Realms Unknown – Details, episodes & analysis

Alice Fraser presents the best (and occasionally worst) of Sci Fi and Fantasy, across TV & film, literature, gaming and anywhere you can get speculative.

Released weekly Wednesdays, we want your thoughts and feedback - realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

A podcast from The Bugle.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice Fraser brings your weekly enchantment, full of Sci Fi and Fantasy. This week's co-host is Tom Neenan.

We cover...

Astrobot - the cutest Sci Fi game there is? Rebecca Yarros and the rise of Romantasy. The return of Severance. A deep dive into 'Progression Fantasy'

Affiliate links to each book:

A Passion For Passion - Alice Fraser

A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J Maas

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros

Dune - Frank Herbert

Dungeon Crawler Carl - Frank Dinniman

You fund what we do! https://www.thebuglepodcast.com/donate.

Featuring:

Alice Fraser

Tom Neenan

Produced by Chris Skinner and Laura Turner.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Realms Unknown is your gateway to the strange, the dark, and the mind-bendingly brilliant worlds of sci-fi and fantasy. Hosted by the incomparable Alice Fraser, with guest co-host Tom Neenan, this podcast takes a deep (and hilarious) dive into some of the genre’s greatest works—whether it’s the brutal landscapes of Grimdark, the existential horror of The Cube, the radical utopias of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, or the timey-wimey brilliance of Doctor Who.

Our store, with links to books we recommend is here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown

Support us directly: http://thebuglepodcast.com

Expect sharp insights, unexpected tangents, and plenty of laughs as Alice and Tom unravel what makes these stories so enduring (and weird). Produced by Chris Skinner and Laura Turner for The Bugle, Realms Unknown is your guide to the best and strangest corners of speculative fiction.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Realms Unknown, hosts Alice Fraser and Eleanor Morton dive into the latest news in pop culture and fantasy! Get the scoop on Buffy's return with Sarah Michelle Gellar, exciting Back to the Future updates, the new video game Atomfall, and a fascinating partnership between the Ministry of Defence and sci-fi writers.

They also shine a spotlight on the gritty world of Grimdark fiction, discussing epic books like Prince of Thorns, The Black Company, and Legends & Lattes. Eleanor shares her thoughts on the game Hobbs Barrow, while Alice recommends the TV series Pantheon.

In this episode’s Trope on a Rope, Eleanor breaks down the redhead trope in fantasy and sci-fi, touching on Gulliver’s Travels, Eddie Redmayne’s role in Jupiter Ascending, and Gimli from Lord of the Rings. Plus, Sandy convinces us to read Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold in the Convince Me to Read This Book segment!

Also, don’t miss our recommendations for what to do, watch, or read this week. Tune in for a packed episode full of insightful discussions, book and TV recommendations, and much more! Buy the books we cover in this episode in our affiliate store

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

Produced by Chris Skinner. 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.

Hosts Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 8 of Realms Unknown with all the latest genre fiction based news and recommendations.

• All episodes are available in your podcast feed and on our YouTube channel
• Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber. We offer extra shows, merch and warm fluffy feelings! thebuglepodcast.com/donate
• You can support your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store

Episode 8

In this week's news, as Paapa Essiedu has been cast as Snape in the new TV adaptation of Harry Potter, Alice and Tom discuss the racial considerations of the casting and how this might play out within the characterisation. Also, Bong Joon-ho's new film Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson intrigues them both, as does it being a Warner Bros production.

Metaphysical libraries are the focus of the sub-genre deep dive this week - with a whole library full of examples and recommendations to explore - see the affiliate store.

We also have Trope on a Rope, with certain commonly-used phrases the source of ire this week. And find out which significant public figure popping up in Iron Man 2, Star Trek Discovery, The Simpsons and Rick and Morty makes Tom uneasy.

FILMS

Mickey 17

Timestalker

TV

Harry Potter (HBO)

Dr Who - Silence in the Library + Forest of the Dead episodes

GAMES

The Last of Us Part II

BOOKS

The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges

Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett

The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins

Thursday Next series - Jasper Fforde

The Book that Wouldn’t Burn - Mark Lawrence

Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend

Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik

Service Model - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

Produced by Chris Skinner, Ped Hunter and Laura Turner. 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.

Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber. We offer extra shows, merch and warm fluffy feelings. Info: www.thebuglepodcast.com/donate 

Hosts Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner bring you the second of two child-friendly World Book Day (UK) episodes of Realms Unknown this week, with today's focusing on children's fantasy and science fiction books for ages 12-17 years old. Part 1, which looked at books for 0-12 years old, is available in your podcast feed and on YouTube. 

Before diving into the many great books in this episode, Chris and Alice recommend some music with a sci-fi/fantasy twist, with Janelle Monáe's 2010 album The ArchAndroid being enjoyed at the family dinner table for Chris, and Alice enjoying the storytelling of LayLow's TRINITY album, released in 2020.

In this episode’s Trope on a Rope, Alice brings the use of parental neglect to the table, preferring the loving and engaged parenting in books like The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, while Chris bemoans beings magically being able to just learn a language at a speed unfamiliar to a Duolingo user like himself.

Chris and Alice then enthuse over a number of fantasy and sci-fi books that shaped them as teenagers, which you can find listed below and can buy in our Bookshop affiliate store, which supports your local bookshops.

Age 12-17 books

Loving and engaged parents

The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik

Sibling adventures

Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton

The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper

Narnia series - CS Lewis

Gillian Rubinstein - Space Demons

The Storm Keeper’s Island - Catherine Doyle

Why teenagers should read fantasy

Phillip Pullman - His Dark Materials

Phillip Pullman - The Ruby in the Smoke

Phillip Pullman - The Book of Dust

Sabriel series - Garth Nix

Lioness series - Tamora Pierce

Terry Pratchett - Mort

Terry Pratchett - Eric

Galax-Arena - Gillian Rubinstein

Short stories

Dangerous Women - George R R Martin & Gardner Dozois

More to explore

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Dune - Frank Herbert

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

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

🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber. We offer extra shows, merch and warm fluffy feelings. Info: www.thebuglepodcast.com/donate 

Hosts Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner bring you two child-friendly World Book Day (UK) episodes of Realms Unknown this week, focusing on children's books from 0-10 years old.

The second episode, looking at books for older children, will be out on Thursday 6 March!

In the regular news section, they touch on Doctor Who and Pokémon Go while detouring down memory lane, recalling He-Man, Thundercats and The Trap Door.

Chris is pleasantly surprised to be enjoying the Amazon series The Rings of Power, having not taken to The Hobbit off-shoots of Lord of the Rings. While Alice is enjoying the gentle calm of toddler books such as Kuma-Kuma Chan by Kazue Takahashi and Grug by Ted Prior.

In this episode’s Trope on a Rope, Alice wonders where tropes of boys being ballerinas, or girls wanting to play soccer are still relevant in a more inclusive age.

Chris and Alice recommend a number of books they've enjoyed both as children and as parents, which you can find listed below and can buy in our Bookshop affiliate store. Bookshop supports the local and independent book stores in your area.

Age 0-5 books

The Tiger Who Came To Tea - Judith Kerr

Not Now Bernard - David McKee

I Want My Hat Back - Jon Klassen

The Gruffalo, Zog, The Smeds and the Smoos - Julia Donaldson

Cautionary Tales for Children - Hilaire Belloc

Meg and Mog - Helen Nicholl and Jan Pienkowski

Age 5-8 books

Isadora Moon and Mirabelle series - Harriet Muncaster

Age 8-10 books

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

The 13 Clocks - James Thurber

The Stormkeeper’s Island - Catherine Doyle

Also, don’t miss our recommendations for what to do, watch, or read this week. Tune in for a packed episode full of insightful discussions, book and TV recommendations, and much more!

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

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

🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 5 of Realms Unknown, hosts Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan leap into the latest news in pop culture and fantasy! Hear what's coming up from Guy Gavriel Kay, Jim Butcher, Game of Thrones, Mila Jovovich, and ACOTAR.

They take a deep dive into this week's sub-genre of steampunk, making recommendations from film, books and games such as Mortal Engines, Cinder Spires, Bioshock Infinite, Howl's Moving Castle, and more.

In this episode’s Trope on a Rope, Tom explains the much-used prop of an epic city final battle featuring a column of light or energy, while Alice is baffled by sexy fights in films.

Also, don’t miss our recommendations for what to do, watch, or read this week. Tune in for a packed episode full of insightful discussions, book and TV recommendations, and much more! Buy the books we cover in this episode in our affiliate store.

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

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.

In Episode 4 of Realms Unknown, hosts Alice Fraser and Jackie Kashian dive into the latest news in pop culture and fantasy! From Ian McKewan's new 'science fiction without the science' novel What We Can Know, to new seasons of Alice in Borderland and The Handmaid's Tale, to Natasha Lyonne producing and starring in the upcoming Basketful of Heads movie.

They take a deep dive into this week's sub-genre of cyberpunk, discussing books like Neuromancer, Mindstar Rising, and Ten Low. They discuss the similarities and differences with steampunk and Jackie recommends When Gravity Falls by George Alec Effinger, while Alice suggests Market Forces by Richard Morgan.

In this episode’s Trope on a Rope, Jackie bemoans the Marvel trope of a female character meeting their end off a cliff, while Alice recalls the scientists trying to save the world who panic and try to open the airlock. Meanwhile, listener Elyse makes the case for reading the Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries Pathfinder RPG book.

Also, don’t miss our recommendations for what to do, watch, or read this week. Tune in for a packed episode full of insightful discussions, book and TV recommendations, and much more! Buy the books we cover in this episode in our affiliate store.

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

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.

Hosts Alice Fraser and Henry Fraser bring you episode 9 of Realms Unknown with all the latest genre fiction based news and recommendations.

• All episodes are available in your podcast feed and on our YouTube channel
• Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber. We offer extra shows, merch and warm fluffy feelings! thebuglepodcast.com/donate
• You can support your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store

Episode 9

In this week's news, Terry Brooks is to retire from writing the Shannara series books, with Delilah S. Dawson taking over as the new author, Sarah J. Maas’ publisher launches new sci fi and fantasy imprint, Bloomsbury Archer, and Naruto has become the most watched anime on Netflix.

Henry has been enjoying Miles Cameron, with the Cold Iron trilogy and Artefact Space duology coming highly recommended. But the real big recommendation this week - from both Henry and Alice - is for everyone to marvel at the incredible archery skills of Lars Anderson on YouTube.

Post-apocalypse (specifically post-technological and post-AI-collapse) fiction books are the focus of the sub-genre submarine deep dive - with a whole library full of examples and recommendations to explore - see the affiliate store. There are also games such as Horizon Zero Dawn and story-based fitness apps like Zombies Run and The Walk to explore.

We also have Trope on a Rope, with Henry questioning the 'blood brothers' hand cuts, and Alice's trope gripe is female protagonists supposedly not reading the really quite obvious signs from their admirers.

TV

Shannara Chronicles

Naruto

Blue Eye Samurai

YOUTUBE

Lars Anderson: A new level of archery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk&

GAMES

Horizon Zero Dawn

Zombies Run - story based running app

The Walk - story based fitness app

BOOKS

WHAT ARE YOU INTO OF LATE?

Miles Cameron - Cold Iron trilogy (Masters and Mages)

Miles Cameron - Artefact Space duology

POST-APOCALYPSE/POST-TECHNOLOGICAL/POST-AI-COLLAPSE

Dune - Frank Herbert

Shattered Sea trilogy - Joe Abercrombie

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr

Sun Eater series - Christopher Ruocchio

Anathem - Neal Stephenson

Elder Race - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Bee Speaker - Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Hungry Gods - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Cold Fire trilogy - CS Friedman

CONVINCE ME

Sum: Tales from the Afterlife by David Eagleman (sent in by Thomas Craven)

🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or recommendations! We’d love to hear from you!

Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Henry Fraser.

📧 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.