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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