October has been a productive month. Hussein and I FINALLY managed to hook up and cover Phase Three of The Final Programme and it was great to get back in the saddle. Alongside him. On a weird two saddled beast. Or a motorbike and sidecar. Perhaps that was a poor choice of words. It was great to get back in the Duesenberg together!

As you’ll know if you listened, we eschewed the opportunity to talk about the finale (Phase Four) on that show as it was already well over two hours long. On discussion with some of you though, perhaps we missed a trick. There’s obviously a lot there to unpack. As it happens we also discussed getting back together to talk about the successes and failures of the Robert Fuest film and, in all honesty, I don’t know how we can do that WITHOUT referencing the end of the book. So, in the near future we will do just that.

Hussein and I have also had a quick conflab about our next project. I came across a really interesting article on Twitter thanks to David Currie (thanks DC). As Dune is about to hit UK cinemas there have been a host of articles and think pieces about the Frank Herbert book, particularly regarding cultural appropriation, lack of representation and white saviour narratives. This piece however is from a very specific perspective. So, I sent the link to The Muslimness of Dune: A Close Reading of “Appendix II: The Religion of Dune” over to H.  It’s fascinating to get the POV of a muslim scifi-fan but, as H has brought an Islamic perspective to some of our discussions on Jerry Cornelius and Moorcock, I though it would be equally valid to get a view from a muslim NON-scif-fi fan! So, we have a project for the new year. At our pace it will probably take 18 years to get through it but what else are we going to do with our time.

It’s solidly in scope too, as I got my intro to Dune via Pops c/o the copy of Children of Dune pictured above. At the time I read a bit, had no idea what the bloody hell was going off so waited until, inevitably, copies of Dune and Dune Messiah dropped into my lap via my Uncle Phil some time later, obscured within two bin-liners of paperbacks. Yes, I have three copies of the Pennington covered Dune Messiah. No, I don’t know why or how.

In other news, the second volume of the Journal is just about written and, timely as ever, N Λ Ṇ D has released the first track from the Journal vol II – Gallery of the Lost. Grab that and the first part of the GAC-inspired music project, Journal vol I, at the N Λ Ṇ D bandcamp page.

In terms of new shows, the patron poll for the Halloween episode had a decisive winner and Guy N Smith’s Night of the Crabs is my bedtime read this week. Phil and I will be recording our thoughts on that this weekend and it will be out in time for Halloween.  

I also recorded a great show last week with Andrew Nette. We talked about his upcoming book Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 , as well as a host of other stuff. That will be out in the next couple of weeks and in the meantime check out Andrew’s website Pulp Curry. It’s a treasure trove of pulp and genre goodness and includes a recently unearthed and previously unpublished interview with BITR favourite James Herbert.

Reet… I’m dry for now.

Catch you again soon pards.

Andy