Podcast Tuesday

Another slog down the motorway in the pouring rain, another batch of podcasts to listen to. Actually, these ones are somewhat different to my usual fare, being a collection of audio versions of the nominees for the Hugo short story award (H/T BoingBoing)

• Distant Replay by Mike Resnick. An old man meets a young woman who is the spitting image of his late wife. Is it just a co-incidence?
• A small room in koboldtown by Michael Swanwick. A gruesome murder, a locked room and some very strange aliens.
• Who's afraid of Wolf 359 by Ken MacLeod. A dilettante of uncertain age and origin is sent to investigate the fate of a planet that nobody has heard from for over fifty years.
• Tideline by Elizabeth Bear. A beach combing war robot and a young refugee form an unlikely partnership.

All are well worth listening to, but for me 'Distant Replay' just edges it over 'Tideline' as my favourite of the bunch. They share themes of loss, memory and ageing, as well as hope for the future, but with very different settings, to say the least.

So, what are you all waiting for? Shoo, and fire up your downloads and mp3 players for some quality speculative fiction.