Before we get deep into ALIEN CLAY: PART TWO, Jacob spirals about Paradise-triggered fear of the end times, William online shops for realistic mermaid babies, and they both continue their love affair with Jenny Haniver. And then we finally travel with the Excursionistas into the wilds of Kiln in all its disturbing and bizarre, extraterrestrial glory, culminating in the alien monster attack of our dreams/nightmares when a giant green alien elephant attacks and eats some of our characters with its retractable tusks and legs-turned-mouth-suckers. :)

We’re thrilled to announce an absolute departure of a book, where we’re trading high fantasy for hard sci-fi and crash-landing face first into Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ALIEN CLAY, a novel of terrifying alien ecologies, political rebellion against an oppressive regime, and the fight to understand a world that defies human logic. We get sidetracked in our introduction to relive a brutal friend fight during our study abroad in Rome, the start of Jacob’s long and perilous road to redemption, and our shared love of beetle-kin and other sci-fi fantasy bug-people. And then in our recap, xeno-ecologist and political dissident Arton Daghdev is exiled to a penal colony on an alien planet that uses scientists turned convict labor to uncover the buried secrets of a mysterious and long-lost ancient civilization of extra-terrestrial origin.

Our very first stand-alone episode! We have the absolute pleasure to speak with TOO SCARY; DIDN’T WATCH’s own podcast host extraordinaire (and close personal friend) Henley Cox to discuss a (Hugo Award winning) hopeful book in a hopeless climate, cozy fantasy, solarpunk, and everything in between – including the nuts and bolts that put Ratlantis together and housed thirty six baby rats in a one hundred square foot room. Brew a cup of herbal tea, crack the windows to let in the cricket song, and open your hearts and minds to Dex and Mosscap, a monk and a robot whose discourse on purpose, connection, and nature might remind you that sometimes, just existing is enough.