Playing for Keeps: Mur Lafferty's science fiction superhero podcast
Cmdln sez, "Podcaster and author Mur Lafferty launches her first full length novel today. 'It tells the story of Keepsie Branson, a bar owner in the shining metropolis of Seventh City: birthplace of super powers. Keepsie and her friends live among egotistical heroes and manipulative villains, and manage to fall directly in the middle as people with powers, but who just aren't strong enough to make a difference. Or that's what they've been told. As the city begins to melt down, it's hard to tell who are the good guys and who are the bad.'
"Lafferty is releasing the novel in two different formats: audio podcast and a PDF released with each episode, including that episode's chapters, an original cover design, and links to hidden easter egg files. She's also allowing a handful of fans to create derivative works within a fan-produced podcast, Stories of the Third Wave, also available in the main Playing For Keeps Experience feed."
Mur was one of my Viable Paradise students a couple years ago, and I workshopped Playing for Keeps with her. I was really impressed with it and I'm so excited to see that she's releasing it! Can't wait to (re)read it. Link (Thanks, Cmdln!)
See also:
Mur Lafferty's Heaven: free audiobook of existential comedy
Lafferty's new podiobook: Earth (Heaven, part 3)
Anthology of podcast sf stories launches
the latest
latest episodes
The first portion is a good read, but the author seems more enamored with the various podcasts, feeds, and subscriptions than simply making the story available.
For those of us who read more quickly than your average second-grader, this is going to be mind-numbingly dull.
If the author wants the novel out there for free, just do it without all the hoopla.
Another superhero based podcast is the "Secret World Chronicle." In it's second season already, this podcast follows a group of heroes as they battle against a group of robotic nazis. It's highly enjoyable.
feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/secretworldchronicle/
Dave x:
There are lots of reasons people like to listen to books rather than read them. I for one listen while I work and I appreciate every chance I get to hear good fiction on my ipod.
sam,
i don't think that was the cruxt of david's comment. i think he meant the "content" is buried/hard to get to. which i agree. thank god for podiobooks.com
ms. lafferty seems to be a boingboing regular. perk of attending/survining cory's workshop ;-) ?
though my all time favorite podcast authors are mike bennett, scott sigler, and phil rossi. (one among the sleepless, ancestor, and crescent are three very different novels that totally rock). these authors/books are intense and on a different level than ml's lighter fare. i will still give this a shot.
i lost interest in her heaven series about half-way through. but her style is light and a easy listen/read as david x commented and i'm curious to see how she fares with a whole novel.
her essays are always enjoyable.
Katherine is right. I don't have any problem with audio books on the whole-- while I don't care to listen to people read to me, I know that others enjoy it. My issue is definitely how buried the content is, and also that it's being dribbled out a little bit at a time.
As nearly as I can tell, this novel is fully written, so it's not as though we're reading it as it is created-- and nor is it seeming particularly formatted to be experienced as a true serial.
That makes me wonder why it's being released in this manner, and the only reason I can think of is to increase the amount of times we engage in some fashion with the site. Stats, track-ability, page views, subscribers... this is less an act of true generosity than an opportunity to gather data about a readership.
davie x,
to that end, as far as "dooping" the listening public, I don't think that's accurate. that just seems to be the current model of doing things. as i said, there are quite a few authors (and quite a few bad ones) that have gone this route before and have released parts weekly. some people like it.
for me. i like it and i don't like it. with book's like crescent, while the episodes are extremely satifisfying in and of themselves you are dying by the time the next one is released. at the same time, i love having something to look forward to in the podcatcher.
also. it enables me to listen to a lot of different content.
some people just wait for the complete book to be out there and *bang* download it at once.
but i don't think the serialization is a dupe or meant for readership data. at least, that is *my* perception. i could be wrong. at least i'm cute.
as per the issue of generosity, that is wholly subjective. i'm sure the author's don't hope for a null return on the effort it takes to put something out there for free (that is if they worked hard on it).
okay
back to work.
good discussion!
i was just told that duping is spelled well, duping.
Yes it is Katherine. And "Davie" would be the other obvious misspelling as well.
It's actually spelled "Dave X," but you're close.
BB readers have seen a lot from Cory about the positive aspects of allowing novels their freedom, aside from the opportunity to gather statistics about their readers. Indeed, he seems to offer the impression that such stats are actually sort of rare-- but that the model works, driving word-of-mouth sales, etc.
Thanks for all the comments. Dave X, rest assured I'm not collecting any information from any reader/listener. You can download through a click, or subscribe; either way you get the content and I don't get any personal info at all. All I know is that a file was downloaded. (if you use podiobooks.com, I get none of your registration info - that's all for podiobooks.com to create your account.)
I'd love some suggestions on how to "unbury" the content; feel free to email me if you have any ideas.
Thanks again.
Dave X and Katherine E,
I agree that both of you have valid points, the intros were long,and I was always wanting more and couldn't wait until the next episode.
Still - Mur Lafferty is providing us a FREE novel, (and PDF versions) so I am willing to deal with the intro's.
Thank you Cory, this story got me interested in the podiobook scene.
And for those who didn't like it being broken up into pieces, you will be able to read it in it's entirety when it becomes available from amazon on aug.25