My audio fiction milestones post is back after last month’s break! It includes some new shows that launched during August, as well as shows returning for new seasons, and season finales. As always, this list isn’t a comprehensive one of everything out there, but I’ve tried to include all the relevant shows I listened to during the month of August.
Debuts
RADIO: Outcast
RADIO: Outcast is a new fantasy Western, set in 1887. In the three ‘episode 0’s which are currently available, we’re introduced to the story’s main characters – conman Charles, cowboy Jesse, and Helix, the Messenger God of Sound. Helix is struck down from the heavens, and sent back to 1887 as a punishment from her ex, The God of Time. At this point in the story, she’s yet to meet Charles or Jesse (unlike her ex, who appears in Charles’ episode), but the story promises an adventure across the American West.
Solar Postal Services
Solar Postal Services is a new queer sci-fi show, which follows employees of an interplanetary postal system. In episode one, we meet ship mechanic Jam, who prefers reading people’s mail to actually visiting the planets their ship docks at. Three episodes are currently available, and they provide some interesting world-building details about this universe, and the different planets’ cultures and languages.
RPG: Realms of Peril and Glory
RPG: Realms of Peril & Glory is a new actual play from the creative team behind The Orphans. The first season is titled ‘Vael’, and is played using the 13th Age system. In this modern fantasy world, we meet our four player characters, who come from different backgrounds. They all have one thing in common though, the strange visions that they all keep having, which leads them all to meet at the city’s clocktower at the end of episode one.
Halfmoon Chronicles
In November 1999, a group of four friends go to the rural town of Halfmoon, Massachusetts, to make a documentary. Halfmoon Chronicles follows them as they record everything for the documentary; with four pre-departure interviews introducing us to each of the characters, which also some hints as to what the team is doing in Halfmoon, without spoiling what exactly they’re going to be investigating. It’s in the first full episode that we find out that it’s one of the most haunted places in the world, which has seen many mysterious deaths and disappearances – too many for a town of its size.
Weaver
The first two episodes of Weaver were released last month, in which we met Lorna, the narrator. She’s been alone in her house for a long time, and is talking to a Helena, who isn’t there. At the end of the first episode, two newcomers arrive, and start making the house their own. It’s a strange co-existence, in a poignant story about isolation, love, and the importance of storytelling.
To Starlight We Come
To Starlight We Come is a sci-fi whodunnit, and this first episode gives me slight early-Wolf 359 vibes. Kadiatou N’Diaye was a thief who stole from the ultra-rich, until she got caught. A suspected betrayal from her crew led to her being given a new form of punishment – she was made to work on a space station. She, and other prisoners, are given the jobs nobody else wants, and she’s generally happy enough being left alone and getting on with it. That is, until a body is found, and Kadiatou is suspected of being the murderer. This leads to her trying to figure out who it is, which is surprisingly difficult in the enclosed space she’s in.
Grimwell County
Grimwell County is a new Western horror from Gabriel Alvarez, the creator of Starcalled, who not only writes, does the excellent sound design, composes the music etc etc for the show, but also plays five (!!) characters in the show’s first full episode. Set in Texas, something’s lurking in the swamps outside the town of Grimwell, hunting down people who find themselves out there during the night. Vigilante Deacon Langley has heard some of the stories, and has travelled to Grimwell County on the back of his horse, on Covenant business to discover what’s really going on.
New Seasons
Creep
The detective microfiction Creep is back for its second season, and following the events of season one, Miami has been kidnapped. June and Sasha are on the road with both him and the painting they acquired in the season one finale, and are on their way back to Miami. It turns out that the two weren’t exactly honest about the planned heist, but what do they plan to do when they arrive in Miami?
Mockery Manor
Three years have passed since Mockery Manor‘s season one finale, and we’re now in the early 90s – complete with very early 90s music! We’re introduced to Dunkelschloss in Germany, a fairy-tale theme park, and it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that it already has some seriously creepy vibes. The first two episodes of this second season provide some details as to what happened since we last saw JJ and Bette, but there are a lot of questions to be answered – such as how and why JJ ended up in Tokyo, and with such a desperate need to escape the country.
Forgive Amelia
Forgive Amelia is a three-part crossover miniseries from The Amelia Project and Forgive Me!, and is set before Amelia’s first season. There are a lot of questions as to what exactly the Interviewer, Alvina, and Amelia are doing in Father Ben’s neck of the woods, and why they so desperately need to confess to him, and slowly pieces of the puzzle are put together. The two shows blend together effortlessly, while also giving us some new details about the characters and their backgrounds.
The Night Post
The Night Post returned for its second season, after the big season one finale. There’s a new perspective this season, as the events of season one have led to our three couriers being separated, now working at different stations. As the story continues, this new situation allows for more interesting world-building details, and a deeper understanding of the Night Post, and the world in which the pigeons deliver the post.
Season Finales
The Mountain’s Heart
I’m a big fan of MJ Bailey’s work, so it was a bittersweet feeling when The Mountain’s Heart came to an end after almost a year and a half. Over the course of the series, we follow Felisa as she visits family in the Philippines, the first visit after an accident she sustained a few years prior. It’s a difficult and emotional journey for Felisa, which completely changes her outlook on life and her family. It’s a truly beautiful and poignant ending, which leaves us with hope for her future.
Retribution
The four-part historical fiction Retribution ran from mid-July to mid-August, and it revolves around a small town in the American West which has been going through a long drought – and more specifically, it focuses on one of the characters in this small town. Willow, an unmarried woman, has been pregnant for around the same amount of time as the drought has lasted, and people in the town are blaming the weather on her. The story leads up to a tense finale – and (spoilers!) the return of the rains.
The Silt Verses
I really enjoyed the first season of The Silt Verses, and it built up to a truly superb season finale that I haven’t stopped thinking about since. It’s the conclusion of Faulkner and Carpenter’s pilgrimage, our two devotees of the river god the Trawler Man. These two, who have been opposites to each other for the entirety of their journey, two facets of the same faith, reach a conclusion that they’ve both brought onto themselves. It’s a gripping season finale, providing such powerful imagery of this outlawed god and the hold that he still has on the world.
Midnight Burger
Midnight Burger has been a fairly recent discovery for me, after I’d seen an increasing amount of hype for it, especially on Reddit – which it absolutely lives up to. It’s an extremely interesting season finale, and a completely different episode to the rest of the season. It answers some questions, creates even more questions, and it felt like an appropriate end to this first season. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what happens next when season two returns in November.
Palimpsest
Palimpsest’s fourth season is a story told by Ash, of Mobley Building and Renovation. The company has been contracted to renovate a house which had previously been abandoned for years, and Ash makes a series of recordings to document the progress they’re making on it. We gradually discover that the house is hiding some big secrets, leading up to a gruesome discovery towards the end of the season. It’s a very effective use of an unreliable narrator, which makes the season’s ending even more shocking.
We Fix Space Junk – Marilyn’s Diary
I was very excited to see the return of We Fix Space Junk, with their second Marilyn’s Diary miniseason. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Marilyn, and we know that she’s been up to something during that time. Some big things. This is the cumulation of at least the first part of her big plan, as she travels back to her home planet of Gontano – where she’s never physically been before. It’s a very satisfying end to her journey, but this doesn’t come without some shocks. It’s going to be very interesting to see what effects her actions will have on the wider Automnicon universe, when the show returns for its next full season.
A Sky Full of Pods 