The Matrix Resurrections

We're still recharging our graphene cobalt lithium mecha-batteries between seasons, but wanted to bring you a fun little episode recorded live and in person for the first time! Matt and Jon meet to drink beers and shoot the cyber-shit about ChatGPT and other (dark) matters, and also to plug the Cyberpunk Dystopia Bundle from Fanatical in which Matt's ace novel Complete Darkness is featured (as well as great books by some other Hosts In The Shell alumni!)

Link to Cyberpunk Dystopia Bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/cyberpunk-dystopia-novels-collective-bundle

Link to Jon's new book, Dark Fiction: https://www.jon-richter.com/dark-fiction

Okay, so it isn't strictly cyberpunk (although a couple of the tales definitely count!) but co-Host Jon hopes you don't mind him sharing the audio trailer for his new short horror fiction collection, DARK FICTION.

This huge anthology features a batch of fresh and harrowing tales alongside some of Jon's best ever work, brought to life by illustrations by the brilliant David T Wilby. Perfect for anyone who likes short, creepy, haunting stories with unpredictable and unsettling twist endings, DARK FICTION explores subjects as wide-ranging as time travel, abominable snowmen, and what happens when Alexa becomes sentient...

DARK FICTION is released on 9th June 2023 in paperback, hardback or ebook, and is available now for pre-order:

UK: https://amzn.to/3LUVsYM
US: https://amzn.to/42VG7xN

Cover design by the awesome RoseWolf Design.

Trailer features the track 'Anxiety' by the phenomenal Kevin MacLeod.

Wait, what?? I thought the Hosts were on hiatus... we are, but we've been thawed out and dragged from our stasis tanks for a special bit of promo for the recently-released third volume of the Neo Cyberpunk collection!

We're both extremely proud to be featured in this ace cyberpunk anthology and hope you don't mind us hijacking the feed to promote it, and are delighted to be joined by Hosts In The Shell alumni (and featured writers) Nik Whittaker and Anna Mocikat to discuss their contributions as well as the collection more generally... including the foreword written by Bruce Bethke, the man who first coined the term 'cyberpunk' and  inventor of the genre!

Get your retractable metal claws on copies here:

UK: https://amzn.to/3JXNoaj
US: https://amzn.to/3KeOcb9

Well there you have it! After a fantastic year, the Hosts are off on holiday (Matt's heading to Neo Tokyo while Jon fancied a trip to Delta City), leaving you with a long-awaited episode about CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077... find out which of the Hosts loved it and which didn't, and hear about our encounters with Adam Smasher and a certain talkative gun...

Thanks once again to everyone that has listened or contributed to the show over the past 27 episodes, and wishing you the very best for 2023!!

It's the penultimate episode of the Hosts' first series, so we thought we'd try something a bit different; for the first time we're welcoming TWO guests (a returning - and still ace - Jim Keen, alongside the equally brilliant cyberpunk writer Luke Hancock) to talk about Judge Dredd, each representing one of the two movie versions! Listen as the two very different cinematic incarnations are JUDGED and SENTENCED... but will Carl Urban's chin reign supreme, or will the honours go to Stallone's golden Versace codpiece??

You've all been very good children this year, so cyber-Santa has a special treat for you: the Hosts are having a crack at a shambolic award ceremony!! A crew of returning guests share their well wishes and their votes for best cyberpunk release of 2022 - tune in to find out who will win the coveted (ahem) award, and whether Jon has actually seen any of them...

Featuring ace augmented humans:

Mark Everglade (who also created the brilliant theme music!!)
Patrick Tillett
Tim Standish
Brent Millis
Nik Whittaker
Anna Mocikat
Craig Lea Gordon
Dumptruck_DS
Rachel Beck
CoinOps, Scum and ShadowLink from the L0wL1f3 podcast
Jim Keen
Frasier Armitage
(And Matt and Jon obvs)

After months of pathetic excuses for not playing Cyberpunk 2077 yet, Jon has been forced at mantis-blade-point by Matt to whet his appetite with Studio Trigger's 2022 spinoff anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Spoiler alert: it's good!!

It's a bit late for Halloween, but that didn't stop the boys getting dark and disturbing in this episode about CYBERPUNK BODY HORROR!! Brilliant writer, Japanophile, livewire and cyberpunk encyclopedia Brent Millis joins the show to discuss classics like Tetsuo: The Iron Man and various other media where people get unwanted bits grafted on... 

Break out the cyber-champagne and the, errr, nanotech party poppers, because it's time for the CYBERPUNK DAY festivities to commence!!! In honour of 2022's celebration of all things cyberpunk, the Hosts thought they'd take the opportunity to self-indulgently interview each other about their favourite works that haven't made it onto the podcast so far - comedy, controversy and creativity awaits!!

It's yet another adaptation of a Philip K Dick masterwork, this time (The) Minority Report, which was blockbusterized in 2002 and is beloved by many, including brilliant and extremely likeable cyberpunk writer Frasier Armitage! Tune in to hear us to chat to him about this Spielberg/Cruise heavy-hitter, and help us prove the system is infallible...