Audio to make the Kessel Run seem a little shorter

July 8, 2014 12:07 PM

SF Signal today finished a top 50 countdown of short SF/fantasy podcast fiction: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, 10-1. The Parsec Awards for SF podcasts honor many other stories annually, as well as related non-fiction, comedy, and music: 2014 nominees; 2013; 2012; 2011; 2010; 2009; 2008; 2007; and 2006. And since 2012, the Hugo Award nominees for Best Fancast have been two-time winner SF Squeecast!, plus The Coode Street Podcast, Galactic Suburbia, SF Signal, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, StarShipSofa, Tea and Jeopardy, Verity!, and The Writer and The Critic with the popular Writing Excuses podcast often appearing in another category.

Previously: StarShipSofa (appearing fairly often); District of Wonders; and J. Michael Straczynski's City of Dreams.

posted by Monsieur Caution (11 comments total)

I've been listening to the Hugo nominated podcasts this past week and I really like The Coode Street Podcast, Galactic Suburbia and The Writer and The Critic. All three run roughly an hour or more in lenght and are nicely crunchy about books.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:14 PM on July 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

"Whiling Away the Parsecs" would make a good song title.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:15 PM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have such love for both Escape Pod and Starshipsofa - but I am one of those cranky old fans who thinks they were best where SSsofa was two scottish guys on a couch and Escape pod was just Stephen Ely - they have never been as exciting as around episode 50 of both imo.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 12:38 PM on July 8, 2014

I'm just starting to dig into the Hugo podcasts, too. SF Squeecast is an old favorite but the rest are new to me. I tried and failed to get into Tea and Jeopardy this morning, and am thinking Writer and the Critic should accompany me on my bus ride home today.
posted by Stacey at 12:38 PM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

*joined Escape Pod staff as a slusher in 2010

*became Assistant Editor in 2012

*read comments two minutes ago

*became sad
posted by Scattercat at 12:40 PM on July 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

No way there are 50 podcast SF stories better than this reading of Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (from StarShipSofa), including that (admittedly very good) reading of Chiang's "Exhalation" sitting at #9.
posted by straight at 12:55 PM on July 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

"Whiling Away the Parsecs" would make a good song title.

It's already a lyric in a "Margaritaville" filk, actually.

Oh, God, I really hope it isn't.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:22 PM on July 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Escape Pod was one of the first podcasts I ever listened to. I've been a listener since the very beginning, and it's really wonderful to have something filling the space in the world where old radio dramas like X-1 used to be.

I've gotten way behind on my Escape Pod and Podcastle episodes. They had a big pledge drive a few months ago, because Escape Artists was basically running out of money because they are too popular. It reminded me both that I had a lot of episodes to catch up on, and that the world with Escape Pod and Podcastle is better than one without them.

So now I'm donating (you should too!), and I've got like 70 short stories queued up, which is great!
posted by JDHarper at 1:59 PM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Whiling Away the Parsecs" would make a good song title.
It's already a lyric in a "Margaritaville" filk, actually.

Nibblin' on sponge cake
Whilin' 'way the parsakes...

nah, I got nothing.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:14 PM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Well, it wasn't even the "too popular" thing so much as "We pay authors pro rates and like one percent of our listeners ever give us any money." We're doing much better now, thank you. :-)
posted by Scattercat at 3:47 PM on July 8, 2014

I'll second straight's recommendation for the reading of The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate. I listened to it while at a retreat. I had to leave everyone else and walk around listening till it was done. Tears may have fallen. It sticks in my mind like few other stories ever have.

I listen to a lot of the podcasts listed. I like story podcasts, but I also like the talky ones like Coode Street and Galactic Suburbia and The Writer and the Critic.

For just plain old geeky fun, I kinda love The Incomparable. I don't understand why it doesn't get more attention than it does. They have book discussions, gaming discussions, comic discussions, movie discussions, fantasy drafts, all kinds of stuff. They have spin-off podcasts that cover live D&D games (not my thing, but whatever), Star Trek, etc. Good stuff. (No affiliation, just a fan.)
posted by Archer25 at 5:53 AM on July 9, 2014 [2 favorites]