A Meal of Thorns
@mealofthorns.bsky.social
A speculative book club, where critics, writers, and scholars join us to talk about thorny, interesting titles. A podcast from the Ancillary Review of Books.
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/amealofthorns/
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/amealofthorns/
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Listen to @mealofthorns.bsky.social
February 11, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Listen to @mealofthorns.bsky.social
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Octothorpe 153 arrives! We discuss the best board games to play at school, and then we cover important topics such as whether yellow is “Pokémon-coloured” before discussing @smofcon43.bsky.social, Nuremberg 2028, and @dublin2029.bsky.social. Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/153-bowlin...
February 12, 2026 at 10:19 AM
Octothorpe 153 arrives! We discuss the best board games to play at school, and then we cover important topics such as whether yellow is “Pokémon-coloured” before discussing @smofcon43.bsky.social, Nuremberg 2028, and @dublin2029.bsky.social. Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/153-bowlin...
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
Make a place for me on the Ark of Bones.
@fordhampress.bsky.social
@fordhampress.bsky.social
February 12, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Make a place for me on the Ark of Bones.
@fordhampress.bsky.social
@fordhampress.bsky.social
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Egan is such a blast to read—really enjoyed revisiting this one with Eden. We somehow didn't make the Ted Chiang comp, but: if you are hungry for more like EXHALATION or STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, pick up some Egan post-haste.
For the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns, critic and podcaster @tallesteden.bsky.social joins ARB editor @casella.bsky.social to talk about big-picture, far-future science fiction (with some surprisingly timely bits) in Greg Egan's DIASPORA:
A Meal of Thorns 43- DIASPORA with Eden Kupermintz
Greg Egan’s work exemplifies a certain kind of “hard” science fiction: not that it’s obsessed with big manly space battles, but rather that it’s using science to reall…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
February 9, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Egan is such a blast to read—really enjoyed revisiting this one with Eden. We somehow didn't make the Ted Chiang comp, but: if you are hungry for more like EXHALATION or STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, pick up some Egan post-haste.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
this means so much to me ;-;
February 11, 2026 at 2:14 AM
this means so much to me ;-;
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Got the chance to talk about one of my all time favorite sci-fi novels and also a book that I consider massively underrated. Vast scales, theoretical mathematics (no, seriously; so much math) and super cool future humanity and space travel!
You can't just "know" kung fu: @tallesteden.bsky.social is on to talk about Greg Egan's hard SF classic, DIASPORA, with much discussion of the mechanics of scale & wonder, and what we can learn from thinking about weird posthuman societies:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
February 9, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Got the chance to talk about one of my all time favorite sci-fi novels and also a book that I consider massively underrated. Vast scales, theoretical mathematics (no, seriously; so much math) and super cool future humanity and space travel!
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
(The secret third way I discover new music is when it's featured on either Acid Horizon or Death//Sentence)
February 9, 2026 at 3:20 PM
(The secret third way I discover new music is when it's featured on either Acid Horizon or Death//Sentence)
You can't just "know" kung fu: @tallesteden.bsky.social is on to talk about Greg Egan's hard SF classic, DIASPORA, with much discussion of the mechanics of scale & wonder, and what we can learn from thinking about weird posthuman societies:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
February 9, 2026 at 12:37 PM
You can't just "know" kung fu: @tallesteden.bsky.social is on to talk about Greg Egan's hard SF classic, DIASPORA, with much discussion of the mechanics of scale & wonder, and what we can learn from thinking about weird posthuman societies:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
Out today! Listen to Paul March-Russell discuss the importance of women writers in science fiction and the legacy of the short story collection “Women of Wonder” (1974) edited by Pamela Sargent.
Paul March-Russell is the co-founder of GoldSF.
Listen here!
www.spreaker.com/episode/wome...
Paul March-Russell is the co-founder of GoldSF.
Listen here!
www.spreaker.com/episode/wome...
February 5, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Out today! Listen to Paul March-Russell discuss the importance of women writers in science fiction and the legacy of the short story collection “Women of Wonder” (1974) edited by Pamela Sargent.
Paul March-Russell is the co-founder of GoldSF.
Listen here!
www.spreaker.com/episode/wome...
Paul March-Russell is the co-founder of GoldSF.
Listen here!
www.spreaker.com/episode/wome...
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
As I have said many times: Nick Land's The Dark Enlightenment isn't some ur-text of the dark and sinister limits of anti-humanist thought; it's a guy who's always on the computer complaining about Slate articles and how everyone laughs at race science.
Update on Bari Weiss University
If I worked for any reputable organisation, I'd flag the use of '88' in any messaging, since it's an infamous neo-Nazi bullhorn, especially if your first reading list for 'Origins of 21st Century Right-Wing Thought' (w/ selections from Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin?)
If I worked for any reputable organisation, I'd flag the use of '88' in any messaging, since it's an infamous neo-Nazi bullhorn, especially if your first reading list for 'Origins of 21st Century Right-Wing Thought' (w/ selections from Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin?)
February 5, 2026 at 8:37 AM
As I have said many times: Nick Land's The Dark Enlightenment isn't some ur-text of the dark and sinister limits of anti-humanist thought; it's a guy who's always on the computer complaining about Slate articles and how everyone laughs at race science.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
I’m so busy thinking about #gally1 I almost forgot to post about this week’s #podcast episode! We read THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Listen to our thoughts here: linktr.ee/fictionfanspod
#booksky 💙📚
Listen to our thoughts here: linktr.ee/fictionfanspod
#booksky 💙📚
Fiction Fans | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree
View fictionfanspod’s Linktree to discover and stream music from top platforms like YouTube, Spotify here. Your next favorite track is just a click away!
linktr.ee
February 4, 2026 at 7:59 PM
I’m so busy thinking about #gally1 I almost forgot to post about this week’s #podcast episode! We read THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Listen to our thoughts here: linktr.ee/fictionfanspod
#booksky 💙📚
Listen to our thoughts here: linktr.ee/fictionfanspod
#booksky 💙📚
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
NEW WRITING: A while back I played Everyone's Gone To The Rapture and really enjoyed it - happy to say that Still Wakes the Deep is also really good www.patreon.com/posts/144522...
The Rig is the Monster: Still Wakes The Deep and The Horror of Extraction | TheLitCritGuy
Get more from TheLitCritGuy on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:08 PM
NEW WRITING: A while back I played Everyone's Gone To The Rapture and really enjoyed it - happy to say that Still Wakes the Deep is also really good www.patreon.com/posts/144522...
Agreed, especially with the Luddites' relationship to time/lifeways and some of their (by modern definitions) queer sensibilities.
February 4, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Agreed, especially with the Luddites' relationship to time/lifeways and some of their (by modern definitions) queer sensibilities.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
This was amazing and I only heard about it because of the equally amazing @mealofthorns.bsky.social podcast from @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
Each episode is a curriculum and the careful consideration of the text is a joy: close reading and high level discussion!
pca.st/episode/366a...
Each episode is a curriculum and the careful consideration of the text is a joy: close reading and high level discussion!
pca.st/episode/366a...
February 4, 2026 at 3:51 AM
This was amazing and I only heard about it because of the equally amazing @mealofthorns.bsky.social podcast from @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
Each episode is a curriculum and the careful consideration of the text is a joy: close reading and high level discussion!
pca.st/episode/366a...
Each episode is a curriculum and the careful consideration of the text is a joy: close reading and high level discussion!
pca.st/episode/366a...
Lud-in-the-Mist is really something. Thanks for the shout-out!
February 4, 2026 at 12:58 PM
Lud-in-the-Mist is really something. Thanks for the shout-out!
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There is a brand new episode of SFULTRA, the only book podcast that has ever existed. It is about Samuel R. Delany and his book Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand. It's free to listen to here right now: www.patreon.com/posts/149597... and will appear in the usual podcast places later today.
January 31, 2026 at 5:43 PM
There is a brand new episode of SFULTRA, the only book podcast that has ever existed. It is about Samuel R. Delany and his book Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand. It's free to listen to here right now: www.patreon.com/posts/149597... and will appear in the usual podcast places later today.
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
I don't know if Charles R. Saunders was the first Black author to tackle the Cthulhu Mythos, but he's the first I know of. His story goes into very unusual territory immediately, being told about two Black men and dealing with the history of slavery in the US.
deepcuts.blog/2020/08/29/j...
deepcuts.blog/2020/08/29/j...
“Jeroboam Henley’s Debt” (1982) by Charles R. Saunders
And he remembered a night more than a dozen years ago in Virginia, when he and Nedeau had been stopped by a policeman wanting to know exactly how a couple of “Nigras” had come by such a…
deepcuts.blog
February 2, 2026 at 3:15 PM
I don't know if Charles R. Saunders was the first Black author to tackle the Cthulhu Mythos, but he's the first I know of. His story goes into very unusual territory immediately, being told about two Black men and dealing with the history of slavery in the US.
deepcuts.blog/2020/08/29/j...
deepcuts.blog/2020/08/29/j...
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
In the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns, biographer Jon Tattrie (TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND) joins to talk about Charles R. Saunders' sword-and-soul classic IMARO, and its many lives & afterlives:
A Meal of Thorns 42- IMARO with Jon Tattrie
Charles Saunders’ sword and soul narratives, pulp-fantasy-inspired tales of Black and African heroes, helped blaze a trail for the genre—but, like Saunders himself, they have a complica…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 26, 2026 at 6:10 PM
In the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns, biographer Jon Tattrie (TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND) joins to talk about Charles R. Saunders' sword-and-soul classic IMARO, and its many lives & afterlives:
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
Two books we used to talk through Frankenstein are Capitalism: A Horror Story by @thelitcritguy.bsky.social (from @horrorvanguard.bsky.social) and Skin Shows by Jack Halberstam, both excellent reference books for your horror theory library!
This week on @tendersubject.bsky.social, we are joined by comedian @feraljokes.bsky.social
and writer @raygonne.bsky.social to talk Frankenstein. We dissect the book and the 2025 film through queer and Marxist theory and get into why the film often let us down.
and writer @raygonne.bsky.social to talk Frankenstein. We dissect the book and the 2025 film through queer and Marxist theory and get into why the film often let us down.
January 27, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Two books we used to talk through Frankenstein are Capitalism: A Horror Story by @thelitcritguy.bsky.social (from @horrorvanguard.bsky.social) and Skin Shows by Jack Halberstam, both excellent reference books for your horror theory library!
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
¡Ceci n'est pas une banane république!
Glad to be back on Worker's Lit talking about this truly wild and wooly novel!
Glad to be back on Worker's Lit talking about this truly wild and wooly novel!
9/11, Hamlet, the Statue of Liberty, Segismundo, Zoroastrianism, Puerto Rican Independence, Bananas. What do these have in common? This book.
Today we are joined by @kjy1066.bsky.social of @podside-picnic.bsky.social to discuss “The United States of Banana.” By Giannina Braschi.
Listen now!
Today we are joined by @kjy1066.bsky.social of @podside-picnic.bsky.social to discuss “The United States of Banana.” By Giannina Braschi.
Listen now!
January 26, 2026 at 4:03 PM
¡Ceci n'est pas une banane république!
Glad to be back on Worker's Lit talking about this truly wild and wooly novel!
Glad to be back on Worker's Lit talking about this truly wild and wooly novel!
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
And one last thing for today: the latest edition of Critical Friends. We've moved it a week earlier in the schedule in order to include a fantastic conversation between @tristanbeiter.bsky.social's Le Guin book club about the contexts of criticism ... and the potential of the book club.
Critical Friends Episode 20: On Book Clubs
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, as part of our 2026 criticism special issue Tristan Beiter introduces us to his Ursula K. Le Guin book club.
strangehorizons.com
January 26, 2026 at 2:05 PM
And one last thing for today: the latest edition of Critical Friends. We've moved it a week earlier in the schedule in order to include a fantastic conversation between @tristanbeiter.bsky.social's Le Guin book club about the contexts of criticism ... and the potential of the book club.
Jon Tattrie's biography of Charles Saunders, TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND, is hot off the presses! Jon's on our latest episode to discuss IMARO, sword and soul, and Saunders' legacy:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/26/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/26/a...
January 26, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Jon Tattrie's biography of Charles Saunders, TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND, is hot off the presses! Jon's on our latest episode to discuss IMARO, sword and soul, and Saunders' legacy:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/26/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/26/a...
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
In a strange twist of fate, or maybe an augury of futures past, most of the things I’m publishing in spring are print-first or print-only. Subscribe to @clereviewbooks.bsky.social , Death Kit, and The Toe Rag to get them, and you’ll find a whole print world on top of them!
January 23, 2026 at 9:04 PM
In a strange twist of fate, or maybe an augury of futures past, most of the things I’m publishing in spring are print-first or print-only. Subscribe to @clereviewbooks.bsky.social , Death Kit, and The Toe Rag to get them, and you’ll find a whole print world on top of them!
Reposted by A Meal of Thorns
This is right now! Come on in!
📢 TODAY ONLY - @ 2PM ET 📢
🗡️📜🕹️ Cameron Kunzelman talks Assassin’s Creed, history, and how the franchise explores freedom, control, and conspiracy across time.
📺 Head to www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal to join the talk! 📺
💸 Our talks are always FREE and PUBLIC. DONATE: buff.ly/3PQ2HDE
🗡️📜🕹️ Cameron Kunzelman talks Assassin’s Creed, history, and how the franchise explores freedom, control, and conspiracy across time.
📺 Head to www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal to join the talk! 📺
💸 Our talks are always FREE and PUBLIC. DONATE: buff.ly/3PQ2HDE
January 23, 2026 at 7:03 PM
This is right now! Come on in!
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It's Ursula Le Guin's day of death. Every year, I have a lot to say and every year I quote her instead.
"The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin.
"The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin.
January 23, 2026 at 5:31 PM
It's Ursula Le Guin's day of death. Every year, I have a lot to say and every year I quote her instead.
"The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin.
"The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin.