fictoplasm

This episode Ralph is joined by Tom McGrenery to discuss the Brazillian urban fantasy Netflix series Invisible City Timestamps Synopsis 02:51 // Themes I: Brazilian Myth 18:29 // Themes II: Urban Fantasy 29:24 // Media 58:30 (Changeling the Dreaming, Nephilim, … Continue reading →

A brief episode discussing Kong: Skull Island Music Credits Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

The OA: crossing dimensions and living alternate versions of your life, Investigation vs. Mystery, exotic matter and general relativity via intepretive dance Timestamps Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:15 // Themes 10:52 // mystery vs investigation, Ron Edwards’ Sorcerer, alternate timelines, … Continue reading →

Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis, illustrated by J.H. Williams III (1-6), Danijel Zezelj (7-8) Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K. Dick Show Notes Introduction 00:07 // Synopsis 01:40 // Desolation Jones 01:42 // Radio Free Albemuth 08:31 // Themes and … Continue reading →

In this short episode I’ll pitch the game StormHack!, available for download. Links fictoplasm.itch.io Other games: Whitehack The Black Hack Beyond the Wall Music Credits Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive Samples: “Is that … Continue reading →

In the last episode of 2020, I cover The Sundial by Shirley Jackson and discuss how to turn it into a pseudo-LARP based on the UK indie game Witch: the Road to Lindisfarne. Show Notes Introduction 00:07 Synopsis 02:04 Remarks … Continue reading →

This is a special episode of Fictoplasm where I interview the Everway Company on their forthcoming Silver Anniversary release of Jonathan Tweet’s Everway, coming to Kickstarter in January 2021. Show Notes Preamble 00:07 // Introductions 00:30 // History 04:55 // … Continue reading →

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Show Notes Intro 00:07 Synopsis 00:54 Themes and Games 08:45 – Vampire Science 08:55 – Blade – The Strain – The X Files – Proper Vampires 14:39 – pretty vs nasty vampires, or how … Continue reading →

Hawkmoon by Michael Moorcock Millenium edition, 1992 HB ISBN 1 85798 027 1 Ralph with Dirk the Dice from the Grognard Files podcast Show Notes Introductions 00:07 The Cover 04:46 The Foreword 09:44 Synopsis 10:41 (The Jewel in the Skull, … Continue reading →

Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny Show Notes Intro 00:07 Synopsis 00:56 Themes and Games 12:00 (Ribbon Drive, Witch: Road to Lindisfarne, Ultraviolet Grasslands, Deluge, Station Eleven, American Gods) Further reading 24:33 (the movie, Annihilation, Roadside Picnic, Into the Badlands, Kiteworld) … Continue reading →

Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:29 // Themes and Games 09:12 // Magic and Technology 09:28 // Sabriel 09:53 // Trollbabe 15:11 // Tidally locked worlds 16:37 // concepts of day and night; … Continue reading →

The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock Millenium edition, 1992 HB ISBN 1 85798 026 3 Show Notes Intro 00:07 // The Cover 00:39 // Foreword 01:15 // Summaries 02:18 (The Eternal Champion, Phoenix in Obsidian, The Dragon in the Sword) … Continue reading →

Von Bek by Michael Moorcock Millenium edition, 1992 HB ISBN 1 85798 023 9 Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Preface to this edition 02:30 // Summaries 05:17 (The Warhound and the World’s Pain, the City in the Autumn Stars, the … Continue reading →

Interview with Dave Morris, author of Can You Brexit Without Breaking Britain, Dragon Warriors, Jewel Spider, Mirabilis and more! Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Can You Brexit Without Breaking Britain? 00:35 // Frankenstein 29:45 // Politics in games 35:43 // … Continue reading →

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 03:03 // Themes 15:57 // recap 1984 16:24 // Motives 16:48 // Tools 17:32 (art, counter-surveillance, state removing rights, media, consumption and the true enemy) // Other Reading 32:53 … Continue reading →

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell Show Notes Intro 00:07 (anniversaries of sorts) // Synopsis 05:06 // Themes 19:02 // Motives // Tools 24:14 (language, media, propaganda, surveillance, revisionism, war) // Other Reading 38:52 // George Floyd // Dystopia as aesthetic … Continue reading →

Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:50 // Commentary 15:20 // The Outside (what kind of a world has gigastores?) 15:28 // Manufactured cultures (zaibatsus and phyles) 16:26 // Grant Morrison (intelligent cities and corporations as planetary contagion) 16:48 // City as … Continue reading →

The Squares Of The City by John Brunner Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 04:16 // Commentary 15:05 // Further Reading 21:35 Links The City Shaped and The City Assembled by Spiro Kostov City by P.D. Smith The City Accelerated, … Continue reading →

The City & The City by China Mieville Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 01:47 // Commentary 12:02 // Breach 12:26 // Politics 18:14 // Conspiricies 19:24 // Precursor Age 25:01 // Tololgangers 28:19 // Further Reading 32:50 Links What … Continue reading →

Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:21 // Commentary 12:39 // Modelling the shadow city 13:00 // Crossing between worlds 14:55 // Mapping 22:53 // Further Reading 30:50 Links Corpathium (lastgaspgrimoire.com) Other fiction … Continue reading →

Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle Show Notes Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 05:30 // Commentary 36:05 // Bleed 36:05 // Magic 39:09 // Magicians, Runequest and Mage: The Ascension 41:01 // Dialect 47:14 // … Continue reading →

Viriconium by M. John Harrison Show Notes Synopsis 03:47 // Act 1 (Viriconium Knights, The Pastel City, Lords of Misrule) 04:13 // Act 2 (Strange Great Sins, A Storm Of Wings, The Dancer and the Dance, The Luck in the … Continue reading →

Mythago Wood and Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock Show Notes Synopsis 01:10 // Mythago Wood 01:15 (plot dump 02:46) // Lavondyss 08:27 (Blavatsky 08:30) // Themes 20:07 // “British rural fantasy” 20:07 (Robin of Sherwood, Children of the Stones, Century Falls) … Continue reading →

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis Wild Palms Vurt by Jeff Noon Burning Chrome by William Gibson Show Notes Stand on Zanzibar 00:30 // Transmetropolitan 01:55 // Wild Palms 09:50 // Vurt 14:15 // Burning Chrome … Continue reading →

The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman Show Notes Plot and Setting 01:18 (viral learning, accelerated childhood, photosynthesis, viral augmented reality, living history, communism, living history, viral empaths) // Themes 15:04 (utopia and distopia, invading thoughts in the gestalt, J G … Continue reading →