A Little Fiction Please
I’m a reader by nature. I grew up in a town that had a hand full of other people my own age, only one of which was really into the same things I was. Because of that I spent a great amount of my time reading. Mostly science fiction and fantasy stuff (I’m sure that’s pretty common in the tech industry). I’m still an avid reader (I love my Kindle) but I do spend a fair amount of time in my car (roughly an hour and a half every work day) so listening to some audio books/podcasts has been a decent way to feed my story addiction.
Usually I’m listening to technical podcasts throughout the week, but I do enjoy getting a little fiction in as well. I listen to the Podcastle and Escape Pod podcasts from Escape Artists, Inc. These two fiction podcasts focus on Fantasy and Science Fiction respectively and (generally) each week have a new story. The stories come from all over the place and while there are quite a few repeat authors, you usually get a very unique story with each episode. I will have to point out that many of the stories are NOT suitable for work, nor would I recommend letting your kids listen to them without you hearing them fist. Some of the content is PG-13 and some is closer to “Unrated” or X. Since the stories and authors vary so much, so does the type of story and content.
One of the more recent stories on Escape Pod was one called “Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-four Hour Bookstore” by Robin Sloan and narrated by Stephen Eley (the founder of Escape Pod). This was just an awesome story that ran the gambit of just plain odd and realistic to outright far-fetched. The story even has references to Google storing their data in giant crystalline structures. The wit of the main character is great and Eley’s reading really brought the character to life. The author noted that the origination for the story idea actually came from a mis-red tweet of one of the people he was following.
The concept of the story is that it is set in the current uncertain economic times and the main character gets a job working the late shift at a 24 hour bookstore that dealt in rare, ancient texts. The customers are somewhat eccentric and the owner, Mr. Penumbra, takes eccentricity to a whole new level. The main character slowly learns that the customers are coming to the store to get more from the books than just a good story. I don’t want to say anymore because it will ruin the story (if you choose to go listen), but if you like fiction I highly recommend the story. You can listen to it on the podcast, or if you like to read then check out the original release of the story on the author’s blog.
The Escape Artist podcasts are all released under Creative Commons, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives 3.0 license so they are free to download and distribute. They have a Paypal account to donate to if you like what you hear. I’ve been listening to them for about two years now and most of the stories have been pretty good (I tend the skip some of the more graphic ones). The Union Dues series by Jeffrey R. DeRego that appear on Escape Pod are great, gritty stories about what it could be like if Super Heroes did exist and belonged to a Union.
If you are looking for something to load your MP3 player or iPod up with for long drives and you need a break from technical information, then I highly recommend listening to a few stories from one of the Escape Artist podcasts. Make sure to listen to at least a few of them because one story doesn’t represent the whole collection.