Geek Syndicate

Time is ticking away, the latest 'normal' episode in in editorial limbo and we haven't yet recorded our usual Christmas mayhem, so here's another Book Group episode to keep you all going. The Heroes could perhaps be described as Sharpe's Waterloo done fantasy-style. Joe Abercrombie uses it to explore the subject of heroism with all its wrinkles and contradictions. Set in the same world as the acclaimed First Law Trilogy, Abercrombie introduces a whole new batch characters in such a way that enables new readers to get straight into it, whilst rewarding long-time fans with a few familiar faces. If you haven't read his stuff before, we're talking a gritty fantasy adventure, full of dark humour and harsh justice. The focus is always on the characters (a particular strength of this author), with vigorous prose and a suitably cynical tone. We recommend you read the book before listening to this episode as Spoilers were pretty much unavoidable. The programme is hosted by Scrolls regulars Dion and Clover, who are joined by Geek Syndicate's very own Barry Nugent and long-time listener Louise Maskill. Louise is an avid reader of Fantasy fiction, works as a free-lance editor and has just published her own book about Sussex Dialect (with a similar Norfolk one on the way.) She is currently working on her first novel. Publishers, take note. If you want to carry on the conversation, you can post your comments, thoughts and alternative viewpoints under this article. We welcome your feedback. Taking a leaf from the Comic Book Outsiders, we're actually going to start letting you all know in advance what books are coming up. (Yes, we have been THAT stupid) With that in mind, you may wish to pick up or re-read American Gods by Neil Gaiman in time for our February episode. We always like to involve YOU in the book group, so let us know if you want to take part in that episode. Don't fancy that one? Then put on your thinking cap and send us the name of the book you would like to discuss. You can e-mail us directly at [email protected] or tweet @Dion_Scrolls if you prefer. Who knows, it could be you joining us in the May Book Group.

Welcome to Episode 41 of Small Press Big Mouth! This episode has Lee and Stace review some comics (I bet you weren't expecting THAT shiz!) and they chat about Thoughtbubble and The British Comic Awards. This episode was recorded before Stace got good and angry about the shitty publicity surrounding the Awards, so is much less ranty than you might be expecting. Sorry if that is any way disappointing to you, she really does like listening to a good rant and suspects you are quite a lot like her secretly, and she will try and get good and ranty about another topic next time.

Join Ant and Amaechi in this episode as they discus more gaming news. News Splinter Cell movie gets a lead actor Wii U launches in North America Steam Sale Sony & Microsoft ship 70 million PS3's and Xbox 360's Assassins Creed 3 sell big but has major bug issues Streaming karaoke comes to the Xbox 360 In Buy, Rent, Avoid the boys review 007 Legends & Walking Dead: The GameIn first impressions Amaechi discusses Borderlands 2

This month on the show we review X-Men #3 (January 1964) in which our team of teenaged heroes take on The Blob! The Beast has become an intellectual seemingly overnight, Cyclops takes everything a little too seriously, and Professor X makes a...disturbing admission. We also talk about all the movie news flying around the internet at the moment and we return to our discussion of Avengers vs X-Men now that we're four issues into AvX: Consequences.

This week the Dissecting Worlds duo go after the most dangerous game the well used trope of human hunting in geek fiction. In the process they bag: - The Hunger Games - Predator - Battle Royale - Vengeance on Varos - The Most Dangerous Game - And whatever else lurks in the undergrowth! We value your feedback via comments, twitter or email. Full details at the end of the show! Also, Matt is doing "Movember", a charity Moustache growing month. Pictures and full details at: http://mobro.co/mattfarr2

Hello there, come in, come in. Yes, it is dark isn't it? The nights draw in ever so quickly these days. There's a real bite in the air now - you'd almost think it was Winter! Here, let me take that coat from you. You must be freezing. Blowing quite a gale out there, by the sounds of it. You know, I remember a night like this oh.., many years back, when I was at school with old Monty. Hah! Now, there was a character and no mistake. Famed for his fireside stories. There's one he told me that fair set the hairs on the back of my neck a-rising (back when I was a wee lad, you understand.) He wrote it down later and, do you know, I believe I have a copy of it somewhere. Let me see... Come, fetch yourself a warm drink, if you haven't one already. Take your ease. There's warm cocoa in the pan, and I'm sure I can find something a little stronger to slip in, to help warm your bones. Lovely. Ah, here's the tale! It's called 'Lost Hearts.' Got yer drink? Marvellous. Oh dear, the cat's jumped up on me now, and she does so hate to be disturbed. Be a good fellow will you, and turn the lights down. The fire's picking up, and I do like to see it in it's glory. Ahhh, there's nothing more companiable... Now then, 'It was, as far as I can ascertain, in September of the year 1811...' Lost Hearts' was written by Montague Rhodes James. It is performed here by Dion Winton-Polak, from the Scrolls podcast. This reading incorporates the following sounds, downloaded from freesound: 127254 howling-wind-real-02 and 127253 howling-wind-real-01 by klankbeeld (http://www.freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/) 27862 061226-fire-ms957 by ermine (http://www.freesound.org/people/ermine/) 156970 fireplace by martats (http://www.freesound.org/people/martats/) 44322 fireplace by inchadney (http://www.freesound.org/people/inchadney/) 151346 creaking-floor-upstairs by alienxxx (http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/) If you enjoyed 'Lost Hearts' I can highly recommend seeking out the work of Robert Lloyd Parry, a performer who puts my humble effort to shame. His theatrical schedule can be found at http://www.nunkie.co.uk/ as can the dvds & cds of his work. He will be appearing at the Abertoir festival this year. You may also wish to seek out A Podcast To The Curious, dedicated to the ghost stories of MR James. Happy Halloween.

The Next Level is back again, with more news from the gaming world and there's even (gasp) a review or two as well! This month, Amaechi, Ant and Barry discuss the fall of Onlive, Singstar's new Micropayment model, DLC for Mass Effect 3 and other news. The lads also discuss Booth Babes at gaming shows. Amaechi and Barry look back at this year's Euro-Gamer expo and the show is rounded up with first-play thoughts of Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unkown and a review of Sleeping Dogs.

Halloween is just around the corner and the Countdown To Abertoir continues, so we've pulled together some of our writing team to chat about our favourite horror movies. Your host is Dion from the Scrolls podcast, joined by regular cohort Phil Ambler. Joining them are GS film reviewer Phil Hobden, GS tv reviewer Dee (aka Faint Dreams) and special guests Conor Boyle and Nia Edwards-Behi. It's a massive genre with examples to suit all tastes, so we've tackled the subject from several different angles. You'll get our first movie memories, great examples of phsychology vs special effects, the most beloved rubbish, how humour works in horror, the best remakes and adaptations and, finally, our all-time personal favourites. There's a lot of laughter, a little friction and one or two shocks along the way, but we all had a great time recording it. So much so that we over-ran by a good couple of hours. Herding cats - that's all I'm saying... The cut you've got here keeps things relatively focused on the topic at hand. If you enjoy this you'll be please to know that most of the rest of the material will be appearing as a clip-show podcast called 'After The Slash' on theFilmsploitation feed, soon. Dion utterly weasled out of declaring his own favourite horror movie and best-bad movie during recording. It was worth it just to drive Mr Ambler nuts, but we wouldn't want to bug any listeners. Best film - Ring. Best-Bad film - Warlock. (Shhhhhhhh, he still doesn't know.) Keep Screaming. Time for the links: For those interested in these things, the music that tops and tails the show is written & performed by the fabulous Norwegian band, Katzenjammer. The song is called 'Hey Ho, On The Devil's Back' and it comes from their first album 'Le Pop.' Click here to watch an hour long concert for free on YouTube. Fancy snagging their albums? Both 'Le Pop' and 'A Kiss Before You Go' are available at Amazon, among other retailers. Fancy getting in touch with us? We are all reachable on Twitter @Dion_Scrolls @Phlambler @Filmsploitation @Faintdreams @Pencil_Monkey and @Stonecypher or you can post any general comments on the post down below. Like horror (and why would you be reading this if not?) Check out the website Nia writes for brutalashell.com And come to the Abertoir festival too, obviously... Phone up the Aberystwyth Arts Centre and the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff to book tickets. Follow @cyberschizoid on Twitter and help him with his Classic Horror campaign Fancy trying your hand at writing some horror-based Flash Fiction? Seek out Phlambler's World. Like the world of Judge Dredd? Read Conor's brilliantly horrific Dark Judgement. If you're not already subscribers you may want to check out the Scrolls andFilmsploitation podcasts too.

In this episode we review X-Men #2 (November 1963) featuring the Vanisher! We also finally get to discuss the entire Avengers vs X-Men mega-event which finished on October 3rd. Listeners who haven't finished reading the series or who are waiting for the trade should avoid this second part of the show because spoilers abound! Finally, we talk about which back issues we were able to pick up this month in our unplanned spending spree at Orbital Comics. Our poor bank account took a savage beating when we discovered a gold mine in X-Men back issues just begging to be added to our fledgling collection.

Grab on to your sense of the normal as the Dissecting Duo head down the Rabbit Hole and seek out the Truth behind the Veil of Lies fed to you by "The Man" and other Tools of The Conspiracy. Delving into works of (alleged) fiction and (supposed) fact, we take a roaming quest through the twisted landscapes of History, but Not As We Know It. We stop off at: - The Knights Templar, Merovingian Dynasties and Dan Brown - The Philadelphia Experiment, Escaped Nazis' and conspiricies that really happened. - Aliens from Roswell to The X-Files - Mystical Conspiricies from the Real Illuminati to the Fictional Ones. - Who is "The Man" ? Tom Lehrer's "Wernher Von Braun" can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro We welcome comments and corrections (including audio files for our conclusion ep) to dissectingworlds(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk or tweet @dissectingwrlds.

In this first episode of the Children of the Atom podcast we talk about how we first discovered the X-Men and what motivated us to podcast about the X-Universe. We also discuss the original development of the X-Men by Stan Lee, some contemporary influences on the concept, and where the series fits within the rest of the Marvel universe. In the main part of the show we review the first ever X-Men issue released in September 1963. Finally, we talk about which of the first run issues we managed to buy for our collection this month.

So wth Merlin series 5 all ready to start back on the BBC this weekend we thought it was a perfect time to catch up with our good frend Julian Jones, the co-creator and head writer on the show. With Dave off on his adventures Barry flys solo in this special episode in which Julian opens up about series 5 and what we can expect from the characters and the story. We also take a little look back at season 4 and some of Julian's thoughts on his episodes and plot points in that series. There's also some talk on season six and the status of a Merlin feature film. Julian also lets slip a massive spolier for series 5 which we have moved until right at the end of the interview to give those of you who don't want to know fair warning. Enjoy!

Join Stace and Lee for the big Four Oh! This episode is the "The" episode with reviews of The Reckoning, The Scarifyers, The Mire and The Absence amongst others, we also have news AND a first for Small Press Big Mouth - a prize giveaway - what could possibly go wrong eh?

Join Barry and Amaechi in this special episode as they interview Tom Champion, Community Manager for the Eurogamer Expo. Tom tells us all about this years upcoming Expo and what games, developer session and new additions attendees can expect from this years show.

The Next Level Episode 46 In this episode the boys we discuss Ant's lack of understand of the difference between stealth gaming and going all berserker in our muiltiplayer gaming sessions News The Wii U is about to get an officially release date but will any of the team be buying one Resident Evil 6 brings a whole new meaning to limited edition games bundles and Call of Duty Black Ops gets its own limited edition bundle Popcap to tricker treat free copies of Plants vs. Zombies 2012 Golden Joystick Awards voting opens Microsoft reveal poor Summer of Arcade sales The first review for Borderlands 2 hits the net Feature In our feature this episode we discuss the growing trend of delays and long development times for games and ask if this negatively effects the final games quality and reception and does extra development time actually deliver a better game.

The Life-cycle of Software Objects is a story by Ted Chiang about our relationship with artificial intelligence and what it means to be alive. It's kind of a peculiar read but well worth it, as we quickly discovered. Joining Dion and Phil to discuss the tale is our guest host, the delightful Dee - otherwise known as 'Faint Dreams.'Now, don't go skipping straight past. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'I've never heard of it, never read it, so why listen to the podcast?' Well, Firstly we're bloody brilliant. Honest, guv'nor. Secondly, it's actually a pretty quick read - a novella rather than a book (Around 60 pages.) Thirdly, The Life-cycle Of Software Objects is available right here for free, and Fourthly it's an absolute corker. We've all had ideas and questions exploding in our brains long after we finished reading it.So you're not going anywhere, right?Right :-DYou snuggle down and start reading, I'll just sit here and... I dunno, tweet or something.Dum de dum... de dum... de dum...Ready? Brilliant.For those of you interested in reading more of Ted Chiang's work, there is a round-up of his stories at Metafilter, all free and perfectly legal. Some are in text, some are audiobooks. Here also is a separate link for the story that Dee mentions right at the end of the podcast, called 'Liking What You See: A Documentary.' Want to know a little more about Artificial Intelligence? You could listen to Dissecting Worlds (cheap shot) or have a look at this wikipedia entry. Most edifying. As ever, feedback is appreciated. You can tweet @Dion_Scrolls, @Phlambler or @FaintDreams, e-mail us at [email protected] or share your views with everyone in the Comments section below.We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it.Keep reading.

They're Back! After an unscheduled most-of-Summer break, Amaechi, Barry and Ant return to discuss the latest gaming news. This month: the boys talk about Amaechi's weariness with hackers, the switch in payment model for MMORPGs and discuss the forthcoming Halo web-series amongst other stories. As a feature, they discuss Co-Op gaming: its rise, fall and rise again while talking about some of their favourite co-op game memories. Finally, a brief look at the game releases for September is presented.

The crowd are going wild as the Dissecting Worlds explore the somewhat lost world of Sports Comics. Joined by Mike Hodder and with a contribution from Max Barnard, we cover... - The Magic Boots of Dead-shot Keane - The Startling Longevity (and crazy plot-lines) of Roy of the Rovers - The strange, and long-running world of Baseball Manga - Class, and other social considerations for our sporting heroes. Grab your glass of Vimto and packet of Wagon Wheels and tune in!

In Geek To Geek Issue 5 the Scrolls team contributed a little segment on Flash Fiction, defining it and discussing the attraction of this growing form story-telling.It will surprise none of our regular listeners when I tell you that the conversation went on for an awful lot longer than the 18 minutes previously released. Here,for the first time, you can hear the full discussion (clocking in at just under an hour and a half.) Furthermore, for your listening pleasure, we present recordings ofno less that ten Flash pieces scattered throughout the episode. There is some bad language used by the team and there are elements of horror in several of these Flash pieces, varying from the visceral to the psychological. Whilst we do not always think to put a Parental Advisory warning on our podcasts, you should think twice before playing this episode in the hearing of children. I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contributing authors here in the order in which their stories appear: Rebecca Bohn - 'One Night' - a tale of mythic wonder - read by Dion Winton-Polak Lily Childs - 'A Stitch In Spine' - an erotically charged delight - read by Lily Childs Absolutely*Kate Pilarcik - 'Stop This Merry Go Round, I Want To Get Off!' - a natty, nuanced noir - read by Brenda Kirk Anthony Cowin - 'Corridors Of Meat' - a visceral fight for survival - read by Phil Ambler R.R. Kovar - 'Golden Gate' - creepy lore from the carny folk - read by Dion Winton-Polak Phil Ambler - 'Gone' - a cry from the aching gulf of grief - read by Phil Ambler Dion Winton-Polak - 'A Vampires Salvation' - a sonnet to love, loss and redemption - read by Dion Winton-Polak John Xero - 'Retribution' - a post-plague chiller - read by Phil Ambler A.J. Humpage - 'Naked' - Hackett displays a terrifyingly artistic side - read by Lily Childs Lily Childs - 'Spangles' - a dizzying murder mystery with a very unusual killer - read by Lily Childs Click on the author links above to see their home pages and read more of their work.Brenda did an ace job reading Kate's story. Why not pop across to see her at Geektress to support their site as well? (hint Etsy hint) A few more links you may be interested in are flagged up during the course of the episode, so keep your ears peeled. A pen and paper may be handy - if not to write down links then to start working on your own pieces of Flash Fiction. It's a joyously addictive hobby! Join us...

Yee-haw, The pair of desperadoes known as Kehaar & Matt are joined by Matt Mitrovitch custodian of the work of boundless energy & love which is the AH Weekly Update: (http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.com)looking at that popular alternate history topic of the American Civil War in the course of which they look at * Harry Harrison’s Star & Stripes series, the Trent affair & options for European intervention * Harry Turtledove's 191-timeline & the romanticisation of both sides of the ACW * The appeal (and consequences) of Balkanised America * Alien Space Bats & South African nazis * Captain Confederacy!: http://captainconfederacy.blogspot.com * Race in America and its legacy in fiction and reality Matts writing blog is http://mitroauthor.wordpress.com/ He has a story in Jake's Monthly-Alternate History Anthology: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/180165 Saddle up, enjoy & feedback :)

00:00:00 Geek to Geek with Monts and Nuge – David Montieth and Barry Nugent bring you their monthly slice of pop culture madness. No script, no preparation and but hopefully some hope that you will enjoy the experience 00:55:39 Minster of Chance Audio Drama - Episode 3 Trailer more info on the series here. 00:57:06 The Scrolls team discuss Flash Fiction with Lily Childs 01:14:56 Scarifyers Audio Drama - The Nazad Conspiracy trailer. More info here 01:15:59 Montoya and Silver Fox from Trailer Trash Two check out the lastest film trailers 01:33:49 Notes from Nuge: Avengers theme played on Violin by Taylor Davis 01:34:56 Woman in Black Book Reading by Dion(Scrolls) 01:37:33 Dark Knight Returns Trailer 01:39:04 A look at early horror with Matt (Dissecting Worlds), Keharr (Dissecting Worlds) and Phil (Scrolls)

he quarrelsome Northerners are joined by MOMBCAST stalwart James falling in behind the Eagle standard to dissect and consider the alternative histories of Rome and the Roman Empire. Inspired by the History of Rome podcast they march in a less than straight road through: * The Punic Wars (including the alternate history 'Hannibal's Children) * Roman history as a game of Total War* The Porous nature of Rome to people and ideas * Why couldn't the Greeks get their act together?* School nativity plays and the Dallas and Dynasty appeal of the Julio-Claudians * Agrippa the Immortal * The fickle survival and destruction of Republics and Monarchies * Why not to let Commodus run & ruin your Empire.* The Marian reforms and the dangers of a professional miltiary (with thanks to Will Self.)* They debate irresistible nature of monotheism and Time-Travelling Popes* Mad Max and the fall of the West * Julian the Apostate (Our hero, he's dreamy, titter yee not!) The Romanitas Trilogy Timeline can be found here: http://www.romanitas.com/text/history.htm The History of Rome podcast can be found here: http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/ We welcome comments and corrections (including audio files for our conclusion ep) to dissectingworlds(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk or tweet @dissectingwrlds.

Welcome to Episode 39 of Small Press Big Mouth, this the one where Stace and indeed Lee throw the usual format out of the window in a sad and desperate attempt to catch up on some reviews. That's right this is a review only episode! We cover such wonders as Porcelain and The Butterfly Gate, White Knuckle, Disconnected Vol 1, Sgt Mike Battle #17, Leroy and Popo, Robot Shorts and No More Heroes.

Geek to Geek with Monts and Nuge – David Montieth and Barry Nugent bring you their monthly slice of pop culture madness. No script, no preparation but a lot of fun and sass…always sass. In a slight change of plan we will be releasing Geek to Geek monthly on it's own and then it will also form part of the quarterly two hour audio magazine show which is the companion to our quarterly Geek Syndicate Magazine. Topics covered Our thoughts on Avengers Assemble. What we think of the upcoming Green Arrow TV show. What we're looking forward to reading and watching over the Summer. Thoughts on the Eagle Awards and MCM Awards (this was recorded before we found out there still would be an Eagle Awards). What DC can do to catch up to Marvel on the film front. And much more.

In which we focus in a little on the latest books that we've plucked from the top of our bookstacks. In the absence of Mattie we are joined by 'The Grampus' a.k.a Matt Farr from Dissecting Worlds. He kicks things off with Adrian Tchaikovsky's insect-themed fantasy, the Shadows of the Apt. Clover follows this up with Juggernaut, an explosive zombie actioner by Adam Baker set in the Gulf conflict. Next up, Phil tells us about Stacia Kane's stylish and grungy urban fantasy, Unholy Ghosts. Dion then waxes lyrical about Jenny Nimmo's The Snow Spider, a beautiful children's fantasy with a tragic heart. Finally Matt gives us a flavour of the prolific but oft under-appreciated weird fiction writer Clark Ashton Smith. All of this is of course spiced with our usual blend of good humor and pettiness.Stay tuned also for Adam Baker's first recorded interview on Juggernaut, after the main programme.Feedback is always welcome. You can post comments here on GS, e-mail us at [email protected] or tweet us @scrollscast if you like.If you want to get personal you can send abuse to @phlambler or pedantic diatribes to @thegrampus. @Dion_Scrolls is more partial to flattery or sponsorship deals from major ice-cream producers. I'm just saying...Anyway, that's enough waffle. Keep reading.

Taking a break from Alternative Histories, The Dissecting Duo participate in the spirit of the Olympic summer with the first of four episodes looking at sports and games and all that healthy outdoors nonsense we both try and avoid We start by looking at team sports and could hear such highlights as: The fine line between games and sports Star Trek Space Badmington Thingy and other made up sports Why can’t the Flash run in the Olympics? The challenges of technology, distance, and interplanetary environments. The changing faces of Cricket, Football and Rugby and the problems of prediction And much more…. So sit back, enjoy & disagree! Feedback and discussion always welcome @Dissectingwrlds for the show and @clarkythecruel for Kehaar and @thegrampus for Matt

Join Amaechi and Ant as they bring you the (belated) forty-fourth episode of The Next Level, Geek Syndicate Network's gaming podcast. This time, the guys look at the latest news, including the boom in Downloadable games, MMO justice and the possibility of spreading game blockbusters throughout the year. Next, Ant talks about a couple of the demo's he's played recently (Dragon's Dogma and Sniper Elite V2) and Amaechi reviews The Walking Dead: Episode 1 from XBLA.

Welcome to Episode 38 of Small Press Big Mouth, this is the Lee Free episode so I have to apologise for the lack of farting/fart jokes. This is two interviews recorded by Stace at Bristol Expo 2012, with two brand new indie publishers - Disconnected Press and Improper Books. I hope you enjoy it and next episode will be back to normality or as close as we can manage!

In which Susan Hill's chilling classical ghost story is shared, enthused over and examined by the Scrolls team. Clover hosts this special episode, ably assisted by Mattie & Phil and joined by the multi-talented Sarah Taylor, who has been a fan of the story (in all its forms) for many years. Whilst absent from the discussion, Dion provides a little atmosphere with selected readings from the text in the first half of the episode.With deference to the new film and the ever popular stage production, the second half of the episode examines alternative interpretations of the tale and the ways in which they both succeed and fail to capture the essence of Hill's creation. Along with a certain amount of squeeing. I'm naming no names.As ever with the Scrolls Book Group, spoilers abound, so we recommend that you read the book before you listen in.Preferably by candlelight.Alone...Feedback is always welcome. You can comment on this post, e-mail us at [email protected] or follow our Twitter feed @Scrollscast (for author retweets and news.)You can even follow our personal accounts @Dion_Scrolls and @Phlambler if you like.Our next Book Group episode will be in November. If you want to take part in the episode after that then please drop us a line to say what book you would choose, and why you love it so much. We look forward to hearing from you. Keep reading.

Geek to Geek – Episode 3 Welcome to Geek to Geek, the audio magazine dedicated to bringing the sass back to geekdom. Contents 00:00:00 Geek to Geek with Monts and Nuge – David Montieth and Barry Nugent bring you their monthly slice of pop culture madness. No script, no preparation but a lot of fun and sass…always sass. 00:51:33 Promo: The Monster Hunters – A Three Part Audio Drama. Find out more here 00:52:58 Little Witch aka Amy of the Birds of Geek podcast has a quick chat with comic writer Gail Simone. 00:58:05 Montoya and SilverFox from Trailer Trash Two discuss the greatness that was 1982 for genre films. 01:16:22 Stacey Whittle from Small Press Big Mouth reviews the Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel series from Self Made Hero. 01:22:05 Barry and Ant from The Next Level review Mass Effect 3 (Spoiler Free) 01:39:13 After Hours with Dave and Barry – the guys close out the show in the Geek to Geek Studio bar.

Dissecting Worlds attempts to digest 30-odd years of global anarchy & its alternate history in the form of two world wars (but no world cup!) A bumper episode including such tit-bits as: Germany's strong right hook Reds, Whites & anarchist also rans The Czech Legion & Belgian Armoured Cars Siberian tours Other Versailles A Very British Civil War German Mediterranean holidays Halifax for PM! Submarines are alive with sound of music Losing Moscow (yes they do eventually get to the Russian front!) America's separate wars The heavyweight issue of alternative holocausts When Matt says 1929 Committee he means 1922! A Very British Civil War 1938 forum here: http://gwargamesp.18.forumer.com/index.php?showforum=4 (& Kehaar's VBCW 38 efforts war gaming http://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/category/vbcw-1938/ & roleplaying www.alfiesantics.wordpress.com So sit back, enjoy & disagree! Feedback and discussion always welcome @Dissectingwrlds for the show, and @clarkythecruel for Kehaar and @thegrampus for Matt.

Hello and welcome to episode 37 of Small Press Big Mouth where Stacey and Lee do some reviewing of comics and tell you some news (though some of it may be a bit out of date cos of someone taking their sweet time with the editing!). For more detailed notes and the linkypoos and the good, proper info bit that Lee does -rather than the "ah bum I've forgotten EVERYTHING we talked about" mess that is this bit Stace writes, check out smallpressbigmouth.blogspot.com.

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the unstable time vortex that is the Geek Syndicate Network. The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young buccaneers Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia (psycomedia.wordpress.com) and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This (imustreadthis.com) identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it. In our sixth and final-ish episode, we discuss our present obsession with origins, get rather niche in references to our own podcasts, talk a lot about Spiderman, praise All-Star Superman and try and come up with quick summaries for less well-known characters, and Tim's man-crush of the week is Kyle MacLachlan.

In this episode Ant and Amaechi take time out from killing reapers and saving the universe to talk more gaming news, views and reviews. News · Men in Black and Young Justice games get announced · Leaked PS3 trophies suggest a new Batman Arkham City DLC is coming · Game and Gamestation goes into administration and close stores · More Xbox 720, Wii U and PS4 next gen console news and rumours · Draw Something and Angry Birds Space continue the mobile phone gaming phenomenon First Impressions · Battlefield 3 single player campaign · Binary Domain

Doning their tin hats the disagreeing duo of Dissecting Worlds turn their scalpels to Alternate History this series. To open the bowling they're going to limber up with Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Years of Rice & Salt", an exploration of a world in which Europe exited history in the 15th-16th centuries. This gives an opportunity to discuss alternate histories on the way, and in the process they potentially upset * quantum physicists * Marxists * Nazis * Harry Turtledove * Arthur C Clarke * the romantic view of history In the usual blend of confessions, obsessions & mispronunciations and teasers for future episodes in the series. For all your dissecting worlds news follow us @dissectingwrlds For ramblings of the sleep deprived @clarkythecruel & alternate history RPG at www.alfiesantics.wordpress.com (related Wargame material www.clarkythecruel.wordpress.com under the VBCW tag.) Matts twitter is @theGrampus & he really should do a website on his d-hopping campaign (or some blog entries.)

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the stable of subetheric continua that is the Geek Syndicate Network. The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young buccaneers Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia (psycomedia.wordpress.com) and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This (imustreadthis.com) identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it. In our fifth episode, we discuss subtext, both where it clashes and merges with the text, when the sun hasn't gone to our heads, at least. We also plan Swanncon 2012, picture George Lucas telling Kevin Smith to shut up, plot global population realignment and still find time to highlight the continuing ridiculousness of Marvel Comics.

Join Ant and Amaechi as they delve once more into the latest gaming news, including a discussion of "the GAME Saga". Following this, find out if Resistance 3 is a Buy, Rent or Avoid and the boys chat about some of the demo's they've been playing recently.

After a short hiatus the Scrolls team is back, just in time for the end of the world. Join us as we explore the subject of apocalypse with regards to our beloved genres of science fiction, horror and fantasy. Books discussed include: Good Omens, The Tripods trilogy, Wolf In Shadow, The Last Battle, The Stand, The Road, Strength Of Stones, The Mist and Z For Zachariah.We start our exploration with 'Judgement Today,' as cultures, civilisations and species face the threat of extinction. Why do writers return to these uber-threats time and again and what do we, the readers get out of it? In the middle section 'Armageddon Outta Here' we look at the last survivors trying to make sense of the end-times, seeking a last bastion or just trying to survive. What does 'The End' mean in real and psychological terms to mankind? We wrap up with 'Post-Post-Apocalyptic,' running our eyes over some brave new worlds to see what some authors have used armageddon to achieve in terms of recreating civilisation from the ashes of the past.Which all sounds very high-faluting until you remember that this is Scrolls and most of the time we're stuffing our faces, making obscene jokes, wandering off-topic or discussing things that we may not actually, properly... (technically) have read.Therefore, in addition to the packed programme you can discover who Really wrote the music for The Omen, hear our review of a book that doesn't really exist, learn how to kill and cook a certain podcaster if things get particularly bad and (if you listen very carefully) you may even discover an Easter Egg.See below for the various links we mention in the podcast.City Of Hell ChroniclesLily Child's Feardom100 Horrors: Tales Of Horror In The Blink Of An EyeHuman Slaves (In An Insect Nation)Kim Curran's 'Shift'See you in the next world. In the mean time, keep reading.

Welcome to the second issue of Geek to Geek, the audio magazine dedicated to bringing the sass back to geekdom. 2 hours of craziness coming to your mp3 player every month! 00:00:00 Geek to Geek with Monts and Nuge – David Montieth and Barry Nugent bring you their monthly slice of pop culture madness. No script, no preparation and but hopefully some hope that you will enjoy the experience 00:41:18 Promo: The Strange Case of Springheel'd Jack - A Three Part Audio Drama. Find out more here 00:42:38 Montoya and Silver Fox from Trailer Trash take a look at three film trailers. 00:57:40 Dion of the Scrolls interviews Daniel Polansky, author of Lowtown. 01:14:29 Montoya chats with the producers of John Carter 01:35:06 After Hours with Dave and Barry – the guys close out the show in the Geek to Geek Studio bar.

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the stable of Mandalorian warmounts that is the Geek Syndicate Network. The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young buccaneers Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia (psycomedia.wordpress.com) and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This (imustreadthis.com) identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it. In our fourth episode, we discuss money, all the songs inspired by money, and we won't tell you any more until you pay us exorbitant fees. Topics of discussion include the grand battle of whether Dollhouse is a good show, the treachery of Michael Bay, the band 10cc, and Tim spends most of the episode pretending he's married to Jennifer Morrison.

Despite Kehaar's assertions (or maybe he thinks he's slept through a whole series), Series Five wraps up our traditional "Conclusions" episode, where we try to pull together any common threads, talk about things we've missed, and probably continue to miss even more things. We also talk about some of our reader feedback and to add to the excitement it's Matt's first turn in the editing chair. The link to the "plan for far" for the DW Symposium can be found here: (http://geeksyndicate.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/dissecting-worlds-symposium-2012/) Next series we are looking at Alternative Histories - we should be getting something out on the running order and content as soon as we have stopped arguing about it!

The GS crew were out in serious force at the SFX Weekender event this year. Did you spot us all? Well one week later Barry and his syndicated geeks Amy, Ant, Clover, Dion, Matt (The Grampus) and Phil got back around the mic to talk through our experiences in North Wales, good and bad. You'll find out what it's really like to attend one of the best geek Events in Britain, how to survive it and how to get the best bang for your buck.The episode is a biggie so clear your schedules or, if you'd prefer, nibble us piecemeal as we wade through the major events, guest stars and surprise hits of the show. Along the way we don hotpants, duck time-travelling ninjas, achieve total-toilet-ambush and discover the voice of a sex-god... among many other treats.We mention YouTube videos that have since become available, so you can see some of the delights on offer. Click here to see a bunch of them.The Weekender is truly an event to be experienced. Join us here to help relive the great times you had, or see what you missed out on. Either way, hopefully we will see you all there in 2013.

Join us in this episode were Ant and Amaechi reveal their games of the year by genre and for the first time choose the Next Levels first overall Game of the Year. In the news Call of Duty community grow and grows Mario dominates the 2011 3DS software sales Star Wars Kinect and special edition console get an official release date Gotham City Imposter is released I Am Alive gets an official release date Nintendo confirms the WiiU will be available globally by Christmas Game of Thrones RPG on its was Mass Effect 3 gets iOS game and app

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the stable of winged horses that is the Geek Syndicate Network. The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young bucks Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia (psycomedia.wordpress.com - can this be hyperlinked?) and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This (imustreadthis.com - can this be hyperlinked?) identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it. In our third episode, we discuss mediocrity, hopefully without being mediocre. There's unavoidable Lucas and Spielberg chat, trying to force stuff into franchises, the problems with properties that sell no matter what, and inevitable preludes to the next episode, which will concern money. We might have been bothered to throw in some solutions, since that's what the franchise demands.

The Information Superhighway to Your Audience! Digital distribution for self-published comics How can you use the web to get your comic to its readers? Stacey Whittle chairs a panel with Daniel Clifford, Leonie O’Moore, Gordon Robertson and Terry Wiley that will discuss the potential benefits and hurdles to using digital comic distribution. In a constantly evolving field, what new models, tactics and opportunities are out there for a comic creator who wants their work to be read?

Welcome to the ever so slightly late episode 35 of Small Press Big Mouth! This episode has a splattering of Indie related news but is seriously review heavy as Stace and Lee wade through a myriad of comics including: Hitsville, Hark! A Vagrant, Stiffs, Hilda and the Midnight Giant, Verity Fair, Seeds, Colins Godson, Holy Terror, Elemental Micah, Windfall Melons and more. Check out the blog for links and shiz, and we hope you enjoy the comeback show!

This month Kehaar and Matt are still companioned by Luke Foster as we continue our look at the Doctor. This time we are turn our attention to the sad end of "Classic" Who and the into the modern relaunch, covering: - The Sad Tale of Internal Politics and Terrible Coats - The player on a Thousand Chess Boards and a rare brush with consequence - The War Veteran and running away from your responsibilities - Skipping through time with the special companion (?) and Christ Complex - The Importance of being just a Mad Man with a Box All that and the usual sidetracking through Time and Space! The link to Moon Freight 3 is http://moonfreight3.com The Incredible Hulkcast is at http://www.comicbooknoise.com/hulk/ The Trip is at http://www.thetrippodcast.com/ And ECBT2000AD is at http://2000ad.wordpress.com/ And more Doctor Who goodness can be found on the excellent Geek Syndicates very own ‘Time Lore’, reviewing the whole Doctor TV canon (and associated audios on the Geek Syndicate Network.’

Welcome to the first issue of Geek to Geek a podcast magazine dedicated to bring the sass back to geekdom. If you have an iPod, iPhone etc you should be able to pick up the enhanced version of the podcast which will have chapter breaks included allowing you to move through the different sections of the podcast as you see fit. If you’ve you can’t get the enhanced version of the podcast, no worries the time stamps for each chapter are below. 00:00:00 Geek to Geek with Monts and Nuge – David Montieth and Barry Nugent bring you their monthly slice of pop culture madness. No script, no preparation and but hopefully some hope that you will enjoy the experience 01:02:35 Fave genre reads of 2011 - The Scrolls gang pick some of the beloved reads of the past year 01:19:36 Notes from Nuge – Joins Barry and Chrisophe as they look as they chat about film soundtrack with a special focus on the pulps this month. 01:33:38 Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth brings you her independent book review. 01:40:30 A special interview with Dave Bradley, the head honcho at the SFX magazine about the upcoming SFX Weekender 02:03:27 After Hours with Dave and Barry – the guys close out the show in the Geek to Geek Studio bar. If you’ve downloaded this through the Geek Syndicate app then you will also have access to the first issue of the Geek Syndicate quarterly Magazine a preview of which you can see here.

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the stable of winged horses that is the Geek Syndicate Network. The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young bucks Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it. In our second episode, we discuss hypersexualisation, and how the great and the good can fall down (at least in Tim's fragile mind and innocent eyes) by sex getting in the way of their art, and the bad can make everything worse with their impact on sexuality in and out of the arts. But don't worry, there are solutions too! Harry Potter fan-fic features more than you might like.

In which the team try to pin down the essence of genre: what differentiates it from a style; who makes them and how it affects our reading experience. We go on to discuss the benefits and problems with blurring those boundaries. Actually, for the first fifteen minutes we try to stop Mattie playing SW:TOR and attempt to discuss a series of books that none of us has actually read - but then we get on topic. Honestly.The conversation was to have gone on for a good twenty minutes longer but technical difficulties plagued us in the latter part of the episode. On the plus side, all being well you will be hearing a little more from Scrolls 'somewhere' on the Geek Syndicate Network this month.Genre Blends that we recommend, but didn't have opportunity to discuss properly (or at all in some cases) include Artemis Fowl, the 'Jon Shannow' books, The 'Pax Britannia' series, Coraline, The 'Merrily Watson' series, 'The Tales Of The Otori' series, The Fifth Child, The 'Shadows Of The Apt' series, and Cloud Atlas. You should google them if they are unfamiliar to you, track down copies and read them. I would also heartilly recommend reading a short story by William Hope Hodgeson called The Derelict. It's about a 'ghost' sailing ship, yet has an old-world sci-fi vibe more in line with The Thing than The Fog. You can read it for free online but I particularly enjoyed the full audio dramatisation from Audio Comics in their Horrorscopes series. You should definitely give some of those a listen.As a hobby, both Phil and Dion have been entering a Flash Fiction competition on the writer Lily Childs' blog. These are stories of no more than 100 words, so easy to flick through, tricky to write. As a tenuous link to encourage people to go take a look (and potentially join in) I offer you my own little genre blender 'Bete Noir.' We post our stories in the comments section, so you'll need to scrolls down the page to find it.Finally, regarding Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English calendar mentioned near the beginning of the podcast. The words I was supposed to fit in to conversation was 'Good Man's Croft.' You won't hear me getting it into conversation for technical reasons that I won't bore you with. The episode as a whole, though, may be considered to be a practical modern-day demonstration of the phrase.Hopefully we'll meet some of you lovely people at the SFX Weekender in February. Until then, keep reading.