Fantasy Book Swap

Ep 19: Fairytale retellings and socialist fantasy with Ali Williams

Please note that there is mention of transphobia in this episode.

Warning: there is mild swearing and a lot of cackling. 

Ali Williams’s book: Beauty by Robin McKinley

Ali Baker’s book: Magyk by Angie Sage

Robin McKinley’s website here

Angie Sage’s website here

This is Laurie Pink, Angie Sage’s child, who is an artist: https://mobile.twitter.com/lauriepink    

Ali Williams’s website: https://www.aliwilliams.org/ where you can find links to her lectures, Romancing the Discourse, her editing and writing. You can find the booklist for her paranormal romance lecture here.

You can follow Ali on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok @claficionado

Ali’s paranormal romance novel, Forged in Flames, is published later this year. You can see the gorgeous cover here

Thanks to Ali for being an emergency stand-in guest!

Ep 18: Going Underground Joan Aiken’s Is and Frances Hardinge’s A Face Like Glass

Aisha’s book: Is by Joan Aiken

Ali’s book: A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge

You can find out about all of Joan Aiken’s books here and follow her daughter, Lizza on Twitter.

Aisha mentions The Harp of Fishbones, The Kingdom under the Sea and A Necklace of Raindrops with Jan Pienkowski’s illustrations, such as these ones

You can hear LeVar Burton reading ‘Furry Night’ from The People in the Castle here

Frances Hardinge’s website, Facebook fan page and Twitter

Ali’s editions here and Aisha’s

Dr Aishwarya Subramanian’s staff profile on Strange Horizons. You can follow her on Twitter.

Strange Horizons Critical Friends podcast with Aisha, Maureen Kinkaid Speller and Dan Hartland discussing Science Fiction criticism.

The news from Ukraine is terrible. If you’re looking for a bookish charity to support, you might like to try PEN International, which supports authors. Those in Ukraine critical of Russian politics will be in particular need.

Of Wolves and Birds with Damien Hine

Damien’s choice: Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

Ali’s choice: Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder Bilan wrote about the inspiration she got from a trip to India here

You can find Damien Hine on Twitter here and Facebook. The audiobook of  Out of Atlas can be bought here. Damien will be at the British SFF convention, EasterCon. You can buy membership here, but do it soon as prices will be rising at the end of the month.

Fantasy Book Swap is Hugo-eligible! If you’re a member of Discon 3 or Chicon 8 you can add the podcast to the longlist. Help more people read fantastic British children’s fantasy fiction!

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

Spooky Old Houses and Ghostly Mouses

This episode has a very special guest… my dad, Michael Baker, who was 84 yesterday. You can see him wearing his favourite hat here. This photo was taken last May, on my sister Kate’s belated 50^th birthday. It was absolutely freezing!

Our choices were:

John Masefield's The Midnight Folk

Chris Riddell's Ghost Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

During the podcast I mention John Masefield’s poem Sea Fever. You can read it here. I just found this poem, The Ship and Her Makers,  which seems closer to his prose, somehow.

The sketch Chris Riddell gave me is here and look at the shiny!

My dad is a published author! His book, The Mountain and the Summer Stars, was published the year I was born. Dad continued to write stories for my sisters and me, and Father Christmas left us some brilliant letters thanking us for the mince pies, sherry and glass of whisky that we left out for him.

Fantasy Book Swap is Hugo eligible! If you’re a member or supporting member of Chicon 8, this year’s WorldCon, and you enjoy the podcast, please do consider a nomination for the long list.

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.