Episode 2 - The Etched City

For our second episode of Starship Alexandria, Adrian puts forward KJ Bishop’s weird fantasy novel The Etched City (2004) for Emma to read and consider. 

Other talking points: 

• A short discussion about spoilers and different thresholds depending on the work being considered 

• The challenges involved with reading and writing secondary world fantasy due to vocabulary 

• Adherence to historical accuracy when writing historical fantasy 

• Adrian's manifesto for the unacknowledged sub-genre "fantastical realism" 

Media Mentions: 

Dungeons and Dragons, tabletop role-playing game, Gygax et al 

Perdido Street Station, book, China Mieville 

Ambergris series, books, Jeff Vandermeer 

Viriconium series, books, M John Harrison 

A Man of Shadows, book, Jeff Noon 

Tyrant Philosophers series, books, Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Our next episode will look at: 

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin (1971)

Adrian's music recommendation: 

Minus Sixty-One by Woodkid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcJepz3QW0 

Emma’s latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance 

Adrian’s most recent book: Shroud https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shroud-adrian-tchaikovsky/7656869 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk 

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com