The Best of Pseudopod 2019

written by David Steffen

Pseudopod is the weekly horror podcast edited by Shawn Garrett and Alex Hofelich.

Pseudopod publishes episodes weekly, with occasional Flash on the Borderlands episodes that collect 3 similar-themed flash stories for a single episode, for a total of 60 stories published in 2019, by my count.

Stories that are eligible for this year’s Hugo and Nebula Awards are marked with an asterisk (*), all of which would be credited to Pseudopod as the original publisher.

The List

1. “The Last Sailing of the Henry Charles Morgan in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841)” by A.C. Wise, narrated by Alasdair Stuart
Presented like art museum descriptions, as the title suggests, of a lost ship.

2. “Black Matter” by Vivian Shaw, narrated by Robert Eccles*
A necromancer who works for the NTSB and is responsible for determining the cause of transportation disasters by talking to the dead!

3. “House Party Blues” by Suzanne Palmer, narrated by Halloween Bloodfrost
Monster point of view as something that can possess and eat human beings, excellent POV work.

4. “Last Week I Was Esther” by Deborah L. Davitt, narrated by John Bell*
Another great monster POV tale, a monster who wears its victims personas, but also carries them as voices inside its head forevermore.

5. “The Happiest Place” by Kevin Wabaunsee, narrated by John Bell*
Theme park after the end of the world!

6. “In Regards to Your Concerns About Your ScareBnB Experience” by Effie Seiberg, narrated by Tina Connolly*
Just like what it sounds like, a review of a horror hotel!

Honorable Mentions

“The House That Dripped Character” by B.G. Hilton, narrated by Ron Jon*

“Tiny Teeth” by Sarah Hans, narrated by Ibba Armancas*

“What Throat” by Annie Neugebauer, narrated by Dagny Paul and Stephanie Malia Morris*

The Best of Escape Pod 2019

written by David Steffen

Escape Pod is the weekly science fiction podcast, one of the Escape Artists family of podcasts, edited by S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty.

Escape Pod published a total of 41 stories in 2018, which is lower than it has been in some years because of a combination of longer stories that were split across multiple episodes, as well as mixing in “Flashback Friday” episodes this year, which are republications of stories published earlier in Escape Pod’s history–since Flashback Friday stories have already been considered for previous Best of Escape Pod lists here, they were not considered this time.

And let me say that Escape Pod has been in incredible form this year–it was very hard to winnow the list down to this length, and I had to cut stories that I would recommend to get it down to the length. If you like what you read in this list, there are many many more where that came from!

Every short story that is eligible for Hugo nominations this year which were first published by Escape Pod are marked with an asterisk (*). 

The List

1. “Failsafe” by Tim Chawaga, narrated by Tina Connolly*
Failsafes are legally required human components to automated systems that serve as impediments to machine uprisings by being able to refuse to participate if something starts happening. There aren’t many left and they are left and they are chosen specifically for their empathy.

2. “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis” by Annalee Newitz, read by Louis Evans
I love stories of artificial intelligences that do great things because they find new ways to apply their specialized programming, and this is one of those! In this case a drone designed to help the CDC stop disease outbreaks early.

3. “Optimizing the Verified Good” by Effie Seiberg, narrated by Trendane Sparks
Battlebots! This story is about a cleaning bot that operates in a battlebot arena cleaning up the damaged parts after battles to clear the way for the next battle. It decides that a more optimal way to keep the arena clean would be to reduce the amount of damaged robots–another in the subgenre of robots following their programming and doing unexpected things as a result.

4. “The Great Scientist Rivalry on Planet Sourdough” by Beth Goder, narrated by Divya Breed, Mur Lafferty, Adam Pracht, Alasdair Stuart, and Tina Connolly
Hilarious full-cast recording with multiple point of view characters all with their own clashing motivations.

5. “Flash Crash” by Louis Evans, narrated by Ibba Armancas*
Another in the robots following their programming and doing unexpected things, in this case an investment AI expanding as it goes.

Honorable Mentions

“Spectrum of Acceptance” by Nyla Bright, narrated by Maxine Moore*

STORY ANALYSIS: “Optimizing the Verified Good” by Effie Seiberg

written by David Steffen

For another round of story analysis, I wanted to draw attention to the short story “Optimizing the Verified Good” by Effie Seiberg, first published in Analog September/October 2018, and reprinted in audio in Escape Pod.

As with the previous run of the Story Analysis, do expect SPOILERS after this paragraph, but will give a quick spoiler free summary here. The cleanerbot that is the protagonist of this story works in a Battlebot arena, where robots are specifically built to destroy each other in the arena. Each of them the fighters feels a pain response when they are damaged to encourage them to avoid being damaged, and there is a control AI that maintains and updates their systems to promote the overall appeal and effectiveness of the Battlebot arena. The cleanerbot shouldn’t have any interest in doing anything but it’s primary purpose–cleaning up the robot parts after the battles, but it has memory of the pain the battlebots feel when they’re damaged and it decides it wants to help.

The cleanerbot starts simple, working by itself, finding ways to work within the parameters given to it that will interfer with the efficiency of the arena, cleaning the same areas over and over again, cleaning poorly, and so on. The other bots don’t understand why it would seem to push against its purpose, but as it tries again and again, and is gradually given updates to block each new attempt, the battlebots start to see the wisdom in its plan, and they start to work together to find some way to improve their lives.

I really enjoyed this story of a bot revolution, as they try to understand the details of their scenario, they come to understand that they can’t just stop fighting because that would mean the battlebot arena would close down, which is where their power comes from. But I especially enjoy intelligent robot stories when there is some justification for how they behave, and the incompletely formatted memory drive made sense here. And the robot way of thinking was very well executed here.

I quite enjoyed this story by Effie Seiberg, and I always look forward for her stories.

The Best of Toasted Cake 2018

written by David Steffen

Toasted Cake is the idiosyncratic flash fiction podcast published, edited, hosted, and most often narrated by writer Tina Connolly. As noted in last year’s Best Of list, Toasted Cake had gone on hiatus for a couple years to make more time for writing deadlines and raising young children, but in the fall of 2017 she brought it back as an ongoing publication, publishing weekly during the school year. 2018 is the first full calendar year of publication after the end of the hiatus.

Tina Connolly has great and varied editorial taste and she’s an experience and excellent narrator as well. If you like flash fiction that is weird and unique and many times fun (but not always, there is serious fare as well), you would do well to check out the podcast.

The List

1.“A Scrimshaw of Smeerps” by Shannon Fay*
Future holiday traditions, wherein we tell the children that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin comes to our home every year.

2.“Re: Little Miss Apocalypse Playset” by Effie Seiberg
Internal corporate email chain about the business decisions underlying the realistically catastrophic children’s toy

3.“We Need to Talk About the Unicorn In Your Backyard” by Mari Ness
A letter from the homeowner’s association, about the unicorn in your backyard.

4.“Immeasurable” by H.E. Roulo
The new teen trend is to download an app that measures all of your real-life activities by reaching achievements based on your goals.

5.“The Empire Builder” by Eden Robins
The feeling when you wake up with a sentient train in your bed.

Honorable Mentions

“Dear 8B” by Matt Mikalatos






The Best of Cast of Wonders 2017

written by David Steffen

Cast of Wonders is the YA branch of the Escape Artists podcasts, edited by Marguerite Kenner, covering all speculative genres and aiming to appeal to YA audiences.  I think their definition of YA is significantly broader than most, which I see as a positive thing–I had very broad tastes when I was a young adult, so it makes sense to me anyway.

After Cast of Wonders joined Escape Artists in 2016, they increased their pay rates which helped them become qualified as a SFWA-qualifying market, which is a great sign of progress.

In 2017 they produced weekly episodes very regularly, and during their Banned Books week they published a story a day for an extra stretch of bonus content, for a total of about 63 stories

Cast of Wonders reprinted one of my own stories in 2017, titled “Always There”, about a grandmother who has maybe died but not yet admitted it (it is an episode on the subject of grief).

 

Every short story that is eligible for Hugo and Nebula nominations this year which were first published by Podcastle are marked with an asterisk (*)

The List

1. “Lost In Translation” by Afalstein Kloosterman*
The ancient texts prophecying the chosen one are… hard to translate.  This has caused some problems seeking the fulfillment of those prophecies.

2.  “Random Play All and the League of Awesome” by Shane Halbach
Teenagers with debatable superpowers form a semi-superhero team.

3.  “More Than Machines Will Fall to Rust” by Rachael K. Jones*
A pair of friends become superhero and archenemy, can they rekindle their friendship?

4.  “The Scent that Treason Brings” by Holly Schofield*
A bookbinder in a hive society decides to rebel against the oppressive leadership.

5.  “Cross the Street” by Marie Vibbert*
When city design makes it harder and harder for poor people to survive, it can become an obstacle to even get from place to place.

6.  “Single Parent” by Sarah Gailey*
Great story about a widowed father trying his best who is called into his kid’s room and finds a real monster there.

Honorable Mentions

“Contractual Obligations” by Jaime O. Mayer*

“Brothers in Stitches” by Dantzel Cherry*

“Strong as Stone” by Effie Seiberg

The Best of Podcastle 2016

written by David Steffen

Podcastle is the weekly fantasy podcast published by Escape Artists.  At the beginning of the year it was co-edited by Rachael K. Jones and Graeme Dunlop.  Partway through the year Rachael retired and her co-editor seat was filled by Jen Albert.  As well as weekly full-length feature episodes, they also publish occasional standalone flash stories as bonus episodes, as well as triple flash stories for the occasional feature episode collection.

Within 2016, Podcastle also increased their pay for flash fiction, which I believe should have started their 1-year counter for becoming a SFWA-qualifying market!  Hoping that will happen anytime soon now.

In February Podcastle once again participated in the Artemis Rising event across the Escape Artists podcasts, publishing fantasy stories written by women and nonbinary authors.

I will note, too, that this has been the hardest of the Best Of lists to make this year because there were so many stories that I was simply in love with that it was hard to weed it down to a list of reasonable length.  Everything on this list I loved, and there were some I had to make the hard decision to bump off the list that I also loved.

Every story that is eligible for Hugo and Nebula nominations this year which were first published by Podcastle are marked with an asterisk (*).

Every story that is eligible for Hugo and Nebula nominations which were first published by another publisher and then reprinted in Podcastle are marked with a double asterisk (**)–if you want to nominate them, follow the link to find out who the original publisher was to give them proper credit.

I pondered for quite a while whether I should feel free to include the #5 on the list, since I was the original editor and publisher of it here on Diabolical Plots.  I exclude my own stories from any of my lists with the reasoning that I can’t properly judge my own work, and I wondered whether I should do the same for stories that I published.  I came to the conclusion that I CAN judge stories that I published, because I already had to do so to publish them in the first place, picking those stories out of the much larger slushpile.  These stories won’t automatically make a Best Of list, but I feel it’s reasonable to consider them.  But, in case anyone would rather not see a story I didn’t published bumped off the list by a story that I did publish, I have included one more story on the list than I normally would have, so that I didn’t have to bump one off.

The List

1. “Beat Softly, My Wings of Steel” by Beth Cato*
Science fantasy story in which the souls of dead horses can be reborn in mechanical pegasus bodies, and how this is used for the war effort.  Our protagonist wants to use such a body to escape a war zone.

2. “Golden Chaos” by MK Hutchins
Different regions have different natural/magical laws, including the chaos which is constantly in flux.

3. “The Bee Tamer’s Final Performance” by Aidan Doyle*
The fleet of circus ships have been taken over by bees living in the hollowed-out corpses of clowns.

4. “Archibald Defeats the Churlish Shark-Gods” by Benjamin Blattberg*
Hilariously unreliable narrator, telling the story of a research trip with a companion in which he is always the hero, even when he obviously isn’t.

5. “Further Arguments in Support of Yudah Cohen’s Proposal to Bluma Zilberman” by Rebecca Fraimow**
Written a letter of proposal from a rabbinical student to the woman he wishes to marry.

6. “Thundergod in Therapy” by Effie Seiberg**
Zeus tries to find his place in the modern world, while undergoing therapy for some of his more problematic behaviors.

7.  “Defy the Grey Kings” by Jason Fischer
Humanity lives under the oversized heel of our elephant overlords.

Honorable Mentions

“Send in the Ninjas” by Michelle Ann King*

“Love Letters on the Nightmare Sea” by Rachael K. Jones**

“Squalor and Sympathy” by Matt Dovey**

“Tumbleweeds and Little Girls” by Jeff Bowles*