A podcast on the origins of fantasy/SF and a look back at the pulps! Every second Monday.
A new What Mad Universe?!? dropped this week, as part of our ongoing series looking at Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This time out it's the popular Watch series, which looks at what policing is like in a fantasy world where "death by misadventure" could involve being eaten by a dragon:
On Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD: THE WATCH series
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 been completely forgotten, even though they were nearly as popular in their day. Both thieves, albeit of two very different sorts, the two even met in the crossover novel Thubway Tham Meets the Crimson Clown, and it's that we're looking at today!
On THUBWAY THAM MEETS THE CRIMSON CLOWN, by Johnston McCulley
The fans are revolting! That's the opinion of Apin Dungannon, noted hack writer and enfant terrible of the Sci-Fi convention scene. When he's found murdered, the suspect list is a mile long...and it takes Jay Omega, outsider to the Science Fiction scene, to crack the case! The latest What Mad Universe?!? takes a turn into the world of whodunnits with BI**OS OF THE DEATH SUN by Sharyn McCrumb:
On BI**OS OF THE DEATH SUN, by Sharyn McCrumb
It's a familiar story: explorers or scientists set out, sometimes in a wondrous ahead-of-its-time vehicle, to a distant, supposedly unexplored land. There they discover bizarre phenomena and an intelligent non-human race, one that holds up a mirror to our society--and the protagonists might not care for what they see in the reflection.
For years this was one of the dominant subgenres of science fiction, especially in the 19th century. Charles Derennes' The People of The Pole is a little later than that, and it's fascinating how ahead of its time it feels in questioning and subverting some of the tropes of these kinds of stories. Our new episode delves into it!
On THE PEOPLE OF THE POLE, by Charles Derennes
A new chapter of What Mad Universe?!? is up, on a truly seminal bit of genre writing, The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish--both foundational and feminist!
On THE BLAZING WORLD by Margaret Cavendish
We've been a bit slack on promoting the 'cast here on Facebook, but here's a new episode for the holidays, on the Neustrian Cycle. It's technically an alt-history fantasy series, though that meant something pretty different in the 1920s, when it began, but it's certainly a well-written adventure story!
On THE NEUSTRIAN CYCLE by Leslie Barringer
The latest What Mad Universe?!? takes a well-rounded look at a subject that may seem square, but in fact has many angles. It's FLATLAND, by Edwin Abbott Abbott, the 19th-century curiosity that satirizes the class system while taking a nerdy look at geometry at the same time:
On FLATLAND, by Edwin Abbot Abbot
We're back, acolytes of adventure!!! Season 4 of What Mad Universe?!? begins a new pilgrimage into the heart of weirdness with a look at Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, an epic tale of AI, time travel, and pointy robots.
On THE HYPERION CANTOS, by Dan Simmons
What Mad Universe?!? is technically on hiatus for a while longer, but we're putting up new content for everyone in the form of these minisodes that were originally bonus content for Patreon subscribers! In this one, we look at one of the very first vampire stories, set in pre-revolutionary Haiti, aka St. Domingo:
On THE BLACK VAMPYRE: A LEGEND OF ST. DOMINGO, by Uriah Derick D'Arcy
War. War never changes. Everything else changes, though, especially when the war is being waged across millions of light-years, and, thanks to the relativistic effects of near-lightspeed travel, you're aging only a year or so while the rest of the galaxy jumps forward by centuries. This existential conundrum is pursued in The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, one of the pillars of military Sci-Fi and a reminder that the absurdities of war are only going to get more absurd as we get further into the future...
On THE FOREVER WAR, by Joe Haldeman
On the latest What Mad Universe?!? we look at a very odd book from 1963, The Sign Of The Labrys by Margaret St. Clair, about social breakdown and alienation caused by a pandemic (eesh) caused by fungus (uh) which is secretly about Wicca (what):
On THE SIGN OF THE LABRYS, by Margaret St. Clair
Science Fiction would be nothing without its bandwagons, and a hundred years ago the technological bandwagon to jump on was Radio. Taking full advantage of this was Ralph Milne Farley, a fascinating guy in his own right, who knocked off a series of John Carter style planetary romances oriented around the technological wonder of the age (that's radio). This week we take a look at this oddball series, so tune in and turn on before you drop out...
On THE RADIO MAN series by Ralph Milne Farley
After a bout with Covid, we're back with a new episode, concluding our look through the origins of the Steampunk genre. Michael Moorcock's Nomad of the Time Streams is probably the true ground zero for modern day Victorian/Edwardian SF pastiches, even if the term "steampunk" didn't come along for another decade. It's got everything: airships, alternate history, and the inexorable futility of politics, whether imperialist of revolutionary.
On THE NOMAD OF THE TIME STREAMS trilogy by Michael Moorcock
We were a little disorganized last week, but we're popping in to remind you of our new episode in where we delve further into the origins of Steampunk, with a hearty side dose of Arthurian lore, in our episode about K. W. Jeter's seminal Morlock Night:
On MORLOCK NIGHT, by K. W. Jeter
The warrior maiden, fiery of hair and fiery of temper, is a staple of swashbuckling pulp, and on the latest What Mad Universe? Podcast we're delving into what may be the first: Catherine L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry, half Joan of Arc, half Red Sonja. Of course, as often seems to happen, "first" comes with a lot of caveats...listen in and we'll explain!
On the JIREL OF JOIRY stories by C. L. Moore
It's new! It's improved! It's the latest sensation! 4 out of 5 dentists agree, What Mad Universe?!? is the podcast that puts spring in your step, makes your whites whiter, and firms, lifts and separates! Our latest episode features guest Andre Gordon as we talk about UBIK, by Philip K. Dick, and try to figure out if it's about god, reality, or product placement, or possibly all three.
On UBIK, by Philip K. Dick
It's summer vacation for us at WMU?!? Laboratories--we'll be returning August 10th!
We're taking a week off, but we'll be back August 10th!
Time keeps marching on with a new episode of What Mad Universe?!?, looking at a book that asks: what if we got rid of all the old people? It's Anthony Trollope's The Fixed Period, a book that introduced a common trope in Sci-Fi (and, sadly, in real life):
Show What Mad Universe?!?, Ep Chapter Eighty-Four: Out With The Old! - Jul 20, 2022
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