The Side Quest Book Club Podcast

One of us has a theory that this book was ghostwritten and badly edited. Part 1 of 3 on SUNRISE ON THE REAPING by Suzanne Collins — the plot, top to bottom, full spoilers. Jules walks through the prose inconsistencies that made her suspect a second hand on the manuscript. Slava reread all three Hunger Games books and watched four movies out of spite, and still landed at 3.5 out of 5. We argue about whether Snow is a Disney villain, why Haymitch works as a foil to a character who isn't in this book, how much Edgar Allan Poe is too much Edgar Allan Poe, and the inventory scene that made someone physically facepalm. Ratings from all four of us at the end, plus the movie scenes we want most. Part two takes on themes and character arcs. — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: CharacterNorth6081 — https://www.instagram.com/parasss.__ Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #SunriseOnTheReaping #HungerGames

How to start a podcast without waiting for perfect gear — just pick a narrow niche and find your 10 episode ideas. In this how-to episode, Slava and Jonathan walk through the actual process of launching a podcast in 2026, from defining your topic and audience to building a setup that fits your budget. They cover the 10-episode test that separates viable ideas from broad ones that get buried, why specificity wins over production value, and a breakdown of equipment options from $0 (phone in a closet) to $300+. Then they tour their own setup: Rode NTG1 mic, Elgato arm and key light, Govee background lights, and a full DSLR rig — plus tactics for finding it all cheaper on Facebook Marketplace. The bottom line: execution and consistency matter more than having the nicest gear when you start. Pick your niche, record 10 episodes, and upgrade as you grow. — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: Wellerson Clemer https://www.behance.net/wellersonclemer123 Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #PetSematary #StephenKing

She built a magic system out of Gödel's incompleteness theorem. Physicist-turned-author Keon Shore on THE BAD APOTHECARY, book one of The Ninth Path, and the Jungian shadow underneath it. Keon walked away from physics, then spent years turning integral theory, Jung's shadow, and Daoist inner alchemy into a cultivation fantasy where doing magic wrong tears holes in reality. She explains how a universe with repressed truths became the engine of the series, why she wrote it so none of that has to be visible to enjoy the story, and how Chinese web novels shaped her stripped-down prose. Plus why she doesn't believe in dark matter, what she does when a chapter stops working, and where book two goes when it lands on September 9. Free to read on Royal Road. KEON SHORE The Bad Apothecary (Ninth Path) — Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Apothecary-Ninth-Path/dp/B0GHWNYBK2/ Read free on Royal Road: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/144290/ninth-path Follow Keone on Instagram: @keonshore_author — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: CharacterNorth6081 — https://www.instagram.com/parasss.__ Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #TheBadApothecary #ProgressionFantasy

He stocked shelves at Barnes & Noble and kept the A-slot open for a book he hadn't sold yet. Crime thriller author Marc Avery on DISCIPLINE, ten years from first draft to physical book, and building an audience on Threads. A hundred rejections in, a bookseller told Marc to try one more time. He emailed an agent who had already turned him down years earlier, and she sold the book. He talks through what Discipline actually is under the buddy-cop surface — brotherhood, and how far you'd go for the people you love — and how the serial killer started as a side character and took over the novel. Plus why Threads is the only platform that ever worked for him, what he learned selling books out of a box at BookCon, and the RoboCop scene he rewinds every single time. MARC AVERY Discipline: https://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Marc-Avery/dp/1957950722 Follow Marc on Threads: @author_marc_avery — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: CharacterNorth6081 — https://www.instagram.com/parasss.__ Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #MarcAvery #CrimeThriller

She was offline for ten years. She came back and built an anti-piracy platform for authors. Indie author and solo dev Jules Mourne on thing.pub — a free platform for sharing manuscripts without feeding them to AI. Jules walks us through how thing.pub actually works: device fingerprinting, watermarks embedded so they survive being run through a model, a kill switch for anyone poking at the dev console, and a reputation system that holds readers and authors to the same deal. She explains why it will always be free, why every server cost will be public, and why she won't take sponsorships from anyone large enough to attach strings. Plus what's broken about traditional publishing, the tabletop horror campaigns that fed her writing, and the cyberpunk novel she's building around social media as the antagonist. JULES MOURNE thing.pub — sign up and volunteer survey: https://thing.pub Threads: @jules.mourne — 📺 SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/@sidequestpodcast 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION All platforms: https://linktr.ee/asidequest 🌐 JOIN THE GUILD Official website / Quest Log: https://www.thesidequestpodcast.com/ 💬 FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidequestpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sidequestpodcast Discord: https://discord.gg/WAPRX9Hbq 🎬 CREDITS Hosts: Slava and Jonathan Editing: CharacterNorth6081 — https://www.instagram.com/parasss.__ Music: HoliznaCC0 Distribution: Transistor.fm — https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/?via=slava Side Quest Book Club is a podcast about books, the people who write them, and the tangents in between. Some links above are referral links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. #SideQuestBookClub #IndieAuthors #WritingCommunity