The Apple-Tree Throne & The Stress of Her Regard
- Fiction Fans
- Sep 29, 2021
- 19 min read
Updated: Dec 21, 2023
Episode 19
Release Date: 10/13/2021
The Apple-Tree Throne by Premee Mohammed
The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers
Before your hosts dive into spooky season, they talk about the book recommendations crafted by Literature n Lofi. They discuss The Apple-Tree Throne by Premee Mohamed but it was almost all spoilers, so you should just go read it. They also read The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. They agree-- vampires are cool. Byron is byronic. But are the other characters real people? The answer may surprise you. This episode includes a visit to the Pet Peeve Corner: Are typos a stylistic choice? That answer won’t surprise you.
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Thanks to the following musicians for the use of their songs: - Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Episode Transcript*
*this transcript is AI generated, please excuse the mess.
Lilly  00:05
Hello, and welcome to this spooky edition of fiction fans. I'm Billy,
Sara 00:10
and you're not gonna see a podcast where we read books in other words to.
Lilly  00:15
Well, I feel like people probably know where they are. But that is true. What we're doing here today.
Sara 00:22
You just you threw me off.
Lilly  00:24
I got really excited about the spooky books. Okay.
Sara 00:29
Fair enough. And I'm sure
Lilly  00:34
Oh, well, despite spooky month, I do still want to start with something great that happened this week.
Sara 00:40
I have a lot of good things to choose from. I went to a couple of events in the city, I discovered that Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance, which is a PS two game, a PlayStation two game that I played a lot has been ported over to the ps4.
Lilly  00:56
I do believe I introduce you to that game. And I require credit spoken aloud on the podcast.
Sara 01:01
You did introduce me to that? Yeah. Okay. Um, it's quite possible that I played more with your father than I did with you. Oh, very likely. You did? You did introduce me to the game. Yes. But the good thing that I was going to use as my good thing is that I took three days off of work. So I got yesterday off, and I'm taking today off, and I'm taking tomorrow off.
Lilly  01:26
Well, a That sounds lovely. It be sounds like we can record for as long as we please.
Sara 01:33
It does mean that. That was part of the reason why I took today off so that things went over the way they sometimes do.
Lilly  01:44
I don't know. Why would you would think that.
Sara 01:47
Like we have a history of going long or anything. No, we
Lilly  01:50
hate hanging out.
Sara 01:52
No. Can't stand each other.
Lilly  01:56
Well, my good thing this week, was it this week? It was definitely since our last episode. It was
Sara 02:02
technically it was last week. Okay, I believe. That's fine.
Lilly  02:05
It'll be even longer once this comes out. Our friend Benjamin over at literature and Lo Fi created a really sweet list of book recommendations for us. And we wanted to address that later on today. But that was like seeing that video notification. And I like our little logo on it. Oh,
Sara 02:27
it was so happy. It was very nice. Yeah, then is a booktuber. So if you haven't checked him out, you should. His reviews are excellent. His videos are fantastic.
Lilly  02:38
He'll also be participating in spooky month with us.
Sara 02:41
He will be participating in spooky month with us quite soon. Much I
Lilly  02:45
think to his chagrin.
Sara 02:48
He had he had some comments about the book that we're reading. So it'll be for it'll make for a fun episode.
Lilly  02:54
But like putting that much time into thinking about books we might like that just made my heart glow. So that was definitely my good thing. Reaching through the weeks beyond time. Yes. And, Sarah, what are you drinking tonight?
Sara 03:11
I'm drinking red wine. Although not, I'm afraid out of an amethyst goblet, the way I should be doing. If I was really following in the footsteps of the book, one of the books that we read for spooky month.
Lilly  03:24
Excuse me a school amethyst.
Sara 03:28
This was this was very true. It was an amethyst skull gobbler. Yes.
Lilly  03:32
I'm also following in the theme of our books tonight. They're both sort of in the similar time period to Hmm, I guess not super close. But there's an awful lot of brandy in both of those books. So I got myself down to the grocery store and purchased the only kind of brandy that grocery stores sell. In Tennessee, that's the only thing they have. That's brandy.
Sara 03:57
It still counts.
Lilly  03:58
It does still count. And I feel very romantic in the poetical sense.
Sara 04:04
fitting in with those romantic poets.
Lilly  04:07
Oh, I have a lot of opinions. And we're gonna get into that later. Well, as this is a book podcast, Sara, have you read anything good lately,
Sara 04:18
I have light from uncommon stars by Rika Alki came out on the 28th. And I pre ordered it and read it. I devoured it. It was very, very good. It made me crave donuts and all kinds of food actually. And I liked it so much that I actually bought a second signed copy. So you get my original copy.
Lilly  04:44
I gotta say I'm not a signed book person, but I'm so glad that you are.
Sara 04:50
You have benefited from it a couple of times now.
Lilly  04:53
I should clarify. I love getting books signed, but I'm not. I'm not the kind of person who goes out and buys a book that has been signed.
Sara 05:00
Yeah, I am I very much am, in case
Lilly  05:03
Tamara Pierce is listening and sad that I'm not in my signed copies of the books of hers that I have, you know, because that's clearly a thing that's happening.
Sara 05:11
Anyway, so that was what I read. Have you read anything good lately?
Lilly  05:17
Have I been using lately? Um, you know, works been a fucking mess. So I haven't read anything fun lately.
Sara 05:28
Well, I sympathize with that statement.
Lilly  05:31
We've both kind of through the wringer a little bit. I think you worse than me overall. But Facebook was down on Monday, which I know, you know, I didn't know that. Yeah. So I've been, like, trying to figure out how to explain that to people. Like, how does this affect our campaign? It's a three month campaign. I promise one day doesn't do dig. Please calm down. It's not like everyone else got ahead of you. It was down for everyone.
Sara 06:07
That sounds very frustrating.
Lilly  06:09
It is very frustrating. I've been reading a lot of articles about it. And it's weird trying to fill your brain with something you don't actually care that much about. I love my job, but I don't like Facebook all that much.
Sara 06:25
That doesn't sound like that qualifies as for the as an answer to the question read anything good?
Lilly  06:31
No, that's true. It is fun reading. So there's the official rate like their internal servers were down, which meant they couldn't even unlock doors with their key cards or whatever, which meant they couldn't get in to the server room to fix it.
Sara 06:44
Everything through Facebook, which is a dumb idea.
Lilly  06:47
Yeah. But then there's the conspiracy theories that you stumble upon reading about it. And so that's, like, of course, that's what they're gonna say it was. So that was kind of fun. Overall, I much preferred our books for today.
Sara 07:04
They were good books.
Lilly  07:05
But before we talk about those, Benjamin, yes. What have you done to us? I know he starts off the video by saying he understands we have monster TV RS and doesn't expect us to read any of these. But if you didn't expect us to read them, you shouldn't have picked such good books. Benjamin, it's,
Sara 07:25
it's funny, because of the five books that he wrecked. I already had four of them on my TBR. So he really does. And he and I have very close taste in books. So I know that I will really enjoy all of this.
Lilly  07:42
I'm really excited. I had not heard about these books before. But I have not as
Sara 07:49
should should we say what books he recommended? Sure, yeah. Do you think that would be
Lilly  07:56
helpful? worthwhile? Yeah. Hell no. I think people should go watch his video, because he's going to do a better job recommending them than I am. Because I haven't actually read them yet.
Sara 08:08
It wouldn't be so that we're recommending them to people, it would be just so that people have like some sort of context. Sure, when we talk about them, we don't have to wait
Lilly  08:18
for that we're already on your TBR and then I'll say the one that I have put on my TBR and I bet that will cover all five books.
Sara 08:26
Yes, that will cover all five books. So the four books that he recommended that were already on my TBR were the house in the surly and C by TJ Clune seasons of Algodon by Elon marchais and Christopher warm in the first 15 Lives of Harry Auguste by Claire North, and the Forever seat by Joshua Philip Johnson.
Lilly  08:46
And as I was watching this video, the one that I had to immediately posit to write down the title of was daughter of new worlds by Carissa Broadbent,
Sara 08:55
which does look fantastic. I like romance.
Lilly  08:57
Okay. They all Yeah, they all sound amazing.
Sara 09:02
If we could only add one book to the calendar from this list to the calendar for next year. Which book would it be and why?
Lilly  09:10
I'm daughter of no worlds, because it sounds great. And I want to read it. But I feel like I should be more diplomatic and pick one that I think we'll both like. I'm sure you'd like it.
Sara 09:23
I mean, I probably would. Yeah, I was thinking that the first 15 Lives of Harry August would be a really good one to add just because the way that he described it, and he was talking about how he really wanted, like how he thought we would both have interesting perspectives on it. It just it made it sound to me like a really good book to discuss. Whereas some of the other books I I'm like, Well, I just want to read that. I don't necessarily want to like analyze it.
Lilly  09:49
Well, you created a spreadsheet for the next four years of podcasting, so I think we can probably fit them in somewhere.
Sara 09:57
It's only I only added Discworld for the next four years. I'm not that much of a mad man.
Lilly  10:04
That's pretty mad. It's semi mad.
Sara 10:08
It's only a little mad.
Lilly  10:13
Well, as we alluded to briefly, I did convince Sarah to participate in some Halloween festivities with me. Which I'm very excited for Sara's making a face already.
Sara 10:27
I am not really a spooky month kind of person.
Lilly  10:33
I know. But that's why we picked books that aren't like, hardcore horror. Ah, okay. One of them ended up being much longer than I expected. It was it
Sara 10:44
Yeah, there was a lot of horror and the other one was very spooky. My entire notes for it. Were it spooky. And I don't I don't do well with spooky.
Lilly  10:56
Well, I didn't ask you to read any Clive Barker with me. Let's just say that.
Sara 11:00
I don't know who Clive Barker is he wrote Hellraiser. I'm not familiar with Hellraiser. I'm just
Lilly  11:07
saying I pulled my punches. Okay.
11:10
I'll take I'll take your word for that. We're okay. As a non
Lilly  11:13
horror fan. Were you miserable reading these books, or just a little put off?
Sara 11:19
I wasn't, I wasn't miserable. It's just that, like, I do a lot of my reading at night. And some of these were well, so we read two books. We read the apple tree thrown by me, Mohammed. And we read the stress of her regard by Tim Powers. The Tim Powers book we'll get into a little more later. I didn't find that. Scary. I just found it gory that I was fine reading. But the appletree throne was spooky. And I do most of my reading at night. That's the best time to do it. And it was I was like, Well, I don't I don't want to go to bed. Now. This is spooky.
Lilly  11:56
And that's why you read another one. You just keep reading horror books until you pass out.
Sara 12:01
No. That sounds like a bad idea is not
Lilly  12:07
a good idea. But it is fine.
Sara 12:13
I'll pass maybe.
Lilly  12:14
Well, you got a couple more weeks ahead of you. Thank you for indulging me.
Sara 12:18
I've got a couple more spooky books to read. You're welcome. I love you know, the things I do for you.
Lilly  12:26
Hey, the apple tree throne was very good book though.
Sara 12:30
It was very good. And to be fair, I was the one who suggested it. So
Lilly  12:36
it was I think spooky is definitely the right word for it. Like you said, it's very atmospheric and eerie and a little creepy and unsettling. But it's not, you know, horrifying at any moment.
Sara 12:50
Yeah, it's it's definitely I wouldn't consider it horror.
12:53
I would. But that's,
Sara 12:55
I mean, like,
Lilly  12:56
I consider it horror in the genre of horror, right? Yeah, it's not horrifying. Yeah. And that is why I'm calling the spooky month, just because I'm not trying to creep you out too bad.
Sara 13:09
Just a little bit though.
Lilly  13:11
You don't have to go all in. You can participate in some All Hallows Eve recognition. Without, you know, washing saw on repeat for 30 days, or whatever people
Sara 13:25
do. Oh boy. But anyway, back to the book, which we shouldn't be talking about.
Lilly  13:35
The apple tree throne is pretty firmly a novel or no, it's a lot of novella. It is 37,000 words, which makes it like pretty close to that 40k mark, which is the technical definition. So I'm just going to jump right ahead. I know I'm skipping around and are outlined. But right up top, I'm gonna say if you want to get into the Halloween spirit, and you have like a couple hours to kill in an afternoon, read this book. It's not a huge commitment. It's not like you have to immerse yourself in a terrifying adventure for two days. You can just kind of dip in, you know, it's nice. It's just a little like, I got chills a little bit.
Sara 14:19
I don't think I have anything to add there.
Lilly  14:21
Nope, that's it. I know I'm skipping around. But that's definitely why you should read this book. A little quick overview. So like we said, it's on the shorter sides. So I think most of our conversation is going to be after the spoilers because this was kind of hard to talk about it without spoiling stuff, but it is a sort of alternate kind of magical realism history of England or the Great Republic of Britannica,
Sara 14:50
something like that. I don't actually remember what the acronym stood for. They've abolished
Lilly  14:55
the royalty they have some crazy magic plants that do electricity. And it doesn't, it doesn't go into that very much, which is why I'm so very confused about it. But that's okay. It kind of just makes everything a little bit weird.
Sara 15:11
It was just kind of more for vibes than actual plot. Yeah, like it. It added to that, like you say that feeling of weirdness that little, it's just a little bit off like one step away from the world, but we know
Lilly  15:23
exactly. And it takes place. Oh, my gosh, they say, the turn of the century, I'm guessing they mean, the end of the 1800s.
Sara 15:32
It felt 1800s ish. Yeah,
Lilly  15:36
in sort of a Not, not World War One scenario. And there's actually a line that says, if that had gone differently, it could have been a whole World War. So I kind of feel like that's what she was hinting at. But it's about a soldier who has come home after being at war, and mostly about him trying to reintegrate into society, which is more heartbreaking than horrifying. But there's also some ghosts. And that is the spook. He is
Sara 16:09
literally haunted by the war.
Lilly  16:14
And it's very sweet. And very eerie. And I think that's all we should say at this point.
Sara 16:21
It's spooky. Go read it if you like spooky things. Go read
Lilly  16:25
it. If you like spooky things. It's only available on ebook or audiobook. And it's a couple bucks. If you're looking for some spooky spirit. Just go read this book, it's great. To avoid spoilers for the apple tree throne, skip to 3814. So through the power of editing, and that four second break, I guess 12 second break, because I give the spoiler warning. We listened to a four and a half minute song called the ghost of Genova heights by stars, which, according to the author's note, at the end of this book, was the inspiration for the story.
Sara 17:14
And you really can hear in the song, or see in the song. Feel you can feel it. Feel in the song, you can do something in the song to see what aspects of the song she cherry picked for the book.
Lilly  17:32
There are a couple of really strong visuals tapping Morse code on the window. That was a big one. The fingerprints being left behind. I feel like he liked roses. Yeah. Other than that, I'm sorry Mohammed here books better.
Sara 17:53
Yeah, I liked I liked the apple tree throne more than I liked the song. But it was really neat to have them to be able to compare the two.
Lilly  18:01
Yeah. And sort of seeing where it came from. And, and what she created from that is very cool. Anyway, definitely, I would say worth listening to before or after you read the book. But I just wanted to include at least our reactions to that because it's cool when it's when someone has such a strong inspiration. Right. Like it's it's directly building off of another piece of media.
Sara 18:29
Yeah, when someone has such a visceral reaction to a song that they have to go and write a whole 37,000 words inspired by that. Like buff, neat. This was cool.
18:40
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, I did really love the book though.
Sara 18:48
Despite being a little too spooky. For me, it was good.
Lilly  18:51
I think one of my feet, okay. So the main character comes home. And we find out that the Oh boy, this is me not knowing army words. The leader of his group of people?
Sara 19:09
I did, I didn't actually, I didn't actually remember anyone's names. So I did have to look up the book summary. I think it just says commander, Commander. In the Summary. It just says commander.
Lilly  19:26
Well, the person telling other people what to do in this chunk of army. I'm sure there are better words to use, but I don't care enough to look them up, gave bad orders and got most of them killed and himself killed. And so he had a very shameful funeral and is haunting the main character. I would say that's sort of the beginning of the book.
Sara 19:50
Yeah, well, the funeral is definitely the beginning of the book. Right?
Lilly  19:54
We don't find all of this out right away. And the main character gets taken in by the Dead commanders extremely well off family who is completely exploiting him as a veteran to sort of get their clout back. Because they're a military family, and their son was dishonored. And so now they have a young, troubled man that they can cart around with his shiny uniform and go, look, look at this one who is ours. And it's pretty gross. I would say that it's like the most horrifying part of the book for me. But,
Sara 20:30
I mean, I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, if you ascribe, like very self serving motivations to them, yeah, it's pretty gross. But I think you can take them at their face value that like, they just they're they're grateful to Lieutenant Braddock, Benjamin,
Lilly  20:55
he was also the only person willing to speak at their son's funeral.
Sara 20:59
Yeah, like, so they're, they're grateful to him for doing that. And they do have this, you know, empty house now that someone might as well use and, you know,
Lilly  21:12
I don't think they're villains. But I do think they were exploiting him. I think that they might, well, at least, at least, the mother was some of the descriptions of how she treated him in social situations, set off some alarm bells.
Sara 21:29
I think that she was definitely trying to fill the hole that her son left. Again, I'm not sure whether I think that that's intentionally exploiting him, because it could just be that that's how she treated her son, which is not great.
Lilly  21:42
That's also exploitative. It can be
Sara 21:46
but I guess, I guess it when you describe it, it makes me think like it's very intentional. And I'm saying it could be exploitation, but not in any kind of intentionally malicious way. It's it's not like or intentionally considered way anyway, it's not exploitation, like get out where they're literally using people's bodies and consciousnesses. No. Well, I haven't seen that. That's okay. So it's a reference. I think
Lilly  22:13
it's adorable enough that I can just throw it out there. It's just mundane, human awfulness. It's not over the top. It's not villainous. It's just kind of some people being a little shitty. The moment where they decided he was getting married to this girl. Yeah, that's pretty awful.
Sara 22:42
That's pretty shitty. But I guess what I'm saying is I just took it as like, that was how she was. And not that she was doing that for him in particular. So
Lilly  22:53
she's just a bad person at her core. Okay.
Sara 22:55
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like, you know, she's just not great.
Lilly  23:02
I did love that scene, in particular, because they announced publicly that he had proposed to this young woman, but she had not done who
Sara 23:13
was the not the fiance of his commander, but like, it was kind of thought that they were engaged.
Lilly  23:25
He had written a letter, his last letter that he wrote was when I get home, I want to propose, yeah. He just stands up and walks out. And I love that. There's, um, oh, gosh, there's a podcast. I think it's my favorite murder. It's a true crime podcast is the point. And whenever they go over true crime stories, their tagline is fuck politeness. Because that's how a lot of people get caught. And that is what Braddock did. He just said, No, I'm not going to try to like weasel my way out of this. I'm just walking out. No one's going to stop me because they were all too polite to kick up a fuss. So no one stopped him from just saying peace out. Later.
Sara 24:10
It was nice to see him fight. Like he's been kind of stymied by all of this politeness over the course of the book, and it was nice to see him finally use that against everyone instead of it being used against him.
Lilly  24:23
Well, he's a deeply troubled person. We're seeing and has some serious PTSD. Oh, yeah, that was one of my other comments is, I mean, this isn't a historical example of it. But seeing PTSD or other like psychological situations that today, we maybe have a better understanding of how they were portrayed a long time ago is so fascinating, and sort of trying to track that like, these stories of someone who, you know, did such and such or were quote unquote shell shocked, right? Like that's absolutely just the precursor to PTSD. And it's very interesting to see how our understanding has grown over time. And also to combat maybe some of the rhetoric that people suddenly have psychological issues. When No, we just have words for it.
Sara 25:20
That was exactly what I was gonna say. Yeah.
Lilly  25:23
I mean, this is obviously a modern story. But I really liked the way that it was sort of handled in a historically accurate way. I feel like the the phrasing and everything they used. It was very well done. It felt
Sara 25:36
like this book could have been written in like the early 1900s. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Like it definitely had that kind of vibe.
Lilly  25:46
Speaking of early 1900s fives, the what was it? Oh, no. What was that quote? It was so good. Maybe I can find my note. Oh, so they called it an epidemic of nerves. for PTSD.
Sara 26:03
I would have a lot of nerves too if I had PTSD.
Lilly  26:08
But one of the other phrases used and this just tickled me, degenerate practitioners of the Greek arts.
Sara 26:18
Well, that's not talking about PTSD, though.
Lilly  26:20
No, no, no, we're talking about old timey euphemisms. Yes. I just that made me giggle. practitioner I, we can drop degenerate, but practitioners of the Greek arts was funny, and that also uses them pickets, Freudian to call homosexuality and inversion? I'm pretty sure he's the one who started that term in, if I'm remembering correctly, an effort to try to normalize it. Right. It's not heretical. It's just an inversion, which obviously is outdated at this point. Oh, man, so the, like, they were together, right? The main character in the commander,
27:07
they must have been, right, like they have to have been Yes.
Lilly  27:11
We get such tiny breadcrumbs. But I don't know how I could interpret this. Otherwise.
Sara 27:17
I'd be I feel like the ending of it makes it pretty clear that. Yeah, like, they it's kind of alluded to, but it's alluded to, during the rest of the book in a way that you could just ignore or overlook that by the end, it's like in your face. Yes. They were together. I actually feel the other way around.
Lilly  27:37
The so this book ends with the line.
Sara 27:43
Well, it's something about him, putting his fingers to his cheeks.
Lilly  27:47
Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. 19, whatever's the 1890s You're allowed to touch other people back then? What is it, you'll come back. Endless endlessly, till time itself runs out and the sun is cold, and the Earth has ceased to spin. Why? Anyone would think we were in love Fiddlesticks I cannot imagine why they would say such a thing. I feel like without the context of the rest of the book, that could just be bros hanging out. But when I know how that sounds,
Sara 28:26
you have the context of the rest of the book. So I mean, what I'm saying is that, like, you can ignore the hints that are dropped throughout the rest of the book. And then with that scene, it's like, yes, clarifying. Yes, they were together. And sure, if you take that scene out of context, maybe you could, you know, it's just frozen rows, but but when you put everything together
Lilly  28:54
I to me, I think it was really the way they both froze during the flashback to one soldier, accusing others of not even just not even being gay, just of being cocksuckers, I think was the official thing he complained about. He didn't want to share toothbrush, right? Yeah. But they didn't have enough toothbrushes. And I think that was actually the moment where I was like, but then good old Clarkie just covered up and like charged on and started making fun of the guy as you should.
Sara 29:31
Yeah, I feel like that's not I feel like that's not where I started thinking that they were together. But like, when Braddock is talking about the color of his commanders eyes and things like that, no, okay, maybe he just has a good eye for detail. But then, really, I will say though, one of the points so his commander, as we've said, is a ghost. It's haunting him and He starts off by being on the outside of Braddock's house, which used to be his house and not being able to get in and Braddock just thinks, oh, he's stuck on the outside, it's fine. And then there's this moment where he thinks that and like his the commander's fingers, like, go through the wall. And oh, boy, that was creepy. That was very creepy.
Lilly  30:28
It's so interesting. To me how like, which parts of the horror get us so differently? Right? The supernatural stuff. I mean, it's fun. I love it. But I find the horror in being manipulated by people whose charity or goodwill you thought you were living off of? Or thinking someone liked you and then being manipulated by them. And in his just like, horrible depression.
Sara 31:05
I don't consider that. I mean, it's, it's horrible, in the sense that it's very tragic and very sad. But I don't consider that horror. That's just life. sad life. Maybe.
Lilly  31:20
It can be horrific. But like the
Sara 31:23
supernatural is horrifying. Or, you know, scary.
Lilly  31:29
I feel like for me, it's a situation of what's what's that dumb phrase we used a spoonful of Discworld makes the social commentary go down.
Sara 31:43
I'm pretty sure when you say we You mean you because I would not be caught dead saying that.