Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror are replete with sports and games. Rollerball and Death Race 2000; The Running Man and Field of Dreams; The Hunger Games and Ready Player One; games of chance, sports, and competitions have been a part of the genre landscape for many years. Harry Potter had Quidditch, and the Triwizard Tournament.

Troy and David have created a two-part episode, The Spec Sports Spectacular, where they look at appearances of games and sports in speculative film, TV, and books.

Remember the number of times that poker appeared in Star Trek? Is that not the final scene in the TNG series, Captain Picard finally joining the poker game that his senior officers play?

And who can forget the games played on the Battlestar Galactica?

This episode is being broadcast on Saturday, June 24, 2023.

We are celebrating the 75th birthday of Stephen King with Bev Vincent’s wonderful new book from Epic Ink, Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences. 

Our three part series splits up Bev’s six chapters, so we will look at two chapters in each episode.

PT 1 covers 1950 – 1979:

CHAPTER 1: The Future Artist as a Young Man (1950-1969)
CHAPTER 2: The Doubleday Years (1970s)

PT 2 covers 1980 – 1999:

CHAPTER 3: Midas Touch (1980s)
CHAPTER 4: Experimentation and Change (1990s)

PT 3 covers 2000 – 2022:

CHAPTER 5: After the Accident (2000s)
CHAPTER 6: King of Crime (2010 and beyond)

Bev Vincent’s latest work is: Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences. 

Bev is also the author of The Dark Tower Companion, The Road to the Dark Tower, and the Stephen King Illustrated Companion.

In 2018 he co-edited the anthology Flight or Fright with Stephen King. He is the author of the Ogilvie Affair and co-author of Dissonant Harmonies.

His short fiction has appeared in places such as Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Borderlands 5, Ice Cold, and The Blue Religion.

With this appearance Bev joins the Three Timers Club, if you will. The Hat Trick Union. 

Bev was our season one, episode seven podcast guest on: The Dead Zone;
and our season two, episode four podcast on:
On Writing.

Top Ten Fantasy Films (pt. 1 of 2)

Troy Harkin and David Clink each come up with their own top ten fantasy films, and the reasons for their selections. How many films will appear on both lists?

Will The Wizard of Oz appear on both lists?
How about…

King Kong?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
My Neighbor Totoro?
The Adventures of Robin Hood?
Big Fish?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone?

Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?

     “They peered in at the merry-go-round which lay under a dry rattle and roar of wind-tumbled oak trees. Its horses, goats, antelopes, zebras, speared through their spines with brass javelins, hung contorted as in a death rictus, asking mercy with their fright-colored eyes, seeking revenge with their panic-colored teeth.”

Chapter 18, page 73, Something Wicked This Way Comes,
this selection is from ISBN 0-380-97727-3. Avon Books, Hardcover, June 1999.
copyright (c) 1962, 1997 by Ray Bradbury.

Why do so many people who have read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury consider it a classic, and one of their favorite novels? What is it about this tale of good vs. evil, carnivals and side shows, that stays with us?

This is the story of two children, Will Halloway, and Jim Nightshade. They are both thirteen years old, born minutes apart, living across the street from each other, best friends. This is their adventure, an adventure that will take them to a carnival with a Ferris wheel, a mirror maze, an illustrated man, and the most beautiful woman in the world, an adventure that will forever change them and the town they live in.

The cast of characters include:
A lightning-rod salesman.
A dust witch.
A father working as a janitor working in a library who feels that he failed his son when he needed him most.
And the two men who run the carnival, Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger.

Some characters in the novel long for the past.
Others have an eye to the future.
And the ever-pressing present rolling forward that no one can avoid.

And wishes do come with a price.

Troy Harkin and David Clink will look at the novel, the movie, the comic book, the short story it was all based on, and try to provide the answers.

We are introducing a new segment with this episode:
“These are a few of our favorite words”
This is where Troy, David and their special guest will read short excerpts from their favorite passages in the novel.

Our special guest is Sandra Kasturi. See author photo and bio below..

Sandra Kasturi is an award-winning poet, writer, and editor, with work appearing in many places including ON SPEC, several Tesseracts anthologies, and 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin.

Her two poetry collections are: The Animal Bridegroom (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds (both from Tightrope Books).

Sandra recently won second prize in The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. She is also the winner of the Sunburst Award for her story “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” and ARC Magazine‘s Poem of the Year Award for “Old Men, Smoking.”