For 4000 years, The Epic of Gilgamesh has influenced mythology, theology, and literature, and its rediscovery in the 1850s is itself an epic tale of war, theft, and Hobby Lobby. A meditation on love and death, rage and grief, civilization and nature, starring two problematic queer frat boys, it is the foundation of so many of our stories. In this e…

Break out the cake, balloons, and gigantic bone tentacles, it's season 2 of Wizards & Spaceships! Rachel has a new book out, Blight, the sequel to her first novel, Cascade. In this episode, you get a behind-the-scenes look at the newest instalment in the Sleep of Reason series. And did you know that tomorrow is Rachel's birthday? Why not celebrate …

It's been an entire year of Wizards & Spaceships! Thank you for coming along with us on this wild and magical space ride. You can't turn on the news or doomscroll social media without hearing about how AI will revolutionize everything. Unfortunately, the worst people in the world seem to be in charge of it. In this episode, we talk to sci-fi legend…

There’s a huge crossover between tabletop role-playing game players, genre fans, and genre writers, and many of us fell in love with genre fiction by playing D&D in the basement. In this episode, we're joined by author and game designer Jesse Pohlman to talk about the considerations that go into building your own TTPRG. Show notes: Jesse’s website …

Pulp fiction is a cornerstone of the genres we love. In this episode, we talk to screenwriter, ghostwriter, and author of the new zombie novel Deads Rise, Shawn Whitney, about manly men doing manly things, the perils of writing romance, and close encounters with sexy lizard aliens. Show notes: Shawn's website Shawn's Twitter The Pulp Magazines Proj…

Rachel and David take the show on the road to Can*Con 2024 in Ottawa. We recorded the launch of The Dance, a multiverse anthology, as well as some general table silliness. Show notes: Buy The Dance online Can*Con Ira's website Shirley at Fantastic FictionBy Rachel A. Rosen & David L. Clink

put notes hereBy Rachel A. Rosen & David L. Clink

Welcome to the first episode of Wizards & Spaceships to pass the Bechdel Test! In 2023, the Hugo Awards, administered by the World Science Fiction Society, were rocked by scandal. That year, the convention was hosted in Chengdu, China, and a number of popular and acclaimed works, from R. F. Kuang's Babel to Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow, were deemed …

Happy Halloween! To celebrate all that is spooky and monstrous, we're joined by poet, novelist, and David's other podcast co-host, Troy Harkin, to talk about the master of horror himself, Stephen King. Also cocaine. Show Notes: Troy's website ChiZine Publications SK Tours of Maine Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi…

In this episode, we talk to Jordan S. Carroll about his new book, the Sad and Rabid Puppies, and how to avoid getting your sci-fi co-opted by fascists. Show Notes: Jordan’s Twitter: https://x.com/JordanSCarroll/ Jordan’s Bluesky: jordanscarroll.bsky.social Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt Right by Jordan S. Carroll Kaleidotrope El…

How do you begin your epic sci-fi, fantasy, or horror story? How do you grab a viewer or reader’s attention, introduce your characters and world, and avoid the dreaded infodump? To discuss these questions and much more, we talk to Shiraz Janjua, host of the YouTube channel How the Novel Starts. Show Notes: How the Novel Starts Shiraz's website Shir…

In this episode, we interview absolute legend Ken MacLeod about utopias in science fiction. And yes, we're talking about the Culture. Of course we're talking about the Culture. Show Notes: The Early Days of a Better Nation Russian Cosmism Utopia and the Return of History Postwar as the war generation's utopia China 2019, just before the pandemic Re…

In this episode, we talk about meeting sentient extraterrestrials: The challenges of communication, what first contact stories say about our own Earthbound society, and why the aliens won't return our texts. David's recommendations: "Darmok" (Star Trek TNG) "The Inner Light" (Star Trek TNG) The Day the Earth Stood Still Arrival The Sparrow, Mary Do…

In this episode, we're talking about the Space Western! Was Firefly cancelled too soon or is it massively overrated? Why does it continue to grip the Nerd Imagination? Is it even okay to use Western elements in SFFH? Credits: Shamelessly stolen from Star Trek's "Spectre of the Gun," the Expanse Season 1 trailer, UFO Cowboy's official trailer, and F…

Welcome to Wizards & Spaceships, a podcast that's about both wizards and spaceships, featuring poet David L. Clink and novelist Rachel A. Rosen. In this episode, we introduce ourselves, talk about our favourite media, and explain why genre snobs need to get a lot less snobby. Do infodumps have a place in literature? Do all fantasy novels need to be…