What Mad Universe?!?

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Automation! The wave of the future! Imagine a world of tireless, artificial workers, uncomplainingly catering to your whims and doing all your hard labour! In 1920, Karol Capek imagined such a world in his play R.U.R. and created the word "Robot" in the process. He also helped instill one of the great neuroses of 20th century SF: the robot rebellion. Phil's Patreon Adam's Patreon Adam's Twitter Ph...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Phil's Patreon Adam's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

This is probably the weirdest and most obscure book series we've tackled for What Mad Universe?!?., though it's come back into prominence for some reason. It's The Adventures of Little Baron Trump, by Ingersoll Lockwood, author of "The Last President" Cough. Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's Patreon Phil's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on F...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's Patreon Phil's Patreon Phil's Twitter Adam's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

In the lost lands of the central sea, a place beyond time, perhaps even existing only in dreams, there is a place where the people have a god they do not worship, lest his waking end the world. Their faith was described in two books and several stories written at the turn of the century by an Irish nobleman that have left a deep mark on the modern fantasy genre, even though he remains obscure outs...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Phil's Patreon Adam's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

You're getting sleepy...very sleepy... No, stay alert! A great criminal mastermind is at large, and anyone could fall under his spell. His name is Dr. Mabuse, scientist, mad genius, would-be conqueror, and his eyes and words compel men to do his bidding. Even death doesn't seem to stop him. And as a force of evil arising in Germany in the 1920s, his presence resonates with events to come in ways t...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's Patreon Phil's Patreon Phil's Twitter Adam's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

Mars may be a lifeless rock in the real world, but it's long been teeming with life in fiction. Ever since astronomers claimed to have seen canals on Mars in the late 19th century, SF writers have been imagining exotic creatures, lost civilizations, and swashbuckling adventures on the red planet. One of the most notable and iconic of the martian sagas is A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Phil's Patreon Adam's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

The latest chapter delves into the strange case of Venus On The Half-Shell, the book-within-a book with three authors, one of whom is purely fictional. An intergalactic satire that seems to have inspired Douglas Adams and others, this oddball book has been mostly forgotten, even though it lies at the intersection of at least two major literary careers... Support us on Patreon and listen to the sho...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's Patreon Phil's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

You know his name. Nobody does it better. The man on her majesty's secret service, with a license to kill, the spy who loved every woman from here to Russia (with love). ...Octopussy? Actually it's Bond, James Bond, as we take a break from the obscure stuff to look at Ian Fleming's original 12 novels and 2 collections of short stories and try to figure out why they've left such a lasting mark on p...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Phil's Patreon Adam's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

Jules Verne: writer of 20,000 Leagues Beneath The Sea and Around The World in 80 Days. One of the fathers of science fiction, author of over 60 novels, the second most frequently translated author after William Shakespeare, and a massive influence on the 20th Century. But no, this show isn't about him. Instead, it's about another, altogether forgotten book from Verne's time, The Adventures of Satu...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Phil's Patreon Adam's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

"It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone.” One of the strangest and most influential pulp heroes of the 20th century, Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnib...

Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's Patreon Phil's Patreon Adam's Twitter Phil's Twitter What Mad Universe on Facebook What Mad Universe on Instagram What Mad Universe RSS Feed Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps Network Theme song by Jack Feerick

The man of tomorrow, the ubermensch. The perfection of the human form into something godlike, beyond mere mortality. Since the Enlightenment this dream has taken the place of the myth of the demigod or chosen one...and eventually, it saw its realization in the superhero genre. But before Clark Kent ever stepped into a phone booth, there was a story that gave rise to the superhero, and turned it on...

Strange things haunt the mountains. Up these hills and down these hollows walks a man with a silver-stringed guitar, singin' the old songs, and doing what justice he can in a frightening world. In this episode we look at the "Silver John" stories by Manly Wade Wellman, about a humble rover who battles the evils of the backwoods with music in his heart... Producer/Engineer: Alex Ross Never Sleeps N...

The dead who walk, the drinkers of blood, the shunners of daylight, the ultimate monster--vampires! They've lurked and slithered around the dark edges of popular fiction for over two centuries. And the idea of what exactly a vampire is has shifted shape more than the creatures themselves... In this episode, Phil digs up (heee hee heeeee!) a very strange 19th century French novel, one that embodies...

Born a savage in a primordial country...risen to become king of an antediluvian empire...a warrior king battling against wizards, monsters, and the corruption of civilization. No, it's not who you're thinking of! In this episode we pour over the tales of Robert E. Howard's other barbarian hero, Kull the Conqueror, and consider the twin tropes of lost prehistoric realms and savage barbarian heroes....

Adventure! Excitement! Lurid chills and thoughtful thrills! The history of genre is a weird and slippery one that ranges from trash to highbrow art (and neither is always in the place you’d expect to find it!) WHAT MAD UNIVERSE?!? is a podcast where Adam Prosser and Philip Rice, two “informed novices”, sit down and try to trace the threads of history through SF and fantasy, pinpointing the possibl...