Podcast / Science Fiction Book Review Podcast

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Started by long-time science fiction fan Luke Burrage in January 2008, the podcast reviews various novels and prose by a wide variety of authors from the whole sci-fi genre. Occasionally, the podcast reviews fantasy titles as well, or does a Crossover with other similar podcasts and review sites (most notably Geek Nights).

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Tropes:

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Luke is a Kent-born British professional juggler living in Berlin... who also happens to be an life-long avid fan of sci-fi.
• Caustic Critic: A subversion, since Luke is more than willing to judge a book on its own merits and highlight the good or original parts of it. But if a book is exceptionally badly written or convolutedinvoked, he plays this trope straight.
• Catchphrase:
  Luke:"Hello and welcome to the science fiction book review podcast. My name is Luke Burrage and this is the show where I review every single science fiction book that I read, as I read it. Now, there's no set schedule, it's just whenever I finish a book, I do the review and stick it up here, on the podcast feed."
  Luke:"(And then I was like...) Wait a second !"
  Luke:"...and I'll catch you next time !"
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: Averted, since Luke himself writes sci-fi in his free time and has already published a loose trilogy set in a Next Sunday A.D. setting.
• Motor Mouth:
  • Luke sure knows how to rant enthusiastically about the previous novel he read. He even directly lampshades this numerous times in his reviews.
  • A March 2009 review of his podcast by SFX Magazine even referred to him as such, literally:
  "Four stars out of five. The set-up is as no-frills as the title - Berlin-based SF fan Luke Burrage reads a sci-fi book, and then talks about it - but while some literary podcasts can be dreary, Burrage is an enthusiastic motormouth with an infectious love of the genre. His tastes are varied, and even if you don't agree with all of his opinions, they're still fun to listen to."
• Rape as Backstory: References it used badly during his pretty critical review of the first Honor Harrington novel. As he further explains, shoehorning a rape into a female character's past is really not an ideal way of earning sympathy for said character (he considers it cheap and trite). He had the same opinion on the rape backstory of the female protagonist from Robert J. Sawyer's Hominids, which he considered to be even more badly done.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: A common outcry against some less than stellar novels he's reviewed.

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