Episodes
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At long last, it's time for Duncan and Geordie to visit the book series from one of their favourite episodes, the sequel to The Worm and His Kings: Even the Worm Will Turn. Things gets quantum-ey and timey-wimeyesque as the fellas follow on from a book Geordie was astounded to discover has a sequel. It's certainly the most audacious sequel to any book they've read so far. Will it stick the landing?
The fellas discuss the story's amazing dual-narrative, the what-ifs of life, take a digression to talk about which episodes of Doctor Who scared them as a kid, and wrap up the episode by trying to figure out how this book ends exactly? Find out as they wrap up October with another booooook-tacular episode.
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Following tradition, its time to kick off spooky season with our annual Berserk episode. Following on from The Conviction Arc the fellas head into the first part of The Millenium Falcon Arc: Holy Evil War Chapter, (vol. 22-27).
Geordie introduces Duncan to new characters in what is probably the biggest change to the status quo of Berserk outside of the Eclipse, Schierke, high fantasy magic, the berserker armour and the introduction of new friends for both Guts and Griffith. They cover the hightlights. Duncan defends Farnese and Isidro but bemoans Chestnut Puck. Geordie triumphs by successfully pronouncing Schierke but completely fails with Slan. And most exciting of all, Duncan begins to put together the pieces behind the Skull Knight's backstory. Also they talk about Naruto for some reason.
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Episodes manquant?
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Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie was one of the fellas' all time favourite novels for the pod. Can its sequel, The Heroes, live up to its successes?
Well to no one's surprise, it did. They discuss how much of the book can be enjoyed even with Geordie's limited knowledge of the series and characters. Geordie tries to deduce who exactly "The Bloody Nine" is from context clues, whilst Duncan gives Geordie a crash-course on the series up to this point, and they dive into the amazing characters and themes which make up this book. It's one hell of a departure from The Last Unicorn. That's for sure.
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By the advice of our lawyers and other sensible people, we do not endorse the "Is This Just Fantasy Last Unicorn Drinking Game," wherein players take a shot every time Duncan and Geordie describe this novel as "beautiful." You have been warned.
Yes, in this episode the fellas visit a classic of American fantasy, Peter S. Beagle's the Last Unicorn. A spell-binding fairy tale full of heart and humour. In addition to covering the story, they also cover Beagle's role in Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings, which other stories compare to it, and Geordie baffles Duncan by explaining that a Tom Clancy ghost rider is responsible for the assassination of an Italian Prime Minister.
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Robert E. Howard was a poor writer who died in tragedy; unknown. His creations, especially Conan of Cimmeria, destined to be forgotten. Until the vultures began to circle. Duncan leads Geordie on the incredible almost 100 year long story of how Conan was either stolen or rescued from obscurity by L. Sprague de Camp, and continued to be a figurehead of fantasy until today.
Duncan chronicles the many, many writers who tried their hand at writing the barbarian, from books, to movies, to comics.
This episode was made in response to a listeners question. If you have a question you'd like to hear discussed on an episode, please reach on [email protected], on our Instagram: @isthisjustfantasypodcast.
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The fellas get together to discuss Brennan McClellan's cordite drenched debut, The Promise of Blood, the first book in the Powder Mage trilogy. The discuss some awesome action, fun characters and a promising beginning, as well as some... less than awesome, and even baffling parts.
This episode's release was delayed, so apologies. We won't say whose fault it was, but it wasn't Duncan's.
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Song of Achilles was tied for the pod's best book in the history of the podcast, so what will the fellas make of its... prequel? Sequel? Midquel? Madeline Miller's crazy collage of Greek Mythology through the hawkish eyes of Circe. It's a beautiful tale covering millennia of isolation, sadness, love, and more sadness. They compare the it against Song of Achilles, they argue over the pronunciation of Circe (Duncan wins), and for a change it's Duncan who's teaching Geordie about Greek Mythology.
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Before Geordie embarks on his trek through the wilds of Sweden, there to battle moose and attempt to order food using his very bad Swedish, the fellas settle in to wrap up their review of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. They cover Palpatine's revenge check-list, get important villain names wrong, and cloning logistics. Also how great The Last Command is.
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The fellas cover the much anticipated finale to the Legacy of Orisha series by Tomi Adeyemi which began with the smash Children of Blood and Bone, They discuss how it measures up the the successes of the first book and the misses of the second. They cover conspicuous character absences and dropped themes, and an in-depth analysis on the author's differing approach to each book; Geordie brings up the Rise of Skywalker an unfortunate number of times, whilst Duncan schools him on Norse mythology in a shocking role-reversal.
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The fellas carry on their Star Wars Legends marathon with Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn. They discuss Leia actually being allowed to do things in this book, get annoyed at there being too many lightsabre colours, Geordie gets bent out of shape about the name: "Katana Fleet." Speaking of shapes, I hope you like nerds discussing the different alphabet themed Star Fighters, because they spend more time talking about those than Luke Skywalker.
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Much to Geordie's horror he has been compelled to read another Star Wars book. And worse yet... he likes it. The fellas review Timothy Zahn's continuation of the original Star Wars trilogy. They have their first encounter with iconic characters like Thrawn and Mara Jade, discuss wife-guy Han Solo, the significance of light sabre colours, the presence of hot chocolate in the series, and Geordie vents his feelings on Star Wars fans.
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The fellas journey across the desert to hunt a man in black and discuss the beginning of Stephen King's celebrated series: The Dark Tower. They cover their histories with King, uncover the surprising backstory behind the book's origin, discover a meta-twist neither of them saw coming, Geordie teaches Duncan about the Song of Roland, and they debate whether or not there was a goat-man in the book.
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This is a fantasy novel, we promise, Duncan and Geordie gather round the northern hemisphere of Arrakis to discuss Frank Herbert's Science-Ficti,,, I mean Science-Fantasy epic, Dune. They discuss its astounding world building, its fascinating connection to real history, the intricacies of its world, spend an unusual amount of time talking about Brian Herbert, and discuss its incredible ending.
Editing note: this was Geordie's first time recording with a new microphone, so there may be some teething problems in recording and editing the episodes.
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In the much anticipated follow-up to Empire of the Vampire, Geordie and Duncan get stuck into everything they love about it, and its a long book with a lot to love. They talk sincerity, big anime swords, massive retcons, twists, awesome art, difficult to pronounce Scottish names, and perhaps the funniest blunder in the podcast's history as Duncan completely misreads the ending of the book.
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In a parallel world this ought to have been episode 3 of this podcast. In anticipation of reading Empire of the Damned, Geordie and Duncan,,, well, just Geordie actually, return to the dark world of Empire of the Vampire. Geordie catches Duncan back up on all the dramatic fights, the vampiric lore, the cool tattoos, and the slight overabundance of references to either Elric or the last of us.
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Over two years and (slightly over) 50 books under their belt, Duncan and Geordie revisit every fantasy novel fantasy novels they've read over the past two years, ranking them from the very lowest lows to the absolute bests of the genre. It gets contentious at times, tune in to hear Geordie call Duncan a heretic and find out what you should be reading this year.
Thank you to everyone who's listened to the podcast, to the arguments and the laughs and the erroneous facts spat with a little too much confidence. Years to two more years and 50 more books!
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To commemorate their 50th fantasy novel the fellas read and discuss a classic in the fantasy genre, the beginning to Robin Hobb's seminal Realm of the Elderlings series: Assassin's Apprentice. The fellas cover the book's influence, the strength of its characters, as well as some of slightly,,, slower moments. They also spend a lot of time discussing Game of Thrones and Green Rider.
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Just how many times can Geordie say "roaring rampage of revenge" in just one episode? That's one of many questions the fellas ask as they delve into Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold. Duncan pulls a Murtagh, pulling Geordie into the fourth book in a series, Can they keep their bearings? Can Geordie figure out who the Bloody Nine is? And will ever discover what domming is? Only time will tell.
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Things get philosophical as the fellas are compelled to cover the trolley problem, vegetarianism, and ethical consumption under capitalism, all because Geordie picked the Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin. He also spends an unforgivable amount of time talking about his latest weird interest at the start, but he has since been suitably punished. The hotest debate in the whole episode though is right in the title: is this (just) fantasy.
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On the heels of the first season's finale, the fellas wrap up their review of a book which had a Vader-like (Vaderesque? Vaderonean?) chokehold on Geordie's childhood. Does it hold up? Of course it does. This episode is a major hit with them both. Episode highlights are Geordie teaching Duncan the correct pronunciation of Uranus, and Duncan making a... very interesting request of Geordie.
Editing note: there were some unfortunate recording issues with this episode which may carry over to the following episode, however it should be resolved in the one after that.
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