Fantasy Book Swap

Ep 50: Demon horses and ghost dogs with Anna Smith Spark

Anna’s book choice: The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner

 

Ali’s book choice: Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend by Lizzie Huxley-Jones. Sadly, I have just found out that Knights Of publishers have gone out of business, so Vivi’s trilogy is out of print. Hopefully you will be able to find them at online second hand book stores. 

 

Find out more about Anna Smith Spark 

 

The Bread Horse by Alan Garner- front cover. Boneland, which I intend to read. 

 

The Ceffyl Dwr, the wild hunt, Afanc. Rhianna Pratchett’s podcast on British mythology, Mythical Creatures, discusses water demons in episode 3.

 

Herne the Hunter. Herne features in The Box of Delights by John Masefield, Silver in the Tree by Susan Cooper and (foreshadowing!) Tad Williams’s Memory, Shadow and Thorn series. 

 

Angharad Golden-Hand. Rhiannon. Epona, the Celtic horse goddess, who has nothing to do with Sulis/ Aquae Sulis/ Bath.

 

Hobby Horse- a May Day tradition, originally associated with Morris dancers. The Mari Lwyd is a Christmas tradition, first referenced in the early 19th Century. 

Gelert the wolfhound; of course Gelert's grave isn't real.

Nina Beachcroft, an excellent children’s author of spooky stories. Anna discusses Cold Christmas, which is the name of a hamlet in Hertfordshire, Nina Beachcroft’s home county- and mine, though I grew up near Watford rather than Hertford. 

 

The Stephen Collins cartoon on Netflix exposition

 

Nancy Drew, The Chalet School- there are 58 books in the original series, but it was incredibly difficult to read them in order in the 1970s and 1980s! I encountered the wonderful Scrivener’s Books when in Buxton for Novacon. It’s a wonderful place, and that perfect shop for stumbling over that elusive third book in an out of print series!

 

I remembered Pat O’Shea’s The Hounds of the Morrigan and Aliette de Bodard on Motherhood and Erasure in speculative fiction- Aliette talks about this blog on the Breaking the Glass Slipper podcast. 

 

Seanan McGuire’s wonderful The Wayward Children series

Ep. 49: When magic isn't a metaphor with Robert Berg

Robert's choice: The Marvellous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Ali's choice: Wynd book 1: The Flight of the Prince by James Tynion IV and Michael Dialnyas

Robert is 1/4 of wonderful Bona Books! The Wrath Month kickstarter is still open for stretch goals backing.

Return to Oz (1985) trainer here: relive your childhood trauma!

I still can't find the Arena documentary, but here is a PBS one

Robert's favourite Oz retelling is Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Mine is Was by Geoff Ryman

Pride is a wonderful film about solidarity and intersectional identity

Boom! Studios comics

For other episodes on "race/ ethnicity" in fantasy, check out this episode with Russell Smith; for queerness in fantasy, this one with Juliet Kemp. 

Follow Rob on Bluesky and Instagram

Bona Books' Instagram 

Follow me on Instagram for gorgeous images from Wynd and more!

Ep 48: The anti-authoritarian politics of naughtiness with Sandra Bond

Ep 48 Shownotes

 

Sandra’s book: The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater

Ali’s book: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. It’s also a film

The Politics of Fantasy by Brian Attebury

Catherine Crumb on her bicycle

Nicolas Bentley’s illustrations

Rudyard Kipling’s Just-So Stories

Murderbot by Martha Wells. It’s also a TV series

The Martian by Andy Weir

Tik Tok by John Sladek

Peter Brown’s website

Sandra is not a dog groomer from the US

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production support. Why not go and give his radio show a listen?

 

Ep 47: Worldbuilding Britain in historical fiction

Caroline's choice: Dawn Wind by Rosemary Sutcliff

Ali's choice (first read in 2022, not 2002!): The Short Knife by Elen Caldecott.

Tir na n'Nog book award 

Ken Slater and fan ac

Some books where a “commoner” becomes a prince:

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope

The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Horse and his Boy by C. S. Lewis

Caroline’s Rosemary Sutcliff books

Elen Caldecott’s website and Leaf, the journal of writing for young people

Caroline’s fan writing Reflections in the Shards edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production support. Why not go and give his radio show a listen?

Episode 46: In Space, nobody provides childcare

Jim’s book (with Twilight-style cover); with Alison Moyet cover

Ali’s book

Stars and Sabers publishing

Ferengi “Human female”

Murderbot trailer

Dave McKean’s website

SF Said’s website

Alfred Bester: The Stars my Destination

There are two sequels to War of the Worlds: the straight to DVD adaptation and Stephen Baxter’s The Massacre of Mankind

Material Girls podcast episode discussing Romantasy

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles trailer. This is what the first couple of chapters of Phoenix is like. It doesn’t end up like this.

Jim’s website, Worrad Enterprises

 

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails, Jack Sadler-Johnson and Danny!

Episode 45: Rainy season at the Hotel Romero

Kylie Ding’s choice: The Rains of Eridan by H.M. Hoover

Ali’s choice: The Zombie Project by Alice Nuttall

1. M. Hoover on the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Alice Nuttall’s Linktree

The Hugo and Lodestar finalists

Other books for children with adult protagonists (off the top of my head!):

Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter

Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Prøysen

Mr Benn by David McKee

Mrs Armitage on Wheels by Quentin Blake

George Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead- trailer

First Thursday fandom drinks in London

Ep 44: Horses and curses and home, but not at home

Meg’s choice: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

Ali’s copy of the book

Ali’s choice: The Beginners Guide to Curses by Lari Don

More about Elizabeth Goudge

More about Lari Don

Heliotrope flowers

Lari Don on Rhianna Pratchett’s BBC radio show about British mythical creatures talking about kelpies

The legend of Gelert and Greyfriars Bobby

Kate Crackernuts

Whuppity Stoorie

Mairi Hedderwick

Katie Morag TV series

Glasgow Worldcon 2024 Presents on Youtube

LACon V: Worldcon 2026

Follow Meg on BlueSky

Ep 43: Uncontextual pineapple with Catriona Silvey

Recorded live at EasterCon in Belfast at 9:30am on Easter Sunday! Please forgive my wheeziness; I was coming down with a chest infection.

Catriona’s choice: The Silver Crown by Robert C. O’ Brien

Ali’s choice: Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick

We discuss Robert C. O’ Brien’s better-known books, Z for Zachariah and Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. You may like to listen to the episode The Anti- Reepicheep League with Ang Rosin about Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents here.

We also mention The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross; Russell Smith selected it as his Fantasy Book Swap choice.

Jennifer Killick was a guest on the fantastic podcast about children’s books, The Island of Brilliant.

I am not a shill for The Phoenix Comic, I promise.

Catch up with Catriona via her website, https://catrionasilvey.com/index.html

Join us at EasterCon next year in Birmingham!

Ep 42: Pirates and Mermaids and Witches with Ida Keogh

Ida’s choice: The Man whose Mother was a Pirate by Margaret Mahy

Ali’s choice: The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall. The sequel has just been published: The Siren, the Song and the Spy

Ida had a different edition from mine

Other books we mention in this episode:

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Sarah Baartman, the Khoekhoe woman whose birth name may have been Ssehura, displayed in Europe as the Hottentot Venus

Ida’s award-winning short story Infinite Tea in the Demerara Café is in the NewCon Press anthology London Centric

Her novella Fish!

 Ida has a story in the anthology Laughs in Space.

Follow Ida on Bluesky Facebook and @ida_Keogh on Instagram

Ep 41: Narnia Business with Katie Bruce

Katie’s choice: C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Ali’s choice: David A. Robertson’s The Barren Grounds

Katie is just back from FantasyCon! Next year Brighton hosts World FantasyCon 2025; come and join us!

Neil Gaiman’s short story is called ‘The Problem of Susan’ and is in the collection Fragile Things (it is of course entirely up to you whether or not you wish to support Gaiman’s work by buying it new or second hand.)

Katie couldn’t continue with Robin Hobb’s Soldiers Sons trilogy because the food descriptions brought on morning sickness

Fiona Moore’s blog, where she cooks from SFF cook books so we don’t have to!

Lovely Gili Bar-Hillel introduced me to this brilliant piece of fan fic where Anthony Bourdain reviews Narnian hospitality. Read it, it’s perfect! https://archiveofourown.org/works/137185

The BBC 1988 adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Leeds Playhouse’s adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe runs from 18^th November 2024- 25^th January 2025

Trailer for Greta Gerwig’s adaptation

Tilda Swinton’s White Witch tempts Edmund

I delivered a paper on orientalism in the Chronicles of Narnia at a Historical Fictions Network conference. You can read it here

David A. Robertson’s website

Scottish bannock recipe. Canadian First Nations Bannocks were adapted from Scottish recipes. I have not found a bison chili recipe; I assume that you first catch your bison.

The Little Bookshop, Leeds

City Books, Brighton

Find Katie online

AuthorAssist.co.uk

@Katiebruce.bsky.social on BlueSky

@Katiebrucecake on Instagram

I was a guest on Steve Vapour Trail’s radio show many moons ago with a selection of fantasy and science fiction-themed music. Enjoy the playlist here. Thank you to Danny for the idents, and to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track Bliss.