Fantasy, Sci Fi and speculative fiction, observed through the comedic lens of The Bugle. Become a Bugle subscriber to enjoy this show ad free and help us thrive.
Expect reviews and supernova level hot takes on literature, gaming, films, TV, board games, and anywhere else you can experience space ships, clones and beautiful elves with massive weapons.
A podcast from The Bugle. Hosted by Alice Fraser and friends. Also available as a video podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Fantasy, Sci Fi and speculative fiction, observed through the comedic lens of The Bugle. Become a Bugle subscriber to enjoy this show ad free and help us thrive.
Expect reviews and supernova level hot takes on literature, gaming, films, TV, board games, and anywhere else you can experience space ships, clones and beautiful elves with massive weapons.
A podcast from The Bugle. Hosted by Alice Fraser and friends. Also available as a video podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Joining Alice Fraser this week is the mighty Tom Neenan (The Mash Report, The Hauntening).
The subgenre deep dive this week looks at bodies / good use of embodiment - such as body swapping in Altered Carbon or Cronenbergian body horror. Tom espouses that 2025 has seen the greatest summer for cinematic horror in recent memory, discusses the trope of befuzzled kings leaving a trail of chaos in their wake, and feels a bit eurrgh about campery being shorthand for villainy.
📚 Buy recommended books here! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
NEWS
FILM Red Sonja
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING IN YOUR BRAIN?
FILM 28 Years Later
FILM Bring Her Back
FILM Weapons
FILM Together
Swordheart - T Kingfisher
TROPE ON A ROPE
Befuzzled kings and the chaos they leave in their wake
Looking in the mirror, pulling at something and creating a Cronenbergian horror
SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - bodies
FILM Looper
FILM Together
TV Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy
TV Doctor Who - Into The Dalek
FILM Tusk
PODCAST Smodcast
Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis
Ghost In The Shell
Dune - Frank Herbert
TV Alien: Earth
FILM Ex Machina
MINES OF EURRGH
Campery to mean villainy
FILM Jupiter Ascending
TV Twilight
FILM The Little Mermaid
FILM The Lion King
FILM Robin Hood
FILM The Fifth Element
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser is joined this week by Jen Prokop from the Fated Mates romance podcast, so expect a lot of romance recommendations and tropes!
The subgenre deep dive looks into interesting uses of POV, and Jen is uncomfortable with the increasing use of violence in romance books but enjoyed the romance elements in recent films Superman and Sinners.
📚 Buy recommended books here! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
Reading list to follow!
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Jen Prokop.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan are your guides for this week as they traverse through manner of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!
They discuss time loops in sci-fi, the tropes of hypersexualised futures and post-coital never-nudes, and whether prison 'relationships' belong in the mines of urrggh!
📚 Buy recommended books here! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
NEWS
FILM Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
FILM Spider-Man: Brand New Day
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING?
FILM Sinners
FILM Bring Her Back
TROPE ON A ROPE
Hypersexualised futures
FILM Blade Runner 2045
FILM Showgirls
FILM Starship Troopers
FILM The Fifth Element
Never nudes in sexy scenes
FILM Sex and the City
SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - time loops
FILM Groundhog Day
Strange Life of Ivan Osokin - P. D. Ouspensky
TV The Twilight Zone ‘Shadow Play’
FILM Edge of Tomorrow
TV Russian Doll
FILM Happy Death Day
FILM Happy Death Day 2 U
TV Doctor Who - Eve of the Daleks
FILM Source Code
FILM Twelve Monkeys
FILM Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
The Dark Tower - Stephen King
PLAY Ghost Stories
FILM Triangle
TV Doctor Who - Heaven Sent
TV Dark
MINES OF URRGH
Bourne series - Robert Ludlum
📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan are your guides for this week as they traverse through manner of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton are your guides for this week as they traverse through manner of fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!
They discuss Arthurian legend in fantasy (and some sci-fi), David Bowie's tights in Labyrinth, and audible sharpness (*insert your own sword noise here!*)
📚 Buy recommended books here! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
NEWS
FILM The Odyssey
TV Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING?
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Emperor’s Blades - Brian Staveley
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam - Megan Bannen
TROPE ON A ROPE - audible sharpness
FILM Robin Hood
SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - Arthurian legends
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
FILM The Sword and the Stone
FILM Star Wars
FILM Harry Potter
TV Merlin (Sam Neill)
FILM Monty Python and the Holy Grail
PODCAST Camlann
TV The Rottentrolls
TV Sir Gadabout - The Worst Knight in the Land
FILM The Green Knight
The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
POEM The Dragons of Dinas Emrys - Pendaran
TV Merlin (BBC)
COMIC Camelot 3000
MINES OF URRGH
FILM Labyrinth
Avalon series - Marion Zimmer Bradley
📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!
We discuss the use of disguises in genre fiction, the hot commie summer, and ominous portents that have double meanings.
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING?
FILM Superman
Buffalo Soldiers - Maurice Broaddus
TROPE ON A ROPE - ominous portents that have double meanings
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Deadly Education - Naomi Novik
SUB GENRE DEEP DIVE - disguises
FILM Snow White
FILM Superman
A Court of Thorn and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
TV Quantum Leap
TV Foundation
FILM Smile
FILM Smile 2
TV Doctor Who - Terror of the Zygons
TV Orphan Black
Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Song of the Lioness series - Tamora Pierce
TV Secret Invasion
FILM Mission: Impossible series
TV Doctor Who - World Enough and Time
MINES OF URRGH
FILM Johnny Mnemonic
📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and podcasting legend Chris Skinner for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!
We discuss medieval fayres (jousting, anyone?), K Pop Demon Hunters and A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Our Trope On A Rope is characters who learn to fight way to easily, and then the one who can land the lucky punch with zero training.
We also get the ick thinking about Red Sonja.
Our genre deep dive is comedy in speculative:
All Discworld Books
Rick and Morty
Red Dwarf
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
All My Friends Are Superheroes
Gideon The Ninth
📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Laura Turner. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and US comedian and podcaster Jackie Kashian for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!
NEWS
Isles of the Emberdark - Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
WHAT ARE YOU INTO?
GAME Clank!
GAME Lords of Waterdeep
Sabriel - Garth Nix
Lirael - Garth Nix
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
Sinister Booksellers of Bath - Garth Nix
Dragonsong - Anne McCaffrey
Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey
Dragondrums - Anne McCaffrey
The Dolphins of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
A Forbidden Alchemy - Stacey McEwan
COMIC The Uncanny X-Men - Gail Simone
COMIC Ironwood - Bill Willingham
COMIC Jack of Fables - Bill Willingham
COMIC Oglaf - Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne
COMIC Giant Days - John Allison
TROPE ON A ROPE
COMIC Thunderbolts
COMIC Lucifer
COMIC Secret Six
COMIC 100 Bullets
COMIC The Boys
DEEP DIVE - redemption arcs
The Chronicles of Severian the Torturer - Gene Wolfe
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
Illusions - Richard Bach (Messiah story)
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein (Messiah story)
MOVIE Thunderbolts*
MOVIE Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence
COMIC - Lucifer
TV Lucifer
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
TV Resident Alien
COMIC Irredeemable - Mark Waid
COMIC Incorruptible - Mark Waid
MINES OF URRGH
FILM You’ve Got Mail
FILM Pillow Talk
FILM Casablanca
📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Jackie Kashian.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 24 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
Episode 24
This week's news covers the Squid Game USA spinoff, Disney suing AI image generator Midjourney, and a mother suing Disney after a Stormtrooper scared her child, causing injury. Hear what Tom and Alice have been enjoying recently, men slaps and silly old women with health issues are the tropes on the rope this week and they venture into the 'mines of urrgh'. The sub genre deep dive is flintlock fantasy - combining gunpowder-era warfare with magic!
And hear the EXCLUSIVE breaking news as Tom coins what may be a brand-new genre - culturepunk. You (possibly) heard it here first!
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
News
TV Squid Game USA
What have you been into of late?
FILM 28 Years Later
Gods of Blood and Powder - Brian McClennan
FILM M3GAN 2.0
Sub genre deep dive - flintlock fiction
TV Sharpe
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - K. J. Parker
The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne - Brian Staveley
GAME Dungeons & Dragons Spelljammer
TV Shadow and Bone
Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
The Cardinal’s Blades - Pierre Pevel
The Phoenix Guards - Steven Brust
Five Hundred Years After - Steven Brust
GAME Assassin’s Creed
Mines of Urrgh
FILM 28 Years Later
FILM Severance
FILM Predator
FILM Snow White
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser and James Nokise bring you episode 23 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
Episode 23
This week's news covers The Odyssey, Masters of the Universe and the Highlander remake, and James and Alice dive into all manner of good things sci fi and fantasy. The sub genre deep dive is all about side characters as leads!
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
James Nokise - PODCAST The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior
News
FILM The Odyssey
FILM Masters of the Universe
FILM Highlander
Ads
GAME Hero’s Quest
GAME Police Quest
GAME Space Quest
What have you been enjoying?
GAMES Final Fantasy
Lirael - Garth Nix
Sub genre deep dive - side characters as leads
PLAY Rosencratz and Guildenstein Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
TV Dollhouse - Joss Whedon
The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
GAME Final Fantasy XII
Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold
FILM Solo
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolf
TV Star Trek: Lower Decks
Redshirts - John Scalzi
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Magician - Raymond E. Feist
Mines of Urrgh
The Belgariad - David Eddings
FILM The Sword and the Sorcerer
FILM Close Encounters of the Third Kind
FILM Popeye
FILM Masters of the Universe
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and James Nokise.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 22 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
Episode 22
This week's news respectfully looks at buff geek Henry Cavill's forthcoming Highlander movie, and Tom and Alice dive into all manner of good things sci fi and fantasy. This week's deep dive is all about translated works!
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
Alice Fraser - Calm World: Introduction to Meditation
Tom Neenan - Zeroes - David Reed
News
FILM Highlander
APP Zombies! Run!
What have you been enjoying?
FILM Under The Skin
Under The Skin - Michael Faber
Behooved - M. Stevenson
Trope on a rope - bikini armour / warrior maiden vagina chokehold
Jill Bearup - Just Stab Me Now
Sub genre deep dive - sci fi and fantasy in translation
The Odyssey
The Iliad
Beowulf - Maria Dahvana Headley
Beowulf - Seamus Heany
Asterix & Obelix
The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem
The Melting - Lize Spit
ANIME Neon Genesis Evangelion
TV Dark
The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
FILM The City of Lost Children
Mines of Urrgh
FILM Elysium
FILM Mountainhead
Mr Men - Roger Hargreaves
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice is joined by Chris Skinner to discuss the work of Tamora Pierce. They also chat about Murderbot and Sarah J Maas - is Romantasy sexy enough?
Search for Chris’s show Mildly Informed in your pod feed now.
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 20 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
This week, it's all about neurodivergent heroes in sci-fi and fantasy!
Episode 20
This week's news features Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein movie, the new Predator: Killer of Killers movie and is gravity proof that life on Earth is actually a simulation?
Hear what Alice and Tom have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
Tom Neenan - The Hauntening
Tom Neenan Is Not All Men
News
FILM Frankenstein
FILM Predator: Killer of Killers
FILM Mountainhead
What have you been into?
TV Rick and Morty
Blood Song - Anthony Ryan
Witch King - Martha Wells
Sub-genre deep dive: neurodivergent heroes
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
TV Bones
Temperance Brennan series - Kathy Reichs
A Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett
TV Star Trek
TV Red Dwarf
The mines of urrrgh
FILM Passengers
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Host Alice Fraser and author Patrick Lenton bring you episode 19 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
This week, we're looking at gender!
Episode 19
This week's news features The Wheel of Time getting cancelled, Lilo and Stitch doing surprisingly well at the box office, and a fantasy author caught using AI to write in her own style!
Hear what Alice and Patrick have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.
Host books
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
Patrick Lenton - In Spite of You
News
TV The Wheel of Time
FILM Lilo and Stitch
What have you been into?
Scholomance Trilogy - Naomi Novik
Blood over Bright Haven - M.L. Wang
TV Andor
Trope on a rope
TV Charmed
Sub-genre deep dive: gender
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
TV Rings of Power
TV Xena: Warrior Princess
Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster Bujold
The Honorverse - David Weber
TV Deep Space Nine
Terry Pratchett Discworld series
Lady’s Knight - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
The Bright Sword - Lev Grossman
The mines of urrrgh
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Patrick Lenton.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Host Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan (The Mash Report, The Hauntening) bring you episode 18 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
This week, we're looking at experiments in form!
Episode 18
This week's news features the Highlander remake moving to Amazon, Sinners continuing to tear up the box office, and the sad introduction of AI-narrated audiobooks.
Hear what Alice and Tom have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.
Host book
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
News
FILM Highlander remake
FILM Sinners
What have you been into?
FILM Sinners
The Blacktongue Thief - Christopher Buehlman
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Trope on a rope
Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
Sub-genre deep dive: experiments in form
The Book of Good Times - Hank Green
The Ship of Theseus - VM Straka
This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
SCP-3008
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Subcutanean - Aaron Reed
PODCAST - The Last Post
PODCAST - Revolutions
WEBCOMIC - xkcd
WEBCOMIC - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
PODCAST Beef and Dairy Network
PODCAST Welcome to Night Vale
Convince Me
The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness
Redshirts - John Scalzi
The mines of urrrgh
FILM Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom
FILM Wall-E
Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows
Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate
Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store
🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!
🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!
Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Host Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton bring you episode 17 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
This week, we're looking at early sci fi and fantasy!
Episode 17
This week's news features the Apple TV+ series Foundation, a surprisingly sexual story about E.T. and how Margaret Attwood receiving an entertainment award may distract from similarities with current issues.
Hear what Alice and Eleanor have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.
Host books
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
Eleanor Morton - Life Lessons From Historical Women
News
TV Foundation
FILM E.T.
What have you been into?
The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
Dinotopia - James Gurney
The Daughters’ War - Christopher Buelman
The Edge Chronicles - Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Sub-genre deep dive: early sci-fi and fantasy
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Last Man - Mary Shelley
FILM Elysium (diversion)
Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - Jules Verne
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner
Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift
GAME: The Landlord’s Game
The Odyssey - Homer
One Thousand and One Nights / Arabian Nights
Le Morte d’Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory
Lud in the Mist - Hope Mirrlees
The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The mines of urrrgh
FILM Ghostbusters
Tintin
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton.
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Host Alice Fraser and fellow writer, podcaster and comedian Andrew Hunter Murray (QI, Private Eye, Austentatious) bring you episode 16 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
This week, we're looking at heroes operating outside of the law in sci fi and fantasy!
Episode 16
In this week's news roundup of sci-fi and fantasy in the real world, there's an actual working bionic hand, actor Issa Rae says she could never fall in love with a chatbot, and there's also book news of an alien abduction Rom-Com!
Andrew has been enjoying the latest Star Wars series Andor and the Japanese epic kaiju film Godzilla Minus One, while Alice has been deep into reading Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen.
We, of course, bring you tropes galore! Hey, remember though, guys - humans are messy and you're going to love this back story about girls cross-dressing as boys to become attractive to other girls.
Alice's mines of urrgh this week is Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree, and they wonder should you edit on the fly while reading to your child and should books have newer editions without the discomfort?
Host books
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
Andrew Hunter Murray - A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering
News
Never Let Me Go / Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
I Got Abducted By Aliens And Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-com - Kimberly Lemming
What have you been into?
Andor
Godzilla Minus One
Wake of Vultures - Lila Bowen
Sub-genre deep dive: heroes operating outside of the law
Firefly
The Expanse
Alien series
Sleeper Beach - Nick Harkaway
Sabriel - Garth Nix
Judge Dredd
Hot Fuzz
Peter Pan
Jungle Book
Taltos - Steven Brust
V For Vendetta - Alan Moore
The Watchmen - Alan Moore
Minority Report
Star Wars
Trope on a rope
The World's End
Independence Day
Men In Black
Mad Max: Fury Road
Rings of Power
The mines of urrrgh
The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Andrew Hunter Murray.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
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Hosts Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner bring you episode 15 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
This week, we're looking at actual parenting in sci fi and fantasy!
Episode 15
In this week's sci fi and fantasy news, the new trailer for Predator: Badlands is pretty fantastic and horror movie Sinners starring Michael B. Jordan is doing huge things at the box office.
Chris had a really joyous time watching the stage production of Studio Ghibli's My Neighbour Totoro, and enjoyed bingeing the TV series Paradise. Alice has been laid on her back reading A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett and The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso.
Chris isn't keen on the trope of the thick cockney-sounding low level bad guys, and Alice notes the trope of kids being aged up and dropped back into the plot later on, or even people having previously undeclared secret children!
Alice's mines of urrgh this week is the comic book Phantom which she enjoyed as a child, but has not dated well unless you're particularly keen on white saviour complex.
For all of the books mentioned in the sub genre deep dive this week, please see the lists below!
Alice's book
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
Chris' podcast
News
FILM Predator: Badlands
FILM: Sinners
What have you been into?
THEATRE (/FILM) My Neighbour Totoro
A Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
TV Paradise
Sub-genre deep dive: parenting
TV Raised by Wolves
MANGA Lone Wolf and Cub - writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima
TV Sweet Tooth
Heir to Sevenwaters - Juliet Marillier
GRAPHIC NOVEL Saga
FILM Beasts of the Southern Wild
GAME God of War
Tehanu - Ursula Le Guin
Broken Earth trilogy - N K Jemisin
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Thud - Terry Pratchett
The mines of urrrgh
COMIC - Phantom
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
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Host Alice Fraser and James Colley bring you episode 14 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
It's a mushroom / plant life / flora core / sentient forest special!
Episode 14
In this week's sci fi and fantasy/real world crossover news, is there life on distant planet K2-18B, and are dire wolves making a comeback?
James has been enjoying The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, while Alice has been dipping a toe into Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson.
In this week's Trope on a Rope section, the forced 'here's six months earlier' flashbacks are annoying James and Alice really wishes that people would just wear appropriate headwear in the desert.
Kurt Vonnegut's use of misogyny tarnishes James' otherwise love of the author, along with fatness being used as shorthand for evil of some sort.
For all of the books mentioned in the sub genre deep dive this week, please see the lists below!
Hosts' books
Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion
James Colley - The Next Big Thing
What have you been into?
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges
Mushroom Blues - Adrian M. Gibson
Sub-genre deep dive: plant life / flora core
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
War of the Worlds - HG Wells
FILM Little Shop of Horrors
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
TV Farscape
‘Amnesty’ from Bloodchild and Other Stories - Octavia Butler
TV/GAME The Last of Us
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
TV Seeds of Doom - Dr Who episode
Blue Moon Rising - Simon R Green
GAME Botanica
GAME Strange Horticulture
GAME Caves of Qud
GAME Hollow Knight
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and James Colley.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
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Host Alice Fraser, and Tom Neenan bring you episode 13 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for genre fiction tropes, news and recommendations!
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Episode 13
In this week's news, Alice makes international front pages after she decides not to take a trip the US, Nanowrimo is cancelled (the organisation, not the event) and we may soon see more quality sci-fi from China.
Tom has recently been enjoying the start of season two of The Last of Us, while Alice has been distracting herself from real-life dystopian futures by dipping back into the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.
Tom's trope on a rope for this week is the oil pit fire scene, used way too often, while Alice's is the antisocial heroine.
In Mines of Urgh, Tom is looking for positive representations of limb difference, given that it's commonly used as a signifier for evil.
And listener Jen convinces Tom so convincingly to read The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, that he orders the book during the podcast record!
For all of the books mentioned in the romance in sci -fi sub genre deep dive this week, please see the lists below!
What have you been into?
TV - The Last of Us
Temeraire series - Naomi Novik
Convince Me
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Sub-genre deep dive: admin/bureaucracy
TV Star Trek
The Craft Sequence - Max Gladstone
FILM Terry Gilliam - Brazil
Vorkosigan Saga series - Lois McMaster Bujold
FILM Alien Romulus
TV Dr Who episodes The Sunmakers / Paradise Towers
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
GAME Papers Please
GAME Return of the Obra Dinn
FILM Shin Godzilla
Tyrant Philosophers series - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Landover series - Terry Brooks
The Traitor Baru Cormorant series - Seth Dickinson
Dagger and Coin series - Daniel Abraham
Terry Pratchett
FILM Amazing Grace
Mines of Urgh
Star Wars
Good Omens
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Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.
📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com
🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
