The Wordy Pair Podcast

This week we're taking a look at one of Pratchett's early Discworld novels--a much thicker book than Equal Rites, Pyramids is an interesting and deeply funny book. Grab a copy here: https://a.co/d/4XmU4bp Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Rudy) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@RudolphKohn And follow us on Twitter...

Justin watched another awful superhero movie and we're gonna talk about it. This time, it's Superman 2025. Is that even the title? I don't know for sure. Do you like it when we take apart bad movies? Check out our backlog here: https://www.youtube.com/@muppyheingardt8597 Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Rudy) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.c...

This week we're taking a short look at an obscure (in America) manga author and the first part of one of his series. Yosuke Takahashi is a classic horror manga artist in Japan, but he's barely known here! Fortunately, Justin found a random book in a used book store! It's creepy, weird, and fun! Also includes a digression about the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, just because. Check out our...

We're talking about the famed wilderness horror story "The Wendigo" this week! It's not quite as polished and poetic as "The Willows," but it still has some great atmosphere and well-built tension! Check it out here: https://algernonblackwood.org/Z-files/Wendigo.pdf Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Rudy) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction...

This week we're taking a look at the third book in the Discworld series, and it's also the first appearance of the great Granny Weatherwax! Get a copy here: https://a.co/d/0jDReD8 Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Rudy) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@RudolphKohn And follow us on Twitter at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter...

This week we're continuing our look at "The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar." We're going in-depth into perhaps the most unusual story in that book: Chapter 6, The Seven of Hearts. Read it here: https://archive.org/details/bwb_S0-AKO-714 or listen to the free audiobook: https://librivox.org/the-extraordinary-adventures-of-arsene-lupin-gentleman-burglar...

This week we're jumping into "The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar." Specifically, we're taking a look at the first three chapters, that form an extended story about Lupin's capture by Ganimard, his imprisonment at Santé, and his eventual escape. Three great little stories and a lot of fun! Read it here: https://archive.org/details/bwb_S0-AKO-714 or...

This week we're doing a review of a weird, imaginative, interesting Japanese novel! What if Yokohama Station in Japan was given the ability to rebuild and expand itself? The book has many different views of the lives of people living inside and outside of this weird, self-replicating train station. From scavengers to worshippers, different people react differently! Grab a copy here: https://a....

This week we found a weird bit of "writing advice" that really isn't all that advisable. Checklists and absolute statements encourage you to think less, and that's practically never the direction you want to go when writing. Hopefully our breakdown of this particular stupid list will make you more wary and thoughtful, either as a reader or a writer. Check out our fiction at: (Jus...

We're finishing up our look at the excellent Some Buried Caesar, by Rex Stout! We are still gonna be spoiling a lot, but we try our best to leave a little mystery at the end. Lots of discussion of the various funny parts in the second half of the book here, as well as a bit of examination of Wolfe's techniques for interrogation and the handling of evidence. Grab a copy of Some Buried Caesa...

This week and next we'll be covering Rex Stout's sixth Nero Wolfe book, Some Buried Caesar. It's one of the longest Wolfe stories, and it's full of great characters, fun interactions, plausible mystery, and side-splitting comedy. We will be spoiling everything, but that doesn't matter because it's also one of the most re-readable Wolfe stories, just because it's so damn...

We're concluding our coverage of the worst adaptation I (Rudy) has ever personally seen. Trigun Stampede really does seem to deliberately twist, distort, corrupt, and destroy everything that made the original interesting and good. Justin says it's as bad as what they did to Dr. Who. Listen as we talk more about details and even a little digression on Dragon Ball. Next week we'll get in...

Our examination of the horrendous Trigun Stampede continues! They made Knives stupid, and Wolfwood unsympathetic. They killed and violated all the subtle themes and interesting characters. And De Niro is still a Downer! It's half critique, half rant, and all hilarious! Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Rudy) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ h...

Full spoiler warnings are in effect here. If you haven't seen the original Trigun, you'll want to watch that first. Trigun Stampede... well, I would say don't watch it at all. This week we start our coverage of the writing and other elements of a TV show called "Trigun Stampede." It's a recent re-imagining of one of the classics of 1990s Japanese animation, as the origina...

This week Rudy's yammering about a book by Jules Verne that he read, called "Off on a Comet." It was the first story featured in the first issue of the famed pulp sci-fi magazine, Amazing Stories! Off on a Comet was written after the Verne books you probably know about, and it seems like Verne was both a little tired of his usual schtick, and also a little thin on ideas! The book has...

This week we're covering the most insidious sitcom ever created in Britain, "Yes, Minister." It's a smart and hilarious look at how politics actually works, and yes, it does also make your soul hurt. Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://muppy.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Rudy) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rnkfiction.blogspot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@RudolphKohn And follow us on Twi...

This week we're taking a look at the relatively recent (compared to the source texts) Cimmerian comic, volume 1. It covers two good ol' Conan stories: Queen of the Black Coast and Red Nails. Grab a copy here: https://a.co/d/cpQ2yR5 We cover Howard's works in a bit wider of a perspective, too, as well as looking at various influences and similarities with works by other authors. Check o...

This week we're talking about Ebrelina in the Pixie Lands, Justin's main BIP (book-in-progress). Ebrelina Peril and friends are trapped in the Pixie Lands and they're looking for treasure. However, the Bone Witch has taken control of this strange world, and a confrontation is inevitable... since the Bone Witch doesn't know what Peril means. Justin's goal is to have this book do...

We get around to it eventually, but this week's episode tries to connect the recent collapse of the VTuber agency VShojo with the perspective of writers wondering whether they should seek out a traditional publisher or stay indie. 40:37 Segue Attempt 1 46:37 Segue Attempt 2 49:32 Segue Attempt Goes to Hollywood 54:37 Getting Closer... 1:03:55 There We Go Check out our fiction at: (Justin) ⁠⁠⁠⁠...

We're back for a look at the eighth novel in the Vampire Hunter D saga: The Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2! This one is chock-full of action and bizarreness, with a plot that has so much going on that it's hard to keep it all in order! Grab a copy here: https://a.co/d/9KLLpPN Check out our episode on the first part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfenFGccMM Check out our fic...

This week we're talking about the pervasive mediocrity in modern sci-fi. All Systems Red is a multi-award winning piece of reasonably good--although uncreative--science fiction from 2017 which inspired Rudy to read a book he thought it was cribbing off of: Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" What Rudy discovered terrified him. Mentioned this episode: "Wil...

This week we're taking a look at the first episode of a very weird show. Based on the look of the show and its name, you might think it's just some slice of life sludge, but Nichijou is actually a very fun and well-written layered comedy that mixes the mundane with the insane, without the elements that often turn people off of Japanese animation. There are various ways to watch this show,...

This week we're taking a humorous look at the somewhat recent phenomenon of young people complaining about third person perspectives in writing. So chill with us and learn the value of some old people tricks as we talk about different perspectives, their uses, and honing writing technique in general! (Oh, and the actor we mention near the end is Julian Richings) A few other episodes we mention...

We are looking at the famous (for some reason) "philosophical" science fiction novel by Stanislaw Lem this week! What does "philosophical" mean? Apparently it means that none of the characters do anything sensible and the fundamental question the book asks is so simple that it doesn't even need to be applied to aliens alone. Yikes. At one point, we refer to "Pitch Meet...

This week we're looking at Justin's novella that takes place after the events of The Good Guy. Tammy and Ursgelda are back, and they're thrown into another world where vampires are not at all the powerhouses they're used to seeing. Lots of comedy and analysis, and some fun tangents in this one! Go read Quest of the Vampire Lords: 1) https://muppy.substack.com/p/quest-of-the-vampire...