First Chapters

On this very special episode of First Chapters, Engineer Mike and Nina are joined in Gray Cat Studios by a very special guest, Dr. Richard Scott Nokes (aka Professor Awesome of Pop Medieval fame)! He's here to get Nina through a classic work -- just in time for the second season of a certain elf-y show. Will Nina find dry, scholarly notes about epic high fantasy tolerable, or will she descend into...

Nina celebrates a milestone birthday, so Engineer Mike offers up Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Will she read it, or will she take offense? Digressions: Cyberpunk 20-something, the ridiculously named Rhode Island, the Biblical origins of Nina and Engineer Mike, the impending world tour, Crash and other less impressive works, a mini rant on Heinlein, the cult of the Raelians, self-insert characters,...

WHO LET THEY GOONS OUT THAT HOUSE? (Engineer Mike, that's who!) WHO OUT THERE TALKIN ALL THAT MOUTH? (That's Nina.) With many apologies to Beyonce, this week they're reading Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. Digressions: Ghost tackling, Engineer Mike's para-social relationships, academic flexing, Platonic pontificating, evoking the Satanic Verses to make a point, praising short books, and "raw, uncut,...

Engineer Mike convinces Nina to read a book by an author your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents all know. Will it swash her buckle, or walk her plank? Digressions: Weeb shit, "suck my dick, America," confusing Larry McMurtry with Louis L'amour, more weeb shit, the broad umbrella of the Western genre, Batman, everything coming back to Melville, and Engineer Mike bringing up Kushiel's Da...

Timely! Engineer Mike and Nina talk about the book on which the hit Netflix show is based. It's a "whammer" of book, but how far did Nina get? Digressions: throuples, teaching genital mutilation to our children, terrible Netflix movies, modern anti-intellectual parallels, Game of Thrones, are translators authors, and bad followups to great books Engineer Mike is reading: The Martian and Hail Mary...

In their most controversial episode yet, Engineer Mike and Nina debate the semantics of the word "chapter" with the book, Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Who is the author here, anyway? Digressions: Grammy winning singers, early '90's SF/horror movies, Buffy, cyber paganism, SF going through its Cyberpunk Era, forgetting William Gibson, discussing the Cringe of Capitalized Nouns, pussy maps, w...

Is this the first time Nina's LOVED a book? Digressions: Skarsgard (Mmm. Mmmhmmm), Scottish slang vs book slang, mouth breathing, the process of running a shady human farm, major body modifications, and Skarsgard (Mmm. Mmmhmm...). Engineer Mike is reading: A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch's Dune. An Oral History https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126132210-a-masterpiece-in-disarray Nina is...

We're back with season two! Let's kick it off with a book by one of Engineer Mike's favorites. Do they have enough bandwidth to get through the first few chapters? TW: SA, animal abuse, and a spot on JP impression. Digressions: Female protagonists being gross, Engineer Mike's primary source, the free art movement, 70's rock singalongs, everything coming back to "Neuromancer," Neoliberal economics...

A very special episode! As part of self-promotion and a demonstration of why she and Engineer Mike are doing this podcast in the first place, Nina discusses her latest book, This is What You Wanted. Does she accomplish this, or is this just pretentious nonsense?

Nina and Engineer Mike put on their raincoats and invade a city somewhere in the former Soviet Block (they think) to solve a murder mystery. Can they get through the first chapter, or is this notorious author's prose too purple? Digressions: The Idol (again), the steampunk lifestyle, comparisons to shitty Luc Besson movies, fantastic satirical Amazon Prime shows, trying to decide on a genre for th...

Engineer Mike told Nina to read the wrong book! Can they roll with it, or will it blow up in their faces like a volcano? Digressions: Engineer Mike's hatred of democracy, making (podcast) relationships work when one party likes trash, the problem with trilogies, including TL;DRs in your books, characters losing limbs and or digits, and how to make sure your podcast stays fresh. Goodreads link: htt...

Engineer Mike complained enough and Nina finally picked up one of the most decorated books in SF history. TW: SA as a metaphor. Digressions: turgidity, pronouncing titles correctly, being an asshole in high school, Tenet feelings, Florida pronouns, Ursula K. Leguin guilt, Octavia Butler love, and an epic Engineer Mike rant. GoodReads link: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17333324 Engineer M...

Nina struggles through the prologue of a dense but beloved recommendation from Engineer Mike. Will she walk through the Gate or turn around and head north? Digressions: Theoretical George R.R. Martin essays, a rant about The Idol, the problematic Arthurian book we don't talk about, the usefulness of Homeric Greek according to Nina, science fiction versus fantasy according to Engineer Mike, the ben...

Engineer Mike and Nina are caught in a teenage love triangle on a remote planet. Will they survive the darkness? Digressions: Eternal Youth, book awards vis-a-vis movie awards, more bad creative writing experiments, unrequited queer love, Sophie's sapphic choice, and how to talk about long, annoying books with romance when you're not the target audience. GoodReads link: https://www.goodreads.com/b...

Engineer Mike shoves Nina face-first into some delicious toxic masculinity with a Warhammer novel. Does it deserve the honor of a Chaplain or should it fall in battle? Digressions: BookTok drama ( https://gizmodo.com/tiktok-sarah-stusek-three-rivers-goodreads-backlash-1850498236 ), Engineer Mike's knowledge of book awards, Warhammer liturgy, a shoutout to Granga, getting young boys to read in the...

In their inaugural episode, Engineer Mike challenges Nina to read the Samuel R. Delany SF epic. Will Nina agree with William Gibson or Harlan Ellison? Digressions: abundant breast descriptions, leather daddies, dandruff in your crotch, Joanna Russ, Herman Melville, pretentious pronunciations of fantasy novels, and how to impress your college professors. GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/bo...