In this episode we are unduly harsh on a sequel to a book we both liked, which is kind of par for the course with sequels. Take it as a study of the peril of high expectations.

(This episode was recorded before we embarked on our ideological short novels series - apologies for any resulting continuity errors.)

We are glad to live in a world where a movie as weird as this can win Best Picture, and we have a lot to say about it. Our guest for this episode is Soyi Kim, doctor of comparative literature and art history (and big fan of this film, more to the point.)

Swords! Sorcery! Nipponese Steel! I mean Naiponese Steel! Come see the medieval Japan that 1980s otaku dreamed of.

It's Frankenstein! And just like in the original, the real monster is the doctor, who is a lesbian. This is the third in our series on highly ideological short novels, and this one involves a Creature who is raised in the woods entirely on leftist critical theory.

In Part 2 of our series on extremely ideological short novels we arrive at Sappho's Bar and Grill, holdover from an imagined heyday of lesbian culture where everyone was rough and tough and manly and did women's magic in the woods and absolutely nobody had a penis. In this book a professor of women's studies goes on a magical journey through women's history and learns the important lesson that she was right about the kids these days all along.

A Hallmark Christmas movie of a book, except it's Halloween and there are lesbians. This is a return to the world of chick lit and also the first in a trilogy of episodes about works which are extremely ideological, intentionally or otherwise.

As a treat we decided to read three Tamsyn Muir short stories. Tremendous fun was had.

What if vampires drank ink and ideas instead of blood? And what if there was an incredibly dumb book about it?

We've made it through two years of this! Due to a series of circumstances we kind of had to throw this episode together at the last minute, but we had fun, and that's what matters.

What if British colonizers in early 20th century Singapore were literal vampires? And what if they wanted to have sex with you? And what does it say that this bit of ebook erotica is one of the strongest and most structurally creative novels we've read for this podcast?