
Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.
Podcasting since 2020 • 174 episodes
Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Latest Episodes
#174 Reign of evil: Swastika Night (1937) by Murray Constantine
Published in 1937, Katharine Burdekin's Swastika Night is a chilling depiction of a far-future fascist dystopia, in which the triumph of Nazism also represents oblivion for humanity and freedom. A precursor to Orwell's ...
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Episode 174
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8:50

#173 Hanging by a thread: the Society of Time trilogy (1962) by John Brunner
Originally published in 1962, John Brunner's Society of Time stories are set in an alternate Britain in the 1980s. It is 400 hundred years since the Spanish Armada was not defeated, and the Catholicism of the Spanish Empire rules much of...
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Episode 173
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11:30

#172 The endless plain of fortune: Orbitsville trilogy by Bob Shaw (1975 - 1990)
It was British science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon, not US physicist Freeman Dyson, who first imagined the "Dyson sphere" - an immense macrostructure which would enclose and harness the entire energy of a star. Beginning with his BSFA Award-w...
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Episode 172
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11:55

#171 Avatar of war: The Book of Elsewhere (2024) by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
An unusual detour into contemporary SF, this episode is a look at the thoroughly strange The Book of Elsewhere (2024), a collaboration between Hollywood icon Keanu Reeves and British flag-bearer for the New Weird, China...
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Episode 171
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7:49

#170 Solar Enemy Number One: The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester
The Count of Monte Cristo make not seem like the likeliest template for an SF novel, but Alfred Bester was able to take this 19th century French classic and turn it into the basis for his 1956 book The Stars My Destination<...
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Episode 170
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8:51
