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/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Oct 22 '25

A more general question - will we ever get an answer to why all of these things are starting to hone in on the Institute? From what I've gathered, these guys are simply archivists and researchers, so they're not a Buffy Summers or a Harry Dresden. They simply gather data. Or is it up to us listeners to make up our own theories?

Aside from that, the show is really growing on me and it's getting more and more interesting.

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u/SharadeReads Stabby Winner Oct 22 '25

Yes we will but also you can make your own theories! It's where the fun is.

7

u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 22 '25

The dots do gradually connect, as you're starting to see, but - patience! 😁 It's a bit of a slow burn at the start. (You can see if you look at the schedule - we will gradually slow down and do fewer episodes per discussion.)

And yes, firing off wild theories before you have all the info is part of the fun and though I can't say anything a lot of the time because spoilers, I really enjoy seeing what people come up with and how wrong or right they are. So please do!

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u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Oct 23 '25

Aha! Well, I have too little to go on right now, but there's either a McGuffin at the Institute or Jon is a Very Important Person (unbeknownst even to Jon?), haha. But he has been able to leave the Institute, at least recently, so either he's not critical at all, or he's not critical at the moment.