Category: The Best Of

The Best of the Dunesteef

written by David Steffen

And so ends my latest stop on my world podcast tour, this time with Rish Outfield and Big Anklevich of the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. I highly recommend listening to this podcast for your fiction fix. Not since the Drabblecast has any publication given me a stream of stories that I so consistently enjoyed. Their choice in style does remind me somewhat of the Drabblecast, though they take longer stories, but Rish and Big have instilled the podcast with their own brand. This Best Of list covers the episodes from Episode 0 all the way to the current Episode 114.

They pick good stories, but where they shine the strongest is in the production values. Most episodes have a full cast recording, often with full-on Foley effects. The result sounds completely professional. In more recent episodes, they’ve taken volunteer producers, and the result has been consistently great from these guests, as each puts their own (but all hard-working) spin on it.

What makes The Dunesteef really unique is the after-story talk. After the story, Big and Rish talk about whatever they feel like talking about. Movies, or writing, or pet peeves, or about the making of the show. Very little of it is scripted, which makes it feel like hanging out with friends. They say they put the banter after the story so that listeners can easily skip it, but I have found it consistently entertaining. I’ve never skipped past it (nor any of the stories for that manner). This is what morning radio comedy shows are supposed to be like, but Big and Rish are actually funny, and they actually talk about stuff that I give a crap about. Besides Big and Rish, the other two regular staff members are the always entertaining Announcer Man (who always reminds me of Stan Lee for some reason), and their robotic production assistant R080T.

Another feature that makes this podcast particularly interesting is the “Broken Mirror Story Events” they held in 2009 and 2010. For this event, they give a short prompt for a speculative fiction premise, and all entered stories must follow that premise. Entrants can all read each other’s stories and vote on their favorites, and the top voted few make it onto the podcast. For instance, the 2009 event was based on the line “”Someone arrives in town, and discovers that everyone there is exactly the same.” I hope they do another one now that I’m a member, because this sort of writing exercise really gets me excited!

“That’s all well and good,” you say, “but what the heck does ‘Dunesteef’ even mean?” I wondered that myself. Oddly, Big and Rish have never explained what it means. I did the liberty of doing a bit of research so that I could share it with you good people, and you wouldn’t be frustrated while listening to the backlog that you don’t know what it means.

It turns out that Dunesteef is the common name for Clupea sanguis, a rare fish. The Dunesteef fish is easily marked out by its distinctive smell of freshly soiled sweat socks, and it reputedly tastes much like burnt hair, but it is considered a delicacy among the world’s mega-elite for its extreme rarity(only 12 people alive today have tasted of its meat) . Decades-long wars have been ended by the gift of a single plate of boiled Dunesteef given from one leader to another as a sign of great respect, creating a nigh unbreakable bond between the nations for centuries after. I don’t know exactly what Big and Rish had in mind with this name, but I’d guess they were trying to say how much they respected their audience, and how they intend to provide only the best for us. Or maybe it’s some kind of obscure satirical commentary on the plight of the noble Komodo Dragon. Or maybe it’s a joke about body odor. Really, with these guys, there’s no telling.

On to the list!

 

The List

1. This Must Be the Place by Elliot Bangs
What would you do if you could travel through time? This one gives a plan that I had never seen coming. Great story, great characters, well told.

2. Hang Up and Try Again by Derek L. Palmer
Who would you call if you could call anyone and talk to them for three minutes? Anyone, real or not, contemporary or not. What would you ask?

3. The Day Hypnotism Died by Kevin David Anderson
Four teenage boys go to a hypnotist act. They just want to kill a little time, but the show isn’t at all what they expected. A hell of a dark story.

4. Peacemaker, Peacemaker, Little Bo Peep by Jason Sanford
Jason Sanford is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors. He has a varied style, and an incredible imagination. In this story, normally quiet and peaceful people have turned suddenly violent. It’s not a zombie apocalypse, it’s something different, something like I’ve never seen. “Peeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccceeeee!”

5. Anakoinosis by Tobias S. Buckell
Awell-told alien point of view, telling of a race of furry little aliens that have become the new workforce for a crashlanded ship’s crew.

6. ÃÅ”berman by John Medaille
This one is very dark, and definitely not for everyone. It is told as an interrogation of indestructible ÃÅ”berman, Nazi Germany’s superhuman soldier, captured in the midst of World War II.

7. Plague Birds by Jason Sanford
Yup, another Sanford story. This one in a post-apocalyptic wilderness filled with human-animal hybrids and AI vigilantes. I love this guy’s imagination.

8. Whelp by Damon Shaw
A horror story about a dog, not for the squeamish. I’ll leave you to discover the rest.

9. Tattletale by Christopher Fisher
A father makes up a scary story to scare his kids, but sometimes a lie goes further than you could ever anticipate.

10. Tupac Shakur and the End of the World by Sandra McDonald
Post-apocalyptic story where the world’s population has been afflicted by a condition where the slightest bruise will cause your entire body to turn rigid in a matter of hours. Don’t worry, you don’t have to like Tupac to like the story.

 

Honorable Mentions:

Good Day by Saul Lemerond
Not for the easily offended. One that manages to be very dark and funny at the same time.

Open Twenty-Four Hours by Edward McKeown
Welcome to Earth Mart!

Casts a Demon Shadow by Derek J. Goodman
A Weird West tale with curses, gargoyles, and six-shooters.

Raising Archie by Michael Stone
Michael Stone is a regular contributor to the Dunesteef. This is my favorite of his stories here.

Emmett, Joey, and the Beelz by Ralph Sevush
Golems. ‘Nuff said.

 

The Best of Clarkesworld Podcast

written by David Steffen

And I listen on, expanding to more and more podcasts. Now I’m caught up on the stories that have been podcast by Clarkesworld Magazine. They haven’t had a podcast for their entire history, and when it started they only published half their stories in audio form. More recently, every story is posted in audio, on the 1st and 15th of every month. If you don’t know Clarkesworld you should definitely check them out. They won the Hugo last year for the Best Semiprozine, and they’ve been nominated for that category once again this year. One of their stories was also nominated for best short story, but I’ll get to that later. Go vote for them, and for their nominated story. Both are well deserving of the honor, and I’ll be rooting for them.

Clarkesworld has published some amazing stories. Like all markets, I don’t like every one of their stories, but when they do publish a story that I like, the story’s not just good, it’s great. It was not hard to fill this list. It was so hard that the entire top 5 are equally worthy of 1st place in my opinion. But ranking them a 5-way tie for first place would be rather wishy-washy and would sort of undermine the point of having a list. So I thought about it long and hard to decide on particular aspects of each story that I liked more than the others to come up with this final ranking.

I’ve got to give kudos to the editorial staff for picking these stories, and Kate Baker for her work with Clarkesworld. She is the podcast producer, the host, and the narrator. I enjoy her intros and outros for their conversational and unscripted form, and because they also don’t go on too long (as some other unscripted podcast intros often do). It seems like she’s really a fan of what she’s reading and that makes the whole podcast seem more connected. Don’t get me wrong, I like scripted intros of other casts too, but it’s nice to have some variety of styles suited to each host at each particular cast. My only complaint, and it’s a very small complaint, is that when Clarkesworld runs a first-person story (which seems to happen pretty often), it’s often unclear for a long time whether the character is male or female. Because I’m hearing Kate’s clearly female voice, my mind tends to assume the character is female as well, and it can be a bit jarring if sex suddenly becomes important halfway through the story and I realize, oh this character is a man. Again, it’s but a small quibble, and could be helped by an author giving more clues to the sex in text (which is a good idea anyway if one is writing a first person narrated story). On to the list:

 

The List

1. Messenger by Julia M Sidorova
Wow, this one’s so good. For me religion and the afterlife have always been great topics of contemplation, so I love a story that can take them and go in some interesting direction I haven’t seen before. This is one of those, and from a superbly well written nonhuman POV to boot. I won’t say anything more about it, because half the fun was watching everything reveal itself.Â

2. A Sweet Calling by Tony Pi
A candy vendor with the ability to use his candies as avatars and who can use his ability to create elementals faces off against a dangerous foe. A very well developed and compelling magic system based around the Chinese Zodiac.

3. The Association of the Dead by Rahul Kanakia
Just like my first on the list, I loved this one for the religious contemplation aspect of it. This one is messed up in oh so good a way. It takes place in a future where everyone has reincarnation contracts that allow you to automatically grow a new body whenever you die which will have a full mind transfer, with the details of the reincarnation all dependent on your worldwide karma rating based on social networking. Be sure you listen to Kate’s intro for this one, because she explains important details of the nomenclature that you might have trouble following otherwise–you’ll get the hang of it before too long, but you do have to pay attention to this one to follow it properly.

4. The Book of Phoenix Excerpted From the Great Book by Nnedi Okorafor
The basic setting of this reminds me of the movie Push, which in turn had reminded me of other settings like that used in Marvel’s X-Men affiliated stories, but this story made the idea its own. Individuals are being experimented on to awaken what are basically superpowers. This is from the point of view of one of these test subjects as her powers develop.

5. The Things by Peter Watts
Remember I mentioned that other Hugo nomination? This is that one. It’s a twisted around take on the 1982 John Carpenter movie The Thing (which was in turn based on a 1951 novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr) about a shapeshifting monster that attacks an Antarctic research team, killing and mimicking the crew members so that paranoia runs rampant. I haven’t actually seen the movie, though I was vaguely aware enough of it to recognize the events as being related to the movie. Instead of following the humans’ POV, as the movie does, this one follows the POV of the monster. As with all the best monster POV stories, it doesn’t consider itself the monster. It considers the humans the aliens, the monsters. As told from its POV the monster’s actions are quite reasonable. You don’t need to have seen the film to get the story (like I said, I hadn’t), but I’m sure you’d probably only fully appreciate all the details if you’ve seen the other side of them in film already.


Honorable Mentions:

Futures in the Memories Market by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Perfect Lies by Gwendolyn Clare

Laying the Ghost by Eric Brown

 

The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies Podcast

written by David Steffen

If you’re looking for a new magazine to read, and you’re a fan of some quality worldbuilding, you’ve got to check out Beneath Ceaseless Skies. They have a neat little niche market, focusing on worlds that are “other” in some way, either a past time period (with speculative elements added in) or an alternate world; no contemporary, no futuristic.

BCS releases an issue every two weeks, with 2 brand new stories in text, and one audio story which is a reprint of one of their earlier text stories. For the purposes of this list, I only considered the 55 audio stories they’ve published to date–if you follow the links you can either read the text or listen to the audio. I’d like to catch up on their text stories as well, but I find it much easier to find time for audio. And as usual, I don’t consider stories that I’ve considered for one of my other Best Of lists, which does eliminate a few, including the excellent Alchemist’s Feather by Erin Cashier.

1. Father’s Kill by Christopher Green
A father and his young children live in an isolated house in a wilderness thick with wolves. Father is out hunting, leaving the children home, the wolves held back by a solid door with a series of intricate locks.  Great dark story with a child’s point of view.

2. Architectural Constants by Yoon Ha Lee
Wow. This story really put Yoon Ha Lee on my radar. Awesome worldbuilding of a very strange otherworld. I’m… not sure that I totally understood everything that happened, but it was still wholly enjoyable.

3. Dying on the Elephant Road by Steve Rasnic Tem
It certainly delivers on the title, as the protagonist gets trampled to death by elephants in an effort to save the love of his life, who has no idea he exists. Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler– that happens in about the first paragraph. Shortly thereafter he’s patched together by a mysterious stranger with even more mysterious motives.

4. Preservation by Jonathan Wood
If you’ve ever lost a loved one have you wished that you could have kept them around forever?

5. Waiting for Number Five by Tom Crosshill
This is a story of Four, the fourth in a series of sentient dancing figurines, each an improvement on the last. But how long does she have before Five replaces her?

6. Mamafield by Corie Ralston
Sentient plants with a smothering mother, and the story of one of the other plant children who had run away.

 

Honorable Mentions:

Pale by Kathryn Allen

Remembering Light by Marie Brennan
This story takes place in the world of Driftwood, the same setting as “A Heretic by Degrees”, also written by Marie Brennan, which made my Best of Podcastle list.

Sun Magic, Earth Magic by David D. Levine

The Best of The Drabblecast 2010-

written by David Steffen

And here’s the last of my Best of 2010 lists. This’ll be another short one, covering a bit more than half a year (the rest of 2010 after the last Best of Drabblecast) covering episodes 169-193. Big news for Drabblecast this year: they won a Parsec award!

Also check out my other Best Of posts.

1. Mongoose Part I and Part II by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

This story is just plain awesome. Space opera setting with Lovecraftian beasties and Louis Carroll tie-ins. And it all works. Just, wow.

2. The Wheel by John Wyndham

By the author of the well known “Day of the Triffids”. An interesting story in a far future low-tech world, and a story which sparked many interesting lines of thought.

3. Rangifer Volans by Tim Pratt

Wildly successful cryptozoologists begin their newest project, to hunt flying reindeer.

4. Floaters by David D. Levine

Have you ever noticed that, in certain lights, if you move your eyes very quickly you can see a little line trailing behind your eye movement? Finally, the truth about those weird little enigmas.

5. The Reenactment by Ben H. Winters

This surly, unpleasant teacher loves nothing more than the re-enactment of the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. This year, it doesn’t go so smoothly.

The Best of Escape Pod 2010-

written by David Steffen

And, on to my next list. Again, I’ll be picking up where I left off from my previous Best of Escape Pod list, and running to the end of 2010. This’ll be a short one because I posted that list in May. For this list I considered episodes 240-273, and here’s my 5 favorites. Enjoy!

There have been big changes at Escape Pod since the last list, especially two things:
1. The founder of Escape Pod and the other Escape Artists podcasts, Steve Eley, has stepped down from his former role after the birth of his second child. I hope everything’s going great for him, and I wish him the best of fortune. I’ll always have a soft spot for the guy, because my very first story check came with his signature on it (for my Pseudopod sale). I’d be happy to buy him a beer if I ever cross his path.
2. They’re a pro paying market now! As far as I know, this is the only pro paying podcast, great news.

And, if you like this, check out my other Best Of lists.

1. Bridesicle by Will McIntosh
read by Amy H. Sturgis

I’m clearly not alone in my like of this story, since it won the Hugo for short story. But hey, it’s really good. In the future, medical technology has advanced to the point that almost no condition is fatal, and the body can be kept alive for a very long time. The technology is available, but very expensive. It’s funded by treating it like a dating meat market. Wealthy customers visit, have a chat with the momentarily awakened people, and if they hit it off they can pay to have them permanently cured and revived. This is the story of a woman in one of these holds, as she’s woken up for suitor after suitor.

2. Cruciger by Erin Cashier
read by Kij Johnson

I read this first in Writers of the Future. To quote Flight of the Conchords, “The humans are dead.” Well, most of them are, and the rest are preserved, in the hands of a superpowerful superintelligent robot (named Duxa) created by the last vestiges of humanity to find a planet suitable for terraforming and tear it apart to make a human-inhabitable world. But while she’s there, she makes first contact with an intelligent race of swimming tentacled beings.

3. We are Ted Tuscadero for President by Chris Dahlen
read by Cheyenne Wright

You think political advertisements are ever-present now? Imagine if Presidential candidates could make dozens of “proxies” of themselves, with their full set of memories, allowing them to be everywhere they want to be all at once. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s about a politician. I generally hate politician stories, but this one was really good, perhaps because this proxy was split off from his main self

4. The Love Quest of Smidgen the Snack Cake by Robert T. Jeschonek
read by John Cmar

Wow, Cmar has an amazing voice, unbelievably well-suited for this story. Smidgen is a snack cake, part of an intelligent sales system, meant to tempt buyers into spending money. He has no greater goal in the world other thanbeing eaten. And Cmar’s salesman voice is very convincing in the role.

5. Ã‰lan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford
read by Mur Lafferty

Have you ever wished you could’ve extended the life of a loved one who died before their time?. Â But what price would you pay?

The Best of Podcastle 2010-

My first Best of Podcastle list was posted back on January 4th, 2010. This list picks up where that one left off, and includes the rest of 2010. So it includes all of Podcastle’s publications except for “When Shakko Did Not Lie”. Including flash fiction, there were 67 stories included in this set, and I’ll be listing out my favorite 7.

There have been some major events at Podcastle in the last year. They reached their 100th episode. Rachel Swirsky stepped down about the same time of my list last year, and was replaced by dual editors Dave Thompson and Anna Schwind (who I interviewed last year after they took over).

If you like this list, check out my other “Best Of” articles.

1. The Mermaid’s Tea Party by Samantha Henderson
read by Tina Connolly

Don’t be fooled by the title into thinking that this is Disney’s The Little Mermaid. The mermaids in this story are evil, spiteful creatures and the story hits on all cylinders from the first moments in which a young girl, a survivor of a shipwreck, is feigning enjoyment of seawater “tea” to keep the sharp-toothed mermaids from eating her. Very dark.

2. Creature by Ramsey Shehadah
read by Norm Sherman

A lovely, well-told non-human perspective. Creature is a near-invincible blob living in a post-apocalyptic world. The story follows his travels across the wasteland, as he meets and befriends a young girl.

3. The Warlock and the Man of the Word by M. K. Hobson
read by Bob Eccles

An awesome “weird west” tale, in a world where demons exist among cowboys in the wild west, and the power of prayer can generate a sending from God with unpredictable results.

4. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
read by Eric Luke

This is probably my favorite Poe story, and it’s good to hear it on the podcast. This is one of those stories we had as required reading that convinced me that required reading does not necessarily suck.

5. Biographical Notes to “A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes” by Benjamin Rosenbaum by Benjamin Rosenbaum
read by Graeme Dunlop

No, the doubling of the name “Benjamin Rosenbaum” is not a mistake, the first is part of the title. This is a long philosophical adventure in a parallel world starring a parallel version of the author. Most of it takes placeon a dirigible in a world where airplanes are nothing but imagining. In this world philosophy is more prevalent than scientific rigor, so the perspective is very different and interesting.

6. The Alchemist’s Feather by Erin Cashier
read by Dave Thompson

Another well-told non-human perspective. The point of view is an Alchemist’s simulacrum, a little wooden doll without a voice who is kept only for his value in experiments.

7. Songdogs by Ian McHugh
read by Amanda Fitzwater

And, another “weird west” type tale, this one in a mutated post-apocalyptic Outback starring a bounty hunter mage bringing in her captive for her pay.


Honorable mentions

1. The Christmas Mummy by Heather Shaw & Tim Pratt
read by Rish Outfield

Interesting note: This was included with Heather and Tim’s Christmas letter last year. What a fun idea!

2. Fetch by Nathaniel Lee
read by Peter Wood

3. Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz Go to War Again by Garth Nix
read by Paul Tevis




The Best of Cast Macabre

sFor those looking for more audio fiction, here’s a podcast you might not have heard of: Cast Macabre. They started up in mid-2010, and filled a nice horror fiction gap while Pseudopod was on hiatus. It didn’t take too long to get caught up, as they’re only 28 episodes in. And in case you’re really pressed for time, here’s a top five for you. They’re also running classic stories, including Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells.

I first heard of Cast Macabre when Barry’s story “Corvus Curse” ran on Pseudopod (which made my Best of Pseudopod 2010+ list posted last week)

1. Metastasis by Nathaniel Lee
read by Barry J. Northern

A man searching for his brother. They both have powerful abilities, and the brother who has advanced stages of cancer, has not been himself lately. This story kept me on the edge of my seat, very good stuff.

2. Faces in the Window by Talu Briar
read by

Awesome dark humor! It’s all about a conversation between a married couple at the breakfast table. I won’t ruin the surprise for you, just go listen!

3. What They Consumed by Helmut Finch
read by Alasdair Stuart

A long lost manuscript discovered by C. Deskin Rink. Good Lovecraftian style horror in a classic style.

4. Like, Popular by Kevin Brown
read by Julie Hoverson

This one was chilling because I could just see it happening. What teens won’t do to be popular, child abuse becomes the next “in” thing.

5. A Little Nest Egg by Ken Goldman
read by Barry J. Northern

The protagonist in this one is one of those characters you love to hate, looking to find little old ladies to steal from. At first it seemed a bit predictable but this one had some twists and turns I didn’t see coming.

The Best of Pseudopod 2010+

written by David Steffen
On November 9, 2009 I posted my very first “Best Of” podcast list, the Best of Pseudopod, which was based on Pseudopod episodes 1-167 and flash episodes 1-22. Well, I’m still listening and still enjoying myself, so I figured there’s no reason I can’t make another list. I expect this will become a yearly thing, and will usually cover everything within 1 calendar year. This one will be a tiny bit different because a bit more than a year has passed since my last, which is why this is 2010+. It will cover episodes 168-219, 60 stories total (because there are a few episodes with more than one story).

Pseudopod reached landmark episode 200 during this time period, and this range of episodes includes my premier on Pseudopod, episode 169 “The Disconnected”. In addition, I received another acceptance letter from them just a few weeks ago for my flash story “What Makes You Tick”, which should appear some time in 2011. Now, on to the list.

Instead of ten in the list, I’m going to include 10% of the total and make it a Top Six (plus honorable mentions).

If you like this list, check out my other “Best Of” articles.

1. The Snow-White Heart by Marie Brennan
read by Ben Phillips

I love reimagined fairy tales, and this may be my favorite of all. This is a reimagining of Snow White. Finally, a story that explains why she’s so darn pale, and why she lives with seven strange little men.

2. Ankor Sabat by C. Deskin Rink
read by Ben Phillips

A man on an all-consuming quest to save his wife from the evil cult that has taken her, so many years ago. This starts a little slowly, but I enjoyed it enough that it didn’t bother me. The story went on just a tiny bit longer than it needed to, but other than, it was great.

3. The Dark Level by John F.D. Taff
read by Ian Stuart

Near empty parking garages are one of the creepiest locations in the modern world, and this story takes that idea and magnifies it. There’s something not quite right about this particular garage. Enhanced greatly by the amazing Ian Stuart’s reading, you’ve got to check this out.

4. The Mother and the Worm by Tim W. Burke
read by Paul S. Jenkins

This picks up where the The Garden and the Mirror (another Pseudopod story by the same author) left off. This stars the same two main characters, the yantra master and the woman who wants to use his power.

5. The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle
read by Alasdair Stuart

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is, of course, most well known for his Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but apparently he did some supernatural horror as well. This is the tale of a daring man who flies his plane to impossible heights, and the chronicles of his visit.

6. Spirit of Nationalism by Richard Marsden
read by Mike Bennett

Historical fiction tends not to suit my fancy, but I really enjoyed this one, supernatural horror story taking place during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. The plot seemed familiar, but it didn’t go where I expected.

Honorable Mentions

1. Corvus Curse by Barry J. Northern
read by Ian Stuart

Note that the author is also editor of Cast Macabre, a new horror fiction podcast, which I am currently listening to. Expect a Best Of Cast Macabre, coming soon.

2. Turning the Apples by Tina Connolly
read by Cayenne Chris Conroy

3. The Evil-Eater by Peadar O Guilin
read by Wilson Fowlie


On November 9, 2009 I posted my very first “Best Of” podcast list, the Best of Pseudopod, which was based on Pseudopod episodes 1-167 and flash episodes 1-22. Well, I’m still listening and still enjoying myself, so I figured there’s no reason I can’t make another list. I expect this will become a yearly thing, and will usually cover everything within 1 calendar year. This one will be a tiny bit different because a bit more than a year has passed since my last, which is why this is 2010+. It will cover episodes 168-219, 60 stories total (because there are a few episodes with more than one story).