PodCastle, the fantasy fiction podcast, features some new fiction:
“What Dragons Prefer” by Dayle A. Dermatis |MP3|
“Dead Girl’s Wedding March” by Cat Rambo |MP3|
You can subscribe to the feed at:
http://feeds.escapeartists.net/PodCastle_Main
Posted by Charles Tan
A couple of podcasts from Escape Pod:
“Union Dues – Tabula Rasa” by Jeffrey DeRego |MP3|.
“Robots Don’t Cry” by Mike Resnick |MP3|.
Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:
http://escapepod.org/podcast.xml
Posted by Charles Tan
Adventures in Scifi Publishing interviews the cast of Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis and Brenda Cooper |MP3|.
Or subscribe to AiSFP podcast via the feed:
http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/feed/
Posted by Charles Tan
The Agony Column has a couple of new recordings:
Lou Anders and space opera |MP3|
Clive Barker |Part 1| |MP3| |Part 2| |MP3|
You can subscribe to the feed at this URL:
http://trashotron.com/agony/indexes/tac_podcast.xml
Posted by Charles Tan
Torchwood: Lost Souls
Time: Wednesday 10th September, 2:15PM
Writer: Joseph Lidster
Producer/Director: Kate McAll
As part of BBC 4’s Big Bang Day, celebrating the activation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Lost Souls, a specially-commisioned audio drama spin-off from the Torchwood television series, is being presented on September 10 at 2:15PM GMT.
Here’s the skinny from the Lost Souls webpage:
The Torchwood Institute was founded by Queen Victoria in 1879 to protect the British Empire against the threat of alien invasion. By 2008, all that remains of the organisation is a small team based in Cardiff. And now, following the tragic deaths of two of their colleagues, the remaining three – Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones – have to protect the human race against another unknown force from the darkness.
Martha Jones, ex-time traveller and now working as a doctor for a UN task force, has been called to CERN – the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva – where they’re about to activate the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is a particle accelerator, which has been built deep underground in a 27 km tunnel under Switzerland and France. Once activated the Collider will fire beams of protons together recreating conditions a billionth of a second after the Big Bang – and potentially allowing the human race a greater insight into what the Universe is made of. But so much could go wrong – it could open a gateway to a parallel dimension, or create a black hole – and now voices from the past are calling out to people and scientists have started to disappear…
Where have the missing scientists gone? What is the secret of the glowing man? What is lurking in the underground tunnel? And do the dead ever really stay dead?
Intriguing, and since I worry about most of these questions myself every day, I’ll be tuning in. All I wonder is, should we celebrate turning on the LHC? You saw the movie The Mist, right? Yikes!
Posted by RC of RTSF
As the host of the weekly audio drama podcast, Radio Drama Revival, I get the opportunity to listen to a lot of great new stories, most of it free, some of it not so free. I love a good story, and especially admire the producers who are building their audience through sheer iron will and new technology, ignoring the dismal state of radio and professional audio drama distribution in their passion to explore the art. Cutting this list down to five was a challenge, but give you give your ears the privilege of listening to any of these if you haven’t already — you can’t go wrong.
1.
Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery
Among the most ambitious audio drama series and one of the most well executed, Wormwood tells the story of Xander Crowe and the bizarre events that follow his arrival in the backwoods town of Wormwood, California. The series is unabashed in its tribute to Twin Peaks, and packs enough twists to break your neck in every ~20 minute episode (don’t worry, you’ll be revived as a zombie soon afterwards). Episode 2 is now well underway, so start listening now and get your occult fiction fix.
2.
Union Signal
This website is nearly off the map but an utter gem. Doug Bost first turned me on to their Whistler-inspired haunting highway horror “Roadkill” and I’ve been hooked ever since. Bost and his buddy Jeff Ward have been producing their stories in WBAI NYC for years, with quirky and thrilling tales ranging from truly spooky horror to wacky NPR spoofs and even some far flung Philip K. Dick’esque sci-fi.
3.
FinalRune
Well, here’s a little bit of shamless self-promotion. I’ve been writing and producing my own stories under the “FinalRune” moniker for 2+ years, and in fact founded Radio Drama Revival! as a way of helping get my own work out there (and promote everything else in the medium in the process). You’ll find horror, fantasy, comedy, drama and weirder tales, all free, as well as some background information and articles on the craft.
4.
Icebox Radio Theater
Jeff Adams has been doing a hell of a good job creating a community radio troupe in International Falls, Minnesota. The quality can sometimes be, well, “community,” but the stories are always fun, as if Garrison Keillor walked through a portal into a warped alternate universe. Also be sure to check out Adams’ work in the “ImaginationX” series of Twilight Zone-ish sci-fi/horror.
5.
Wireless Radio Theatre
A little over a year old, The Wireless Radio Theatre Company has done an astonishing job establishing themselves as a premier source of free, high-quality, original audio theater. Cheekily dubbed a “BBC with more guts,” their stories range from speculative philoso-drama to “hard” theater, poetry and classic British comedy.
Honorable Mentions:
I could keep this list going for a while, but I’ve got to mention Roger Gregg’s Crazy Dog Audio Theater, which isn’t free — at least through the website — but if you sniff around the web, you’ll see that many people have played his work elsewhere (including myself on Radio Drama Revival!). I’ve also recently tuned in to Chatterbox Audio Theater, who have a good (and expanding) list of varied audio drama pieces including adaptations of classics and originals.
Keep your mind, and your ears, open!
Posted by Frederick Greenhalgh of Radio Drama Revival and Final Rune