Phil, Miles, and Graham (by late Marconi T1154 Transmission) join me in Derry & Toms for an uncomfortable encounter with Guy N. Smith’s Bamboo Guerillas, a book whose notoriety among paperback collectors we've been egging each other on to explore for a few years. Commissioned to push wartime sex and violence to extremes, it leaves … Continue reading Bamboo Guerillas – Halloween 2026
Tag: podcast
BREEDING GROUND – Halloween 2026’s Penultimatum
Graham and Phil are back as we round off this year’s Halloween run with Breeding Ground, Shaun Hutson’s sequel to Slugs. Having apparently learnt nothing from our previous encounter, we’re heading into London’s sewers for another helping of slimy, metal-infused, mucusy death. Can a second dose deliver the same revolting pleasures? Join us as we … Continue reading BREEDING GROUND – Halloween 2026’s Penultimatum
Episode 150 – The Magic Faraway Tree
It's our 150th episode, and we've now been at this for seven Earth years! So how do we celebrate this milestone? By sitting on the sofa and gassing about one of our earliest reads, a book we read in the 1970s that turned out, on reflection, to be a massive gateway drug in terms of … Continue reading Episode 150 – The Magic Faraway Tree
The Prisoner – Part One
John returns to Derry & Toms as, following a drunken afternoon in Rochdale, we decided to take a look at Thomas M Disch's The Prisoner, the first of three Ace tie-in novels commissioned in 1969. Disch was a New Worlds ace and a perfect fit for Patrick McGoohan’s world of surveillance, sinister bureaucracy, paranoia, slippery … Continue reading The Prisoner – Part One
The Space Guardians
Mateo Latosa returns to Derry & Toms to follow up on our episode on The Powysverse of Space 1999 by digging into one of the original 1970s novelisations, The Space Guardians by prolific British SF author (and early New Worlds contributor) Brian Ball. We take a look at the episodes it adapted, and the work … Continue reading The Space Guardians
The Silver Key & The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Allister is back in Derry & Toms to take a look at some Lovecraft. My choice, The Silver Key, and his... The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The latter appears in Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn's Fantasy: The 100 Best Books, and may be the fifth on that hefty list that we've managed to cover … Continue reading The Silver Key & The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Ice Schooner – Part Two
Miles is back for Part Two of The Ice Schooner, in which we find that our hero Konrad Arflane is still a dick, and we beat around several bushes, including the novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Richard Widmark and flamethrowers, and comparative experiences of angiograms… JOIN US!!!! (and listen to the Casual Trek … Continue reading The Ice Schooner – Part Two
Death Angel’s Shadow – Part Two
Dave returns to Derry & Toms to conclude our coverage of the 1973 Karl Edward Wagner anthology Death Angel's Shadow, featuring his anti-hero Kane. Some great stuff in here, but some rough stuff too, with references to sexual assault, so please beware that we will discuss it in both the original context, as we see … Continue reading Death Angel’s Shadow – Part Two
THE ROBOT BRAINS (Sydney J Bounds)
Malcom Craig drops by Derry & Toms to talk about his work in academia, roleplaying games, his authorship of the first ever academic article on Twilight 2000, the "macho men with Uzis" sub-genre of RPGs, the upcoming reboots of his Cold City and Hot War games, and panicking as children about how high priority your … Continue reading THE ROBOT BRAINS (Sydney J Bounds)
The Jade Man’s Eyes
Derek AKA Imrryr joins me in Derry and Toms as we take a look at the Elric tale, The Jade Man's Eyes. Initially published in 1973 in Flashing Swords 2 and as a standalone novella by Unicorn Press, this story would later be heavily revised and repackaged as part of the fix-up novel The Sailor … Continue reading The Jade Man’s Eyes
