Starship Alexandria

Emma Newman and Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Sci-fi and Fantasy podcast from the best of futures! In this future, humanity has solved its problems and is now sending spaceships from Earth, not in a desperate attempt to escape the apocalypse but because we can do so in a spirit of hope and exploration. As a part of the Starship Alexandria Project, the far-future analogues of 21st century authors Emma Newman and Adrian Tchaikovsky have been tasked to make recommendations from the ship's vast library of creative works based on the preferences of our 21st century counterparts. Each of us will take it in turns to nominate a book, film or similar work, and the other will play judge and give the thumbs up or thumbs down to be recommended across the fleet.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Episode 13 - Tales From Outer Suburbia

    For our May 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria Emma puts forward the book Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan for Adrian's consideration.   Other talking points:  The difficulty of summarising  Somehow avoiding the word "surreal"  An emotional model railway trip.  Reading around the story  Balancing story collections  Styles of art  Media Mentions:  The art of Edward Gorey including The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Insect God  The art of Dr Seuss including I Had Trouble In Getting To Solla Sollew  The art of Adrian Sykes https://www.adriansykes.co.uk/   Next month we look at Piranesi by Susanna Clarke  Emma's music recommendation: Future Boy by Turin Brakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AekubF2xYlg&list=RDAekubF2xYlg&start_radio=1   Emma's latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award  Adrian's most recent book: Children of Strife https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/children-of-strife-adrian-tchaikovsky/7864905   If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/c/starshipalexandria/home   You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at https://starshipalexandria.teemill.com/  Follow us at:  Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.enewman.co.uk   Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

    51 min
  2. 9 APR

    Episode 12 - Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

    For our April 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria – and the second in our new season – Adrian puts forward the film: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.  Other talking points:  Wonderful Hugh Grant  Rubbish sorcerers  A certain ambivalence  Dungeons we have Dragonned  Save the cat!  Everything wrong with Hollywood  Remembering the Forgotten Realms  The "It's him!" moment of failed fan service    Media Mentions:  Dungeons and Dragons movie dir. Courtney Solomon  Middle Earth Role-Playing (MERP) TTRPG  Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG  Conan the Barbarian, movie dir. John Milius  Lord of the Rings series of movies dir. Peter Jackson  Heretic, movie dir. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods  Bridget Jones's Diary movie dir. Sharon Maguire  Dungeons and Dragons, TV series  28 Years Later, movie dir. Danny Boyle  Galaxy Quest movie dir. Dean Parisot   Next month we look at the illustrated book Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan  Adrian's music recommendation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tEfYvY3bAg&list=RD5tEfYvY3bAg&start_radio=1 Emma's latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award  Adrian's most recent book: Children of Strife https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/children-of-strife-adrian-tchaikovsky/7864905  If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/c/starshipalexandria/home   You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at https://starshipalexandria.teemill.com/  Follow us at:  Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.enewman.co.uk   Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

    1hr 8min
  3. 9 MAR

    Episode 11 - The Demolished Man

    For our March 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria – and the first our our new season – Emma puts forward the novel The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.   Other talking points:  The perils of returning to past reads  Difficult books to summarise  Cunning schemes for the perfect murder  Psychic earworms  Psychotherapy in science fiction  Particularly big warts  (not) the Time Machine Factory  Heroes and anti-heroes  The Poochy effect  Skeezy gender dynamics  Eugenics  Contradictory attitudes towards murder  Typographical games  Inadvisable titles  Media Mentions:  The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, novel by Douglas Adams  The Lathe of Heaven, novel by Ursula le Guin  The Simpsons TV series (twice!)  Gormenghast, series by Mervyn Peake  Babylon 5, TV series  Illuminati, card/board game  Star Trek: The Next Generation, TV series, particularly "Remember Me"  The Life of Chuck, movie dir. Mike Flanagan (based on the work of Stephen King)  Next month we look at the movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves  Emma's music recommendation: Punk Tactics by Joey Valance & Brae https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OklSZmIx9-o&list=RDOklSZmIx9-o&start_radio=1    Emma's latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award  Adrian's most recent book: Pretenders to the Throne of God https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pretenders-to-the-throne-of-god-adrian-tchaikovsky/7953437  If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/c/starshipalexandria/home   You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at https://starshipalexandria.teemill.com/  Follow us at:  Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.enewman.co.uk   Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

    1hr 35min
  4. 9 FEB

    Episode 10 - A Sword of Bronze and Ashes

    For our February 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria, Adrian puts forward the novel A Sword of Bronze and Ashes by Anna Smith Spark for Emma to consider.    Other talking points:  Potato Guys  Getting old as a female fantasy hero  Marriage and long term relationships in fantasy fiction  Amazing prose styles  Being brought up by buccas in a tin mine  Levelling up as a reader    Media Mentions:  The work of Haruki Murakami  The work of KJ Parker (particularly the Scavenger trilogy)  Legend, novel by David Gemmell  The Conan stories by Robert E Howard  The Discworld books by Sir Terry Pratchett  Planetfall, novel by Emma Newman  Excalibur, movie dir. John Boorman     This marks the end of season 1 of Starship Alexandria! Season 2 will commence in March with a look at Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. (For the curious, the seasons are mostly to do with our bulk recording of the regular episodes in advance.)    Adrian's  music recommendation: '39 by Queen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8kGMfXaFU&list=RDkE8kGMfXaFU&start_radio=1     Emma's latest writing is a short story included in the Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) anthology: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161    Adrian's most recent book: Starseer's Ruin https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/ebook-starseers-ruin-eng-2025.html    Follow us at:  Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.enewman.co.uk   Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

    53 min
4.8
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

The Sci-fi and Fantasy podcast from the best of futures! In this future, humanity has solved its problems and is now sending spaceships from Earth, not in a desperate attempt to escape the apocalypse but because we can do so in a spirit of hope and exploration. As a part of the Starship Alexandria Project, the far-future analogues of 21st century authors Emma Newman and Adrian Tchaikovsky have been tasked to make recommendations from the ship's vast library of creative works based on the preferences of our 21st century counterparts. Each of us will take it in turns to nominate a book, film or similar work, and the other will play judge and give the thumbs up or thumbs down to be recommended across the fleet.

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