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In 2013, Alex Shaw published a small novel called The Cartographer’s Handbook, the first in a series called The New Century Multiverse. The premise is alt history, where post-Civil War America is suddenly overcome with a plague of dangerous monsters that overwhelm the Reconstruction, and bring the nation to its knees. The series is not about its fall, however, but about the heroes that help bring it back from the brink, and step into a wider world that is not the one they knew. New mysteries to unlock, magics to discover, and worlds to explore. Ten years later, the New Century Multiverse is now thirteen books strong, with more on the way. It has had 2 major story arcs, an Avengers style coming together of the heroes of its various books, and multiple worlds and genres to explore. This is its first fan podcast. Through The Wind Door is a deep dive exploration of the novels and their corresponding audiodramas, along with interviews of the cast and creators. Accessible to new readers and long time fans, join Greg and Toby as they share thoughts about this engaging series.
Episodes
Friday Mar 18, 2022
Friday Mar 18, 2022
Our final thoughts on Chapter 7! (and 5 and 6, but mostly 7.)
- More on the blending of narrative styles!
- The Shamanic Voice
- Miguel's Heroic Journey
- There are no happy endings...
- Imminent Atonement with the Father
- Subverting Tropes
- The real treasure was the friends we made along the way!
Next week, no more recap chapters! It's all brand new stuff!
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Outro is "In The Air Tonight" by State of Mine
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
More talking points for Chapters 5 and 6, and a tiny bit of 7!
- Everyone telling the story of Secret Rooms!
- "There was an idea..." The origin of the decision to find heroes.
- Thomas Arlington: Threat or Menace?
- Steamheart: It Doesn't have Stealth Mode!
- Through The Musical Wind Door!
- Storyboarding the Steamheart miniseries!
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Midroll is "Thunder Dreams" by Kevin Macleod
Outro is "Precious Illusions" by Alanis Morissette
Friday Mar 04, 2022
Friday Mar 04, 2022
Today, part 1 of our thoughts on the Recap Chapters! (mostly chapters 5 and 6)
- James and Abigail noticing Harry
- The response of the Arlingtons to our Secret Rooms protagonists
- Metatext in New Century, as regards storytelling
- Development of new dynamics between our ensemble protagonists
- And the balance of text and subtext
I am going to try not to sprawl too much, but it may be unavoidable. This week's episode needed a lot of cleaning up, which means some of our first Skype conversation was removed to get it done on time. But I don't want to take up too much space, so if possible, I'll try to get our shows done in as few episodes as we can.
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Outro is "I Love You's" by Hailee Steinfeld
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
The conclusion of looking at chapters 1-4, with our focus being on the events of Chapter 4 itself. In this week's episode, we get into:
- How Abigail, James, and harry interact with people, both people they know, and people they don't...
- Reflections on how elements from Secret Rooms start making themselves known in this chapter (something we'll talk about even more as we proceed)
- A deep discussion on Harry, and what is revealed though her first person narration
- Comparing and contrasting Harry and James's neuro-atypical brains
- Outtakes, and much, much more!
Next week, we begin our look at chapters 5-7, since we ended up having much more to talk about than expected with the 'Previously On New Century' chapters...
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Outro is "Unwell" by Matchbox 20
Friday Feb 18, 2022
Friday Feb 18, 2022
Okay. Now we actually cover more than one chapter of Steamheart: 2, 3, and the beginning of 4.
Topics today:
- (Re)introducing Annie and Frank
- The Meet-Cute
- Introducing (more thoroughly) Jeremy Pines!
- A discussion of the neurodiverse spectrum and Jeremy's place on it
- The beginning of Jeremy's arc
- How Chapters 2 and 3 keep worldbuilding
- Team Steam begins to assemble!
- How it feels to return to James and Abigail
Gotta say, it feels good to finally talk about Steamheart. But boy, is there a lot of ground to recover. Thank goodness we have a nice vehicle to do it in.
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Outro is "I Choose You" by Sara Bareilles
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Eleven days till our anniversary. Exactly the right time to begin the Retrospective on the Culmination of Phase 1 of New Century.
Steamheart.
Today, we discuss:
- Emily Dickenson, and her poem
- The larger theme of journey narratives
- An unusual digression on the Tarot
- How our first introduction is framed, and by whom
- And much, much more
Today covers only chapter 1 in detail, but the arc of this and the next two episodes will be referring to chapters 1-4. So be prepared, for those to whom Spoilers matter.
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Outro is "We Said Hello Goodbye" by Phil Collins
Wednesday Feb 02, 2022
Wednesday Feb 02, 2022
The last interview episode. You don't want to miss this one. Because it's got:
- How Harry views Autumn, as opposed to how the average person of her world would view it
- Senator MacPherson, or Sir Not Appearing In This Audiodrama
- The influence of real world events on crafting this story, and others
- The things Alex is most proud of with this outing
- Color Theory
- Sharon devolving into fits of laughter (along with the rest of us)
- And Even More Outtakes
Next time we see you... Season 5. The Steamheart Saga.
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "The Future is Ours" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Outro is "Together We Stand" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
And here we are, back to the big interview. 2 episodes to go!
- Discussion on the story's overarching antagonist, Mr. Wight
- What it's like to narrate over being a main character for Alex
- Discussion on the many new voice talents that were brought in
- The Sounds and Music of Stonespring Maidens
- The difficulties of writing this story due to the events of 2020
- And finally, the experience of visiting past trauma through creating
Ending with the new Gibbet: Citrus Fruits.
The New Century Multiverse Website:
https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com
The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:
https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
The Fireside Alliance Podcast Network:
https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/
Intro is "The Future is Ours" by Scott Holmes of Free Music Archive
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
More Reacting! Today we talk about the covers for:
Castle of the Moon
The Black Ronin:
And as a bonus, the mockup for Four Worlds Collide:
There are spoiler warnings for different parts of the episode, you'll get them in progress.
Next week, we finally finish the interviews! And then... Season 5: The Year of Steam Heart.
Friday Jan 14, 2022
Friday Jan 14, 2022
And now for something completely different. Except not that different, because it's still New Century.
As we had to wait a bit to get Alex and Sharon back on the horn for the rest of our Stonespring Maidens interviews, me and Toby did a little speculation show on the implications of the new covers that had been shared over the last few months. Today we discuss the next two Thieves covers: Thief Knights and Dragon Flights, and The Worst Unicorn.
No music before or after, just us rambling, with some mild spoiler potential, but only for books that have already been published and out for a long while.
Thief Knights:
The Worst Unicorn:
Also, referring back to the titles Alex released back in 2020, which was partly source material for our first React video:
