Day: March 1, 2006

Review of Middle Woman by Orson Scott Card

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show Audio Bonus - Middle WomanMiddle Woman
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Mary Robinette Kowal
1 MP3 File – 9 Minutes 57 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
Published: March 2006
Themes: / Fantasy / Fable / Dragons / 3 Wishes /Immortality /

This is the second “Audio Bonus” from Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show online magazine, the plan appears to be to offer one bonus MP3 story per issue. Cool!

Orson Scott Card’s short fiction is connected to people in ways that other speculative fiction often isn’t. Realistic character psychology always takes the lead over scenarios, but his scenarios always test his characters’ psychologies – it makes for a special completeness rarely found in Speculative Fiction. Combine this with a refinement of prose, where every word is perfectly placed, and you get a little piece of magic in every OSC story. In this case, “Middle Woman” is a fable style fiction, another variation of that old saw “the three wishes”. Originally published under OSC’s pseudonym “Byron Walley”, it takes the idea of moderation, something almost always absent from fables, and runs with it. It reminded me of a kinder, gentler version of Robert Bloch’s classic That Hellbound Train. Interestingly, it also offers a more restive solution to W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw. The setting is Eastern, and given the “middle” of the title I suspect it is working in the ‘middle kingdom’ style of storytelling. Whether I’m right about that or not you’ll have to check it out yourself to decide.

Quite short, only 9 minutes, this is ably read by Mary Robinette Kowal who manipulates her voice in all the right ways to lend classic fairy tale reading to this modern fable. In addition to being a terrific narrator, Kowal is a professional puppeteer who also moonlights as speculative fiction author. “Middle Woman” is the Audio Bonus found in Issue Two of the online magazine Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.

DISCLAIMER: Mary Robinette Kowal, when not reading stories aloud is an SFFaudio reviewer.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Voices: New Media Fiction is the first podiobook…

Jesse Willis

news

Voices New Media Fiction LogoVoices: New Media Fiction is the first podiobook anthology, the brainchild of podcast legend Mur Lafferty. Chock full of spec-fic goodness this is a new collection of previously podcast fiction. When completed there will be stories from Jared Axelrod of The Voice Of Free Planet X, Patrick McLean of The Seanachai, Paul S. Jenkins of The Rev-Up Review, James Patrick Kelly of Free Reads, Jason Erik Lundberg of Lies and Little Deaths and J.R. Blackwell of 365 Tommorows, as well as the ubiquitous Cory Doctorow, and another 10 more!

The official Podiobooks.com announcement reads as follows:

“Milestone! We’re very happy to announce the release of Voices: New Media Fiction. Voices is edited by Mur Lafferty, and is only available from Podiobooks.com. It is also our 30th book

Voices: New Media Fiction brings together the pioneer short fiction podcasters. Experimenting from putting short-short fiction to novellas over their podcasts, these writers were the first to test the new medium for storytelling. Some wrote specifically for podcasts, some read previously published fiction, and some read entirely new stories. Some listeners asked if they could get just the stories in audio form, and that request brought about this podiobook. Cory Doctorow tells us a story about a post-apocalyptic government run by sysadmins and James Patrick Kelly narrates a story of a strange reconciliation. We’ve collected 18 stories for you, the first short fiction to go out over podcast, and look forward to bringing you more.”

Stories already available from the collection include:

Wolf in the Park
By Patrick McLean
A man is hunted – or is it haunted – by a monstrous wolf.

Barry Koleman, Hero
By Mur Lafferty
Barry grows up a bitter man, denied the superpowers that are his birthright.

The Journey of Jonathan Cave
By Paul S. Jenkins
Jonathan awakens from stasis to discover he’s on the last journey of his life.

Pandas Just Want to be Dogs
By Jared Axlerod
A man discusses desires and extinction with a panda.

Anda’s Game
By Cory Doctorow
A young girl realizes there’s more to her online gameplaying than just looting and leveling.

posted by Jesse Willis