Fantasy Book Swap

Episode 15: Crushing on Chrestomanci

Alice’s choice: Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

Ali’s choice: Who Let The Gods Out? by Maz Evans

You can find Alice on Twitter, read her on Book Riot and read her webcomics here

The most obvious example of an Agatha Christie novel with an unreliable narrator is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Alice mentions Robin Steven’s wonderful Murder Most Unladylike books, which I can’t recommend enough.

Do you use Storygraph to log your reading? Follow me there, and see what is coming up on the podcast! https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/alibakerbrooks

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss.

Please do rate and review the podcast on the platform you use! It helps other people find the podcast, and it satisfies my vanity!

Episode 14- Series 1 finale. Of spooks, skeksis and Sherlock

Thank you, dear listeners, for your support and interest. Fantasy Book Swap has had 1000 downloads on Podbean! Look, I have the badge to prove it!

This episode has the favourite winter reading of:

Nicholas Jackson

Danny

DC 

so thank you all for your contributions! I very much enjoyed listening to them.

Fantasy Book Swap is taking a break until the end of January, when I will be back with Fantasy Book Swap 2: Swap Harder. 

Thanks, as always, to Steve Vapour Trails for production support, and for Jack Sadler-Jackson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

Wolves are not the most dangerous creatures in this forest: Stephanie Shields, The Dark is Rising and Breadcrumbs

Stef’s choice: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

Ali’s choice: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu.

See one of Erin McGuire's illustrations for Breadcrumbs here

You can find Stef on Twitter and Instagram, and buy her books here https://www.cynefinroad.co.uk/shop

The next episode will be the last for a bit; I’m taking a break in January and will be back in early February.

Do you use Storygraph to log your reading? Follow me there, and see what is coming up on the podcast! https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/alibakerbrooks

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss.

Ep 12: Anne is not the Sansa Stark of the Famous Five- Fiona Moore on Edward Eager‘s Knight‘s Castle and Stephanie Burgis‘s The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart

You can find Fiona on Twitter, and her blog here, where you can find links to her fiction and other work. You can buy Fiona’s book on Doctor Who: The Robots of Death here. Fiona’s tiny buildings can be found on Instagram and Beau Paddington’s wardrobe on Twitter.

Fiona’s choice was Edward Eager’s Knight’s Castle, which easily available in secondhand editions. However, N. M. Bodecker’s illustrations are hard to beat, so try to find an edition including them. My favourite is here.  Fiona mentions the Christmas song Silver Bells, and we discuss the 1952 film Ivanhoe, with Elizabeth Taylor playing Rebecca. See the trailer here. The E. Nesbit book The Magic City is out of print, but you can read it free via Project Gutenberg.

Ali’s choice was Stephanie Burgis’s The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart. This book has to be read under a blanket, drinking hot chocolate. This recipe for vegan hot chocolate with chili looks perfect. Stephanie’s most recent book, The Raven Heir, will be my Christmas holiday read this year.

Fiona also mentioned Audrey NIffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry as an example of an unreliable first-person narrator.

What is your favourite seasonal read? Record a voice message with your name, the title of your favourite book to read at this time of year, and email to fantasybookswap@gmail.com. Include your postal address if you would like a Fantasy Book Swap badge.

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss.

Winter special trailer

Get involved! Email your voice recording introducing your favourite winter reads to fantasybookswap@gmail.com. 

Ep 11: Farah Mendlesohn, Fattypuffs and Thinifers and Lightfall

Follow Farah on Twitter. Farah is also a co-chair for the Eastercon 2024 bid

Farah co-authored Children's Fantasy Literature: An Introduction with Michael Levy, and is the author of The Intergalactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction

Farah recommends The Tea Dragon Society

Farah's choice: Fattypuffs and Thinifers by Andre Maurois

Ali's choice: Lightfall by Tim Probert

Please tell me your favourite Winter reads! Record a short voice note and email fantasybookswap@gmail.com

Thanks to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

”More funny than Thomas Hardy”: John Coxon, Rebecca‘s World and Flora & Ulysses

Rebecca’s World by Terry Nation 
As John states, there is an Audible audiobook of Rebecca’s World, read by Paul Darrow, who was indeed Avon from Blakes 7.

Flora and Ulysses by Kate di Camillo. There is a Disney film based on the book; see the trailer here
The Tale of Despereaux trailer on YouTube

John mentions Groosham Grange by Anthony Horowitz

Ali mentions The Eighteenth Emergency by Betsy Byars and You’re A Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton

Octothorpe British SFF fandom podcast with Liz Batty, John and Alison Scott

John’s website, including links to his fan writing, is procrastinations.co.uk
Reclamation 2022, the 72^nd EasterCon

It’s the 50^th Novacon this weekend coming (12^th-14^th November)

MERCH! From Stow Shirts  

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss.

Ep.9 ”Not your average hawk”: Tamora Pierce‘s Tortal universe with Ruth Hunt

Guest: my colleague Ruth Hunt. Find out more about Ruth and her research here

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

The Tortall universe in chronological order- though new readers would be best off starting with Alanna: The First Adventure

Tamora Pierce’s thinking about gender identity and sexuality has changed over time

An interview with Tamora Pierce on Beyond the Trope podcast

Ruth Hunt the Wild Mage’s wildlife photos here

Thanks to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance. Please check out his radio show! Also to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

Episode True 8- Virginia Preston, cricket, cake and nuns

Antonia Forests’s The Cricket Term

Daisy May Johnson’s How To Be Brave

Fantasy Book Swap episode with Daisy

The Dickens novel that we couldn’t remember was Dombey and Son, where an annoying child does indeed die

The Worst Witch- Mildred unmasking the evil witches

Eva Ibbotson’s books: The Journey to the River Sea is set in the Amazon rainforest

Many of Angela Brazil’s books are on Project Gutenberg

Nicola and Rowan discuss Dorothy L Sayers’s Murder Must Advertise. A cricket match is the climax, foreshadowing the climactic cricket match in The Cricket Term

Nesbit’s Bastables books

The Chalet School book where to the best of my memory, buried treasure is found

Join us at Reclamation2022!

Follow Virginia on Twitter

Thanks to Steve Vapour Trails for production assistance. Please check out his radio show! Also to Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his beautiful track, Bliss.

 

Episode 7 ”No booty call for Merlin”: Tiffani Angus on Mary Stewart‘s The Crystal Cave and James Clammer‘s Why I Went Back

Content warning for non-explicit discussion of sexual violence and mental health crises including sectioning.

Recorded live at FantasyCon, so there is background noise of 3D humans, including some sound bleed of the panel in the room next door. Let's call it atmosphere!

Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave- it is in fact a quintet, not a trilogy

James Clammer's Why I Went Back

I got Steve and Jimmy's friendship origin story wrong- Steve was friends at university with some of Jimmy's friends, but they actually met in Brighton. My story is better, though.

Find Tiffani here

Big thanks to Edward James and Jeremy Carter for audio support! Please check out Cast of Wonders, Katherine Inskipp and Jeremy's YA fiction podcast.

Thanks as always to Steve Vapour Trails for production support and Jack Sadler-Johnson for the use of his track Bliss. Your Letters of Comment are always welcome at Fantasybookswap@gmail.com,