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
