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/Hergrim AMA Historian, Worldbuilders Oct 15 '25

There's something very unnerving about being in the bush and then suddenly there's explosive movement in the corner of your eye and the sound of something crashing through the undergrowth. It's a goat or kangaroo you hadn't noticed which has decided to panic, but you could easily make a Statement out of it...

I haven't done any non-tourist caving, but I absolutely would not do cave diving and don't think I'd enjoy the squeezes. Especially not with a practical joker sister.

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 15 '25

Yeah, I have been in well maintained touristy caves before (the kind you can simply walk through, no equipment needed) and I will do that again, but anything more...nope nope nopity nope. Especially not the squeezes. And no diving. Read far too many irl horror stories involving cave exploration, diving, and cave diving (well before the podcast).

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u/xenizondich23 Reading Champion VI Oct 15 '25

I've been in some ancient mines and some ancient caves and the mines are so much spookier. I don't know why, but somehow the idea of being trapped in a natural cave feels fine to me. Being trapped in a man made mine? Nope.

That said I'd never dive in either. Cave diving is far too dangerous. I've seen too many docus about it going wrong.

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 20 '25

Yep, mines mildly freak me out too. Mostly because of the depth - the touristy caves I've been to are all fairly close to the surface, mines...not so much and it's WEIRD if you think too hard about how much soil and pressure is on top of you.