DEATH // SENTENCE

Langdon and Eden travel to a future-past where TV hosts bring nations to their knees (hahahah oh god that's just our present) with Norman Spinrad's controversial (and excellent) Bug Jack Barron! But first, they discuss the fading power of debuts, early works, and the role of passion in art! Music played: Excuse - Sworn to the Crimson Oath https://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/track/sworn-to-the-crimson-oath Frozen Crown - War Hearts https://frozencrown.bandcamp.com/track/war-hearts

There are cars, hyperloops, even blimps - but no form of transport is better than the train. Gareth Dennis has been in the rail industry for a decade and hosts the podcast Rail Natter... and has been targeted by sleazy government officials after speaking up about safety. He joins us to talk about why trains are perfect, why hyperloop will never work and what we do to get a transport system that works. Music by Schammasch Chugga-chugga choo choo! The join our Patreon train has left the station: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

The Wizard's Tower emerges once more, this time gathering in its clutches Donald Ryan, author of Don Bronco's (Working Title) Shell! Meta-narrative, eggs (sort of), truth (not really), experimentation, and more! Music played: "I Cover the Mountaintop" by Elephant9 https://elephant9band.bandcamp.com/track/i-cover-the-mountaintop

Eden is joined by Adam C. Jones of the Acid Horizon podcast to discuss his upcoming book - The New Flesh: Life and Death in the Data Economy! The two discuss cybernetics, the human as battery, data flows as cybernetics, and the fall and fall of cyberpunk. Music played: Graveyard Addicted by Warpstone https://warpstone.bandcamp.com/track/graveyard-addicted

Langdon and Eden happily return to Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall but first must unhappily return to the ongoing and intensifying genocide in Palestine. They discuss ideas that appear in both the book and our lived experiences of culpability, memory, storytelling, and future imaginaries as well as delay on the subject of hype and attention. Music played: Bedsore - Realm of Eleuterillide https://bedsoredeath.bandcamp.com/track/realm-of-eleuterillide Dungeon Crawl - The Arcane Temptation https://dungeoncrawlofficial.bandcamp.com/track/the-arcane-temptation

The Wizard's Tower appears out of the mist once more! This time, Langdon conjures forth Katye Terry of Tender Subjects to dive into The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew Sullivan. Homeliness, horror, DIY, and real estate mix within! Music played: Adorior - "Scavengers of Vengeance" https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/track/scavengers-of-vengeance

Langdon goes into the Wizard's Tower and summons Morgan Giles to discuss the expansive and fantastic The End of August by Yu Miri which Giles translated! Family, memory, loss, betrayal, and war are contained therein! Music played: Floating Points - Vocoder https://floatingpoints.bandcamp.com/album/vocoder

It's chaos configuration as Eden, Gareth and Langdon sit down to discuss the...sort of good and very hyped Between Two Fires! And also argue about dark fantasy, Dark Souls, and listen to some sick doom metal. Music played: The Flight of Sleipnir - North https://theflightofsleipnir.bandcamp.com/track/north

On this episode, Langdon and Eden are forced to tackle the so-called "Hegelian E-girl Council" and explain why they suck. While they tackle them. To the ground. Then, they talk about the tantalizing, subtle, and down-right inimitable The West Passage. Weird fantasy, even weirder honey, and the weirdest eldritch beings in the form of Ladies, plus all the occulted, esoteric lore you could crave. Music played: Oh Hiroshima - Swans In A Field https://ohhiroshima.bandcamp.com/track/swans-in-a-field Pinkish Black - Ashtray Eyes https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/track/ashtray-eyes

In this solo episode, Eden talks about the Arthurian myth and its weird potentialities by covering Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword. Gender-bending, political disorder, and why weird fantasy matters and, of course, sick ass swords and cool mage duels! Eden's essay on the political uses of science fiction: https://www.notthesky.com/posts/essays/the-men-who-sold-the-moon/ Eden's essay on The Green Knight: https://www.notthesky.com/posts/essays/the-knight-is-always-greener/ Music played: Meer - This Is the End https://meer.bandcamp.com/track/this-is-the-end