Kate Baker, who does podcasty things for StarShipSofa, is also in charge of Clarkesworld Magazine‘s podcast. She’s all excited about one of the stories in the latest issues. Sez Baker:
So I can’t really contain my excitement on this one. Peter Watts is one of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. I got to briefly chat with him after a reading he did of “The Things” at Worldcon. He had only read part of the fantastic story but it was too late. I was hooked. I wanted more.
As I say in the few minutes before the story gets going on the podcast, you can imagine my utter delight and many squees when Neil [Clarke] told me we were putting up the story for January. What a way to start 2010!
Without sounding like a total fangirl here, this story is awesome on so many levels. With anything in the written or spoken word, your imagination has to do all the work. Once the writer and/or narrator start laying the canvas, it’s ultimately how you arrange the paint in your head. The artists give you the broad strokes. This story is almost an Alfred Hitchcock approach to imagery, by dancing around the grotesque, your mind is left to make up the difference. Wholly more terrifying in parts if you ask me. Words cue mental pictures and depending on your life experiences, there are moments within “The Things” which send shivers up your delicate spine and invite introspection. Peter has the gift of making me question what it really means to be human.
I hope you’ll go read or listen to this month’s Clarkesworld Magazine. You won’t be disappointed. As always — please let comments on both stories and podcasts.
The Things
By Peter Watts; Read by Kate Baker
1 |MP3| – Approx. 54 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Clarkesworld Magazine (issue #40)
Podcast: January 2010
Podcast feed: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/?feed=podcast
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
Posted by Jesse Willis
I just listened to it in the car. It’s a pretty impressive story. I should probably listen again in a quieter setting.
Ditto. Definitely relistenable.