For our fifth episode of Starship Alexandra, Emma puts forward the short story collection The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury to read and consider. 

Other talking points: 

Stories specifically talked about: A Sound of Thunder, The Foghorn, The Golden Apples of the Sun (short story), The Garbage Collector, The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl, I See You Never, Sun and Shadow, The Wilderness, The Black and White Game,  

The butterfly effect (not the film) 

Poetic and commercial prose 

Lawsuits! 

History, repeating itself 

The prevalence of the nuclear apocalypse in fiction. 

Amazing Obstructive Asshole Stories! 

The Time Machine Factory Problem 

The prevalence of psychic powers in fiction 

Media Mentions: 

Star Trek: the Next Generation, TV series (specifically the episode ‘The Survivors’) 

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms film directed by Eugéne Lourié 

Pavane, novel by Keith Roberts 

Oppenheimer, film directed by Christopher Nolan 

Dune, novel by Frank Herbert 

Zen in the Art of Writing, book by Ray Bradbury 

Peter Pan, novel/play by JM Barrie 

The Police, band 

Our next episode will look at the film Battle Beyond the Stars directed by Roger Corman. 

Emma’s music recommendation: the album Anticlines by Lucrecia Dalt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOL78nXzgCc&list=OLAK5uy_kirX77Moqz0sO1a2GqQ1D88fgsUvAzrS4&ab_channel=LucreciaDalt-Topic 

Emma’s latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance and also a short story in the ‘Lesbians in Space’ anthology published by Space Wizard press https://www.spacewizardsciencefantasy.com/book/lesbians-in-space-where-no-man-has-gone-before  

Adrian’s most recent book: Bee Speaker https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/bee-speaker-adrian-tchaikovsky/7741036?ean=9781035901456 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com 

For our fourth episode of Starship Alexandra, Adrian puts forward the graphic novels Top Ten volumes 1 and 2 by Moore, Ha and Cannon, for Emma to read and consider. 

Other talking points: 

• Police procedurals
• Graphic novel reading-fu
• Representation of minorities and prejudice
• The courage of our convictions (or lack of same) 

Media Mentions: 

Watchmen, graphic novel, Moore & Gibbons 

V for Vendetta, graphiv novel, Moore, Lloyd & Weare 

Hill Street Blues, TV series 

I Robot and related stories, Asimov 

ER, TV series 

The Boys, graphic novels, Ennis & Robertson (also TV series) 

Jess Nevins’ annotations to Top Ten: https://enjolrasworld.com/Jess%20Nevins/Top%20Ten/Top%20Ten%20index.htm 

The Ballad of Halo Jones, graphic novels, Moore & Gibson 

Captain Britain, comics run by Moore & Davis 

Invincible, TV series and comic by Kirkman, Walker and Ottley 

Our next episode will look at the short story collection The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury. 

Adrian’s music recommendation: “Lass Sie Gehen” by Seeed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAiMoUJwp7w&list=RDGAiMoUJwp7w&start_radio=1&ab_channel=Seeed 

Emma’s latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance and also a short story in the ‘Lesbians in Space’ anthology published by Space Wizard press https://www.spacewizardsciencefantasy.com/book/lesbians-in-space-where-no-man-has-gone-before  

Adrian’s most recent book: Bee Speaker https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/bee-speaker-adrian-tchaikovsky/7741036?ean=9781035901456 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com 

For our third episode of Starship Alexandra, Emma puts forward Ursula K le Guin’s fascinating SF novel The Lathe of Heaven for Adrian to read and consider. 

Other talking points: 

• Reality-bending in SF 

• Unusual power relationships 

• Tech billionaire problem solving 

• The perils of having superpowers 

• Inadvertent puns 

Media Mentions: 

The Fifth Element, film, dir. Luc Besson 

Eye in the Sky, novel, Phillip K Dick 

It’s a Good Life, short story, Jerome Bixby 

Young Americans, film, dir. Danny Cannon 

Dancer in the Dark, film, dir. Lars von Trier 

Our next episode will look at: Top Ten volumes 1 and 2, graphic novels by Alan Moore, Gene Ha and Zander Cannon. 

Emma’s music recommendation: Play Dead by Björk https://youtu.be/cw09VTTDRRo?si=WAaY0qeb7cC4OH12

Emma’s latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance 

Adrian’s most recent book: Bee Speaker https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/bee-speaker-adrian-tchaikovsky/7741036

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com 

For our second episode of Starship Alexandria, Adrian puts forward KJ Bishop’s weird fantasy novel The Etched City (2004) for Emma to read and consider. 

Other talking points: 

• A short discussion about spoilers and different thresholds depending on the work being considered 

• The challenges involved with reading and writing secondary world fantasy due to vocabulary 

• Adherence to historical accuracy when writing historical fantasy 

• Adrian's manifesto for the unacknowledged sub-genre "fantastical realism" 

Media Mentions: 

Dungeons and Dragons, tabletop role-playing game, Gygax et al 

Perdido Street Station, book, China Mieville 

Ambergris series, books, Jeff Vandermeer 

Viriconium series, books, M John Harrison 

A Man of Shadows, book, Jeff Noon 

Tyrant Philosophers series, books, Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Our next episode will look at: 

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin (1971)

Adrian's music recommendation: 

Minus Sixty-One by Woodkid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcJepz3QW0 

Emma’s latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance 

Adrian’s most recent book: Shroud https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shroud-adrian-tchaikovsky/7656869 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk 

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com 

For this very first episode of Starship Alexandria, Emma puts forward John Wyndham’s classic SF novel The Kraken Wakes (1953) for Adrian to read and consider (published in the US as Out of the Deeps.) 

Other media mentions: 

The War of the Worlds, HG Wells  

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Aliens franchise, dir. Ridley Scott, James Cameron et al 

The Quatermass franchise, dir. Various, written by Nigel Kneale 

A Mission of Gravity, Hal Clements 

Blackgate Adventures in Fantasy blog https://www.blackgate.com/2020/07/16/these-two-books-are-not-the-same-john-wyndhams-the-kraken-wakes-and-out-of-the-deeps/ 

That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote, KJ Bishop 

Our next episode will look at: 

The Etched City, KJ Bishop (2004) 

Emma’s music recommendation: 

Jennifer, by Everything Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEIhJM-atiI&ab_channel=EverythingEverything 

Emma’s upcoming book: The Vengeance https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-vengeance-emma-newman/7713374 

Adrian’s most recent book: Shroud https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shroud-adrian-tchaikovsky/7656869 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com