I sent the Book of the New Sun unit to my best friend because I thought she might like it. Months later, when I asked what she thought of it, she said, “It’s really improved my reading enjoyment in general. They reminded me that sometimes you do have to say, yeah! You know what, this weird concept/weapon/giant monster IS so f’ing cool.” And she’s right.

and adjusting my perfectly balanced executioner’s blade so that it hangs athwart my Dragonlord football jersey, I lean over to whisper in your ear, “Listen to Shelved by Genre. 5 stars”.

The only podcast featuring Dr Truth.

one of my favorite podcasts, except for the episode in the Mercedes Lackey unit where CMRN does a very rude impression of me pointing out the correct genre classification of the Dragonriders of Pern

Always has really interesting and insightful commentary on genre literature, both books I’ve never heard of and ones I’ve read a million times. Honestly the hosts could talk about the themes of paint drying and I would be listening while taking notes!

I put the cyberpunk in a Genre bag and padded it out with four pairs of wizard paperbacks. Not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for.

The best tangents in podcasting. Also their intro/outro music is really in the Scavenger’s Reign OST wheelhouse so every episode I get an auditory sense memory of that wonderful show but am also reminded that it was cancelled because FBoy Island needed a better craft services table probably.

This is the podcast I look forward to most throughout the month and is easily in my top three favorite ongoing series (the other two are Game Studies Study Buddies and BadHasbara, so Ranged Touch is currently occupying two of the three slots!) I was a dedicated GSSB listener before this came out and had also enjoyed listening to most of Mages and Murderdads, half of Too Much Future and a few episodes of Just King Things as well, so I held the crew in high regard and expected an interesting discussion. But I had recently read The Shadow of the Torturer for the first time, and I was unsure of what to make of my experience with it. I listened to a few other Gene Wolfe analysis podcasts, those didn’t jive with my approach to it at all. So I was bit unsure what to think! Then the first episode dropped and I was blown away by the amount of care, cogency and insight that this team brought to the text. They covered (almost) every question and confusion I had about the text, helped contextualize why it had the form that it did and the cultural milieu that produced it, and raised interpretations that I hadn’t even considered in the months I had spent mulling over it before. After that I was hooked, and read each of the following books as the show got to them. My sincere appreciation of the texts was greatly enhanced by the hosts clever connections, depth of knowledge, and joyful attitudes. I can confidently say there’s no other New Sun discussion out there like this one, and I dare say it may be the most worthwhile, whether you’re new to the series or an oldhat looking for new takes. Earthsea was one of my most beloved childhood fantasy series, which I always thought was under-appreciated, so I was very glad to see those stories discussed with such seriousness and rigor. It’s more mature than most adult fiction in some ways, and this reading did it full justice. I was most interested by the time spent filling in a lot of the background about the author’s relationship to the production of the texts over time. Junji Ito is not my cup of tea, I’d only seen the fish one and read the one with the person-shaped holes. Very creepy stuff, but listening to their summaries creeped me out way less than actually reading the manga so I had a good time with that segment of the series too. The sociological finesse of some of the stories was surprising, as was the erudition that the hosts brought to their readings. Finally, what for me was like buried treasure: GAY WIZARD DRAMA!! Thank you SO MUCH for introducing me to Vanyel! I missed this series growing up, and it would have been LIFE CHANGING to read this stuff as a teen. As is, it was still unimaginably thrilling and vindicating and sweet and devastating. I devoured all three books as soon as the reading started and awaited eagerly each fortnightly discussion! I can’t say how much I loved these books. After that I picked up Lackey’s Oathbound trilogy, hearing that they were also sorta queer-coded, but OMG even what happened to Vanyel could not have prepared me for the events of their first adventure. MASSIVE trigger warnings for SA. Still a good book, but nothing as magical as Vanyel’s tragedies. That boy tore my heart out repeatedly! And his “coming home” scenes were SO REAL IT HURTS! Oh by the way, in the latest movie interlude, I was tickled to hear you guys mention Luke Perry’s “8 Seconds”. That movie is HUGE in my area; Lane Frost is still a local legend to this day. I could not stop laughing while you debated the categorical arrangement of horses, livestock and cattle. Keep up the great work! I have reviews to write for GSSB and Homestuck Made this World at some point too, once I can adequately express my appreciation for the former and cogently state anything at all about the latter. TL;DR: it’s like a book club with the smartest guys you know, and they’re funny too!

This is hands down one of my favorite podcasts. 👏 They’ve covered the book of the new sun, earthsea, junji ito, and now late 80s sad gay wizards and their magic not-horses

It’s not a funny review but I want to reiterate how much this podcast has reignited my love of reading. Being able to follow along and be a part of the conversation by proxy has been a great motivator. The genre crew is endlessly entertaining, insightful, and hilarious. Glad to be a patron and thank you again for all that you do!

On page 2 of The Claw of the Conciliator, I wrote “I hate this book” in the margins, and then 10 pages later I wrote “This book rules.” I refer to this podcast as my Parasocial Book Club, and having my friends (people I’ve never met) talk about a book as a treat for finishing reading it got me out of a very long reading slump and for that I’m grateful.

Not enough discussion of Mercedes Lackey as a visionary in the (specifically) Horse Fantasy genre space though

It’s like a book club, but one where you don’t have to leave your house or have people over! Remember that apprentices only wear shirts.

You have to listen to some pre-show banter about genre fiction but if you have the patience I think that this is hands down the best poetry reading podcast running.

Please enjoy this long-form tribute to the work of famed French librarian Jean ReFriend

In the bonus episode for Ladyhawke, Cameron referred to Sean Astin as someone who is only for “carrying dudes into volcanos”. I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies dozens of times. I did not draw that connection upon hearing this. I saw him in my mind’s eye portraying Heihachi Mishima.

Where are we getting a Lucha Underground unit?

My husband got me into this pod when he mentioned there would be a Junji Ito unit, and now I’m hooked! Like a good spiral, I must take the pod home for further study. Love the lit critiques and the humor. Two thumbs up.

It’s a book podcast hosted by consummate professionals. 5-star production, and 5-star run times. I gave the show a try because I already listen to everything else Austin makes. These other two randos are great too though.

The hosts apply a critical lens to different book series. You do not need an academic background to understand what they're talking about. It's a *funny* show. I probably laugh physically out loud at least once an episode. If you like the show, try their patreon bonus episodes! They are even better than the main show!!! - A 1000 year old Dracula

*Assuming your life is already pretty decent and all you really need is a good podcast to listen to I never even knew what a Gene Park was before I started listening to this podcast. It's three smart folks talking about cool books. It's awesome. I never read along. It's funny, it's clever, it's insightful. Listen to this.

I can’t stop calling things “a real Tomei situation”. Genuinely, though, this is a great way to access literary critiques and discussion now that I no longer have access to lit classes. The hosts provide lots of useful frameworks through which to interpret the works, as well as further theorist reading options if you want to flesh out your own interpretation of the work. It’s also lighthearted and funny enough that you never feel bogged down in your Deleuze or Derrida. Accessible either with or without reading along - convinced me to finally read some Junji Ito and have enjoyed developing my own critiques and then comparing to theirs. Definitely check out Cameron and Michael’s other shows Just King Things or Homestuck Made This World for more lit critiques, or Game Study Study Buddies for video game theory, and Austin Walker’s actual play show Friends at the Table for further robust discussions of how narratives function.

You’ll get the most out of this if you approach it more like an actual play podcast than a lit crit / book club podcast. That is to say, you have to recognize the lit crit as a pretense for some guys to get together and bounce off one another; if you’re here any other reading, it’s bleak. I was told by friends that the Junji Ito discussion series was worth a listen, so I put on the first TOMIE episode. It begins with one of the hosts wondering about the unknown history of Japanese horror fiction, and another vaguely responding that they once heard about a guy named Rampo. That sort of limited engagement with context — no one’s done any secondary reading before starting? — isn’t necessarily a bad omen for a lit podcast, because some people can generate interesting discussion even out of cold reading. The hosts here don’t summon that kind of juice, unfortunately. When they’re too bored with a story’s plot summary to riff on its description for a few minutes, no one seems to know what to do or say. If a story catches their interest, they’ll lay out their theory and then… move on, without any give and take. They are comfortable discussing illustrations at length, but will just as often fall into grinding riffs on story logic, as though Ito were a realist writer, or continuity between stories, as though they‘ve never read short fiction before (which, tbf, they may not have). The hosts have a rapport, in the sense that they love to run with a bit, but they generate very little dialogue, even when they disagree. The throughline for the TOMIE episodes is a question of the stories’ politics; Walker’s ends up being the only take which does anything interesting — or anything at all — with the context of the writing, dragging the other hosts into discussion that doesn’t simply discard the work. I was curious if this was just the general vibe of the podcast, so I jumped back to sample the first episode; everyone seemed to have come to Gene Wolfe with deep established knowledge and ready grace for ugly elements of the work. Ito apparently doesn’t merit the same treatment. The way the hosts ascribe regressive politics onto Ito, from surface readings of his perspective characters’ thoughts and actions, is indicative of how disinterested these guys are in what they’re doing. How *Gene Wolfe apologists* get to that kind of analysis is a serious question. It’s a mockery of reading, and of Ito. If the effort of your literary analysis is directly proportional to how much you like the work in question, you shouldn’t be committing to cold reading in public. Or discussing literature in public at all, frankly. This is a reaction podcast pretending at thought. Ito deserves better, books deserve better, and listeners do too.

As transplant from the two hosts music review podcast about things possessed by a monarch (still not sure what those things are yet), imagine my surprise that instead of Bob Dylan I heard an elegant voice for a more civilized age! I was more surprised then that while I was listening to the hosts talking about things multiplying and getting into you head (if not bored into your brain) that warhammer miniature painting was casually brought up, right while I was cutting little plastic pieces of the sprue to assemble a warhammer miniature! Had something multiplied and take refuge in my head? Then they started talking about how things spiraled out of control and people just shrugged their shoulders, just like how the society I’m living in is seeming spiraling into chaos and I’m just sitting here shrugging my shoulders and assembling my 40K miniatures. Huh? Excuse me? What is going on? At least now I know never ever to buy a spiral tub. 5/5 star but how I think the review of this podcast should work is that it comes with 5 stars as default, and when you try to change it to less than 5 you end up with two 5 stars reviews. And if you keep trying eventually all the 5 stars will twist together into spirally snake thing and slither off into the internet ocean.

That’s right! None of it! Book of the New Sun? No way. Earthsea? Never been there. Junji Ito? I don’t even know what a spiral looks like. I just don’t have the time. You know what I do have time for? Shelved By Genre. Hours of it, every single week. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Five Stars.

This is probably the closest we’ll get to a perfect podcast until Ranged Touch releases a Metal Gear Solid show. I appreciate that the hosts throw in 2 minutes of MGS talk into every episode to let us microdose in the meantime.

“Who’re you taking to the prom, Dragonlord? Or are you… maidenless?”

“Fly, Dragonlord, Fly” is an amazing tale of the power of football and the love of fantasy fiction to transcend the racial barriers that high schoolers errect between themselves. Humorous, heartfelt, you’ll be rooting for these characters even if you don’t know a quarterback from a tight end or a draconian from a dragonlord. Anyways, this amazing movie is bookended in something called the “Le Guin Unit”? Which itself is a deep dive into Le Guin’s Earthsea novels? And is merely a part of a podcast called “Shelved by Genre”, which combines literary and political analysis with humor to make sense of the worlds created by 20th century sci-fi and fantasy authors? Maybe. I don’t remember. I just know that I want that Dragonlord jersey.

That really was a Book of the new sun!

Three friends who are much smarter than I am unpacking books I don’t have the attention span to read, yet am fascinated by.

I’ve tried many sci-fi and fantasy podcasts through the years, but I’ve given up on all of them until now. This show is exactly what I’ve been wanting.

great place to be introduced to some classic fantasy and sci-fi

Since listening to SBG every time I see my dog I exclaim “A BABY BABY”

Loving the Le Guin content.

Somehow this podcast started to come out as I was halfway through my read of “shadow of the torturer”. The crews range of knowledge helped me understand the book in ways I would never have thought and made the whole journey of reading those books so much better

I can’t wait to read/play/watch Dragonlord and the sequel, Wings of the Dragonlord. 5/5 literature podcast, 10/10 pitch document.

Coincidently came across this podcast after just starting a read of the Ursula K Le Guin Books of Earthsea “Unit” after it was recently recommended to me by a friend. Thoroughly enjoying exploring these books and following along with these guys!

Sharp and fun analysis of very interesting books (and movies if you're a patron) - it's the only show where, even though they did NOT do this, I half expected them to segue into a discussion of 1990's Northern Exposure after they mentioned Ged from Earthsea's wizard residency. Come for the literary analysis, stay for the Metal Gear Solid improv and Stephen King crossover fanfic.

I loved Homestuck Made This World, and started reading Book of the New Sun simply because I saw this podcast was analyzing it. 10/10, would recommend (both the podcast and the book!) P.S. - Please consider doing a read through of the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, or the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer!

I’m pretty sure that most of the events of A Wizard of Earthsea could have been avoided if there was a tenth master wizard on Roke, the Master Therapist. While most coming of age tales do not feature the protagonist reflecting on their selfhood and internal thoughts without great struggle and experience, Ged probably could have been saved a great deal of physical and mental torture by undergoing regular sessions with a licensed practitioner of mental and spiritual healing. The institution of Higher Education failed Ged, is what I’m trying to say. Very happy that you’re covering this series, which I have loved dearly since I was a child, yet never fully appreciated until now as an adult. Five Stars.

Hop in at a book (or occasional movie) you’re interested in and I’m confident it’ll enhance your enjoyment of that thing.

Where else are you going to get literature insights such as “A train is a kind of book.” ?

You will not find a better crew than Cameron, Michael, and Austin. Join for the mind-blowingly good books, stay for the insightful and hilarious conversation. After you listen to one episode, you won’t be able to return to a life without Shelved By Genre.

I can’t say that I really understood everything that happened with Book of the New Sun, but I had a great time with that, the bonus episode about the old animated lord of the rings that slaps, and of course the pinnacle of shelved by genre pods: next stop, christmas! It’s great fun listening to this trio dive deep into the subject matter. My only criticism is that I think it would be great if they had a woman or women on the pod especially when some of the analysis of the treatment of women characters really was missing that perspective. But overall I always enjoy the episodes and look forward to more Earthsea!

Here to say this is definitely A Unit, Never a Season, sometimes a Stephen!

five! star! pod! cast! 5! star! run! time!

I can’t wait for 10 years from now when they read “the chronicles of xanth” and ask “is it fantasy Florida?”

I hate books, but I loooooove media critics haunted by the church

I love the book of the new sun and I’ve loved listening to all 3 of the hosts for years. One of those moments where you can’t believe a thing really exists. Also I met Austin Walker once and he was super chill.

Just like the Claw of the Conciliators, this show changed me by bringing me back to the past… of genre lit. Thank you!