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

A Sword of Bronze and Ashes

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