The Fantastic Books Podcast: Fantasy and Sci-Fi Book Reviews

We're joined by fellow Kingkiller Chronicle fan, Tom Wouters, to discuss his debut book: Blood of the First Men. Drawing upon his DnD dungeon master's background, Tom brings together many fantastic and original races into an expansive world with a physics-based magic system. His story follows Eldi as he quests to reunite with his people, yet Eldi is drawn to darker and malevolent forces. W...

We're joined by our friend and Amazon best-selling author Aaron N. Hall to discuss all things Lord of the Rings! We have so much fun chatting about our first experiences with the series, the movie and video game remakes, favorite characters, what magical items we'd like to own, best book scenes, and more! -- Find Aaron N. Hall at his website: https://www.aaronnhall.com/ -- Website: ⁠⁠ www....

We return to the Kingkiller Chronicles and Patrick Rothfuss' newest novella, The Narrow Road Between Desires, which Sam describes as "A Day in the Life of Bast." It's a slightly shorter episode for a slightly shorter book, but we theorize a lot about Fae magic, including Grammarie and Glammourie, and foreshadowing through Embrils. We also discuss The Lightning Tree, sexy fae trop...

The grand finale of The Sapien Empire is here and Jarim and Shindo have their work cut out for them. They have challenges internally with some Rustraisers, they have to wrangle Tersona in with her wayward cattle ranch plans, and they have to confront Engine. Listen along to see how much Shindo and Jarim have accomplished in their 13 years as leaders of the Domain and what is in store for them in b...

The stakes are ever higher for the Domain as they face internal and external threats. Tersona begins to undermine the power of Shindo and Jarim by setting up her own secret ranch and making deals with the Rustraisers. Engine rallies his Rustraisers to attack the offgridders and the new outposts. The offgridders lose faith in the Domain, while Jarim loses faith in herself after the death of one of...

The Domain continues to grow as Shindo and Jarim make more and more improvements to their society. Offgridders have started to arrive at the edges, hoping to escape the Interior and gain admittance to the Domain. Jarim thinks they present a problem, but as always, Shindo challenges the norm and sees these newcomers as a potential. Unfortunatley for Jarim and Shindo, they attract the wrath of Engin...

The tables for civilization are turning even further as Jarim and Shindo decide to take matters into their own hands. In the Archive, they utilize The Crown, an artifact from the Forelapse, to bolster their search. Rarher than bring them to Krez, it inspires Jarim to make a bid for the title of Arch Lord-Chief. With Shindo's help, they escape the Archive in a monstrous creation and confront Vi...

The stakes absolutely change in these chapters! Shindo works hard under Vibrun's orders to create a walking tank...except what he creates is a whole new situation for the Wolves' Den. After tragedy strikes, he teams up with Jarim to defeat Vibrun and throw the Domain into chaos. The tow then seek refuge in a place Shindo never thought possible. -- Find Nathan Ogloff & his book here: ⁠n...

We take our first dive into Nathan Ogloff's post-apocalyptic world following the downfall of civilization in the All Silence. Shindo, a talented inventor called the Machinewright, lives in this world at the mercy of Arch Lordchief Vibrun Magrite. Shindo has been tasked with creating horrific war machines, but has other, kinder plans up his sleeves. Meanwhile, Arch Lordchief Vibrun is strugglin...

It's the final showdown! Vin has a dramatic entrance into the glass room at Kredik Shaw as she confronts the Lord Roler. She does her best to stop him, but the eleventh metal isn't as helpful as she first thought, and the Lord Ruler is extremely powerful. Thankfully, Marsh makes his triumphant return, though he has been changed into an Inquisitor, and together, he and Vin defeat the Lord R...

It's the grand finale The Fear of Moncroix, and, as promised, all was revealed (including who was hiding in plain sight)! Davion and Carneth have to put their final plans into motion to reveal the culprit in the Wayward plot and destroy evil within the vampiric court. Sam is blown away with a few twist reveals at the end. We also discuss favorite scenes and characters as well as which Intercon...

We're back in spooky-town! Davion and Carneth's well-laid plans to thwart the vampires have gone awry as Carneth is captured by Tassia and Davion is questioned by Baron Elbourne. Carneth meets a fallen god, but thankfully he has one trick up his sleeve...or should we say up his pants? We also get very sidetracked in a conversation about book cover design. Get your copy of The Fear of Moncr...

Vin is in enemy territory as she makes her way to Kredik Shaw to confront the Lord Ruler. While there, she makes many discoveries, including what is in the room she and Kelsier attempted to break into, what happened to Reen, the conflict and politics of the Steel Ministry, what happens when you burn the 11th metal, and, most importantly, what happens when you finally learn to trust. Both Sazed and...

We're casting the Fear of Moncroix movie, and we've got some awesome ideas! This book would translate so well to the big screen, as we can see from the excitement, character development, and intrigue happening in these chapters. Davion and Carneth's plan to fool the vampiric court is in full swing, but it looks like Fiona might have even more devious plots up her sleeves. Sam is convin...

We are into the great Sander-lanche, everybody. This is not a drill! Kelsier has his great battle and defeats a steel inquisitor to then fall to the Lord Ruler himself. Vin tries to come to terms with Kelsier's death only to find out there's always another secret. With great revelations, the Skaa revolution begins in earnest. Everyone in the crew has a job to do and Vin must now confront K...

We delve deeper into Vampire Territory this week with author Bryan Asher. Davion, tired of living his life as a vampire, has gone hunting for Carneth. The two meet, thanks to a trap laid by Davion and a different trap laid by Carneth, in a small tavern town. After some extraordinary fighting, Davion determines who Carneth's father was and refveals himself to be th eonly surviving Wayward. Carn...

Vin, Kelsier, and crew face one of their biggest losses yet: the Steel Inquisitor's killing of Marsh. Kelsier has now lost his wife and brother, so he decides to hit the Lord Ruler where it will hurt the most. He destroys the Pits of Hathsin, but the Lord Ruler counters by capturing Lord Renoux and Spook and bringing them to Luthadel for execution. The crew is riled to save their friends, and...

Let's get spooky, fantastic listeners! We are joined by author Bryan Asher as we delve into his third book, The Fear of Moncroix, set in his Intercontinent Series. This gothic-style horror fantasy centers on Davion, the lone survivor of a group of magical protectors known as the Waywards. Ten years ago, Davion and his compatriots went undercover in the Vampiric Court to investigate devious plo...

Vin goes to another ball at Keep Venture, only to discover that it's the last ball to be held for a while due to the house war. She gets ignored by the other courtiers, snubbed by Elend, ridiculed by Lady Kliss, and finally, attacked by Shan Elariel. Vin comes out of her fight with Shan victorious, protecting Elend from assassination. Kelsier and the crew are shocked by what Vin has done, but...

Kelsier, Vin, and the crew have entered the calm before the storm and, as Vin says, "everything is going to change." She fans the flames of the house war by spreading gossip and intrigue at the ball at House Lekal. While there, she and Elend both try to convince the other to leave Luthadel for safety amongst the rising tensions of the nobility. Meanwhile, Kelsier, Breeze, and Dockson rec...

It's the Grand FINALE of .EXE by Robin Jeffrey! The Beautiful Serpent strikes again and our heroes are at rock bottom, but by the end Cadence reveals all the clues and criminals she has unearthed, and we get a surprise reaction from Dr. Merton. We also learn more about anamanecron culture, Felix's will, and Desdemona's fate. Other topics include writing beginnings and conclusions, char...

Four crimes have been committed at the Hale household and Cadence and Chance are avidly pursuing the culprit. They're able to get into Felix's room where they discover a secret docu-chip with letters from an old flame. Cadence uses her skills to acquire EO documents about Desdemona and search Dr. Merton's bag. They also dig deeply into Verity's past and dig around in the cider pot,...

Chance makes a shocking discovery about Cadence that sours his opinion of her, but he can't stay mad at her for long because he needs her help. Inspector Brisbois has accused Chance of being suspect number one and stealing his father's will, so he teams up with Cadence to investigate the crimes. They look into each house guest's motivations and Chance goes on a solo clue-finding missio...

Forced to witness hundreds of skaa executions at the hands of the Lord Ruler, Kelsier and crew are recommitted to their plan to overthrow the Final Empire. They decide to fan the flames of the house war to aid their efforts, and Kelsier and Vin meet with Marsh to collect a Ministry secret that could be the linchpin of their plan. Vin also learns about the ninth metal and more about Feruchemy, and...

We dive back into the murder mystery realm of .EXE, where this week we discuss not one, but two crimes committed in the Hale household! The game is afoot, as they say, as our characters are confronted with politics at the dinner table, a fight between father and son, a cursed necklace, and a will. We also discuss character flaws, AI, red herrings, writing dialogue, and a French policeman. -- Thank...