The first podcast that I ever listened to was An Escape Pod episode, the first one in fact. I’m one of these people who when I start listening to A podcast I listen to the earliest episode that I can find. I had never really known of short stories until Escape Pod grabbed me and its been one amazing journey since then.
Escape Pod taught me that Sci-Fi is not just spaceships and robots. It took me into worlds that I had never realised existed. The Trouble With Death Traps by Marjorie James is one of my early favourites. Feng Burger by John Aegard is still one that I think often about. The Girlfriends Of Dorian Grey by Gregory Frost was also very impressive. Here I could on for ages listing episodes that really hit home but that would just turn into A list of many episodes, Okay one more. Conditional Love By Felicity Shoulders really hit home. A great story.
I’m A little out of date with the podcast now as my PC is still broken 😦 so I havent heard how the Podcast is going. I do miss Steve Eley but I’m A big fan of Mighty Mur Lafferty and I like what she has done with the Podcast since she took the reigns. She has such an easy, warm approached that has to of come from many years podcasting that must make newcomers feel at ease with the podcast before the story even begins, she’s A damn fine narrator too.
Pseudopod is the horror wing of Escape Artists. I love listening to this podcast but it rarely ever shocks me. It again did the same thing that Escape Pod did, in the way that it showed me horror is not just gore like Hollywood would have us think. Alasdair Stewart and Ben Phillips are great with this podcast. Stewart’s deadpan delivery of the intro and outro’s are fascinating and keep A heart to the podcast. Again he is A fine narrator also.
Podcastle has been the only part of the Escape Artists family that I had not taken too, until recently. As I mentioned my Pc is broken which means I cannot update my iPod so I’ve been working through some of the podcasts that I had laying dormant on my iPod and I finally gave Podcastle A proper run. I had listened to A few of the episodes but they had never really caught me. I’m not A big fan of fantasy. I was never A man for Unicorns or Dragons and so on, but again Podcastle had done what Escape Pod and Pseudopod have done in showing me that these genre’s are wide open.
Fantasy is not just Elves and Wizards, Sci-Fi is not just alien invasions nano-tech and Horror is not demons under the bed or hockey mask wearing psycho’s. All genre overlap into each other and this can only make fiction better. These Podcasts have given me fiction that have made me smile, cry and sigh. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Escape Artists has given me more hours of joy than I could possibly count. I wonder how many people would like to buy Steve Eley A drink and say ‘Thank You Dude’ I will forever be grateful for what you have given me. If it was not for Steve then I may never have discovered Scott Sigler, Phil Rossi, J.C. Hutchins, Mur Lafferty, Elizabeth Bear, Jeffery R. DeRego, Ted Chiang, The amazing Tim Pratt and so many others. As well as finding the podcasts like StarShipSofa. http://www.starshipsofa.com/
If you like short fiction that look at these genre’s then check these links out. They really are something special 🙂
Peter Germany's World 