Bookstabber

Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. Conan the Cimmerian struggled to return to his beloved- but not before bedding another dozen random sex objects. Evil priests everywhere wet themselves. Gene foists book after book upon Willow's troubled brow.

A universe-spanning conspiracy threatens human life as we know it. Science is our only hope. Defeatism is at an all-time high. In other news, Gene and Willow read a book.

Spoiler: Boy meets girl, boy clones girl, clone kills boy. A tale as old as time! And Gene and Willow discover shocking secrets about memory retention.

Gene and Willow discuss four Moon Knight graphic novels from the 2010s: Vol. 1 From The Dead, Vol. 2 The Dead Will Rise, and Vol. 3 In The Night, plus Vol. 1 Lunatic which was either a continuation or a relaunch or maybe both. Plus find out if "white" the same as "optically white" and hear a list of Willow's peeves about superhero comics! Check out Willow's new comics at hauntedskull.com!

Gene and Willow are transported on a magical trip to the worst place on Earth. Between shark attacks, abusive Taekwondo champions, poisoned peaches, and state propaganda, it's a miracle they both managed to have a good time. Content warning: This book deals with heavy topics, both sexual and violent. Discretion is advised. Check out Willow's new comics at hauntedskull.com and the comics we make together at librarycomic.com

At the end of time stand two opposing forces: The Willow Agency, who finds this book to be a bloated Writing 201 experiment, and the Gene Garden, for whom each book is like a newborn bird being hatched. Can either win the Time War? Obviously not, it's in the title. Willow has started publishing absurdist-horror-comedy comics stories at hauntedskull.com -- please check them out! And you can still find comics Gene and Willow make together at librarycomic.com

Willow fondly remembers someone else's childhood and battles alien spiders. Gene laughs at poop jokes and parenting foibles. Together they ask the immortal question: is it okay to smell the underwear of an extra terrestrial?

Gene is delighted, as usual. Willow drinks deep the sorrows of children's literature. Four Loko and books about peanuts are banished from the kingdom.

Gene and Willow disagree about this magical novel set in 1940s New York, in which an uncanny assassin and others with strange powers try to create a safe space for love and family. (Trouble the Saints won a 2021 World Fantasy Award.)

This week Gene and Willow discuss Nicola Yoon's YA romance The Sun Is Also A Star. Gene loved this story of love at first sight story about a young man on his way to a college interview for a school he doesn't want to attend and a young woman trying to keep her family from being deported that evening. Willow was not as swept away. You can find the comics Gene and Willow make together at librarycomic.com

This week Gene and Willow discuss the weird and Lovecraftian novel A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill. Are monsters real? Are all tentacles evil? And how does Willow feel about flying werewolf sex? Find out in this exciting episode!

This episode Gene and Willow discuss The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, an Arthurian tale of forgetfulness. It's the first episode featuring work by an author who has won the Man Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Do you think Willow was impressed? You can find comics Gene and Willow make together at librarycomic.com and barbariangirl.com

This week Gene and Willow discuss Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson (The Family Fang, Perfect Little World). Gene loves Wilson's novels, and Willow's reaction to this one surprises him. You can read the comics we make together at librarycomic.com and barbariangirl.com And please email suggestions about what we should read for a future episode.

This week we're doing something different! Willow and I discuss four graphic novels we both love: Robot Dreams by Sara Varon, King City by Brandon Graham, Legion of Super-Heroes: Teenage Revolution by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson, and Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks. (Of course we don't agree on everything.) To find comics we make together, visit librarycomic.com

Gene and Willow discuss All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. It's an apocalyptic book that both defies and embraces the conventions of fantasy, science fiction, and coming of age novels. Gene loves it, and was sure Willow would, too. Wrong. You can find the comics Gene and Willow make together at www.librarycomic.com And if you know a book Willow might like, please please please email us your suggestion at bookstabberpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Gene and Willow discuss The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. The title character, Maia, is the unlikely, half-goblin ruler of the Elflands who comes to power after an airship accident kills his father and half-brothers. To keep his throne, and just to stay alive, Maia has to deal with a lot of bs at court. A librarian once put the book into Gene's hands and told him it was his next favorite book, and several of his friends love it. Yet Willow rants! And Gene drives her...

In this episode, Gene and Willow discuss the first two volumes of Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red and Artificial Condition. The main character is a SecUnit that has hacked its own controller module and spends much of its time watching media (when it isn't saving idiotic humans from danger). It's one of Gene's favorite science fiction series. And please check out the comics Gene and Willow make at www.librarycomic.com

Library Comic's Gene Ambaum and Willow Payne discuss The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay and the YA novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S.King. Rant ahoy!

Episode 4 is the first Bookstabber double feature! Gene and Willow discuss Gene's favorite space opera, Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks, and then talk about When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald, a YA-ish novel with an unusual narrator. As usual Willow questions Gene's taste and his mental state.

Library Comic's Gene Ambaum and Willow Payne discuss Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a short novel about a man exploring an endless labyrinth full of statues. Weird book that we both thought was well written, though of course we disagreed on several points.