Podfic Recs, Jan 21st (ish)

[izzady.livejournal.com]

I have a strong tendency to lurk, but I couldn't resist the chance to rant about how awesome podfics are. I don't even know what I would do without all the awesome people in fandom who tell stories for us.

I couldn't decide on a theme for my recs, so I thought I'd do two, one from the prompts and one of my own.


The Long Haul: Great Long Stories that are Worth Every Second
I adore long podfics. I like the little thrill of having something ongoing on my mp3 player that I can really get absorbed by over the course of several days. It's like having a novel that you sneak a chapter of whenever you get a minute, but it fits in your pocket and leaves your eyes and hands free. These are some of my favourites.


Hawks and Hands - 26h30 [mp3][m4b]
reader - issaro
author - dsudis
fandom - due South
The ultimate long story. Such a classic and so massive. I still can't really beleive issaro did this. But beyond the sheer impressiveness of it, the reading is excellent. I was so hooked on this the first time I listened to it that I was inventing boring household tasks for myself so I wouldn't have to stop listening. The characters feel very present in this podfic -- Fraser with his vulnerability and Ray with his frustration, his lack of self-worth and his locker-room bastardized quebécois.
I think there's a couple of other challenges in this story, besides the length, that issaro did a good job of dealing with. There's a lot of shifting back and forth between plot and smut (the summary dsudis gives is "18 sex scenes strung together with angst and hockey.") and I felt she handled the shifts well. The sex is hot and the pace of the plot keeps you wondering what's next. Also, she manages the slangy French, despite not knowing the language, in a way that just makes Ray seem adorably anglophone to me, rather than horribly awkward. If the enormous size of this one has been daunting to anyone, I would really recommend trying it anyway, for me it was 100% worth it.

Red - 7h15 [mp3][m4b]
reader - grrli (and now twasadark)
author - big_pink
fandom - Supernatural
This one gave me creeps in a good way. The reader really captures the crawling tension in this story, the damp and grimy atmosphere of the forest. The shifts in PoV between Sam and Dean are interesting, they each have different personalities as narrators, while in other ways sounding very much the same. Dean is especially good, alternating between snarky and genuinely scared. There were chapters missing when I listened to this fic, as it was apparently lost and recovered incomplete. I loved it anyway, just went and read the text for those parts. However, I see that twasadark has recorded the missing pieces, so you can listen to the whole thing now, which is awesome. I can't wait to re-listen and hear the completed version with her parts in it.

Stealing Harry - 9h29 [mp3][m4b]
reader - revolutionaryjo
author - copperbadge
fandom - Harry Potter
I often listen to podfics before reading the stories in fic form. But I had read the text for this one repeatedly and had very fixed ideas about it going in, and I still completely loved it. I felt that revolutionaryjo did an awesome job of capturing copperbadge's very specific versions Harry, Remus and Sirius. I particularly loved her rendition of Harry, who sounds just like this bookworm kid I know. My one quibble with this podfic is that it's not divided into parts, and my ancient mp3 player only holds 256Mb, so I have to listen to it on my computer.

The Knuckles of the Skinnybone Tree - 3h24 [mp3][m4b]
reader - dodificus
author - hansbekhart
fandom - Supernatural
This one isn't overly long compared to the others, but got me through a long week once and completely took over my brain in the process. Still kinda gives me shivers. dodificus has made a ton of awesome podfics, but this is my favourite. She just ramps up the surreal, suspended quality of hansbekhart's story wonderfully. I think this is also a good example of sound effects and music done well in a podfic. The effects are subtle, well chosen and don't overlap the narration. The intro music to each of the parts is taken from the author's soundtrack for the fic and I think it sets up the atmosphere beautifully. Some might find the clips a little long, but I really liked them. It's not quite the same story without Tom Waits.



Written and Read by:

As much as I adore the concept of people contributing to fandom by reinterpreting other peoples' fics into audio form, I think there's something neat about podfics read by the author of the fic. A different reader brings a new perspective to a story. An author reading their podfic adds another layer to a story they've already told. These are a few examples where I think the author really added something to their story by recording it.

Falling Down With a Pure Heart - 38m [mp3]
written and read by candle_beck
fandom - Baseball RPF
Okay, honestly, anything by candle_beck because while she is a totally kick-ass author in plain text, I think everything she writes is better if you can hear her read it.
I wanted to rec this fic in particular because the anecdotal, second person format could either be totally confusing in audio form or it could totally work. And it totally works. Plus it's just cool to hear how she sounds when she talks about baseball and San Fransisco.
Don't let the baseball throw you off. You absolutely don't need to know who these guys are to enjoy it (I certainly have no clue).


Slippery - 12min [mp3]
written and read by fayjay (pandarus)
fandom - Good Omens
Fayjay's voice is like a naughty thing and she just makes this story exactly the light delicious tease that it should be. Her Crowley and Aziraphale are so spot on. Obviously, she is an excellent reader and I love many many other stories by her, but the way she reads this one makes my taste buds tingle.



This Wartime Morality - 1h20 [mp3]
written and read by black_eyedgirl
fandom - The West Wing
This story is excellent in text and a very fitting AU for this canon, but it's this reading of it that has stuck with me. It's a little hard for me to put my finger on what it is about it that makes it special, though. Maybe it's the theatre aspect of the story that makes it seems so appropriate out loud. At any rate, the reading is fantastic (though I find the volume a little low). black_eyedgirl doesn't do different voices for the characters, and yet somehow manages to make each one of them sound just like themselves. She is so expressive and that's what really makes these versions of the characters real for me. I keep getting reminded of her story and characters when I rewatch the show.


(crossposted from dreamwidth)

Comments

[cybel]

Actually a couple I haven't listened to!

Thanks!

[izzady.livejournal.com]

There are podfics you haven't listened to? Amazing.

Seriously though, glad I could rec you some. You do such awesome work for podficdom.

[cybel]

:-)

Thanks!

[celtic-forest.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking the time! And there are some here I wasn't familiar with - yea!

[izzady.livejournal.com]

Glad you found some you didn't know. This is an awesome fest.

[revolutionaryjo.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the rec! I'm super flattered, especially as someone who really enjoys longfic too. :)

You're not the first to mention wishing it had been broken up into multiple parts. It was just a personal preference for me to put it all into one file, but I think I still have all the individual chapters somewhere. Maybe I'll post an alternate download one of these days.

[izzady.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can totally see how one file could be more convenient in some cases. I just have this dinosaur of a player that I'm too attached to to upgrade. If you had the time someday though, a split up version would be neat. This is definitely a podfic I intend to relisten to!

[akamine_chan]

Hawks and Hands is simply amazing and still one of my favorites, ever.