Pod-tacular Morning

So I was working on some questions for my upcoming interview with  to talk about his novel trilogy…which led me to EscapePod for a production of his short story "Pervert." Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to catch up on my Hugo Award nominees, so I listened to "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson, "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang, and "Article of Faith" by Mike Resnick. As a bonus palate-cleanser, I added two quickies: "A Preference for Silence" by Lucy Snyder, and a side-trip tp Podcastle for "Elf Aware" by K. Tempest Bradford (who had a birthday yesterday — Happy birthday,  !).

Despite being a final-round judge for the Audie Awards, I’m not a complete convert to audiobooks — it’s got to be pretty freaking spectacular to keep my attention for HOURS (and there have been some…perhaps I’ll make a list of my favorites one of these days). My lack of patience makes me a great judge…and a big fan of podcasts of stories that run less than an hour long.

Here are my quickie reviews of this morning’s fare:
"Pervert" — Odd. I got the point of the message, but the setting didn’t quite suck me in.
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" — Fun, light, and a good message.
"Exhalation" — A little long, but very well done, and beautifully executed. I see why I should be a fan of Ted Chiang.
"Article of Faith" — one of those classic talking head SF stories that is the exact reason some of that old-school preachy SF is not my cup of tea.
"A Preference for Silence." — Evil, and fun. Go, Lucy!
"Elf Aware" — I have to say, of all of the above, this tiny tidbit was my favorite. It was an emotional little piece, and the reader (Marguerite Croft) had the PERFECT voice for this. Highly, highly recommended.

Of course, I had another reason for doing some research on podcasting stories this morning…keep an eye on Apex Magazine to find out!