Starship Alexandria

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: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

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: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

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: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

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: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com

For our January 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria, Emma puts forward the movie Godzilla Minus One directed by Takashi Yamazaki for Adrian to consider. 

 

Other talking points: 

A monstrous regiment of Godzillas 

Survivor's Guilt 

Redemption arcs 

Found boat family 

The Unbearable Weightiness of Kaiju 

Convenient mattress factories 

Godzilla amplification 

 

Media Mentions: 

Godzilla (Gojira), movie dir Ishiro Honda 

Subsequent Godzilla movies, dir. various 

Pacific Rim, movie dir. Guillermo del Toro 

Jurassic Park, movie dir. Steven Spielberg 

Back to the Future, movie dir. Robert Zemeckis 

Oppenheimer, movie dir. Christopher Nolan 

 

Our next regular episode will look at the novel Sword of Bronze and Ashes by Anna Smith Spark. 

Emma's  music recommendation: The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWz0JC7afNQ&list=RDLWz0JC7afNQ&start_radio=1 

 

Emma's latest book: The Vengeance https://geni.us/thevengeance  

 

Adrian's most recent book: Starseer's Ruin https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/ebook-starseers-ruin-eng-2025.html

 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk  

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com