Arwen podcast novel

RATING: Three out of Five Sigs

I'm listening to this free podcast novel THE ARWEN, which I got at podiobooks.com. Click on the cover to go to that page. First of all, this is just old-fashioned spaceship scifi, with a tough-as-nails captain (but she has that soft spot for her crew), an ass-kicking first mate, and a supporting staff of experts in their fields. This isn't cutting any new ground on the conceptual level, but I'd forgotten how easy it is to get sucked into a story like this, particularly when it's written as well as Timothy Callahan has written this.

About Callahan. He won a Parsec Award for this. So he can kiss my fat ass. Fuck you, Tim Callahan, I ain't won shit.

Whew, that's better. Got that out of my system. Anyway, good story, the only dings are on the production side. He doesn't have an intro, just rolls into the story. Also, no story so far, so more than a few times I wasn't sure if I was on the right episode. Once my iTunes pooched, and I went from Episode 5 to Episode 16, but didn't know it, and was totally lost. Also, no outro music - the episode just ends, and you're looking at your iPod to see if it's broken. His reading is rushed and I've had to rewind in a few places to keep track. Now I don't know if this is a post-production thing when it was uploaded to podiobooks, because to be blunt, I can't figure out how this won a Parsec when production is supposed to be part of the equation. Maybe it's because the story is so much fun, it trumps the iffy production.

As for the story itself, I'm loving it. Cool cultures, neat plot twists, and a scientist that is almost as big an ass as Angus Kool from EARTHCORE. I'm digging it, and happy to see that there is a Season Two of the Arwen already up at Podiobooks.com.

Oh, and Tim, did I tell you to fuck off? Oh yes, I guess I already did ...