Whispers in the Wood ( A Metamor City Podcast )

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If there were league tables for New Media / Podcast authors then Chris Lester would be in the Premier Division.

Whispers in the Wood is a four episode story arc that kicks off season two of Metamor City.  To be honest I thought that Chris would struggle to maintain the standard of writing, and production that earned him and his team a PARSEC award last year. Well he hasn’t struggled, he has taken Metamor up another level. I can see Metamor beating the Leviathon Chronicles to this years PARSEC as well. (It would be nice if we could have a tie!)

Before I go on to much this is the Metamor City Website, here you will find some of the best audio drama entertainment around. Its award winning that says it all. ( http://www.metamorcity.com/ ).  Pinching from his website this is the authors description of the Metamor City Podcast.

The Metamor City Podcast is a sci-fi/fantasy audio fiction series that is distributed for free through this website. It will feature a mixture of short stories and full-length novels, all taking place in one large world with an overarching story arc. Combining the narration of audiobooks with the music, sound effects and full vocal cast of a serial radio drama, The Metamor City Podcast provides an immersive audio experience of a world like no other.

I am not going to argue with Chris Lester, but will say that his world and writing is so well crafted that it moves out of the fantasy genre into full sci fi (for me) . To me it ranks up there with Terry Pratchett’s world in terms of reality and fullness. When you listen to a podcast you actually feel you are there and involved, so well is the world crafted and the characters developed.

The Metamor world is a world where Magic and technology exist together. In this world you will find vampires, telepaths, wizards, fey and all sorts of other “humanities” and “non humanities” . In Metamor City they all exist, work and live together. The Metamor City society is not classless, and it has a dark but not overbearing undertone to it.

The Whispers in the Wood story arc  involves a telepath working with one of the cities enforcement agencies, investigating a series of murders that seem to be connected to a musician and an enchanted violin. Although it does involve a character from a very early episode of Metamor City you loose nothing by jumping on board here. Abbey Preston’s history is not relevant to this particular story. If downloaded through iTunes it comes with an explicit tag. This shouldn’t put you off, it seems to me that Americans rate an awful lot of stuff explicit, when you will see or hear worse on most soaps, or even TV advertising these days.

If you already enjoy the Metamor City world then I am preaching to the converted, if you are new to this then my suggestion is that listen to all of Whispers in the Wood, then download episodes 001 to 041. By the time you come out of episode 41, the Metamor City team will probably have another couple of episodes up for our entertainment.

Dave A

Superhuman Fiction – Part two of two

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I finished Part 1 of ” Superhuman Fiction” talking about Mur Lafferty. Another author who has been around for a while but is not as prolific as Mur is Matthew Wayne Selznick. This is lifted straight from his website.

Brave Men Run

As I said previously there are many authors podcasting their works but there are only a few that I have also purchased the book. Matthew Wayne Selznick’s Brave Men Run is one of those.

This is a novel based in the Sovereign era. In this novel the appearance of people with these powers is sudden and very public, the power behind the powers wants all people with powers to be granted status as citizens of a “Sovereign Nation” .

This is the story of Nate Charters, living with his Mum (Dad is dead), an outcast at school and his only friends are those labelled freaks and geeks. Not only outcast but bullied because he is different. The story is about the adventures, ups and downs as Nate adjusts to the fact his history isn’t what he thought and he might just be “special”. This is coming of age from a superhero perspective.

From a writing perspective its well written, suitable for all ages, nicely paced and the characters are real.

Matthew Wayne Selznick is important as he was/ is a trail blazer this is lifted straight from his website

A New Media Landmark

“Brave Men Run” was the first novel with an initial simultaneous publication in paperback, five formats of e-book free of digital rights management restrictions, and free podcast audiobook (podiobook) editions. People on five continents have read or listened to it, and people in developing nations are free to create commercial derivative works based on the book thanks the the Creative Commons Developing Nations license.

Jeffrey DeRego’s – Union Dues

Every now and then in either the “clonepod” or the “escape pod” podcasts a Union Dues story drops, rather than wait they are put onto the iPod instantly ( at present that would mean leaping over 1300 other podcasts ). No matter what I am listening to gets put on hold while I listen, Union Dues stories are some of the only stories I listen to again.

I heard my first Union Dues story about 12 months ago, the delivery podcast was “escape pod”  this was so good that I had to go back and find all previous Union Dues stories. I think I got them all.

I think the title gives it away, superheros are unionised with a truckload of rules and regs that they have to live with. If as a child you exhibit powers then the Union comes and by law takes you away from your family.

Since Christmas escape pod has published a Union Dues origin story, about 30 minutes long. If you like superhuman fiction and listen to this and are not hooked then………

If I had a wish list of things I would like to happen this year ( apart from world peace of course, it would be )

• Tickets to the worldwide premier of Watchmen
• Another novel in the Playing For Keeps world by Mur Lafferty
• More regular Union Dues stories and something published in hardcopy. I will buy it!

Dave A

Superhuman fiction – Part one of two

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I think I have always been a fan of “superhuman fiction“.Wouldn’t the world be a fantastic place if you could have superhuman ” non fiction” ?

As a youngster I was never encouraged to get involved with comic culture, my only real glimpse was the comics at the local barber. He had piles of Green Lantern comics in the waiting area. Apparently his wife thought they were a waste of money so he hid his collection in open view, at his business.

Sometime around my 14th year (so we are talking 1970) my Dad left and things changed in our house. There was a subtle relaxing in what we could read and get involved in. Mum was working up at Liverpool Uni in a highly scientific and technical area. One of Mum’s workmates “Jo” had a partner who was involved in the selling of Sci Fi books, and every week a new pile would come home. I was introduced to Asimov, Clarke and many others.

My exposure to non normal fiction up to that point was The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I was given (LOTR) on my 11th Birthday and every Easter I re-read it !

I managed to avoid all the hype around Superman, DC and Marvel. The appreciation for superhuman fiction in comics was not awakened until passing a comic shop in Wellington I saw an X-man comic with a stunning cover, Gambit and Rogue. (This must have been about 1988).  I went in paid my couple of dollars and was for the first time in my life was involved in purchasing comics. I didn’t buy many X-men comics because it was just too hard to catch up.

It still bugs me that the X-Men movies (which I enjoyed) never had Gambit in them, how could they not have him in it. How can you have Rogue without Gambit? they are key to each other. At least they had Wolverine, which is something.

Following X-men I moved into the worlds created by Michael Turner (RIP) particulaiy his work with Witchblade and the Fathom. Without a doubt part of the attraction to these characters is the art of Michael Turner.

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The other attraction is for the first time the darker and negative side of being superhuman, and the not really knowing what to do and the fear of the power, who is in control? the power or the power wielder.

It almost like the superhumans are saying, “we have problems too you know, its not that easy saving the world everyday, and by the way our issues are major issues. “

From my perspective Aspen Matthews (Fathom) and Sara (Witchblade) both built on the cracks that we saw in the X-Men characters of Wolverine and Gambit. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t totally good, they had a moral focus that was very normal, not superhuman and focused on the goody goody. The modern superhuman is gray and is affected by what happens around them.

The current manifestation of superhuman is the TV series Heros. Compulsary viewing in our house.

Along with Dr Who one of only two non “football” TV shows that I watch. (and for those in the States its soccer not the other game.)  Dr Who cant be superhuman of course as he is an alien. Timelords are about as Alien as you can get!

At the ultra hyped level there are alot of people who are about to be introduced to a darker side of superhuman lives and that is with the movie of Alan Moores – Graphic Novel Watchmen.

Hopefully this will be the movie of the year, it should be because the story is stunning and dark.

Following my introduction to Alan Moore’s work, I found myself listening too  podcast novels, novellas and short stories. Quiet by accident I had wandered into a world of stunning writers who mostly have yet to be published and have been giving their work away for years.

At the top of this pile is Mur Lafferty who wrote and podcast the book Playing For Keeps, following its being podcast Mur also signed a deal and had her book published. I hope it was succesful both for her and the publishers,  both Mur and the book deserve success.   Playing for Keeps (PFK) was the first podcast novel that I felt was good enough (for me) to purchase in hardcopy.

There are other podcast authors (not many) who have published, but there writing is not as tight and well crafted as Mur’s.

Like most novels involving superhuman powers we have good vs bad, the plot for this is complicated by the intervention of an (initially) disorganised group of  humans with third string powers.  This group are centered around a bar owned by one of these lesser powers Keepsie Branson.

One of my favourite characters is one who has the power to produce high powered streams of s**t. Another is the character who has the ability to carry a drinks tray without spilling a drop ( how can anyone not call that a major power? ).

Although this novel has a very funny and satirical, it is not a comedy. Its a story about people, people who have been ignored, who feel they have a contribution to make and stupid rules dont allow them to contribute.

Mur is big in the podcasting / new media world, she has podcast at least 5 novels and many, many short stories. Her Christmas short story on “Escape Pod” is worth rushing the year around for.  Anyway do yourself a favour google Mur Lafferty and have some fun.

Dave A

Audio Drama – Soul Rift – Dreamseed.com

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This is a fantastic audio drama, not only a good story, well acted, but it also has very high production values.  Its not free but then again, its not expensive.  (Less than one handful of $) My understanding is that episode 2 is currently being cast. Hopefully it wont take months to release that one. I’m told the first is the hardest.

Soul Rift is the cop / FBI type drama set in the not to far future (about 25 years).  The main character is Detective Alice Walker and her partner ( Spectre) is a ghost. This is a drama played across and through the planes. The first episode (Masochism) starts of in the VIP basement of a S&M club. A young (willing) victim is found dead with her “soul” stolen.

As I said previously, this is high class Audio Drama. I goy my copy from Echo Fiction http://www.echofiction.com/titles/soulrift/e01.php  . The only minor disappointment was the state of their website http://www.dreamseed.com/  its very sparse, and under construction, without the warning.

Karl’s last Flight ~ Basil Sands

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This is the second Podio-book from Basil Sands that I have listened to, the previous book was 65 below. Apparently this book was written first and 65 below followed. So I have read them in the wrong order, luckily the stories are not related in any way.

Basil Sands website http://www.basilsands.com/page0.php describes his fiction as extreme fiction. Its not, its not gruesome, its not explicit. It is adventurous and alot happens very quickly, but there is very little to upset the stomach or the mind. Thinking is not required to enjoy this book. That doesn’t mean that as an audio experience it isn’t worth it, it is.

The plot is simple and uncomplicated. Karl is the pilot of a space tourism flight. He takes a famous, wrestler actor up for the experience (could this be The Rock? I suspect not but you get the picture of the type) . It all goes wrong and as a result the space plane crashes behind enemy lines and in the process starts WW III, most of the story is the behind the lines stuff, action orientated, with of course a love interest thrown in. I might be doing Basil a disservice but it has a very American republican feel to it.

Having ” done ” two of his podcast books I have enjoyed them enough to download another two, which one day I will get around to listening too.

      Faithful Warrior isn’t finished yet so I haven’t started listening . In the Shadows will just have to wait till I am in the mood for another short story experience.          

Town Without A Soul and Other Stories

Town Without a Soul and Other Stories – Written and Narrated by Andrew Culver, Music by Josh Cherney

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From Podiobooks.com. A podiobook with 6 very short episodes, each episode about 12 minutes long.
Andrew and Josh are working on the integration of music into audio. Its not new for Audio type books to have a musical score to support or as background, but these guys seem to have taken the music narrative blending to a new level.

The stories are almost lyrics to the music.

 

In the six episodes there are 4 stories.
Episode one starts off with “Night of the Witches” this is so short it might actually be a drabble,
so the danger is that any comment on it will be longer than the piece.
The main piece in the podiobook is the story Town Without a Soul. This is the story of a drifter
being evicted off a train and being forced to stay in a town. It has a very noir feel to it. With the
inculcation of the music the story as narrated felt very much like a Frank Zappa album ( It has
a  Joe’s Garage feel to it )
Leaving Saturnis a Noir Sci-Fi piece involving murder and sex with aliens.
Eye to Eye is a four chapter piece over two episodes with the central theme of revenge, the music on this one has the feel of the old time music theatre.

I really enjoyed the experience and can see a real future with this type of performance in this media.

Dave A

Echoes, Nathan P Butler

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Yesterday I started and finished the Podcast novel Echoes by Nathan P Butler.StarWars fandom will be aware of who Nathan Butler is as he appears to be active in the star wars fan space. I think this is his first Podcast Novel. The plot is basically a detective story,

• girl found dead in a bath
• girl is the girlfriend of a US senator
• absolutely no clues at the murder scene
• a ” deep throat ” character
• homeland security are involved
• prime suspect is dead!

Its a bit of a stretch to call it a novel its more of a novella. It was hard to warm to the characters as the character development was not detailed enough. As a podcast novel one frustration was that each individual podcast was too short. 20 episodes some only 5 – 8 minutes long. My personal preference is 25 to 35 minute episodes. At times it felt I was listening to more intro and outro than story.

On the positive side, I did enjoy the story and the twist at about two thirds through was enough to re energise my interest, and its a twist that was well executed, was not telegraphed and turned this detective story into something completely different.

As part of the closedown the author states that there will be more books in the series and that really interested me. Taking note of the fact this was podcast in 2006 I was disappointed to see that the promised book wasn’t produced and that there was no website to keep up to date with news. Perhaps the dark force has captured Nathan.

iPod for Spoken Word as well as/not Music

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It seems like I have had an MP3 player for ever, but in reality that’s not true. Years and years ago I have a very small capacity MP3 player, it was so primitive,it used SD cards as memory. Most nights I used to plug the card into the PC and if I was lucky download an album onto the card. An album was about the limit as the card was only 512.

Next came the iPod but only after son #1 had tried it out first. I went for the big one and got a 20GB that would be well enough. Currently I am struggling with 60GB and will at some stage in the future switch to the 120GB or bigger if they have one. Which raises an interesting side issue, why does the big one come in only two colours, I would love a 120GB RED one.

Somewhere along the journey I switched from Musicmatch to iTunes. Until this past two weeks that had seemed like a great idea, and in reality it still is.

When I got my iPod it was just for music, I hadn’t even thought about Audiobooks, Radio, Podiobooks, Podcasts. I didn’t even conceive of there existence. How things have changed, when I get home from work I start iTunes up and most days about 10 podcasts will download. More than I can ever listen to, but I am hopeless at culling! Last year I said I would never have more than 600 podcasts on the system waiting, then I increased the limit to 1000, currently I have 1200 waiting. Apparently it will take me 24.96 days to listen to the lot and in that time about another 200 will come in, that’s if I don’t subscribe to more!

Looking at the stats on iTunes i have

• Podcasts 24.96 days outstanding
• Music 49.58 days outstanding
• Video/Movie 2 days outstanding

On the positive side of this I very rarely watch TV anymore, thats not hard as there is **** all on these days.

I am stunned by the range and quality of content available to stick onto your iPod. Four of the podcasts I currently have on my iPod are

• 5 Live daily – Daily Football podcast (BBC) http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/5lfd/rss.xml
• 65 Below – Podiobook by Basil Sands, really enjoying it. http://www.basilsands.com/ 
• Crimewave.com – Noir Crime Stories – http://crimewav.com/
• The Archers – BBC Rural soap – http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/index.shtml

That’s only four of the podcasts currently being listened to!  As mentioned previously

• 5 Live is a daily football update, sharp and snappy about 20 minutes of news and views. 
• 65 Below is an action thriller podiobook based in Alaska, I have really enjoyed it. I will give a brief update / review later in the week.
• Crimewav is a weekly podcast and the stories are crime in nature and often has a noir feel to them. Stories are usually about 30mins which is great timing for me regarding travelling time.
• The Archers, I love my daily rural soap.

Dave A

Kia ora

Kia ora

Hopefully I have this thing sorted, I was told it was intuitive, well not so intuitive that I haven’t gotten lost occasionally.  I’ll just make sure this is sorted then I’ll have to find something useful to say.

My name is Dave and I was born and dragged up in Liverpool, England. Home of the greatest football club in the world.  I am a child of the 50′s being born in 56, and my musical tastes certainly reflect being around in the 60′s and 70′s. I moved out to Wellington, Aoteroa. I have been married for over 30 years (to the same person) and have two adult boys (20 & 16).

This blog is not going to be diary, although there could be elements of that in here. The intention is to chat about books read, music listened too and in particular ” new media” .

Catch you all soon

Dave