What’s Great In Podcast Fiction

This blog has been littered with posts about narration gigs, and little else, for the past several months. Since I’m clearly locked on the topic of podcast fiction these days, I thought I’d take a moment to steer you towards the shining stars of the craft– shows in general, and episodes in particular, that I think are worth your time:

Drabblecast declares itself a purveyor of “strange stories by strange authors for strange listeners”… and yes, that’s about right. Seriously, some of their stuff is way out there, to the point that this show’s probably not for everybody. But the production is top-notch, the “Drabbles” (stories of exactly 100 words) and “Bardles” (songs written and produced for financial supporters) entertaining, and the stories range from thought-provoking to brilliant. Recent episodes of note: “Boiled Black Broth and Cornets” by Frank Key (very strange but compelling), “The Last Dog” by Mike Resnick (quite touching), and David D. Levine’s  “Babel Probe” (brilliant all-around episode that should win buckets of awards).

Escape Pod was, as has been previously noted, among my first experiences with podcast fiction. Steve Ely has created an honest-to-goodness paying market for authors; his is among the first and best in the field. Recent episodes of note: Merrie Haskell’s “Reparations” (time travel to post-nuke Japan) and Sara Genge’s “Family Values” (sex and politics with wildly non-human aliens).

Seventh Son “The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…” J.C. Hutchins’ podcast novel trilogy has drawn tens of thousands of listeners over the past few years, and deservedly so: this techno-thriller can really grab and hold your attention. I picked up on it late and gobbled up the first two books over the span of a few months; I became quite distraught when I eventually caught up and had to wait a week between new episodes.

Starship Sofa is where I got my narration start. Tony Smith’s show has evolved into an ambitious audio magazine– very much like a podcast version of F&SF or Asmiov’s. In addition to flash and short fiction, Tony’s contributors provide fact articles, on topics from the history of speculative ficion to science and publishing news. Recent episodes of note: In addition to recent broadcasts of every Nebula-nominated short story, Ted Chiang’s award-winning “Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” is one of the freshest takes on time travel I’ve heard in years.
American listeners: plow through a couple of episodes before you declare Tony’s accent incomprehensible.

Honorable mentions that didn’t make the above list, largely because of my personal tastes:

Scott Siegler was another pioneer in original podcast fiction and has a rabid fanbase.

Escape Pod’s sisters Pseudopod (horror) and Podcastle (fantasy) are excellent in their respective genres.

(FICTION) On Ogrish Poetry

The following lacks words, plot, and characters enough to be as a short story, or even a piece of “flash fiction”. In truth, it hardly qualifies as a vignette. Still, I had this fragment of an idea, and started typing.

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As far as anyone could make out, there was no reason for Ogres to be the absolute best poets in the Known Lands.  As a species, their command of the spoken word was dubious, their understanding of the underlying tenets of grammar and usage doubtful, and such niceties as simile, tone, and anapestic tetrameter demonstrably beyond their grasp.  And yet, Ogrish poets consistently produced works of thunderous depth and soul-shattering truth.  That the quills were most often gripped with a full fist and inked with the blood of unwary travellers was immaterial, as were the green-tinted drool spots that adorned the original texts.  The spelling was horrific (the Guild of Prose routinely flung budding authors into deep ravines to appease Kairpoln, Undergod of Easily Corrected Errors, for lesser offenses), but such trivial blemishes only served to underscore the brilliance of the material.  As Manumon The Exceptionally Long-Lived said: “To hear the message of a god is the highest honor, even if he is belching the words.”