S&L Podcast - #519 - No Stomach for Old Salad
/Veronica entertains suggestions for spooky October picks, and likes them all. How can she choose? And our non-spoilery thoughts on The Hexologists.
WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Whitefish Tacos
Veronica: Old Salad
QUICK BURNS
Aaron: I don’t recall this release being discussed on the show and, as it happens, one of my favorite local shops is hosting Martha Wells for the launch of her upcoming fantasy title, Queen Demon in October. I feel like this and the first book in the series, Witch King, are a bit eclipsed by the Murderbot series, but are definitely worthy of some additional attention.
Iron Dog Books Event
BARE YOUR SWORD
Ruth: I have a suggestion for a potential October pick: Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio. It’s a spooky (and seasonal, it’s explicitly set in October) novella about a group of misfits who encounter a mysterious freshly dug grave in an old churchyard and unravel the mystery over the course of a single night. Without giving anything away, there is some science-y stuff going on, so it’s a bit science fiction as well as suitably spooky.
Tamahone: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem is considered spooky.
John (Taloni): I have mad love for Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays, which absolutely deserves all the awards it’s getting. That is plenty spooky, but might be a better pick for Pride month. And I know Our Hosts like to mull over picks, so next June would provide time to think it over. For October I’ll be rereading A Night in the Lonesome October and probably whatever T & V pick.
Robert: As far as suggestions for an October pick that is not too scary but still hits a spooky vibe, I do have a few:
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
In the same sort of nostalgic small-town feel, there’s also Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
Another Robert McCammon book with a very interesting take on the werewolf legend has said werewolf as a secret British agent fighting Nazis in The Wolf’s Hour
For some great vampire fiction we have Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin and Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite, Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler, and of course Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire
On lighter notes, Grady Hendrix has several horror-comedy novels.
Mark: For October, we could scratch the spoopy itch and the Miéville effect in one swell foop with Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire).
Jan: How about The Once and Future Witches? I am told it has cozy horror vibes…
Jan: As we haven’t done any ChatGPT stuff lately, here’s what it gave me when I asked for an ultra-violent cozy fantasy scene:
Mist still clung to the cobbled lane when the bandit stepped from the shadows, dagger glinting. He opened his mouth — but before the words came, the little grandmother with the wicker basket of herbs whipped her knitting needle straight into his eye.
It was quick, efficient. A crunch, a startled scream, then a gurgle as he collapsed like a sack of flour. She tsked, pulling the needle free and wiping it neatly on her apron.
“Terribly sorry, young man,” she murmured, as though the twitching corpse could still hear. “But I’ve no patience for ruffians before breakfast.”
I don’t know, but that’s probably more a cheap Pratchett knockoff, I feel…
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft
Amazon | Bookshop
ADDENDUMS
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