We read the first two novellas in Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red and Artificial Condition. In this episode we gush about how much we love Murderbot almost as much as it secretly loves it’s humans. Your hosts are Josh MacDougall (FourofFiveWits), Christina Ladd (christinaladd), and Steph Kingston (StephOKingston) and you can find us …
The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers tells the story of the Everly family burdened with a curse, a bargain made with a mysterious woman named Penelope, who always comes to collect. Marianne Everly, determined to lift the curse, leaves her only daughter, Violet, behind with her brothers. The problem arises when Violet’s mother never …
We’ve made it to another year of No Page Unturned and we’re talking our top 5 books of 2023. Apologies to the nation of Belgium in advance. Your hosts are Josh MacDougall (FourofFiveWits), Christina Ladd (christinaladd), and Steph Kingston (StephOKingston) and you can find us all on Bluesky. Our art is by Mangoyu Art (@MangoyuArt) …
Gather round gentle listeners as we do our annual check in with Brandon Sanderson’s latest (sort of) books. This time Josh and Steph read Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. These excellent novels were part of Sanderson’s Secret Projects but are now available to all. We dug in, had a …
It feels cliché to say, even though it rings true, but Tress of the Emerald Sea feels like it’s the Brandon Sanderson remix of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride. Not only will I not be the first to say it, but the author outright says it in the Postscript in a lovely story about how …
It feels often, in fantasy, magic is a blessing. It’s not the magic that makes the arch-typical, the top of the mountain, evil but in how they decide to use it. Not as we know it, Gods of the Wyrdwood by R.J. Barker. In the north of Crua, the land is locked in eternal winter, …
It’s Halloween so here’s a spoOoOoOky bookling: Red River Seven by AJ Ryan! This tense horror thriller is a fantastic quick and creepy read. Check out the episode for more discussion (remember there will be spoilers!) Your hosts are Josh MacDougall (FourofFiveWits), Christina Ladd (christinaladd), and Steph Kingston (StephOKingston) and you can find us all …
Lev AC Rosen joins us to talk about his new book (which you should absolutely preorder right now, go do it!) coming out on October 10th: The Bell in the Fog. This is a sequel to last year’s Lavender House which you’ll recall was one of our top books of the year and happy to …
It’s the kind of book I’ll recommend to everyone to read simply so there are more people to talk to about it.
Do you like violence? Alexander Darwin’s The Combat Codes is about a world where society has traded war for hand-to-hand combat bouts. Where the Grievar are trained, given performance-enhancing stimulants, and all sorts of experiments by the Daimyo in order to win their newfound way of waging war. Murray, who used to be a knight …