Claytemple Forum

Thank you guys for the Numenera episode. It remains one of my favorite games of all time. I thought there might be some interest in "The Signal". It's an in-character Numenera podcast that provides some world building and adventure hooks. http://numenerathesignal.blogspot.com/

I have really enjoyed the Angus podcasts you have put out so far and am looking forward to the next season. It may be outside of interests for this podcast but Jesuit missionary’s bringing Christian religion to Japan in the 1500‘s and the religions suppression by Japanese government has been a topic

I enjoyed this podcast while standing in JFK airport, waiting for my luggage. A bit of Gotham there, I suppose. I'm not a comic book reader much anymore, though I was in the late 70's to early 90's, but never a Batman reader. I read this collection from my library's e-book collection. It was c

This part contains only structural spoilers for what is covered in certain chapters, no details. I was (of course!) very sorry to hear (catching up on the podcast now that you're on recaps) that the forum is closing! I get it, too many people selling shoes (and I myself have a nice line of pumps t

Your recent podcast on Dragons of Autumn Twilight reminded me of the many high fantasy novels my friends and I read in the in 1980's, when we were very into D&D. A similar set of titles that might be of interest are the Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz. It's got a bunch of stuff Glenn should love:

Since Glenn and Brandon have now trained me to look for weird and speculative fiction everywhere, I present Rush and, specifically, the song "Dreamline" from the album Roll The Bones (1991). I'm not claiming that Neil Peart (the primary lyricist in Rush) is actually pulling from Lovecraft or anyone

I agree with Brandon's take that Weer is a tyrant as a boss. A further piece of evidence of this is his reaction to overhearing employees talking about him in the restaurant in an earlier chapter. I'm going to posit that Weer was the person who left the employee locked in the freezer and it wasn't

I have been obsessed with the PEACE podcast. Do you have a timeframe on when you think you will be done with the podcast? I would like to recommend it to friends but want to wait until it's complete. Thanks for all the hard work!

Just saw this on Twitter and thought people here would be interested. Free PDF to read about Victorian alchemy, which might be good research or prompts for writing. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/155986

Honestly, I’m finding your discussion more interesting than the book. I know its reputation, but it doesn’t grab me. My problem. That being said, your explanations help. Some thoughts: The descriptions in the book make it sound like Gold has cranked out dozens, if not hundreds, of forgeries that ar

Rereading "The Best Introduction to the Mountains", it occurred to me that it does a lot to inform the themes in "Peace". Consider this passage as you read chapter 5: "Progress, then, does not consist of destroying good things in the mere hope that the things that will replace them will be better (

I certainly hope y'all will address the likelihood ("very" IMO) that when Lois drew her gun to kill Den in the pit (when she thought they'd found the gold), he killed her with his pocket knife -- probably accidentally buried with her. And the gold was actually in a hidden cellar under that stone wh

I believe Shivering Jemmy's appearance on Young Justice is the season 4 (season 4 is called Phantoms) Zatanna episodes. These begin with "Odnu" and end with "Kaerb Ym Traeh!" On the podcast, they mentioned Shivering Jemmy being in a Young Justice movie. Were they referring to this arc on the serie

Listening to the the wrap up discussion on season of mists and I noticed you guys were not able to pin down a moment where the devil gets his due (unless he's due pto). I may be wrong but I've always taken that as referring to the moment where Lucifer begrudgingly gives the Creator his due, flippi

Glenn mentioned that some of the fairies had masks that made them sort of look like superheroes, which automatically made me think, "What if a fairy decided to come to Earth and be a superhero?" I think that could be a terrific series and now I'm wondering what a fairy's superpowers would be and wha

New listener, really like the show in general, but I think the analysis of the political subtext of China Mieville's "Reports of Certain Events in London" is really lacking. Specifically there's a weird emphasis on the fact that Mieville doesn't think change is inherently good, and this is somehow

I don’t know this story, but it’s on my TBR list now. A couple of things I did think about as I listened: Hospitals are almost uniquely objectifying, and objectification is a big part of the story. Once you are admitted, you give up almost total control of your life, and may be poked, prodded, mad

I never really thought about where the Conan stories were set. He just seemed to float anywhere from Rome to the Middle Ages and from the Tropics to Northern Europe. The names were familiar, sure, but in sort of the same way that some movies are “inspired by true events”. Truth be told, my conceptio

A couple of quick thoughts, based on your conversation about this story. The people of Ib are described with green skin, bulging eyes, etc. Is this an early example of HPL fish/amphibious people motif, like Shadow Over Innsmouth? I agree that this is not one of the Dreamlands stories. I think it'

Interesting discussion. One area where I do have a bit of a disagreement is that the protagonist is unambiguously coded as a vampire. She does drink blood and avoid mirrors, but she's covered in fur like a werewolf*, and later haunts the house like a ghost. To me, Atwood put our myths into a blende

Valerie & Glenn were wondering who Mysterious Robot Bridge Crewwoman is? - and apparently, this is "Lt. Commander Airiam," the Discovery's "spore drive ops officer." As written on the Memory Alpha wiki: "Airiam's nature has been subject to a number of divergent background statements. StarTrek.com d

Hello! New listener here. Greatly enjoyed your perspectives of Foundation, which I read in my formative years and hold much affection for. As does, apparently, Paul Krugman, who cites the novel as inspiring his interest in economics. I will certainly concede that the premise of psychohistory is f

This post contains THE spoiler for Peace. Only read further if you've either read the whole book or already been spoiled. Aldin Dennis Weer is dead, to begin with. Which is my point: we need to begin with that. Even though Wolfe doesn't. I don't recall if Brandon was at this particular part of t

Excellent review! Reynolds is one of my faves. For short stories, I think his best are mostly in the Revelation Space universe (most of them can be found in the collection Galactic North); he has a Best of too. Great novellas include: Diamond Dogs (chilling); The Six Directions of Space (I recall it

Look, I've dived head first into Sandman since the show came out and am just so thankful to find your podcast! I hadn't really read comics critically before this, but your show and Endless have been my companions as I go through my reread of everything. Season of Mists is my absolute favorite arc

I know Sandkings is an older podcast, but I had some time this weekend and reread some classic science fiction. One of the stories I read was Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon, and this story had to have been an influence on George R. R. Martin. The protagonist is a genius who creates an artifici

Excellent discussion as always. I just wanted to add something about the disease that I'm honestly surprised Glenn missed. My immediate assumption was that the disease was supposed to be lead poisoning. Now, a quick Google search shows that the symptoms Caius had don't match lead poisoning. But I st

I read this story back in the 1970s, and it is, in many ways a product of its time. My take is very different than yours, and – in the interest of full disclosure – I saw all the legal hurdles my mother had to go through after her divorce in 1973. So, I’m admitting that this is not an unbiased post.

To me the ending reads as an inversion of the Gethsemane story*: · Jesus stays awake all night praying/Espinosa indulges a carnal sin and sleeps · Jesus spends the night alone (sleeping disciples don’t count)/Espinosa has a woman in his bed · Jesus knows what’s going to happen and

I have been following and enjoying the discussion as to whether Peace is set in Kansas, Illinois or Ohio. After several months of my usual lurking, I figured it was time to settle the matter. While reading Peace for the first time, I pieced together some of the clues (river, topography, William Qua