Literary Community: SFF Podcasts (Part 2)
Jun. 24th, 2015 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThis is the second installment (of an unspecified number) looking at the SFF podcasts I've been following (or at least tasting) in concerted effort to get a broader view of what's going on these days in the field. I'm going through these more or less in the order they appear in in iTunes display, which means starting from the earliest ones I subscribed to and moving forward.
SF Signal
SF Signal is another podcast-blog pairing and, like Skiffy & Fanty, primarily presents author interviews, book reviews, and topical discussions, although the mainstay is interviews. (These two, along with Sword and Laser, and Rocket Talk, are the shows I tend to see as heavily overlapping in content and approach, although each has its own flavor and specialties.) I tend to listen to most episodes of this show, with the previously noted exception of multiply-overlapping guests promoting the same new release. There’s a pretty good gender balance in guests, though I’m sometimes left with a subjective impression of a lot of “guy books” (especially the current fad for epic grim-dark fantasy) but that may be just because I have less interest in them that my perception gets skewed.
Sword and Laser
This show is focused around a book club run through Goodreads and a portion of each show is dedicated to discussing the book of the month, as well as presenting club member feedback and recommendations. They occasionally have guests on the show, but generally not in the author-interview format. The content is varied enough within each show that there’s always something interesting, even if the book of the month isn’t to my taste, and the hosts have a strong sense of format and presentation (and either are incredibly organized or have seamless editing skills). For all these reasons, I listen to pretty much every episode. The hosts are geographically local to me and sometimes host live meet-ups at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, but so far I haven’t managed to get to one. (I’m also a bit hesitant because I don’t participate in the book group and I have no idea how tight a social group it is. As a mere listener, I don’t entirely feel like I’d belong at such a gathering. But you have to take into consideration my own social peculiarities here.)
Speculate!
Speculate! is a departure from the standard “talk show” format and focuses a bit more on analyzing the nuts-and-bolts of writing with a more literary analysis point of view. There are author interviews but not always with the “flavor of the month” author and often as part of a series focusing on that author’s body of work. Given this, the chosen authors are often established and respected writers who have a body of work, rather than newer voices. Another standard feature is roundtable discussions with multiple people in the field on special topics. Although I like the content and format, for various reasons I find myself coming back to this show less often. (For example, when they do one of their three-part series on an author I’m not interested in, that’s a big chunk of episodes to wait out.) The episodes are also often a bit on the longer side (over an hour) which is an awkward length for my standard listening periods.
Rocket Talk
Rocket Talk is one of several podcasts appearing under the tor.com umbrella. (Essentially, one might think of them as "audio columnists".) It very much follows the "talk show" format, with one or more related guests, typically discussing either their own, or someone else's new book release. Also featured are discussions of hot topics on the SFF community and fandom. The gender balance for guests is pretty close to even and the show is pretty good at choosing entertaining speakers (or presenting them in an entertaining way) with only a few clunkers. I listen to pretty much every episode of this show.
* * *
Next week, the last (current) installment on on SFF podcast list, with shows that I've sampled more recently: Midnight in Karachi, Fangirl Happy Hour, The Heroine's Journey, and The Way of the Buffalo. Given my commentary, what other podcasts do you think I should check out?
SF Signal
SF Signal is another podcast-blog pairing and, like Skiffy & Fanty, primarily presents author interviews, book reviews, and topical discussions, although the mainstay is interviews. (These two, along with Sword and Laser, and Rocket Talk, are the shows I tend to see as heavily overlapping in content and approach, although each has its own flavor and specialties.) I tend to listen to most episodes of this show, with the previously noted exception of multiply-overlapping guests promoting the same new release. There’s a pretty good gender balance in guests, though I’m sometimes left with a subjective impression of a lot of “guy books” (especially the current fad for epic grim-dark fantasy) but that may be just because I have less interest in them that my perception gets skewed.
Sword and Laser
This show is focused around a book club run through Goodreads and a portion of each show is dedicated to discussing the book of the month, as well as presenting club member feedback and recommendations. They occasionally have guests on the show, but generally not in the author-interview format. The content is varied enough within each show that there’s always something interesting, even if the book of the month isn’t to my taste, and the hosts have a strong sense of format and presentation (and either are incredibly organized or have seamless editing skills). For all these reasons, I listen to pretty much every episode. The hosts are geographically local to me and sometimes host live meet-ups at Borderlands Books in San Francisco, but so far I haven’t managed to get to one. (I’m also a bit hesitant because I don’t participate in the book group and I have no idea how tight a social group it is. As a mere listener, I don’t entirely feel like I’d belong at such a gathering. But you have to take into consideration my own social peculiarities here.)
Speculate!
Speculate! is a departure from the standard “talk show” format and focuses a bit more on analyzing the nuts-and-bolts of writing with a more literary analysis point of view. There are author interviews but not always with the “flavor of the month” author and often as part of a series focusing on that author’s body of work. Given this, the chosen authors are often established and respected writers who have a body of work, rather than newer voices. Another standard feature is roundtable discussions with multiple people in the field on special topics. Although I like the content and format, for various reasons I find myself coming back to this show less often. (For example, when they do one of their three-part series on an author I’m not interested in, that’s a big chunk of episodes to wait out.) The episodes are also often a bit on the longer side (over an hour) which is an awkward length for my standard listening periods.
Rocket Talk
Rocket Talk is one of several podcasts appearing under the tor.com umbrella. (Essentially, one might think of them as "audio columnists".) It very much follows the "talk show" format, with one or more related guests, typically discussing either their own, or someone else's new book release. Also featured are discussions of hot topics on the SFF community and fandom. The gender balance for guests is pretty close to even and the show is pretty good at choosing entertaining speakers (or presenting them in an entertaining way) with only a few clunkers. I listen to pretty much every episode of this show.
* * *
Next week, the last (current) installment on on SFF podcast list, with shows that I've sampled more recently: Midnight in Karachi, Fangirl Happy Hour, The Heroine's Journey, and The Way of the Buffalo. Given my commentary, what other podcasts do you think I should check out?
