Episode 16 - Soldier of the Mist

For our August 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria Adrian puts forward the book Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe for Emma's consideration.

Other talking points:

All Greek to Emma

Surprise spider nomenclature

Werewolves? There wolves

Necromancy LinkedIn

Reading and re-reading Wolfe

Unreliable narrators and narration perspective

The past as a foreign country

Memory and amnesia in fiction

Wolfe and descriptive style

The hero as werewolf

Audiobook narrator voice choices

Media Mentions:

You can find Re-reading Wolfe on your usual podcast platforms. I will also note other Wolfe-flavoured podcast resources, Alzabo Soup, The Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast and a large chunk of Shelved by Genre, if you have a thirst for some deep dives into his work (none have done Soldier yet to my knowledge)

The Shadow of the Torturer, The Book of the New Sun series and the wider Solar Cycle novels of Gene Wolfe

Piranesi, novel by Susanna Clarke (and see our prior coverage of that)

A Game of Thrones novel by GRR Martin / TV series

The Green Knight movie dir. David Lowery (and see our patreon episode on that)

Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series, specifically the episode 'Darmok'

Next month we look at the novel Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

This month's patron episode is the indie film The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising

Adrian's music recommendation: The Sad God by Gorillaz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQE0FnpfqQo&list=RDfQE0FnpfqQo&start_radio=1 , also the entire album The Mountain and in particular this animated sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRulNQsuYQ&list=RDucRulNQsuYQ&start_radio=1

Emma's latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award

Adrian's most recent book is Green City Wars https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/green-city-wars-adrian-tchaikovsky/686e574129a9b37f?ean=9781035045723

If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/c/starshipalexandria/home

You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at https://starshipalexandria.teemill.com/

Follow us at:

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com