Wired.com presents the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy. And here is your host, David Barr-Kirtley.

Hello and welcome to episode 109 of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy.

Today on the show we'll be having our long-awaited panel on weird Western books and comics.

But first up, we've got an interview with author and puppeteer Mary Robinette Coal.

Her glamorous series has been described as Jane Austin with magic. The fourth book,

Valor and Vanity, is out now. And now here's our interview with Mary Robinette Coall.

All right, so we're here with Mary Robinette Coall.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

Okay, and so your new book is called Valor and Vandy, and it's the fourth book in the Glamarist series.

So why don't you just tell us a bit about that series?

Sure, the glamorous histories are set in the Regency. They take place between 1814 and 1818, and they're basically Jane Austin with magic. So pretty dresses and then the magic glamour which is where the series gets its name is kind of like

painting with light it's very it's creating illusions and it's largely useless which is why it's

largely useless which is why it's something that young ladies of quality are taught to do.

The fourth book is sort of a little more swashbuckling than your usual Jane Austin fair.

We've actually described it as Jane Austin writes,

Oceans 11 with magic.

So it's a it's a heist novel of manners.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I guess the different books in the series have all kind of been in a different sub-genres, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I kind of joke a little bit like the fourth one or the third one is

secretly it's a political thriller disguised as a regency romance

...