex and the City

SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - time loops

FILM Groundhog Day

Strange Life of Ivan Osokin - P. D. Ouspensky

TV The Twilight Zone ‘Shadow Play’

FILM Edge of Tomorrow

TV Russian Doll

FILM Happy Death Day

FILM Happy Death Day 2 U

TV Doctor Who - Eve of the Daleks

FILM Source Code

FILM Twelve Monkeys

FILM Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The Dark Tower - Stephen King

PLAY Ghost Stories

FILM Triangle

TV Doctor Who - Heaven Sent

TV Dark

MINES OF URRGH

Bourne series - Robert Ludlum

📯 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]

Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan are your guides for this week as they traverse through manner of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.