The Side Quest Book Club Podcast

King put this one in a drawer. He only published it to finish out a contract. Part 1 of 4 on PET SEMATARY by Stephen King. Spoilers through part one only — two of us are reading it for the first time. Slava has read it twice. Jonathan and Josh are going in blind, which means predictions, wrong theories, and one running joke that this is King's debut novel about neutering animals. We get into why he shelved the manuscript, the real Maine road that inspired it, whether Rachel's reaction to the pet cemetery is irrational or something the burial ground is doing to her, and Slava's theory about who Victor Pascow really is. Plus a long side quest on the AI slop problem in creative work — including the stuff we used to run in our own episodes and why we stopped. Part two brings the Wendigo. (00:00) - Intro: Spoiler-Free Plot Summary (02:14) - The Ending and Our Predictions (06:08) - The Book King Put in a Drawer (07:42) - Are Stephen King Books Actually Scary? (10:47) - Side Quest: Seances and Houdini (15:35) - The Creeds Arrive in Ludlow (17:25) - Rachel's Reaction to the Pet Sematary (19:05) - Two Ways of Facing Death (22:23) - Death, Religion, and King's Worldview (26:48) - Judd, the Father Louis Never Had (29:18) - Side Quest: We Lost Community (32:26) - Side Quest: What Parents Don't Teach (37:17) - Death After Death After Death (39:50) - Louis Lies About the Cat (40:51) - The Victor Pascal Dream (42:35) - Our Wendigo Theory (45:02) - Rachel's Backstory (48:32) - Watching Someone Die in Front of You (50:42) - How Part One Ends (52:39) - Side Quest: Open Loops and Cliffhangers (54:20) - Writing to Process Your Own Life (56:08) - Putting Yourself Into Your Characters (01:02:23) - Side Quest: Using AI to Write (01:05:43) - AI Is a Tool, Not a Shortcut (01:07:39) - Our Own Use of AI Slop (01:11:32) - Side Quest: Behind the Curtain (01:13:37) - Final Thoughts — 📺 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 #PetSematary #StephenKing

She built an author platform with a public money ledger and an e-reader she says rivals Kindle. We sit down with Jules, founder of thing.pub — the ARC and beta reader platform built for the author community. Jules walks us through the proprietary e-reader that carries almost any book's formatting into near-print visual fidelity, and the book showcase pages that give authors a customizable marketing hub — accent colors, genre and trope filters, representation tags, buy links, and QR codes for conventions. We get into the public financial ledger she built for full transparency, the human-verification process and protections against AI scrapers, premium cosmetic themes that fund the platform while keeping every core function free, and how to get on the waitlist. Closed beta is coming. Sign up at thing.pub and tag the author friends who need it. Jules' Platform: https://thing.pub (00:00) - Intro: Closed Beta & Bug Hunting (01:23) - The E-Reader That Rivals Kindle (02:53) - Custom Book Showcase Pages (05:10) - Premium Themes for Your Book Page (06:39) - Free vs. Paid & the Money Ledger (07:54) - How to Join thing.pub (09:44) - Vetted Pros: Editors & Artists (10:42) - Subscriptions & Cosmetics (11:40) - Final Thoughts The Side Quest Book Club Podcast is a weekly deep-dive book review for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fans who love getting lost in worlds. Hosts Jonathan and Slava break down Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere (including the Stormlight Archive), the works of Stephen King, and the best and most overlooked fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction.🎙️ New episodes every Tuesday: full spoiler discussions, world-building, character analysis, and book club arguments that make you want to re-read the book to prove Jonathan wrong. We take a break during summer but have a full catalog for you to listen to. What we cover: 📚 Brandon Sanderson — Cosmere deep dives, Stormlight Archive chapter-by-chapter 👑 Stephen King podcast — from IT to The Mist, and everything in between 🐉 Fantasy literature analysis — hidden gems, classics, and what makes great world-building 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts — 📺 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

Dozens of agent queries, mostly form rejections. So he took his fantasy novel to Substack. We sit down with Rob Mortell, author of the indie fantasy TALES & TREASURE, for a full author interview. Rob explains how a quirky bard named Vatis, a bards guild, and bard tourneys became the spine of a four-year discovery-writing project. We get into soft magic versus Sanderson-style hard magic, a haunted Fangorn-style forest he invented mid-draft, why he wants fewer morally gray protagonists, and why he can't stand first-person present tense. Then the publishing side: six months of querying, serializing the finished book chapter by chapter, releasing a lost prologue and cut bard stories, and what changes in book two, BARDS & BARGAINS: three POVs and a more traditional plot. Rob Mortell Book: https://a.co/d/5yYruJV Website: https://storiesofemre.com/ Substack: https://robmortell.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robmortellwrites/ (00:00) - Intro: Meet Indie Author Rob Mortell (01:15) - From Dr. Seuss to the Quirky Bard (04:06) - Book It and Becoming a Storyteller (05:31) - Why Stories Make Us Human (08:40) - From Sports Journalism to Fiction (10:02) - Bards Guilds and Bard Tourneys (12:18) - Putting Himself in the Antagonist (14:22) - Is Magic Real? Soft vs. Hard Magic (15:52) - Side Quest: Are Dragons Real? (17:52) - Pantsing and Stories That Never Stuck (21:36) - The Fantasy Trope He's Tired Of (24:29) - Keeping Characters Fresh (25:47) - Overrated Writing Advice (29:59) - When the Author Steers the Story (32:50) - How a New Character Is Born (34:57) - Why He Hates First Person Present (36:49) - Querying Agents and Handling Rejection (42:01) - Finding a Writing Group (44:02) - The Indie Author Community (45:23) - Serializing a Novel on Substack (48:43) - The Lost Prologue and Cut Chapters (50:11) - What's Coming in Bards and Bargains (52:27) - Life After the Trilogy (55:02) - His Biggest Flaw as a Writer (57:04) - Indie Authors Worth Reading (59:26) - Where to Find Rob Mortell — 📺 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 #TalesAndTreasure #IndieFantasy

Why did The Hunger Games take off in the West when Battle Royale never did? We close out SUNRISE ON THE REAPING by Suzanne Collins with a full look at the world of Panem — and whether this one makes a good movie. Evan and Jules are back for the finale. We start with the four-year gap between the book and the first movie, and what we were all doing in 2008 instead of reading it. Jules argues that Kishotenketsu is why Eastern storytelling didn't cross over. Jonathan argues the dystopian boom traces back to 9/11. From there: the plagiarism question, Harlan Ellison versus James Cameron, and why every writer is afraid of copying something by accident. Then the prequel itself — what it actually adds, what Plutarch sacrificed, and whether Francis Lawrence can make the movie better than the book. (00:00) - Intro: Jeff Hayes as Princess Donut (01:14) - Is Dungeon Crawler Carl Built on D&D? (05:44) - Side Quest: Mario, Disco Elysium, BG3 (12:22) - Side Quest: Rules-Heavy DMs vs. Story (15:26) - Why the Dungeon Feels Real (20:01) - Side Quest: Monopoly Grudge Matches (22:14) - A Waffle House in the Dungeon (25:11) - Do Modern References Age Badly? (30:45) - Are the NPCs Real People? (35:20) - Earth Has Joined the Server (37:20) - Every Character Wants Something (40:22) - Side Quest: When to Cut a Character (44:04) - How Carl's POV Builds the World (47:46) - Does Carl Have Free Will? (50:35) - The Dungeon as Reality TV (55:22) - Who's Really Running the Dungeon? (57:34) - Live-Action, Animation, or Claymation? (01:02:41) - Why Peacock Bet on an Indie Author (01:05:32) - Side Quest: Must Authors Finish Series? (01:09:41) - Side Quest: Consistency Over Motivation (01:15:26) - Side Quest: When Fans Fund the Next Book (01:22:56) - Side Quest: How Our Podcast Grew (01:26:02) - Showrunners and Jeff Hayes as Donut (01:28:22) - What Will Each Episode Cost? (01:34:03) - Final Thoughts — 📺 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 The Side Quest Book Club Podcast is a weekly deep-dive book review for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fans who love getting lost in worlds. Hosts Jonathan and Slava break down Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere (including the Stormlight Archive), the works of Stephen King, and the best and most overlooked fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. 🎙️ New episodes every Tuesday: full spoiler discussions, world-building, character analysis, and book club arguments that make you want to re-read the book to prove Jonathan wrong. We take a break during summer but have a full catalog for you to listen to. What we cover: 📚 Brandon Sanderson — Cosmere deep dives, Stormlight Archive chapter-by-chapter 👑 Stephen King podcast — from IT to The Mist, and everything in between 🐉 Fantasy literature analysis — hidden gems, classics, and what makes great world-building 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts — 📺 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

Effie Trinket gets a better character arc in ten pages than Haymitch gets in the entire book. We break down SUNRISE ON THE REAPING by Suzanne Collins — themes, character arcs, and full spoilers. Part 2 of 3. Slava, Jonathan, Jules, and Evan roll a die to pick a theme and land on the cost of survival — what Haymitch actually gets for staying alive. It turns into an argument about whether Collins gave him an arc at all, why he reads stronger standing next to Katniss, and how Effie, Maysilee, and Lulu do more character work in a handful of pages. Also: Plutarch's moral ambiguity, the old Battle Royale plagiarism claim, whether flesh-eating squirrels land as dark or funny, and how much the movie will sand off. Part three closes the series on the Hunger Games world itself. — 📺 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 #SunriseOnTheReaping #HungerGames