A Meal of Thorns
@mealofthorns.bsky.social
A speculative book club, where critics, writers, and scholars join us to talk about thorny, interesting titles. A podcast from the Ancillary Review of Books.
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/amealofthorns/
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/amealofthorns/
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I love this book, and love also that it was a major inspiration to Virginia Woolf for her thinking about time and structure in her later novels (& she wrote a fan letter to Stapledon to tell him so!)
New episode up now. Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon, with guest Matthew De Abaitua in conversation with Andy Miller and Una McCormack. @mdeabaitua.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/253...
253. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon — Backlisted
Writer and critic Matthew De Abaitua joins Andy, Una and Nicky to discuss Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future (1930), the astounding first novel by Olaf Stapledon. The...
www.backlisted.fm
November 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I love this book, and love also that it was a major inspiration to Virginia Woolf for her thinking about time and structure in her later novels (& she wrote a fan letter to Stapledon to tell him so!)
Talking extinction, climate apocalypse, the horrors of the wounded earth, and the importance of dodging eco-fascism with @ckunzelman.bsky.social next Monday. Probably important you have this context:
Cyclopterus lumpus | Lumpsucker | Lumpfish
YouTube video by Siamdive
youtu.be
November 25, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Talking extinction, climate apocalypse, the horrors of the wounded earth, and the importance of dodging eco-fascism with @ckunzelman.bsky.social next Monday. Probably important you have this context:
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One of my favourite episodes to date! @rblemberg.bsky.social and I got deep into their writing process - come learn all about poem outlines and how they can work for you! Plus a lovely chat about the themes in RB's work - languages and diaspora and queerness and home - you won't want to miss. ⬇️
NEW PODCAST ALERT!
Episode 17 of the Strange Horizons @ 25 podcast is live now featuring R.B. Lemberg @rblemberg.bsky.social interviewed by Kat Kourbeti @darthj.uno.
Listen and read at the link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...
Episode 17 of the Strange Horizons @ 25 podcast is live now featuring R.B. Lemberg @rblemberg.bsky.social interviewed by Kat Kourbeti @darthj.uno.
Listen and read at the link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...
Writing the Diaspora Experience with R.B. Lemberg (SH@25 Episode 17)
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, Podcast Editor Kat Kourbeti sits down with long-time Strange Horizons contributor RB Lemberg to talk about everything from using poetry as a tool to refin…
strangehorizons.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:18 PM
One of my favourite episodes to date! @rblemberg.bsky.social and I got deep into their writing process - come learn all about poem outlines and how they can work for you! Plus a lovely chat about the themes in RB's work - languages and diaspora and queerness and home - you won't want to miss. ⬇️
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Join me and, eventually, @ckunzelman.bsky.social for the new episode of SFULTRA, the antagonistic SF podcast most favoured by formless spawn who dwell in N'kai, 'neath the ruins of Yoth. After some general Lovecraft thoughts, focus settles on Alan Moore's Providence. www.patreon.com/posts/sfultr...
SFULTRA #37 - Red Hook Variations | SFULTRA
Get more from SFULTRA on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Join me and, eventually, @ckunzelman.bsky.social for the new episode of SFULTRA, the antagonistic SF podcast most favoured by formless spawn who dwell in N'kai, 'neath the ruins of Yoth. After some general Lovecraft thoughts, focus settles on Alan Moore's Providence. www.patreon.com/posts/sfultr...
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WE'RE BACK (with bonus @singlecrow.bsky.social to dazzle us with wit and insight)
we're back and launching S3 with a BANGER today as the fabulous @singlecrow.bsky.social joins us for a TWO HOUR episode on our favorite future-dressing-gown-wearing disaster, Christopher Chant
zencastr.com/z/26xps9hC
zencastr.com/z/26xps9hC
The Lives of Christopher Chant by @Rebecca Fraimow and Emily Tesh
Nobody should be losing lives at this rate. What is wrong, Christopher?
In our first episode of Season Three, the brilliant Iona Datt Sharma joins us for a discussion of bureaucracy, cricket boys, Bu...
zencastr.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:53 PM
WE'RE BACK (with bonus @singlecrow.bsky.social to dazzle us with wit and insight)
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@maryannemohanraj.bsky.social and I alternately praise, bristle at, relativize, invert, defend, and kvetch about the ancient writing norms of the Turkey City Lexicon (www.sfwa.org/2009/06/18/t...) on this episode of the podcast.
November 19, 2025 at 7:34 PM
@maryannemohanraj.bsky.social and I alternately praise, bristle at, relativize, invert, defend, and kvetch about the ancient writing norms of the Turkey City Lexicon (www.sfwa.org/2009/06/18/t...) on this episode of the podcast.
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"Everything Is Permitted: On Assassin’s Creed", @ckunzelman.bsky.social's long-awaited study of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, released this past week.
This one is high on the reading list for the holidays!
Just one of over a dozen releases/announcements in the world of Video Game Literature 👇
This one is high on the reading list for the holidays!
Just one of over a dozen releases/announcements in the world of Video Game Literature 👇
The Video Game Library Newsletter - Vol. #027
New FF7 stories, an Elden Ring epic, Amnesia’s haunted history, canceled classics resurrected, and cocktails straight out of Diablo...game books have never gone this hard!
buff.ly
November 18, 2025 at 4:45 PM
"Everything Is Permitted: On Assassin’s Creed", @ckunzelman.bsky.social's long-awaited study of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, released this past week.
This one is high on the reading list for the holidays!
Just one of over a dozen releases/announcements in the world of Video Game Literature 👇
This one is high on the reading list for the holidays!
Just one of over a dozen releases/announcements in the world of Video Game Literature 👇
It's got history, it's got vampires, it's got...sort of a baffling absence of theory on either topic! Scholar, editor, & comrade @guynes.bsky.social is on to talk about Elizabeth Kostova's THE HISTORIAN.
A Meal of Thorns 37 – THE HISTORIAN with Sean Guynes
Vampire scholar, science fiction studies editor, and ARB co-founder Sean Guynes joins to discuss Kostova’s 2005 historical vampire thriller. We both have fairly negative opinions of the book, but i…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:24 PM
It's got history, it's got vampires, it's got...sort of a baffling absence of theory on either topic! Scholar, editor, & comrade @guynes.bsky.social is on to talk about Elizabeth Kostova's THE HISTORIAN.
Tomorrow!
Coming Monday, a double-hitter:
(1) My 10k word essay reflecting on Elizabeth Kostova's THE HISTORIAN (2005).
(2) An episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social that I guested on to talk about Kostova's really rather mediocre novel. Sorry to have made @casella.bsky.social read this 700-page monstrosity.
(1) My 10k word essay reflecting on Elizabeth Kostova's THE HISTORIAN (2005).
(2) An episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social that I guested on to talk about Kostova's really rather mediocre novel. Sorry to have made @casella.bsky.social read this 700-page monstrosity.
November 16, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Tomorrow!
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Podcast recording today! I'm looking forward to hearing what @nonsuchbook.bsky.social and @ds228.bsky.social make of I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN for @onebrightbook.bsky.social.
November 16, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Podcast recording today! I'm looking forward to hearing what @nonsuchbook.bsky.social and @ds228.bsky.social make of I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN for @onebrightbook.bsky.social.
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Finished my re-read of Egan's Diaspora ahead of recording a @mealofthorns.bsky.social episode on it. What a fucking book. Hard sci-fi's version of The Centauri Device. A PhD in experimental mathematics hiding a bildungsroman. Existential hope and dread woven into a Feynman lecture. Crazy good.
November 15, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Finished my re-read of Egan's Diaspora ahead of recording a @mealofthorns.bsky.social episode on it. What a fucking book. Hard sci-fi's version of The Centauri Device. A PhD in experimental mathematics hiding a bildungsroman. Existential hope and dread woven into a Feynman lecture. Crazy good.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
Just found out abt A MEAL OF THORNS hosted by @casella.bsky.social & holy shit is it superb. Talking abt all the books I love/want to read. Give it a listen.
A Meal of Thorns
Books Podcast · Updated Biweekly · A critical book club from the Ancillary Review of Books. Host Jake Casella Brookins invites writers, scholars, and critics to discuss thorny works of science fiction...
podcasts.apple.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Just found out abt A MEAL OF THORNS hosted by @casella.bsky.social & holy shit is it superb. Talking abt all the books I love/want to read. Give it a listen.
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Melmoth THEE Wanderer
November 12, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Melmoth THEE Wanderer
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finally listened to the A Meal of Thorns episode about Lud-in-the-Mist. great episode, incredible book. i feel so fired up about reading and writing fantasy now
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/07/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/07/a...
A Meal of Thorns 21 – LUD-IN-THE-MIST with Marita Arvaniti
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Marita ArvanitiTitle: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope MirrleesHost: …
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
June 6, 2025 at 3:29 PM
finally listened to the A Meal of Thorns episode about Lud-in-the-Mist. great episode, incredible book. i feel so fired up about reading and writing fantasy now
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/07/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/07/a...
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Happening now! The brilliant Justin Mann speak in about securitization and speculative fiction!
November 10, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Happening now! The brilliant Justin Mann speak in about securitization and speculative fiction!
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Let's make it official:
SHELVED BY GENRE's next unit, spanning ALL of 2026, will be a delve into the depths of modern genre with J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION.
If you don't have those, you can grab them through our Bookshop:
bookshop.org/lists/shelve...
SHELVED BY GENRE's next unit, spanning ALL of 2026, will be a delve into the depths of modern genre with J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION.
If you don't have those, you can grab them through our Bookshop:
bookshop.org/lists/shelve...
Shelved By Genre
These are books discussed on the podcast Shelved by Genre!
bookshop.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Let's make it official:
SHELVED BY GENRE's next unit, spanning ALL of 2026, will be a delve into the depths of modern genre with J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION.
If you don't have those, you can grab them through our Bookshop:
bookshop.org/lists/shelve...
SHELVED BY GENRE's next unit, spanning ALL of 2026, will be a delve into the depths of modern genre with J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE SILMARILLION.
If you don't have those, you can grab them through our Bookshop:
bookshop.org/lists/shelve...
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
I'm speaking about Latinx fantasy literature at a free online conference Friday, 11/7, at 11am EST. Come join in the fun and get some great book recommendations: latinxarchive.com/latinx-visio...
The Latinx Archive - Latinx Visions 2.0
latinxarchive.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:28 AM
I'm speaking about Latinx fantasy literature at a free online conference Friday, 11/7, at 11am EST. Come join in the fun and get some great book recommendations: latinxarchive.com/latinx-visio...
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I really enjoyed the latest U&DF, not least because it came out right after Paul, Jacqui and I had recorded the latest Critical Friends - and trod some similar ground in attaching some of the most deterministic dystopias with horror. Something about the affects in these texts are aiming similarly.
November 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM
I really enjoyed the latest U&DF, not least because it came out right after Paul, Jacqui and I had recorded the latest Critical Friends - and trod some similar ground in attaching some of the most deterministic dystopias with horror. Something about the affects in these texts are aiming similarly.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
Great discussion that reminds me how fascinating I found this novel about a world where the fall is all that's left. And timely to remind UK readers that we can think about it for awards, because for us it's a 2025 book.
New episode of A Meal of Thorns! Scholar, writer, and CRSF organizer E.F. McAdam is on the podcast to discuss Hiromi Kawakami's UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD (tr. Asa Yoneda, @grantabooks.bsky.social/ @catapultbooks.bsky.social)
A Meal of Thorns 36 – UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD with Eleanor McAdam
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Eleanor McAdamTitle: Under The Eye Of The Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakam…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 3, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Great discussion that reminds me how fascinating I found this novel about a world where the fall is all that's left. And timely to remind UK readers that we can think about it for awards, because for us it's a 2025 book.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
🎧New Critical Friends! It was a real pleasure to convene this talk with Paul March-Russell of @sffoundation.bsky.social and Jacqueline Nyathi of @hararereview.bsky.social.
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
strangehorizons.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:47 PM
🎧New Critical Friends! It was a real pleasure to convene this talk with Paul March-Russell of @sffoundation.bsky.social and Jacqueline Nyathi of @hararereview.bsky.social.
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
Human evolution & extinction, unusual AI, and humor & style at the end of the world: E.F. McAdam of the CRSF joins to discuss Hiromi Kawakami's UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD, translated by Asa Yoneda. Fun book, fun conversation:
A Meal of Thorns 36 – UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD with Eleanor McAdam
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Eleanor McAdamTitle: Under The Eye Of The Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakam…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 3, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Human evolution & extinction, unusual AI, and humor & style at the end of the world: E.F. McAdam of the CRSF joins to discuss Hiromi Kawakami's UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD, translated by Asa Yoneda. Fun book, fun conversation:
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
So you're a Hugo reader. You've listened to all my episodes and @hugogirlpodcast.bsky.social. You've kept up with @hugonauts.bsky.social and now you're out of podcasts.
Well, you're in luck! @klaxoncomms.com is bringing you Hugo History, a new monthly podcast! And it's terrific, so check it out!
Well, you're in luck! @klaxoncomms.com is bringing you Hugo History, a new monthly podcast! And it's terrific, so check it out!
November 3, 2025 at 12:03 AM
So you're a Hugo reader. You've listened to all my episodes and @hugogirlpodcast.bsky.social. You've kept up with @hugonauts.bsky.social and now you're out of podcasts.
Well, you're in luck! @klaxoncomms.com is bringing you Hugo History, a new monthly podcast! And it's terrific, so check it out!
Well, you're in luck! @klaxoncomms.com is bringing you Hugo History, a new monthly podcast! And it's terrific, so check it out!
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Quick heads up that the newest episode will drop tomorrow!
talking about Beren and Lúthien next time on @bythebywater.bsky.social (and since it’s October I drew their scary forms)
November 2, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Quick heads up that the newest episode will drop tomorrow!
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
NBCC member Jake Casella Brookins talked to author and historian Arkady Martine about C.J. Cherryh's novel "40,000 in Gehenna" for the podcast A Meal of Thorns:
A Meal of Thorns 27 – 40,000 IN GEHENNA with Arkady Martine (and a 4th Street Fantasy Report)
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Credits:Guest: Arkady MartineTitle: 40,000 in Gehenna by C.J. CherryhHost: …
buff.ly
July 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
NBCC member Jake Casella Brookins talked to author and historian Arkady Martine about C.J. Cherryh's novel "40,000 in Gehenna" for the podcast A Meal of Thorns: