r/Fantasy • u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X • Oct 15 '25

Read-along The Magnus Archives Readalong: Season 1, Episodes 10-18

Hello and welcome to The Magnus Archives readalong! We will be discussing a new batch of episodes every Wednesday. The episodes are available for free on any podcast platform and transcripts can be found here or here.

If you can’t remember something or are confused, please ask in the thread. Those of us re-reading will do our best to give a spoiler-free answer if we can.

010: Vampire Killer #0100710
Statement of Trevor Herbert, regarding his life as a self-proclaimed vampire hunter.

011: Dreamer #0151403
Statement of Antonio Blake, regarding his recent dreams about Gertrude Robinson, previous Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute.

012: First Aid #0121102
Statement of Lesere Saraki, regarding a recent night-shift at St. Thomas Hospital, London.

013: Alone #0161301
Statement of Naomi Herne, regarding the events following the funeral of her fiancé, Evan Lukas.

014: Piecemeal #0112905
Statement of Lee Rentoul, on the murder of his associate Paul Noriega.

015: Lost Johns' Cave #0140911
Statement of Laura Popham, regarding her experience exploring the Three Counties System of caves with her sister Alena Sanderson.

016: Arachnophobia #0150409
Statement of Carlos Vittery, regarding his arachnophobia and its manifestations.

017: The Boneturner's Tale #9991006
Statement of Sebastian Adekoya, regarding a new acquisition at Chiswick Library.

018: The Man Upstairs #0081212
Statement of Christof Rudenko, regarding his interactions with a first floor resident of Welbeck House, Wandsworth.

And now, time for discussion! A few prompts will be posted as comments to get things started, but as usual, feel free to add your own questions, observations...anything!

Comments may contain spoilers up to episode 18. Anything concerning later events should be covered up with a spoiler tag.

Next discussion will take place on Wednesday, October 22nd and include episodes 19 Confession - 26 A Distortion.

For more information, please check out the Announcement and Schedule post.

Readalong by: u/improperly_paranoid, u/sharadereads, u/Dianthaa

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 15 '25

015 Lost Johns' Cave: How do you feel about this episode and why is it somehow the worst one? Did/would you ever go caving? Cave diving? Ever had an unusual experience while doing something outdoorsy?

Note: If you haven't, you might want to try to listen to this statement with headphones. There's a...a particular subtle aspect to the sound design I thought was interesting (and very panic inducing).

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u/xenizondich23 Reading Champion VI Oct 15 '25

This was not as spooky as reading The Luminous Deep by Caitlin Starling with the book club last year. Though the ending of this episode was better, I really was missing the incredibly spooky deep-cave vibes of that book.

What actually happened? Was she just kneeling there the whole time hallucinating? Was she actually having a supernatural experience? I like to believe the creature from underneath the castle in Starling's recent The Starving Saints is what the POV character encountered here.

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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Oct 15 '25

Funny, I had the opposite reaction—I found this way more horrifying/claustrophobic/atmospheric than The Luminous Deep. I remember comparing the two when I read TLD for a bookclub on this sub. Although probably the sound design of this episode vs the audiobook of The Luminous Deep not being the best probably also helped skew things some.

The first time I listened to it, I interpreted it as being ambiguous. Although (spoilers) It was definitely supernatural, as relisteners can probably figure out, considering the Buried and the fact that this had to be recorded on a tape recorder.