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Adam Prosser and Philip Rice
What Mad Universe?!?Episodes
Adam Prosser and Philip Rice
What Mad Universe?!?
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Episodes of What Mad Universe?!?
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We're back for another look at Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, this time focusing on The Watch series. It's a social satire and police procedural in a fantasy setting, which means it has dragons, dwarves, trolls, and police who actually ser
It's interesting to consider which characters fall into obscurity and which remain relevant. Johnston McCulley's most famous creation, Zorro, is of course still a household word. His other creations, Thubway Tham and The Crimson Clown, have bee
Fandom! The word sends chills up the spine of anyone who's spent any time in Fantasy and Science Fiction spaces...for a pretty wide variety of reasons. But what if fandom turns...to murder? Actually, that seems pretty plausible. Sharyn McCrumb
Langwitch, its syurly a confuzement! Whut wud Inlish luk liek inna thousand yeers? These are the questions asked by Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, a post-apocalyptic meditation on culture, storytelling, religion, and language. It's a tricky r
This is the story of Edwardian-era European explorers traveling to the north pole in an airship, only to find a strange land unknown to mankind, and populated by an alien yet advanced race of intelligent non-human beings. The encounter holds up
In the best of all possible worlds, this podcast would always be on time...but we're not there yet, are we. You know what comes close, though? The Culture, the star-spanning utopia depicted in Iain M. Banks's novels such as Consider Phlebas and
This week, wayfarers, we go WAY back, to 1666, and the first European work of feminist Science Fiction--in fact, one of the first works of Science Fiction as we know it--Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World, a travelogue, pontification, and p
We aten't dead! In fact we're back in 2024 for a new chapter in a series...a series within a series, you might say...on Terry Pratchett's Discworld! In this one we're joined by pal Ing to talk about the Granny Weatherwax books and witchcraft vs
'Tis darkening days, fair ones, and as we approach the end of the year of our lord 2023, What Mad Universe?!? has been, we confess, erratic of late. But take heed! We return with a look at an obscure but excellent fantasy series from the early
Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's PatreonPhil's PatreonWhat Mad Universe?!? on BlueskyWhat Mad Universe?!? on TwitterPhilip's BlueskyPhilip's TwitterAdam's BlueskyAdam's Twit
As we all know by now, the WWII period saw the blossoming of ASTOUNDING magazine, which set the pace for the so-called "Golden Age" of Science Fiction, launching the careers of storied names such as Asimov and Heinlein. They also hosted a short
Swashbuckling adventures in far-flung lands to the east! Geopolitical intrigue! The manly code of the warrior! Dan Tyler Moore's The Terrible Game taps into several veins of pulp action that span several eras...as well as being the source mater
As Philip points out, if we had a nickel for every time we talked about a book where Buddha fights Jesus in a Sci-Fi setting, we'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right? The subject this time is Lord
Sorry about the long delay there, folks, some real world chaos combined with a LOT of pages that had to be read for this episode led to an unplanned couple of week's break. We're back now, looking at Kim Stanley Robinsons' seminal trilogy, Red
We've talked about John W Campbell as an editor on this show a few times, which isn't surprising since he oversaw an entire era of 20th century SF. Now we dive in directly to his own best known writing, the novella Who Goes There?, the basis fo
The newest What Mad Universe?!? looks at one of the earliest progenitors of the space opera, a 19th century French obscurity that delves deeply into world-building, poetry, and, unfortunately, racism. It's STAR, OR, PSI CASSOPEIA by C. I. DeFon
One hundred episodes! I'm not sure we ever believed it would happen, but it has, thanks to you, acolytes of adventure! A heartfelt tip of our space helmets to all of you, and we hope you enjoy this special 100th episode spectacular! And what be
Cordwainer Smith isn't one of the more well-known names in Science Fiction, but his influence seems to have extended pretty far into the works of better known writers. In this episode we take a look at his Instrumentality series, one of the fir
Apologies for the week delay (due to vacation). We're just a couple of no-goodniks, I guess, like the subject of this episode, about the galaxy's greatest criminal, Slippery Jim DeGriz, a guy so good at crime they put him in charge of catching
Greetings, comrades, and glory to the utopian future glimpsed in our scientifically perfected podcast! Today we tighten our focus onto a subject we've touched on a few times: communism, that spectre that's been haunting Science Fiction almost s
Here on What Mad Universe?!? we like to examine a subject from all angles, but this week we might be accused of flattening a complex topic. We're looking at Flatland, a 19th century oddity that's resonated with nerds for over a century with its
Season Four is here, acolytes of Adventure! We start things off with an epic saga of an episode on the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, featuring special guest star Andre Gordon. It's a sweeping four-book space opera about quests, artificial int
This final episode was available to our Patreon sponsors last year, we've now made it available to everyone! We look at the origins of Red Sonja (or Sonya), a character who was created by Robert E. Howard...or was she? It's a little more compli
We're still on hiatus until May, but we're going to be making these minisodes we made as Patreon bonus content available one at a time until then! Enjoy!Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's PatreonPhil's Patreon
We're still on hiatus until May, but we're going to be making these minisodes we made as Patreon bonus content available one at a time until then! Enjoy!Support us on Patreon and listen to the show a week early! Adam's PatreonPhil's Patreon
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