This year's Hugo-nominated stories as podcasts (including the winner!)

Erik sez, "As is their yearly tradition, science fiction short story podcast Escape Pod produced audio versions of all (but one) of the Hugo Award short story nominees. They're all still available to be downloaded through iTunes, or you can listen to them on their website. The nominees included: Distant Replay by Mike Resnick; A Small Room in Koboldtown by Michael Swanwick; Who's Afraid of Wolf 359 by Ken MacLeod; 'Last Contact' by Stephen Baxter (declined to allow his story to be used) and the winner, Tideline by Elizabeth Bear (Thanks, Erik!)

[#1 posted by arkizzle , August 10, 2008 9:57 AM]

I really like Ken MacLeod's work, and it's nice to see him get recognition.. brilliant :)

[#2 posted by tricotomy , August 10, 2008 10:10 AM]

I agree about old red Ken.

And of course everyone knows Stephen Baxter's a d**k

[#3 posted by mikesum32 , August 10, 2008 4:45 PM]

You could always read it yourself.

http://www.solarisbooks.com/books/newbookscifi/last-contact.asp

[#4 posted by togetherless , August 10, 2008 6:40 PM]

I downloaded them in mp3 directly from the site... iTunes not needed.

[#5 posted by minamisan , August 10, 2008 6:45 PM]

maybe Stephen Baxter just doesn't want people to hear his story in audio form. as #3 mikesum pointed out, it's on the Solaris Books site for anyone to read.

from experience, i know there are some great printed stories that just don't work in audio (or film, or other formats) and vice versa.

[#6 posted by Coriander , August 11, 2008 6:13 AM]

Escape Pod is a reliably entertaining, high-quality podcast. I've got a ton of respect for the work Steve Eley's done on it and I totally recommend it.

I wonder why Stephen Baxter didn't want his story read. Escape Pod's featured several well-established print SF names in the past. I did read "Last Contact", and... is it just me, or does the man have a thing for killing the entire human race in his stories?

[#7 posted by mgfarrelly , August 11, 2008 7:36 AM]

This is lovely, thanks for posting this Cory.

I think the Baxter story would be wonderful as a radio play with two female actresses. It's a haunting story.

[#8 posted by Jeff , August 11, 2008 8:16 AM]

I enjoy some of Baxter's stuff. But I would think that most writers would want their work to be included in the audio list so more people would get be expossed to the piece. Everone knows that a writer needs expossure! Maybe he's like me and figures that a good actor/reader can bring a story to life, and a not-so-great actor/reader can kill a story. Just murder it! Like what's-his-face did with Wicked. And a good actor takes money, and maybe his publisher didn't want to pay.

[#9 posted by eustace , August 11, 2008 8:06 PM]

Alas, I cannot summon up the will to download these, transfer them to my MP3 player, and then find time listen to them; and trying to get ebook files to display in my palm pilot is a nightmare. Man, if someone would only put these on paper, using, say, ink; I could just carry it around without effort. This may be a marketable idea, or did someone already try this?