The Sillymarillion Ep 05 - The Last Stage (of the First Age) (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in October 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project THE PRYDAINGER ZONE (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit patreon.com/overduepod.

Tolkien concludes the Quenta Silmarillion with several tales of woe, mostly centered on the man Húrin and his cursed children. After a half-elf successfully pleads his case before the supreme court of the Valar, a final battle ensues and Morgoth is defeated...or is he? (He is.) (Or is he???????)

The reading list:

Ep 1 - Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion Ch 1-3

Ep 2 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 4-10

Ep 3 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 11-16

Ep 4 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 17-20

Ep 5 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 21-24

Ep 6 - Akallabêth, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Appendices

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The Sillymarillion Ep 05 - The Last Stage (of the First Age) (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

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Ep 773 - Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Also titled Let Me In, this mid-2000s horror debut from Sweden engages directly with some vampire tropes, as well as one of the great fears of humankind: what if the kids were bad?

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Ep 773 - Let the Right One In

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Ep 772 - Butter, by Asako Yuzuki

It's true that we usually try to reserve Spooktober for books that are, how you say, "classically spooky." But isn't societal misogyny and fatphobia just as spooky as any ghost, ghoul, or pieced-together-monster-that-represents-humankind's-hubris? We'd like to think so. And we'd really like you to think so too.

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Ep 772 - Butter

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Ep 771 - The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones

Spooktober continues with this Rez Gothic slasher from Stephen Graham Jones. A vengeful spirit hunts down four young Blackfeet men for a past transgression on their reservation, prompting reflection on whether or not they'd ever have become "good Indians."

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Ep 771 - The Only Good Indians

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Ep 770 - She Waits Where Shadows Gather, by Michelle Tang

A classic haunted house tale, full of ghosts and bugs and ghosts who can boss around bugs. I swear the presence of time travel was not something I gravitated to on purpose this time.

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Ep 770 - She Waits Where Shadows Gather

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Ep 769 - Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein's sci-fi classic is rather different from the campy satire of Paul Verhoeven's 1997 adaptation. You can ask similar questions of both. Do they gleefully depict fascism? Do they glorify militarism and violence? Do they successfully subvert either? In our experience, both versions of Starship Troopers seem...complicated.

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Ep 769 - Starship Troopers

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The Sillymarillion Ep 04 - The Black Gate Opens (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in October 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project THE PRYDAINGER ZONE (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.

Morgoth is back baby!!! He's got dragons, he's got balrogs, he's got orcs, and he's ready to make a mess of the meticulously described map that a bunch of the rest of this book is dedicated to setting up.

But he doesn't get everything he wants! Like when a man and his elf girlfriend defeat his most-trusted lieutenant, put his big dog to sleep, and come a-creeping to grab the Silmarils right from his crown! We still don't really know what they do, but people sure do seem to want those things!!

The reading list:

Ep 1 - Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion Ch 1-3

Ep 2 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 4-10

Ep 3 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 11-16

Ep 4 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 17-20

Ep 5 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 21-24

Ep 6 - Alkallabeth, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Appendices

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

The Sillymarillion Ep 04 - The Black Gate Opens (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

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Ep 768 - Retro, by Jessica M. Goldstein

They'll never write a time travel story that Andrew won't try! This week's riff on the formula includes megalomaniac tech billionaires, millennial malaise, and an astoundingly dangerous amusement park in northern New Jersey.

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Ep 768 - Retro

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Ep 767 - Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain

Shhhh...this episode is confidential. The kitchen secrets divulged by bad boy chef Anthony "Tony" Bourdain will Rock Your World. Or will they? This breakout essay collection laid much of the foundation for modern popular understanding of American restaurant culture, but some of its lessons may not feel so fresh today. Instead, it may best be viewed in the context of Bourdain's larger media career, which could not have happened without the success of this book.

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Ep 767 - Kitchen Confidential

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Ep 766 - Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay

This classic of twentieth-century Australian literature isn't a Whodunnit. It isn't a Howdunnit. It's barely a dunnit at all. It's a certifiable Whahappen??

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Ep 766 - Picnic at Hanging Rock

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