A couple of brilliant stories I listened to recently.
Pseudopod 117: Deep Red, written by Floris M. Kleijne and read by Ben Phillips is a chilling horror story that reminded me a lot of Stephen King's Misery. Some might think it predictable or reliant on too great a co-incidence, but I was able to let myself go and really enjoy this story. The horror is chilling, and Kleijne does a very good job of building up the same feeling of creeping horror that movies like The Shining by Stanley Kubrick use. Ben Phillips' execution (so to speak) is flawless. He and Cheyenne Wright are my favourite horror narrators.
Another favourite horror short story I listened to recently is Pseudopod 118: Lala Salama, written by Gill Ainsworth and read by Heather Welliver. It features black magic. The ending was creepy, but somehow not shocking. It seemed to fit, to show that in the end, she realised the warnings she had been given were valid; the magic was black.
This has been done before of course, but I was ok with that. Gill Ainsworth portrayed the black magic very effectively, mixing dream scapes and time warps in a very imaginitive way.
But my favourite aspect of this story by far was Heather Welliver's reading. She made me feel for the character so much - her voice was perfectly pitched: so happy when she announced the new baby, even though I knew it was going to go wrong.
The next story could well have been in Pseudopod too. PodCastle 20: Cup and Table, written by Tim Pratt and read by Stephen Eley. It's an Arthurian tale, my favourite PodCastle of all time, and in my top 5 of any Escape Artist story. The pure fancy of it all is astounding. Tim Pratt captured the very essence of speculative fiction within a relatively modern day Earth setting in a way that pushed all the right buttons for me and brough to mind a few others in a similar modern day almost sword and sorcery vein: Pseudopod 045: Goon Job (by G.W. Thomas, read by Ben Phillips), Pseudopod 052: That Old Black Magic (by John R. Platt, read by George Hrab) and Pseudopod 77: Merlin�s Bane (by G.W. Thomas, read by Ben Phillips).
The Aurthurian roots of this story give it an edge of despair, added to the horror of what the main characters are actually trying to do. The Table appears as an ancient, venerable secret and shrinking society that has essentially come to ruins. Its ultimate purpose having been waylaid by the vicissitudes brought on by the need for making money and the disparate goals of the latest members of the group.
My favourite misquote of the day is from the character Carlsbad, with the line: "That's it then. Only the evil in YouTube is keeping me alive".
Brilliant!
Showing posts with label Pseudo Pod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pseudo Pod. Show all posts
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Brains are good
I don't know about you, but I like eating brains1. I love them best raw, dripping mush between my fingers as I bring them to my mouth and moan for more brains and a new victim. As such, I have been doing some study of late (see my previous post for example).
Here are some other materials I have dug up recently that give some really spooky visions of what it means to be a zombie.
Darker Projects' Alive Inside (opens new window) is somewhat of a walking zombie production itself. With only five episodes in around 2 years, I don't expect this to be updated soon. However, those five episodes are amazing: sound effects and voice acting are of a very high standard and the story is creepy indeed. It mixes together a few zombie elements I have seen before, such as not all zombies are slow and shambling and the curse is a virus, so you don't have to get bitten, you just have to die. However, the format is exciting. I can well imagine this turning into a much longer series if they can keep production going.
Drabblecast 36 begins with a real drabble story (100 words) by Kevin Anderson, Outrunning the Bear (opens new window). Naturally, it is short, but added with the other story in the episode (Pumpkinseeds, also by Kevin Anderson) it is well worth the entry fee (free!), even if you don't subscribe to the cast - which you should by the way. I won't give away the plot of those magic 100 words, other than to say, keep running!
Pseudopod 84: The Sons of Carbon County (opens new window) is an amazing story, written by Amanda Spikol and read by Cheyenne Wright. Well done Amanda, for a story that gave me chills picturing the protagonists down the mine, dark, claustrophobic, smelly. So little chance of getting out, and what do they face it they do get out? Their life as described in the first half was just as depressing as getting eaten by zombies..
Cheyenne Wright (the narrator) has the coolest horror story voice on the planet. I bet he would scare the pajama-bottoms off predator toddlers if he read them bed time stories - even a predalien child would go screaming for its mummy. His deep, growling voice adds an atmosphere all of its own... somewhat reminiscent of Sean Connery with a mouthful of marbles - that's a good thing!
Another Pseudopod zombie story, Pseudopod 037: We Are All Very Lively (opens new window), written by Richard A. Becker and read (again!!) by Cheyenne Wright. This is a story set after the big Zombie apocalypse, showing both what it was like as it happened and what it is like now. In this story, the zombies aren't the real scare, or the central focus. Instead, Becker slowly reveals to us how society slowly succumbed to the threat and this particular group found a way to live with a truly gruesome "work-around". I truly enjoyed the slow revelation of just how permanently screwed we all are. No 28 Days Later in this one!
Note 1: I don't actually. I hate brains, raw or cooked. My partner once cooked a 'brains omelette' for me. Fortunately, we had to step out just after she finished cooking it. When we returned, we found our very satisfied German Shepherd sitting under the table, on top of which was an empty plate. Thank you Sheila, thank you!
Here are some other materials I have dug up recently that give some really spooky visions of what it means to be a zombie.
Darker Projects' Alive Inside (opens new window) is somewhat of a walking zombie production itself. With only five episodes in around 2 years, I don't expect this to be updated soon. However, those five episodes are amazing: sound effects and voice acting are of a very high standard and the story is creepy indeed. It mixes together a few zombie elements I have seen before, such as not all zombies are slow and shambling and the curse is a virus, so you don't have to get bitten, you just have to die. However, the format is exciting. I can well imagine this turning into a much longer series if they can keep production going.
Drabblecast 36 begins with a real drabble story (100 words) by Kevin Anderson, Outrunning the Bear (opens new window). Naturally, it is short, but added with the other story in the episode (Pumpkinseeds, also by Kevin Anderson) it is well worth the entry fee (free!), even if you don't subscribe to the cast - which you should by the way. I won't give away the plot of those magic 100 words, other than to say, keep running!
Pseudopod 84: The Sons of Carbon County (opens new window) is an amazing story, written by Amanda Spikol and read by Cheyenne Wright. Well done Amanda, for a story that gave me chills picturing the protagonists down the mine, dark, claustrophobic, smelly. So little chance of getting out, and what do they face it they do get out? Their life as described in the first half was just as depressing as getting eaten by zombies..
Cheyenne Wright (the narrator) has the coolest horror story voice on the planet. I bet he would scare the pajama-bottoms off predator toddlers if he read them bed time stories - even a predalien child would go screaming for its mummy. His deep, growling voice adds an atmosphere all of its own... somewhat reminiscent of Sean Connery with a mouthful of marbles - that's a good thing!
Another Pseudopod zombie story, Pseudopod 037: We Are All Very Lively (opens new window), written by Richard A. Becker and read (again!!) by Cheyenne Wright. This is a story set after the big Zombie apocalypse, showing both what it was like as it happened and what it is like now. In this story, the zombies aren't the real scare, or the central focus. Instead, Becker slowly reveals to us how society slowly succumbed to the threat and this particular group found a way to live with a truly gruesome "work-around". I truly enjoyed the slow revelation of just how permanently screwed we all are. No 28 Days Later in this one!
Note 1: I don't actually. I hate brains, raw or cooked. My partner once cooked a 'brains omelette' for me. Fortunately, we had to step out just after she finished cooking it. When we returned, we found our very satisfied German Shepherd sitting under the table, on top of which was an empty plate. Thank you Sheila, thank you!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Pseudopod: Were-wolf, President, Clint Eastwood, Nick Cave, Horror!
Just listened to Full Moon Over 1600, by Christopher Michael Cummings and read by Rick Stringer.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story! I didn't think I would at the start, when I realised it was focused on politics. However, I was hooked from the sentence "when a strange sensation crawls down his nose, into his throat"; this first hint that the President's lycanthropy had pushed him into a world of heightened senses. In other werewolf stories, those senses are used for hunting, fighting and generally eating people. In this story, it is what turns the President into a type of hero; and his eating people makes him a rather horrifying hero!
This is why I like "Full Moon Over 1600": in most stories I hear (fiction and non-fiction), presidents and were-wolves aren't usually good guys. In this story, becoming a were-wolf makes the president into a good guy! I enjoyed how Christopher Michael Cummings turned smell and intuition into a moral sense and it was amusing to find the "media spin" angle working for a good guy.
Perhaps most noticeable about this story is that it isn't just President as Were-wolf. Thanks to the voice of Rick Stringer, it was also Clint Eastwood as President and Werewolf!
There are questions in the Pseudopod forums about whether or not this a horror story. Thinking about this question was what led me to write this blog entry (and forum post).
I think it is a horror story. The were-wolf did some typical scary were-wolf things: i.e. eating people - but did so publicly, on camera, and it only increased his popularity! The contrasting figures of werewolf and president in this story were twisted together so that two common images appeared in one character in a disturbing way. This is what a good horror story should do: disturb the audience!
In a broader sense, the question isn't very important to me. Horror is visceral - therefore it is open to interpretation and different people will classify different things as being horrific. Someone thought it fit the genre, and I enjoyed the story with that in mind. Most of the time, that's all it takes for me. Even if I do find a "horror" story that I don't personally think is a horror story, I find value in the story just by wondering why we might be at odds; why that other person found it horrifying, even if I didn't.
A small side story. A friend once made a tape for me of Nick Cave's The Murder Ballads. Now that is one scary album! Each song creeped me out in a different way, with "O' Malley's Bar" being the song that burnt itself most strongly into my mind with a detailed portrayal of a twisted mind. This song was effective because the "detail" I mention came not just from the lyrics. It was Nick Cave's voice and the jarring melody that really gave me a sense of how insane the man was. I digress: the point being that this album was the most horrific music I had ever listened to (and I loved it!).. but at the end of the tape, my friend had included another song, "Into My Arms" from The Boatman's Call - an album of (ostensibly) love songs from Nick Cave that I had not heard about. The first verse:
I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
After listening to a whole album of songs about twisted, murderous minds, this song fit perfectly! Even though I have the Boatman's Call on CD now and have enjoyed listening to it many times, I still think of "Into My Arms" as one of the most subtle and chilling works of horror ever!
Horror is visceral; if it feels like horror, it is horror; maybe not to other people. "Full Moon Over 1600" felt like a good horror to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story! I didn't think I would at the start, when I realised it was focused on politics. However, I was hooked from the sentence "when a strange sensation crawls down his nose, into his throat"; this first hint that the President's lycanthropy had pushed him into a world of heightened senses. In other werewolf stories, those senses are used for hunting, fighting and generally eating people. In this story, it is what turns the President into a type of hero; and his eating people makes him a rather horrifying hero!
This is why I like "Full Moon Over 1600": in most stories I hear (fiction and non-fiction), presidents and were-wolves aren't usually good guys. In this story, becoming a were-wolf makes the president into a good guy! I enjoyed how Christopher Michael Cummings turned smell and intuition into a moral sense and it was amusing to find the "media spin" angle working for a good guy.
Perhaps most noticeable about this story is that it isn't just President as Were-wolf. Thanks to the voice of Rick Stringer, it was also Clint Eastwood as President and Werewolf!
There are questions in the Pseudopod forums about whether or not this a horror story. Thinking about this question was what led me to write this blog entry (and forum post).
I think it is a horror story. The were-wolf did some typical scary were-wolf things: i.e. eating people - but did so publicly, on camera, and it only increased his popularity! The contrasting figures of werewolf and president in this story were twisted together so that two common images appeared in one character in a disturbing way. This is what a good horror story should do: disturb the audience!
In a broader sense, the question isn't very important to me. Horror is visceral - therefore it is open to interpretation and different people will classify different things as being horrific. Someone thought it fit the genre, and I enjoyed the story with that in mind. Most of the time, that's all it takes for me. Even if I do find a "horror" story that I don't personally think is a horror story, I find value in the story just by wondering why we might be at odds; why that other person found it horrifying, even if I didn't.
A small side story. A friend once made a tape for me of Nick Cave's The Murder Ballads. Now that is one scary album! Each song creeped me out in a different way, with "O' Malley's Bar" being the song that burnt itself most strongly into my mind with a detailed portrayal of a twisted mind. This song was effective because the "detail" I mention came not just from the lyrics. It was Nick Cave's voice and the jarring melody that really gave me a sense of how insane the man was. I digress: the point being that this album was the most horrific music I had ever listened to (and I loved it!).. but at the end of the tape, my friend had included another song, "Into My Arms" from The Boatman's Call - an album of (ostensibly) love songs from Nick Cave that I had not heard about. The first verse:
I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
After listening to a whole album of songs about twisted, murderous minds, this song fit perfectly! Even though I have the Boatman's Call on CD now and have enjoyed listening to it many times, I still think of "Into My Arms" as one of the most subtle and chilling works of horror ever!
Horror is visceral; if it feels like horror, it is horror; maybe not to other people. "Full Moon Over 1600" felt like a good horror to me.
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