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When Matt Belinkie, Mark Lee, and Peter Fenzel planned this podcast, the intention was to visit a variety of topics related to winter. But once Matt started talking about the BookTok sensation Ice Planet Barbarians, it was clear that there wasn’t going to be time for anything else. This sci-fi romance novel, self-published by Ruby Dixon in 2015, was the beginning of a 21 book series that tells the story of a group of human women who are abducted from Earth and marooned on a desolate world (referred to in the book, to Mark’s amusement, as “Not-Hoth”). Luckily they are saved by hunky aliens who are skilled hunters and VERY generous lovers. They aren’t “barbarians” in the sense that they lack manners, but they do have a sort of rough and tumble Conan aesthetic that lends itself well to fan art.
Barbarians unites two powerful strands of escapism: first, wouldn’t it be great to escape from the crushing grip of late stage capitalism, even if it means replacing your 9-5 with a struggle of survival against the elements on a hostile planet. Secondly, wouldn’t it be nice if love and family was a matter of fate and biology, out of your hands entirely. The blue-skinned alien barbarians (and eventually the human women) have a symbiote implanted inside them that keeps them alive in the hostile environment but ALSO picks a life mate for them, giving them an instant irresistible lust for a single partner. (Speaking of lust, Matt takes mild offense to the aliens being upgrades over human men, in anatomical terms that he is too modest to specify but let’s just say there is vibration.)
Although the overthinkers are not the target demographic here, they get the appeal. There is a reason “isekai” is such a hot genre now. Modern life feels fraught and only getting more precarious. Young people are increasingly not dreaming of a better life here on earth but rather a blank slate on another world entirely (and maybe a hunky barbarian to keep you warm at night).
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