The Legendarium

Martha Wells stops by for another installment of The Author's Shelf. Together, she and Craig discuss The Tiger's Daughter, the 2017 novel by K. Arsenault Rivera.   Check out Martha Wells' new projects: https://www.marthawells.com/     Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out the archives at  https://www.thelegendarium.com/ Join the Discord community:  https://dis...

Author Katie Hallahan drops by for a conversation with Craig about her experience going from game designer to author. What does she value in fiction and storytelling, and how did that impact both areas of her professional life?   Visit Katie and check out her books here: https://www.katiehal.com/   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out the archives at  https:/...

Ryan, Todd, and Craig reunite for a discussion about Todd's experience with the Wheel of Time. And because they came with a real purpose in mind, of course you know that they won't stick to that at all. Buckle up for Rings of Power, adaptations, Star Wars, and pretty much anything else that crosses their distractible little minds.   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium...

This episode was originally published on June 8, 2020   Craig, Ryan, and Megan reunite for the final part of the Lord of the Rings. Well, except for the appendices, and there will be an episode on that as well, it turns out. Anyway, for this one, they unlock the real meaning behind the Field of Cormallen scene, discuss why Frodo couldn't be the one who destroyed the Ring, and get one more verse re...

Daniel Greene joins Craig and Ryan for this installment of the Author's Shelf series. Daniel selected Mort, the fourth installment in the Discworld series. Why did he select it? Actually, Daniel isn't quite sure, and he and the guys spend an hour trying to figure that out. Subscribe to Daniel's YouTube channel ...and buy his book   Visit  TheLegendarium.com  to hear past episodes Join the  Discord...

This episode was originally released on May 3, 2020   Ryan, Megan, and Professor Craig (whose elbow patches are back from the shop and in better shape than ever) tackle book 5 of The Lord of the Rings. There are battles and ghosts and pirates and dramatic suicides, among many other exciting things, so Craig kicks off the discussion with ... 5 minutes about word order in the hobbits' speech. Riveti...

This episode was originally published on April 14, 2020   Craig, Ryan, and Megan reunite remotely for the next installment of their Lord of the Rings series of podcasts. Up today, Book 4, or the latter half of The Two Towers. In these ten chapters, we follow Frodo, Sam, and Gollum through the Emyn Muil, the Dead Marshes, Ithilien, and Shelob's Lair. The panelists will discuss the split nature of t...

In this episode, author James Kennedy stops by to chat with Craig about predestination in speculative fiction. He's got four basic categories of determinism, and they walk through each, with a fine-toothed, good-humored comb. Originally released on August 22, 2022 Check out James Kennedy's website And his new book, Dare to Know   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Ch...

Originally published January 11, 2015. Craig and Ryan tackle their first game of Dungeons and Dragons and they are natural....ly poor at figuring it out at the start. Join the Legendarium crew at HaJoMaJe games for the abbreviated adventure into never winter and the quest for the best 401k option available to adventurers.

Originally released October 31, 2019 Do video game movies always suck? Maybe not. But they're never actually good, either. Why is that? Craig and Kyle are joined by Adam Sherlock from Deep Dive Film School to spend, oh...maybe 5 minutes teasing out the answer to the question at hand, and 45 minutes just laughing about terrible video game movies. Check out Sherlock's show, Deep Dive Film School, in...

Originally released August 18, 2020 Ryan joins Craig and spins the Wheel of Tangents for the first time ever! They answer over a dozen questions submitted by patrons, including tough-to-visualize elements of books, their favorite love stories, and what they'd be reading if they weren't making a podcast. Support the show on Patreon Music: "The Seven Seas" courtesy of https://www.philter.no/

This episode was originally released on March 16, 2020   Craig, Ryan, and Megan (no Kyle today) talk about book 3 of The Lord of the Rings, being the first half of The Two Towers. They take on the entrelacement writing technique Tolkien employs, Aragorn's character arc (yep, he has one!), and the nature of the palantiri. Craig is of course back with his recap poem, but Megan decides to one up him...

Originally released May 25, 2020. Veronica Roth, bestselling author of the Divergent series and the brand-new, adult-oriented fantasy Chosen Ones, joins Craig and Ryan to discuss her pick for the Author's Shelf podcast series. Veronica had the guys read Dark Lord of Derkholm, a 1998 fantasy parody by Diana Wynne Jones. The trio has a good time picking apart a few of the key characters and themes o...

Originally released April 26, 2020 Craig is joined by author Maram Taibah to discuss the assertion, "Great art has an age floor but no age ceiling." They get into contextual issues, content issues, and what place YA fiction has to play in this discussion. They also talk about Maram's book, Weathernose , and Craig gets an education on "children's steampunk." Check out Maram's website and Instagram...

This episode was originally released on January 27, 2019   Craig and Ryan welcome a new panelist, Brandon Sanderson (maybe you've heard of him?). The three of them discuss The Truth, the 25th book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Spoiler alert, technically, because we range all over the story, as usual. But as we mention during the show, this isn't the type of book with which you should be o...

What in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is this book, anyway? Craig brings Drew back for one final discussion on Matthew Stover's Acts of Caine series. They wrap up with book 4, Caine's Law, which is a book about ... something. The guys will try to figure that out.   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out the archives at  https://www.thelegendarium.com/ Join the D...

This episode was originally released on March 1, 2020 Craig, Ryan, Megan, and Kyle discuss the second book in The Lord of the Rings--or to put it another way, the second half of The Fellowship of the Ring. They get into lots of listener questions, like whether the Rivendell chapters are too long, whether balrogs should have wings, whether the fellowship sufficiently mourns Gandalf, and much, much...

This episode was originally released October 27, 2019.   The Ladies of the Legendarium are back! And this time, Stephanie, Megan, and Kate are joined by Sara Hanks to discuss Michael Ende's classic book, The Neverending Story. There's laughing and crying, and a whole lot of love -- old and new -- for this particular book.   Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out...

This episode was originally released October  17, 2019. Weeks Week begins on Monday with the release of The Burning White, but we thought we'd get a jump on it by airing a few minutes of Brent Weeks spinning The Wheel of Tangents. Brent answers eight questions scientifically designed in a lab to help us get to know one of our favorite authors a little bit better. (Narrator: "There was, in fact, no...

This episode was originally released February 9, 2020. The other episodes in this series are #268, #270, #274, #277, and #281.   The time has come! Six years ago Craig and Ryan kicked off the Legendarium podcast with a read-through of the Lord of the Rings. Now they're back, and they've got Kyle and Megan in tow as well. In this episode they discuss a bit about the hobbits, the pacing, the poetry...

This episode was originally released October 10, 2015. We're joined again by Dr. Matt Woolley, who helps Craig, Ryan, and Kenn work through the benefits, pitfalls, and psychology of scary stories and people who love (or hate) them. (And no, you're not hallucinating, we swapped out our normal theme music; it was way too peppy for this episode.) Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/l...

This episode was originally released May 13, 2018.   In 1944, Professor Tolkien published a short story about a strange little man who was obsessed with a single piece of art that consumed his entire life. Sound familiar? It should. And if it doesn't, then listen on, and we'll lift the extraordinarily thin veil from this little wishful allegory. Ryan's taking a sick day for this one, so Craig, Tod...

Craig and Todd chat for a few minutes about the new installment of Denis Villeneuve's Dune adaptation. Before that, Craig makes an announcement about the show taking a short break.   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out the archives at  https://www.thelegendarium.com/ Join the Discord community:  https://discord.com/invite/FnCSsxx Twitter:  https://twitter.co...

Returning guest Daniel Ford drops by to discuss a favorite of his, Parke Godwin's Firelord. This 1980 retelling of the King Arthur myth is one of the best you'll come across, and it made for some great discussion.   Check out Daniel's stuff here: https://www.danielmford.com/books   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out the archives at  https://www.thelegendari...

Megan has brought the Blue Team back together to a discussion of a recent favorite: Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. Will she have better success in bringing them a good book than Todd did when he made her read John Carter of Mars? (Hint: How could she not?)   Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/legendarium Check out the archives at  https://www.thelegendarium.com/ Join the Discord...