The Legendarium

Todd, Kenn, and Stephanie from the Blue Team discusses the first half of Caliban's War, book 2 of The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. As per usual, Todd has some tears to shed, Stephanie gets in touch with the emotional state of the characters, and Kenn is (of course) attracted to the militant women in the story. Enjoy! While Blue Team is reading the books, Craig will be hosting a weekly, patr...

Giant ants and pterodons come to Earth via a rift in space-time, kill lots of people, and consume anything electric, leaving the remnants of humanity to rebuild in a post-apocalyptic steampunk hellscape. If that line doesn't sell you on pulp sci-fi, then there may be no hope for you at all. Kenn and Craig welcome best-selling author Larry Correia, who tells us why he pulled this new collaborative...

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 and the reasons for Gandalf's 17-year absence. If you're hoping to get your fix of Professor Craig, stick around, because that mo...

It's all listener comments, all the time! For our final Lightbringer installment, Craig, Ryan, and Stephanie tackle all the listener comments and questions that they missed during the first Burning White episode. Curving cannonballs, deific resuscitations, and gas-powered murder teeth are all on the table as we close out our discussions of Brent Week's 5-volume fantasy epic. What a ride.   Support...

Kyle recently returned from a Disneyland trip on which he got to experience the newest Star Wars attraction: Rise of the Resistance. He, Ryan, and newcomer Mandi combine forces (haha) to try to convince Craig that Disney has gotten at least one Star Wars thing indisputably right: the theme park stuff.   Support the show on Patreon Join the conversation on Reddit Music: "The Seven Seas" courtesy of...

Ask and ye shall receive! After years of requests, the Blue Team (this time comprised of Todd, Kenn, and Stephanie) is taking on James S.A. Corey's sci-fi epic series, The Expanse. The joint effort of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (writing under the joint pen name of Corey), Leviathan Wakes was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012, and the series was nominated for Best Series in 2017....

Craig and Ryan welcome special guest--and Brent Weeks's editorial and administrative assistant--Melanie Bond to discuss The Burning White, the final book in the Lightbringer series. To have even a shot at greatness, a book had better take some risks, and this one certainly did that. So, what were the risks Brent took? How did they pan out? Can an author really [redacted for spoiler reasons] and ge...

We were saddened to learn today of the passing today of Christopher Tolkien, someone who has done more for the fantasy genre than most people realize. Craig talks a bit about the younger Tolkien's legacy and his contribution to fantasy. The bulk of the episode is reserved for reviewing Netflix's The Witcher, starring Henry Cavill. There's a lot to love and a lot to ... love somewhat less, and we'l...

Craig, Ryan, and Stephanie knock out their entire Blood Mirror discussion in a single episode instead of two. Is Brent pulling too many rugs out from under our feet? Has he improved since Night Angel in his use of sex and violence? Speaking of which, let's talk about that Author's Note... Here's one of the massive solar arrays Ryan mentioned. Support the show on Patreon Join the conversation on Re...

I really hope Craig puts info here.... (Narrator: But Craig did NOT put any info here. He decided to let Ryan sleep in the bed which he'd made. His decision was validated when he looked ahead and realized Ryan had called Sanderson's latest book "nonsense," which would surely become a delightful regret.) Todd, Kenn and Ryan blather on about Starsight or some such nonsense. They were clearly tired a...

Blue Team is back for a quick dip back into Dresden before taking a more extended break from it for a while. But what an interesting time the Blue Team has had with it! From a "yeah I guess we'll read this because the listeners seem to want us to" series to a "oh my word this is really really good" series, it's been a pretty wild ride through Dresden so far. Thanks for hanging in there with us. An...

Craig, Ryan, and Stephanie finally get back on the horse and continue their discussions of Brent Weeks's Lightbringer series. This time they cap off book 3, The Broken Eye. Where do Andross's loyalties lie? What will Teia do with/for the Order of the Broken Eye? Will Kip and Teia ever get together? Does Stephanie hate hot girls in books? Only one way to find out! Support the show on Patreon Join t...

Craig, Stephanie, and Kyle are back for the final installment of our podcast series on The Hobbit. In this episode, we talk about chapters 15 through 19, including Bilbo's theft of the Arkenstone, the Battle of the Five Armies, and the return journey home. Support the show on Patreon Join the conversation on Reddit Music: "Adventure Time" and "The Seven Seas" courtesy of  https://www.philter.no/

Craig, Ryan, Megan, Kenn, and Todd crowd around the mics to give you what you all need: another podcast of people chatting about the new Star Wars movie. It is our inevitable destiny that we'll do a minimum of one Star Wars episode every year until the end of time, so here we are again. We're finally (maybe?) putting the Skywalker saga to bed, and we give it quite the send-off, with nearly 90 minu...

Pretty much what the title says! During our latest YouTube livestream Craig, Kenn, and Megan sat down and spun the Wheel of Tangents. Megan updates the group on her progress in The Wheel of Time; Craig gives his first impressions of both N.K. Jemisin and Joe Abercrombie; and Kenn holds forth on The Mandalorian. They talked about a wide variety of subjects, obviously, but the real takeaway here, as...

Craig dons his elbow patches so that he and Kyle can continue their Hobbit adventure, this time talking about the Smaug chapters: that is, chapters 12 through 14. They talk about Smaug, of course, but also about the Arkenstone, the relationship of these scenes to others in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien's meditations on greed. Ever wondered why Smaug was so ticked off that th...

Of all the authors we've covered on the show, whose works would we remove from existence? What takes you out of a book the quickest? How important are maps to fantasy stories? Kyle and Craig tackle these and many other burning questions on today's Wheel of Tangents. Support the show on Patreon Join the conversation on Reddit Music: "The Seven Seas" courtesy of  https://www.philter.no/

Blue Team has finally given in to the true crime podcast craze: a serial killer is on the loose in the Dresdenverse, and Harry is on the case. Megan, Todd, and Kenn take on White Night, the ninth book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. And between the White Court, debates of free will, and Lasciel's coin, there's plenty of discussion to be had. Support the show on Patreon Join the conversation on Red...

The Wheel of Time is back! Craig and Kyle (and eventually Ryan) are joined by Drew and Lauren McCaffrey, Wheel of Time experts both, to spin the Wheel of Tangents--all WoT related.  Together they discuss the upcoming show, tugged braids and smoothed skirts, and in-world swearing. A relaxed, wildly self-indulgent 40 minutes, but one that we hope you enjoy. Listen to Drew on the Inking Out Loud podc...

It's been long enough, time to get back on that oar! Craig, Ryan, and Stephanie discuss chapters 1-55 of The Broken Eye, book 3 in Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series. Lots of questions this time around: Are we spending enough time with our villains? Is "fake it 'til you make it" a real thing? What is the most touching of human gestures? Is Ryan a monster for not laughing at Craig's best jokes? Liste...

Turns out that Utah, the home of the Legendarium, is the nerdiest place in America. To us, that just feels correct -- nerdery is the water in which we fish swim here. But the real question today is why? So Craig and Kenn brought in the big guns: Krissie Holifield, from the I Am Salt Lake podcast. Together they talk religion, drugs, geography, and grasp at any other straw they can to explain why Ut...

It's a Dresdendum! Fear not, your pleas have not fallen on deaf ears. Todd and Kenn return to talk more Proven Guilty. After the previous episode, they (and the listeners shouting politely on Reddit) knew there was simply too much left unsaid. So they're here to un-unsay it. Support the show on Patreon Join the conversation on Reddit Music: "The Seven Seas" courtesy of  https://www.philter.no/

Blue Team is back with another Dresden Files episode! Seems like they're kicking them out faster than you can say "xenomorphic phobophage." This time around, it's book 8: Proven Guilty. In this installment, Harry's dealing with happenings at SplatterCon!!!,Todd's dealing with the weight of his own emotions (again), and the Blue Team's dealing with the question of whether the Dresden Files has take...

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 audio or video form. Support the sho...

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 Join the conversation on Reddit Music: "Adventure Time" and "The Seven Seas" courtesy of  https://www.phi...