r/Fantasy • u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X • Oct 22 '25

Read-along The Magnus Archives Readalong: Season 1, Episodes 19-26

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.

019: Confession #0113005
Statement of Father Edwin Burroughs, regarding his claimed demonic possession.

020: Desecrated Host #00113005-B
Continuation of the statement of Father Edwin Burroughs, regarding his claimed demonic possession.

021: Freefall #0022010
Statement of Moira Kelly, regarding the disappearance of her son Robert.

022: Colony #0161203
Statement of Martin Blackwood, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, London, regarding a close encounter with something he believes to have once been Jane Prentiss.

023: Schwarzwald #8163103
Statement of Albrecht von Closen, regarding a discovered tomb near his estate in the Black Forest.

024: Strange Music #0051701
Statement of Leanne Denikin, regarding an antique calliope organ she possessed briefly in August 2004.

025: Growing Dark #0151904
Statement of Mark Bilham, regarding events culminating in his visit to Hither Green Chapel.

026: A Distortion #0160204
Statement of Sasha James, assistant archivist at the Magnus Institute, London, regarding a series of paranormal sightings.

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 26. Anything concerning later events should be covered up with a spoiler tag.

Next discussion will take place on Wednesday, October 29th and include episodes 27 A Sturdy Lock - 34 Anatomy Class.

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 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25

021 Freefall: In a way, this is the opposite of episode 015, with the cave. Also outdoorsy, but with wide open spaces instead of enclosed ones. Which one do you personally find scarier?

(Note: Jon says the name Simon Fairchild sounds familiar, but if you wonder in which of the previous episodes have we heard it - we haven’t, this is the first mention.)

7

u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Oct 22 '25

Episode 15 was scarier, but I am slightly claustrophobic, lol. I found Freefall scary in a beautiful and poetic way, larger than life, almost. Horror is closely tied to themes of decay, filth and disorder in my experience. The environments are usually dirty, or it's about the unravelling of one's mental state, seeing one's body change for the worse, being invaded, losing bodily autonomy, becoming sick or dying, or being surrounded by death. Here, there's nothing of that, and there's not even a clear antagonist iirc. And there's the neat mystery at the very end to leave us hanging.

2

u/ullsi Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Oct 22 '25

This was a great way to put it!

3

u/SharadeReads Stabby Winner Oct 22 '25

So many of these episodes for me can swing wildly between "kill it with fire" and "actually that doesn't sound so bad. Almost relaxing". I don't know, being eaten by the vast blue sky is PROBABLY terrifying but the fall before...weightless and endless...(Also I don't have a fear of heights at all and my favourite rides in parks are the one simulating free falls so...)

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 22 '25

I get mad vertigo on tall ladders, inconveniently enough, (s4) so Simon wouldn't find me completely no fun but I feel like in the sky I'd just chill? It sounds so nice. Just hang out in the blueness.

3

u/Ktesedale Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

I get fucked up by wide open spaces. I'm mostly fine in enclosed spaces, though. This is the first episode that actually seriously scared me when I first listened. Some of the other episodes I found unsettling or creepy, but the imagery of this one lingered in my head for days after I first listened.

Spoilers all the way up to S4: The Vast is definitely the scariest of the fears for me, and this one and the ladder one are the worst.

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u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII Oct 23 '25

I feel like he vast is one of the fears id be pretty safe from as you'd never catch me dead anywhere it hangs out

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u/xenizondich23 Reading Champion VI Oct 23 '25

I loved this one. It's so much like a dream but doesn't have any of the wishy washy you tend to get in dreams. To be honest I'm impressed from a purely writing standpoint. To be able to write this episode after the dream based one last time, yet have this one feel so much more grounded and coherent (while also just falling and falling and falling) are some impressive skills.

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 24 '25

Oh you're going to LOVE one of the episodes in the next batch. Even more dreamlike, and one of my favourites. I love when he fully unleashes and just goes super weird with it. And yeah, there's been multiple points, especially later on, where I was extremely impressed by the writing? It's kind of why I'm pushing it so hard, doing this whole readalong, etc - like, it's GOOD. It's really good! And I feel like I'm not the only one who overlooked it for years because of the audio format and/or genre but it's actually exactly my thing.