For our February 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria, Adrian puts forward the novel A Sword of Bronze and Ashes by Anna Smith Spark for Emma to consider. 

Other talking points: 

Potato Guys 

Getting old as a female fantasy hero 

Marriage and long term relationships in fantasy fiction 

Amazing prose styles 

Being brought up by buccas in a tin mine 

Levelling up as a reader 

Media Mentions: 

The work of Haruki Murakami 

The work of KJ Parker (particularly the Scavenger trilogy) 

Legend, novel by David Gemmell 

The Conan stories by Robert E Howard 

The Discworld books by Sir Terry Pratchett 

Planetfall, novel by Emma Newman 

Excalibur, movie dir. John Boorman 

This marks the end of season 1 of Starship Alexandria! Season 2 will commence in March with a look at Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. (For the curious, the seasons are mostly to do with our bulk recording of the regular episodes in advance.) 

Adrian's  music recommendation: '39 by Queen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8kGMfXaFU&list=RDkE8kGMfXaFU&start_radio=1  

Emma's latest writing is a short story included in the Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) anthology: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 

Adrian's most recent book: Starseer's Ruin https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/ebook-starseers-ruin-eng-2025.html 

Follow us at: 

Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and www.enewman.co.uk  

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