Brothers Reading Books

Send us a message We follow the abbey through a scripture-like retelling of the Flame Deluge, then watch Thon Tadio collide with a  harsh reality: the monastery is not just preserving knowledge, it is rebuilding it.  We argue about science and religion, pride and humility, and why “truth” without moral judgment can lead to the same cycle of violence. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast sha...

Send us a message We continue through part two, Fiat Lux, with chapters 15 to 17. We meet the nomad chieftain Mad Bear and learn about the nomads' brutal culture built on blood and honor. Don Paolo and Benjamin the Hermit engage in a thought provoking debate. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: We just started using...

Send us a message We jump into Part Two of A Canticle for Leibowitz - Fiat Lux. We jump forward in time and see the transition as our pseudo-medieval era starts its transition back toward science, literacy, and light. A Re-Enlightenment is coming, but what does that mean for our future? Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online...

Send us a message We reach the end of Part One of A Canticle for Leibowitz and follow Brother Francis from a tense cross-examination to a papal summons that changes everything. Along the way we dig into Catholic language around saints, relics, and liturgy. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: We just started using Fable!...

Send us a message We learn the history of the Flame Deluge and trace how knowledge survived the Simplification through booklegging, memory, and the Brotherhood's dedication. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: We just started using Fable! You can find us there for more discussion! Website X/Twitter Email: brothersre...

Send us a message We track Brother Francis through chapters 3 to 5 of A Canticle for Leibowitz as a desert discovery turns into a discussion about truth, rumors, authority, and obedience Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: We just started using Fable! You can find us there for more discussion! Website X/Twitter Email: br...

Send us a message We start A Canticle for Leibowitz with two curiosity provoking chapters and follow Brother Francis into the desert for his Lenten vigil. We also talk about  how a nuclear past becomes myth and ask what it means when “fallout” turns from a warning label into a demon story.  Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us on...

Send us a message We finish Neuromancer, breaking down the final chapters and the coda, from the Villa Straylight confrontation to the last, mysterious images in cyberspace.  We talk about some of the book’s biggest unanswered questions: AIs, identity, and what “successfully" completing the run even meant for Wintermute. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and l...

Send us a message Our characters get caught up in the clash between two artificial intelligences as we get surreal this episode. The run continues as Molly goes deeper into the physical structure while Case manages things on the virtual side. Things get philosophical as Case comes "face to face" with Neuromancer and we learn a bit more about what this whole job is about. Support the show...

Send us a message The action ratchets up from tense to chaotic as Corto breaks through as the run is going down. We follow Molly’s Straylight approach through SimStim, and encounter Riviera’s bizarre mind games as the plan inevitably goes off the rails. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: We just started using Fable! You...

Send us a message Neuromancer shifts into high gear as Case gets nabbed by the Turing Police and the Straylight run has to start up before the situation collapses any further. We also get some thoughts about memory and models of the self and get some more Sim-Stim action as the operation proceeds. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Fin...

Send us a message We pick up our Neuromancer read-through right as the AI Wintermute starts speaking through familiar faces, laying out its limits and its leverage. From there we step into Freeside, the glossy space resort that feels like a tourist paradise until you notice the decadent underbelly.  Case goes chasing a buzz, the dinner goes sideways, and Riviera puts on an unsettling holographic c...

Send us a message We continue with chapters six through eight in Neuromancer. In this episode: we collect the last member of the team, Peter Riviera Learn more about who, or what, "Armitage" actually is we start making our way to the corrupt and decadent Freeside, a cyberpunk Babylon Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us...

Send us a message We continue William Gibson’s Neuromancer with chapters 3 through 5 where we learn that we are in a heist story. Assemble the crew, buy the gear, test the tools, then do the heist before the heist.  We learn about The Sprawl and BAMA and what Armitage has done that ties Case to the completion of this job. We also talk about the SimStim feature and the interesting narrative perspec...

Send us a message William Gibson’s cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer, drops us right into the action in the neon grime of Chiba City.  Read along with us to find out why the book still feels like the blueprint for hackers, body modification, and the idea of cyberspace itself.  Along the way we talk about the noir tone, and the genre’s core promise: high tech wrapped around low society. Support the sh...

Send us a message We wrap up our current run through of Robert E. Howard by reading two more tales: “The Vale of Lost Women,” regarded as one of the most controversial Conan stories, and “The Devil in Iron,” a more traditional Conan sword and sorcery story with those elements of supernatural horror we've come to love. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leav...

Send us a message We follow Conan through “Rogues in the House” a plan for an assassination job turns into a trap filled nightmare. We talk pacing, pulp, horror, and why we enjoy Conan so much when he leans into his skills for improvised violence. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: Website X/Twitter Email: brothersreadi...

Send us a message Conan arrives on the ship dripping wet from Crom knows where. Conflicts with captain and crew lead to typical Conan solutions. Punch it or stab it if possible. As the ship goes in search of ancient treasure a new and frightening enemy appears that will test Conan's limits. Read The Pool of the Black One with us in this episode. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast sha...

Send us a message A mysterious city rises out of a waterless desert, and for a second it looks like salvation. But there is more than first meets the eye in this supposed oasis. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: Website X/Twitter Email: brothersreadingbooks@gmail.com

Send us a message We read Robert E. Howard’s “Iron Shadows in the Moon” and follow Conan from a marshland showdown into cursed ruins, pirate politics, and a moonlit escape.  Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and review! Find us online: Website X/Twitter Email: brothersreadingbooks@gmail.com

Send us a message We read and react to Robert E. Howard’s “Black Colossus." Grave-robbing and treasure hunting goes wrong and unleashes an ancient evil to sweep across the nations. We get to see Conan as a military commander when he is chosen by prophecy to assume a position of leadership in one nation's military defense against the hordes that have been assembled from the south.  Suppor...

Send us a message We follow Conan from a run-in with “civilized” law to his escape to the sea. From there it's on to piracy, pillaging, passion, and exploration of haunting ancient ruins. We also get some insights into Conan’s bleak theology, the visions of the black lotus, and a show down with Lovecraftian horrors. Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave...

Send us a message Today we cover Robert E. Howard’s “The Scarlet Citadel” and look once again at Conan as King which goes well with our previous episode on the "Phoenix in the Sword." This story hits our classic Conan tropes: betrayal, unsettling sorcerers, daring escapes, and last minute rescues.  Overall a rollicking good time! Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with...

Send us a message We dive into a pair of classic Conan heist tales. Join us as we follow a young Conan as he multi-classes as a rogue in the classic stories "The God in the Bowl" and "The Tower of the Elephant." We have the usual Conan tropes of murder, monsters, and unsettling sorcery that reminds us of Howard's pen-pal Lovecraft.  Support the show If you enjoyed the podc...

Send us a message We leave sci-fi behind and jump into sword and orcery with Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian.  We talk pulp context, the Hyborian Age’s “historical shorthand,” and why Conan on the page feels smarter, stranger, and more human than the pop culture version we were more familiar with.  Support the show If you enjoyed the podcast share it with a friend and leave a rating and rev...