SFULTRA

SFUltra is my attempt as a lifetime science fiction skeptic's attempt to get into the genre by reading 100 science fiction books I purchased in Wales one time. It gets published every two weeks.

The Black Pool with Tim MacGabhann 05/19/2025

The Black Pool with Tim MacGabhann To celebrate the release of his memoir The Black Pool on May 22nd, I spent 2 hours boring my close friend Tim MacGabhann into unconsciousness. Book launch details: 6pm, May 22nd in Hodges Figgis Dublin. Click here to read an extract that became the opening chapter: Link to preorder or buy The Black Pool: /episode/index/show/allunits/id/36630270

SFULTRA #34 - Holy Lacrimony - Michael DeForge 05/08/2025

SFULTRA #34 - Holy Lacrimony - Michael DeForge "You get under my skin I don't find it irritating, You always play to win but I won't need rehabilitating oh no" - Another Girl Another Planet, The Only Ones /episode/index/show/allunits/id/36487015

DUBLIN EVENT MAY 10th - Barbaric Genius Extended Cut Screening/ Director Q+A/ Vsevolod Plotkin Noise Set 04/26/2025

DUBLIN EVENT MAY 10th - Barbaric Genius Extended Cut Screening/ Director Q+A/ Vsevolod Plotkin Noise Set Full details of the event are here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/event-dublin-may-127442825 /episode/index/show/allunits/id/36321605

Deep Territory #12 - Front Toward Enemy 04/04/2025

Deep Territory #12 - Front Toward Enemy “Thank god skin-patch is nearly gone And the impress of fingers dead Have disappeared and left me alone That one night I did not put jackboots on Don't want to end Reflection It's still there, though I am gone” - The Fall, Bremen Nacht /episode/index/show/allunits/id/36005610

Deep Territory #9 - Lanark - Alasdair Gray 03/01/2025

Deep Territory #9 - Lanark - Alasdair Gray "My friends, you should not live like this." - Chekhov, when asked what his plays were supposed to convey. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." - II Corinthians, 5:1 NKJV /episode/index/show/allunits/id/35497990

Deep Territory #8 - The Erstwhile - Brian Catling 02/08/2025

Deep Territory #8 - The Erstwhile - Brian Catling ‘Blake is always unexpected. If you think you know all the works, you’re wrong. There’s always something that comes up; if it’s not a new work, then an old work will appear in a different kind of way. There are certain works I’m completely obsessed by and I don’t know how he made them. I don’t know how he made them at that time because there’s nothing like them: they’re completely original. I think his thing was originality.’ - Brian Catling /episode/index/show/allunits/id/35203965

Deep Territory #5 - Crash - J.G. Ballard 12/27/2024

Deep Territory #5 - Crash - J.G. Ballard “So many great books have drowned in respect” - Iain Sinclair, Crash “Vaughn never been a duck-and-diver He spit on the mic, yuck, saliva Hold it like a truck driver hold a CB on a sharp turn Still clutchin' his chest from the heartburn…” - Viktor Vaughn, Saliva "Into the thundering cannon and into the murdering gun" - William Blake, Jerusalem /episode/index/show/allunits/id/34627140

Deep Territory #4 - Passion Of New Eve - Angela Carter 12/19/2024

Deep Territory #4 - Passion Of New Eve - Angela Carter "And in Hell beneath & a mighty & awful change threatend the Earth. The American War began. All its dark horrors passed before my face..." - William Blake, Letter to John Flaxman September 12 1800 I'm joined on this episode by fellow host and writer Astrid Rose, whose work : https://astridannerose.gumroad.com/ /episode/index/show/allunits/id/34540335

Deep Territory #2 - The Vorrh - B Catling 11/29/2024

Deep Territory #2 - The Vorrh - B Catling "...writing could provide me with the means of so radically outwitting myself that I could bring my hidden experiences, my unadmitted self into view." - Raymond Roussel /episode/index/show/allunits/id/34205240

SFULTRA #33 - UXA.GOV - Blake Butler 11/14/2024

SFULTRA #33 - UXA.GOV - Blake Butler "The Stumbling Block is an ark of extinction. A bouillon hive of the murdered past, frozen dry to a mass. Something has warmed its corner, the oxoed grit bleeds a vein of contagion, virulent in its passion to embrace and swim in human tides" - Brian Catling, The Stumbling Block /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33933422

SFULTRA #32 - The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien 10/26/2024

SFULTRA #32 - The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien "Cough up a pointless lecture Does it matter? Vomit me more conjecture Doesn't matter Argue till your left brain dies Does it matter? Presume to abuse my time Doesn't matter Let me paint a perfect picture Let it read like a holy scripture The words that leave my mouth Are just words you can live without Found community a struggle for me It's a collision: clash and grieve Nonsense screws and breeds Thoughts untethered went lost at sea" - Touché Amore, Circa 95 /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33622352

SFULTRA #31 - The Cipher - Kathe Koja 10/10/2024

SFULTRA #31 - The Cipher - Kathe Koja "...okay, that's life, that's what I was told anyway And picking your feet till they bleed may be the half of it If every fourth animal in the world is a beetle Maybe every fourth person is a dumb fuck Listen, listen carefully now: here's the answer It rhymes with axe Why it's those personal acts, of course Those personal acts Those suicide pacts Those carelessly stored razorblades in the hands of small children It's my face smeared on the pavement It's Everyday It's Everyday" - Everyday I Start To Ooze, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33404312

SFULTRA #30 - Rammellzee - Racing For Thunder 09/26/2024

SFULTRA #30 - Rammellzee - Racing For Thunder "BE WHO YOU ARE, WRECK THEM, AND THEN DIE" - Rammellzee /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33226562

Explanatory Collapse #20 - On The Beach: Empty Space 09/09/2024

Explanatory Collapse #20 - On The Beach: Empty Space "There are no castles without ghosts And no spirits without hope But nobody passes the test of time I do not fear the buried sounds Of words that echo underground A memory is a loaded gun And I remember everyone I remember everyone I remember you" - Ghosts, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32981087

Explanatory Collapse #19 - On The Beach: Nova Swing 09/02/2024

Explanatory Collapse #19 - On The Beach: Nova Swing "For every detective novel, regardless of its story, is for every reader, above all, a novel about himself: about what happened to the reader as a human individual in general, as an individual developing from a child into an adult; as a living being who experiences continuous transitions there and back, from layer to layer of consciousness..." - On The Detective Story, Sergei Eisenstein /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32868532

Explanatory Collapse #17 - On The Beach: Light 08/25/2024

Explanatory Collapse #17 - On The Beach: Light "Some roads are only seen at night Ghost roads, nothing but neon signs But some nights, the neon gas gets free And turns into walking dead like me And I've been making promises I know I'll never keep One of these days, I'm gonna leave you in your sleep I'll have to go when the whistle blows, the whistle knows my name Baby, I was born on a train" - Born On A Train, Magnetic Fields /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32729037

Explanatory Collapse #9 - Viriconium Pt 3 07/06/2024

Explanatory Collapse #9 - Viriconium Pt 3 patreon.com/sfultra "...'For I aint, you must know,' said Betty, 'much of a hand at reading writing-hand, though I can read my Bible and most print. And I do love a newspaper. You mightn't think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a newspaper. He do the Police in different voices." - Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32033082

Explanatory Collapse #8 - Viriconium Pt 2 06/30/2024

Explanatory Collapse #8 - Viriconium Pt 2 "The fire of wild abandon burns so beautiful and bright The ashes fade away after consuming all the light The fire of wild abandon burns so beautiful and hot I used to know the way back home but somehow I forgot Through all the smoke I can’t see you What’s the thing you been turned into? Something fun, or someone new The fire of wild abandon Feel the lie becoming true Whose eyes are you seeing through? Teeth, turn in on yourselves and chew The parasite expanding Through all the heat waves you can’t see The thing you thought I used to be Distorted uncontrollably Beyond misunderstanding And in the wreckage, nothing there Only the cold spell in the air I cried for you like you were dead But it’s just that you’re something else instead And as I felt myself float away, way up there Up above all the houses and the people and the trees And I thought I’d go back, back down there, be like them But I can’t anymore, ‘cause I don’t know which one was me I don’t know which one was me" - Fire Of Wild Abandon, Evil Sword patreon.com/sfultra /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31952472

Explanatory Collapse #7 - Viriconium Pt 1 06/22/2024

Explanatory Collapse #7 - Viriconium Pt 1 “I have said before that the music is the words and the words are the music. It is all there for you to understand if you can and for you to feel, regardless.” - Sun Ra, This Planet is Doomed patreon.com/sfultra /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31849572

SFULTRA #29 - Liege-Killer - Christopher Hinz 05/18/2024

SFULTRA #29 - Liege-Killer - Christopher Hinz "I fire myself ten times a day I throw myself in a watery grave With fourteen horses on top of my head I hear the voice again and again" - I Fire Myself, Mary Timony /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31365882

SFULTRA #28 - The Third Eye - Lobsang Rampa 05/04/2024

SFULTRA #28 - The Third Eye - Lobsang Rampa "eurt si em tuoba yas yeht gnihtyrevE" - Euphoria, Kendrick Lamar (intro sample from The Wiz) I'm happy to welcome back Matt to tackle this terrible book. Matt's youtube channel Bookpilled is one of the main inspirations behind SFUltra and his engaging, thoughtful reviews make him official YouTube Book GOAT. His patreon is worth it and then some. Matt's channel: Matt's patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Bookpilled /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31125878

SFULTRA #27 - Monarch - Candice Wuehle 04/21/2024

SFULTRA #27 - Monarch - Candice Wuehle “...Thank God you let me crash on your couch Who's my God that I’m prayin' to now? … Made her go home, felt the virus Web of life is my weed, false dreams stripped by silence … Deals they had us sign, for years, it had mе blind Think I had to hit rewind and think about why I do shine … My whole family cursed, now get the fuck out my ride … Nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin' … If a killer say shit, then get these motherfuckers ... Get the fuck out” - Buzzcut Feat. Danny Brown - Brockhampton /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30917703

SFULTRA #26 - Radiant Terminus - Antoine Volodine 04/03/2024

SFULTRA #26 - Radiant Terminus - Antoine Volodine "You lie in the graveyard Well you're rotting away When I talk to you daily You've got nothing to say You lie in the graveyard Well you are down making plans Well you control all my thoughts Well you make dust fall" - Graveyard , Butthole Surfers /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30667013

SFULTRA #25 - Mumbo Jumbo - Ishmael Reed 03/16/2024

SFULTRA #25 - Mumbo Jumbo - Ishmael Reed "Fear stalks the land. (As usual; so what else is new?)" - Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30402803

SFULTRA #24 - Blue Lard - Vladimir Sorokin 03/02/2024

SFULTRA #24 - Blue Lard - Vladimir Sorokin "He looked round her drawing-room and marvelled how he, who prided himself on not being able to endure any-thing in bad taste, could tolerate this chamber of horrors. Everything, he mused, was beautified by his passion.." - Laughter In The Dark, Vladimir Nabokov One year anniversary blog: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sfultra-year-1-99301744 /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30201303

WDYTYA?IA #5 - The Fifth Wound - Aurora Mattia 02/22/2024

WDYTYA?IA #5 - The Fifth Wound - Aurora Mattia Who Do You Think You Are? I Am. is a Perfect Taste Forever series about memoir and biography. PFT is usually patreon exclusive but this episode is free for everyone. patreon.com/sfultra I'm joined on this episode by Jolene, the host of the podcast When A Guy Has. We talk about The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia. /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30058428

SFULTRA #23 - How I Killed The Universal Man - Thomas Kendall 02/18/2024

SFULTRA #23 - How I Killed The Universal Man - Thomas Kendall "I'm living a fake, People say "You are entitled to and great" But I haven't wrote for 90 days, I'll get a good deal and I'll go away, Away from the empty brains that ask" - How I Wrote Elastic Man, The Fall /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30002143

SFULTRA #22 - An Exchange Of Hostages - Susan R. Matthews 01/31/2024

SFULTRA #22 - An Exchange Of Hostages - Susan R. Matthews "I do not deny that, among an infinite number of acts of violence and folly, some good may have been done. They who destroy everything certainly will remove some grievance." - Edmund Burke /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29741533

SFULTRA #21 - The Physiognomy -Jeffery Ford 01/20/2024

SFULTRA #21 - The Physiognomy -Jeffery Ford "...when I put on my holster, I put God out of my mind" - Cop /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29572483

SFULTRA #20 - The Warren - Brian Evenson 01/05/2024

SFULTRA #20 - The Warren - Brian Evenson "He did not work for posterity, nor did he work for God, whose literary preferences were largely unknown to him." - The Secret Miracle, Jorge Louis Borges /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29361323

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