Once again we come to a great historical turning point, acolytes of adventure, with the arrival of our fourth season finale! We're once again discussing Terry Pratchett with our friend James "Ing" Reilly-English, and this time it's the "Industrial Revolution" books about how technological and cultural change comes to the Discworld. At the center of it all: Moist Von Lipwig, con artist turned renaissance man, the guy who's destined to be a historical figure whether he wants to be or not. And with this epic discussion we will leave you once more for a few months, but please take care of yourselves, and remember: the future is what you make it...

Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional Music: [Saloon Rag by Jason Shaw] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2GdNTygRbM4)

Used under a [Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

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Episode Notes

Oh, for a simpler time, when men were men, women were women, and everyone had PTSD from World War One. We hearken back to that time with The Ship Of Ishtar, by A. Merritt, a pulp fantasy (exactly 100 years old this year!) that may have influenced the likes of Robert E. Howard and dabbles in philosophy and mythology, as well as revealing some weird dark subconscious strains in both the author and American society in the 1920s.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross Theme song by Jack Feerick Additional Music: Desert City" by Kevin MacLeod (c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Who needs that Harry Potter jerk?!? Terry Pratchett dipped his toe into the "YA series about a kid learning magic" pool a few years later in his Discworld series about teen witch Tiffany Aching. We're joined once again by pal Ing to dissect this series, which includes Pratchett's final novel.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Pulp genre fiction has produced some monumental successes (from a financial POV), and today we're tackling probably the second-biggest after Stephen King: Michael Crichton. His career as a novelist of the Campbell "hard Sci-fi" school got started in properly in 1969 with the first novel released under his real name, The Andromeda Strain. We look at this particular book and the movie that adapted it in the latest episode, and examine when "hard SF" becomes a gloss over...something else.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional Music: Cinematic Atmosphere Score 2 by Musictown

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Episode Notes

Historical adventures with swashbuckling, alternate identities, and criminals with a heart of gold seem to have been inescapable in early 20th century pulp, and Georgette Heyer's "The Masqueraders" is a fine example of the form. This one adds another common trope: cross-dressing!

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional music: Franz Schubert's Piano Trio In E Flat

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

We've talked before about how plainly world events have informed the subtext (and sometimes the regular-text) of classic SF, and The Moon Maid, a late-career offering from Edgar Rice Burroughs, proves that in spades. The politics that engulfed the world in the mid-1920s are on full display here in this seemingly escapist pulp fantasy, in which thinly-disguised Moon Communists invade America. Choose your side, citizen!

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional music: "The Planets: Mars" by Gustav Holst

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Continuing from last week's theme of "advanced mutants walk amongst us", we're looking at an entirely different take on a similar premise, one that's entirely more sympathetic to the supposedly non-human subjects. In Wilmar Shiras' "Children of the Atom", the super-intelligent kids are more benign...mostly. Though the perils of raising kids who might someday conquer the world comes with its own pitfalls. Is the answer psychology and superior educational practices? The future will tell...

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Additional Music: "Sacred Church Organ" by Jay Man, Our Music Box

Theme song by Jack Feerick

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

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They're everywhere! They're better than you! They can tinker with your brain! They'll inherit the Earth! And trying to stop them makes you into a monster! It's a common assortment of tropes from SF, with a subtext touching on everything from a Freudian fear of your children to even darker, frequently racist conspiracy theories. Slan, by A. E. Van Vogt, seems to be ground zero for popularizing these ideas in Science Fiction, and today we're diving into it, so listen before it's mysteriously deleted from the timeline...

CW: Anti-Semitism, sexual assault, statutory rape and inappropriate relationships with minors, incest, mind control, and headgames.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional Music: "Lost in Space" by Jupiter Wave

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.