#mirrors podcast

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

#Mirrors #Mirrors Podcast #poll #fiction #sci fi #horror

[c-schroed]

Podcasts I Adore - SPINES

This week, I finished the last Episode of the "Mirrors" podcast by ZoomDoom Stories. Which means that I have now heard all of their marvellous productions. And now I feel this need to tell everyone what great stuff they make! Meaning that I'll write some reviews for all the three podcasts they produced and post them on iTunes et al., but before I post them there, I might as well leave the reviews here. So, tune in for some rambling about three audio fiction productions that range from "very good but sadly incomplete" to "so very fricking close to perfection that I really can't call it anything but DARN PERFECT". We'll start with the DARN PERFECT one:

"Listen again: Grove. Mosaic. Trumpet. Listen, and remember. Because those three words, those are the most important words in the world. This is SPINES."

"SPINES" is a fictional audio drama, which, like all productions of ZoomDoom Stories, is written by Jamie Killen, and congenially so. It is told in the form of podcasts made by its protagonist, a young woman who named herself Wren. At the beginning of the story, Wren seeks to find out what happened in a bloody ritual that she barely survived, and which left her without any memories of her past life, but with supernatural powers that she slowly has to explore.

Think "X-Men" meets "Supernatural", with a nice dash of Lovecraftian atmosphere and some sweet bits of Cronenberg-esque body horror. "SPINES" is a truly unique experience, and it clearly is one of the best stories I ever heard. What I love most about it is that it perfectly understands and respects the strengths and limitations of the medium it chose to be told in: Podcasts enable a very intimate way of storytelling, and the very talented voice actor playing Wren just perfectly allowed me to quickly grow attached to her and everyone around her. Wren has lovely quirks like naming every informant that reaches out to her after characters of anime shows she just watched, she has to deal with terrible situations and huge losses, and she is granted one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever heard.

And being told in the form of a podcast really helps the story to flesh out Wren. She comments the stories she tells in clear and unfiltered language and often directly addresses her audience. We, the listeners, also know exactly who this audience is. Besides people that are similarly gifted as Wren, most of the episodes are addressed to Zachary, a man she quickly saw during the ritual that started everything, and whom she since then feels weirdly attracted to.

Of course, telling a story in the form of a podcast also entails some limitations, and "SPINES" respects and works with these limitations better than any other audio fiction I have heard so far. The show's author Jamie Killen is very aware how information is told when broadcast into the public, which makes "SPINES" an all the more fascinating listening experience. For instance, huge changes in the status quo are often announced right at the beginning of an episode, because when something important happens that has to be told immediately, than why wait until it slowly unfolds in the narrative? A broadcast is not necessarily about suspense; it sometimes is much more about giving the important info right away, and then adding all the details. Furthermore, Wren is very careful with the information she shares, and often leaves out details that might help her enemies too much. Details like these make "SPINES" very special; it is one of the most thought-out and self-aware productions I know.

The second best thing that I love about "SPINES" is how each of its three seasons has its very own feel and atmosphere. Season one feels a lot like an urban fantasy version of "Supernatural", with Wren, on her quest for the truth about the ritual, encountering urban legends and terrible secrets scattered everywhere across the city she lives in. Season two, on the other hand, involves a lot of changes, and feels much more like a late-80s action show, with Wren being sent to different places from week to week; hopefully helping the people there with whatever supernatural catastrophe is going on, very much like a MacGyver or an A-Team. But with superpowers, and with more ghastly antagonists. Season three finally is characterized much more by urgency and emergency, with Wren and her allies always being forced to react to an enemy that they can never allow themselves to underestimate.

What also impresses me greatly is that every season ends with a perfect equilibrium of frustration and hope. There's always some kind of terrible catastrophe, but this terror is balanced out with something equally beautiful, making Wren never the triumphant heroine she might deserve to be, but giving her just enough hope to go on. I admit it; sometimes this kind of ending is too close to home for me, sometimes I'd just direly want Wren to win, and live happily ever after, period. But on the other hand, this masterful balance is what will always keep this story in the back of my mind, and close to my heart.

One final thing I want to mention, and I'll make it quick this time: Besides being a nail-biting story about fascinating superpowers and secret societies that worked among us for centuries already (which are depicted in the most realistic way I have ever seen!), "SPINES" is also a perfectly wholesome love story. I know I already mentioned this some paragraphs before, but I really can't stress enough HOW DARN WHOLESOME this love story is!

So. "SPINES" is the perfect combination of urban fantasy, horror, and romance. It has a perfectly fleshed-out narrator, played by an incredibly talented voice actor, and it masterfully uses the possibilities of its medium. To me, "SPINES" is close to perfection, and its very few flaws should stop no-one from giving it a try. As long as one likes horror, of course. The show can get quite drastic, from time to time.

10 out of 10 points. Sheer perfection. And a lifelong love for Wren and Shan and Winry. And Akira, and Bilal (because who would not want the literal perfect moment as a friend?). And all the others.

Besides my general opinion about the show, I'd also like to go into detail regarding three episodes that I find especially noteworthy. All of them are part of Season 3, so please be aware of minor spoilers.

Season 3, Episode 6 (Episode 22 overall): The Trade

This is my favourite episode. It marks the second time that the narrator of an episode changes to Shan, whom I adore at least as much as Wren, and it might have one of the most dramatic beginnings of all episodes. But what really makes this episode stand out is how well-thought its time-travel plot is. It makes perfect sense, and it involves my favourite temporal paradox, the bootstrap paradox (I you don't know it, go look it up; it's so much cooler than some poor dead grandpa). Plus we get to know a supernatural brothel in Vienna. Which I didn't even know I desperately wanted to hear about, until I heard about it. But now I need a spin-off about Ilsa and her Gifted courtesans. :D

Season 3, Episodes 2 & 3 (Episodes 18 & 19 overall): Iris, Part 1 & 2

There's much about this two-part episode that I really love, be it that it gives satisfying answers that I wanted to hear for a long, long time, be it that we're given a very credible reason for this story being split into two parts (once more, "SPINES" shows how perfectly well it is aware of its podcast medium). So I really, really wanted to like these episodes. But still, they turn out as some episodes that I really have trouble with. This might maybe due to me being not a native English speaker, but I have terrible problems with understanding the narrator of these episodes. So if you, like me, have problems with listening comprehension during this episode, please be reminded that there are transcripts of each episode. Although they currently can only be reached via archive.org's ever-so-useful Wayback Machine.

2019 New Year's Special:

This is a crossover with "Mirrors", another marvellous audio drama made by ZoomDoom Stories. And because I listened to this right after finishing the final episode of "SPINES", I did not know that it contains some major spoilers for at least the first season of "Mirrors". Furthermore, the events at the end of the episode play an important role in the third season of "Mirrors", but that's not that important in my opinion. But should you not know "Mirrors" by now and maybe want to listen to it later (which, again in my humble opinion, YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD!), then maybe listen to this New Year's Special after finishing "Mirrors" season one.

The episode itself was a bit of a disappointment for me, if I'm honest. Both "SPINES" (in at least one episode; i. e. episode 22: "The Trade") and "Mirrors" usually deal perfectly with all matters related to time-travel and temporal paradoxes; to me they really are a paragon of how to tell stories that involve different interacting timelines. So the way that time-travel is treated here is just disappointing to me. Don't get me wrong, please. It still is a perfectly entertaining episode. It's lovely to hear more from Wren and Shan, and it is hilarious to hear about the events in "Mirrors" from their perspective. But as to the time-travel aspect, well, I'm spoilt by now. I'm used to it being told so much better than here, with much less paradox narration. So this special might be the biggest flaw in both series. I mean, I'd still give it 7 out of 10 points. So that says more about how fabulous the rest of "SPINES" and "Mirrors" is.

#SPINES #SPINES podcast #Mirrors podcast #ZoomDoom Stories #Jamie Killen #audio fiction #podcast #podcast review #horror #science fiction #urban fantasy #bootstrap paradox #bootstrap paradox is the best paradox #c-schroed has an opinion #schroed's thoughts

[spacecoffeeandcartoons]

It's the third day of Podmas, and today I've got a review for Mirrors -- it wrapped up a few years back, but Rook recommended it to me and it was so worth the listen! I love genre-blendy stuff, and this is a ghost story, a time travel story, and sci-fi all in one!

#12daysofpodmas #audio drama #mirrors podcast #fiction podcast #podcast recommendations

[thevoidcannotbefilled]

What if a ghost gave you their DNA and now your granddaughter can time travel and teleport

This is the plot of Mirrors podcast

#mirrors podcast #mirrors podcast spoilers #this show is very intellectual but also

[bastardraccooon]

more people need to listen to mirrors podcast asap i NEED to talk about it PLEASE if you love women and wonky time stuff listen to mirrors

#mirrors podcast

[thewordsinthevoid]

Binged mirrors podcast over like 3 days and i didnt know if they were gonna stick the landing but by god did chapter 23 give us the climax we needed and then THE CHAPTER 24 ENDING HAD ME SCREAMING

#MATILDA GOT HER FUCKING JUSTICE #mirrors podcast

[wellhellotello]

Wait, so if Mirrors and Spines take place in the same time line how does one lead to Z’s future and the other leads to Wrens? Like where do they diverge?

#mine #mirrors podcast #spines podcast #zoomdoom stories #zoom doom stories #i have questions

[emberdune]

i love you non-linear time. i love you bootstrap paradox. i love you higher dimensional entities.

#im listening to #mirrors podcast #and its so neat

[irisbellemoon]

Spines and Mirrors exist in the same universe?!?!!!!?

#spines podcast #mirrors podcast #just listened to the crossover #im.......

[apileofwizardbooks]

good fucking lord juno. what the fuck.

#words covered in moss #tpp #the penumbra podcast #tpp spoilers #the penumbra spoilers #juno steel #yeah i listened to both episodes yesterday #this paragraph just about broke my heart neatly in two #crazy how juno was just some guy the first time i listened to tpp but then on my relisten #he became just like me fr #fuck offff with your guilt and overcoming feelings of worthlessness (<== said looking at a mirror) #something something #postmodern recurring dream #this is literally what that was about #aaauagahayaghagh #mecore #i guess

[c-schroed]

New Podcast One-Shots Written By Jamie Killen

If you, like me, are a huge fan of the podcasts "Spines" and "Mirrors" but, unlike me, do not read the Email-newsletter of Jamie Killen, the author of these gorgeous podcasts, than Gosh do I have good news for you:

There’s more!

There's at least a lovely little bit of new content, in the form of four standalone contributions to anthology-style podcasts. I'll go present all four of them, with a short review of each:

"Echoes" ("Hidden Signal" Podcast by QCode, Season 2 Episode 1)

A new technology enables people to access the memories and personalities of their ancestors. A young woman uses this technology to interview an infamous murderer, who was her great-great-grandmother.

This is my absolute favourite of the four! I don't want to get too much into detail, but the whole story has perfect "Mirrors" vibes for me, mainly because it is another marvellously told story of transgenerational female support. 8 out of 10 points.

"Pinnacle" ("Hidden Signal" Podcast by QCode, Season 2 Episode 2)

A young woman tries a new app to improve her nutrition and eventually become her best self. But the things she has to do are… curiouser and curiouser.

This has such a marvellous "The Magnus Archives" feeling to it! A classical downward spiral plot, but the end refrechingly defies the usual stereotypes of this kind of stories. Instead it's a lovely little bit of social commentary and criticism of capitalism that I still find myself thinking about from time to time. 8 out of 10 points.

"Into the Hills" ("Stories from: The Low Season" Project by Wolf at the Door Studios and Poolside, Episode 1)

A collection of mission reports from an expedition to a foreign world documents a medical emergency situation that goes increasingly out of hand.

Given the dramatic story, I find this tale surprisingly soothing. It's rather short and lovely to listen to. 7 out of 10 points.

"Behind the Hatch" ("Dust" Podcast by Gunpowder & Sky, Special Episode)

A young woman is interviewed after an incident at a research facility. Her job was to get behind a hatch. But she never remembered what happened there. Until she started to find secret messages.

Aww, this is frustrating! Such a marvellously told story, with perfect suspense, but the end falls so darn short. I wish there would have been more to it, but the way it is, it's my biggest disappointment of the four. It's still worth a listen, but maybe brace yourselves for an unsatisfying ending. 6 out of 10 points.

#jamie killen #zoomdoom stories #spines podcast #mirrors podcast #the six disappearances of ella mccray #hidden signal #hidden signal podcast #qcode #stories from the low season #the low season #poolside #wolf at the door studios #dust podcast #gunpowder & sky #podcast #podcast recommendations #schroed's thoughts

[catwyk]

huh. there's something on my face

#i kinda hate this #dont look at it too long lol #the silt verses #tsv #tsv 39 #tsv fanart #the silt verses fanart #tsv angel #glass angel #the silt verses glass angel #perspective #mirror #mirror art #podcast fanart #tsv podcast #lineless art #lineless #pale #semirealism #semi realistic #blood #a little #tw blood #sure yeah ill trigger tag that #art #my art #fanart #digital art #digital painting #medibang

[lettuce-king]

I feel like wwdits is a show written to be in the worst timeline. Its like the characters choose all the wrong options. There were so many options, so many ways things could've gone and these characters continue to surprise us by choosing the dumbest, the most rediculous, the absolute worst options.

#wishing for your coffin to close for you once instead of wishing to be able to eat human food or go out into the sun unharmed? #covering all the mirrors with rags instead of just painting over them or breaking them when you're on the run hiding your vampiric identify #telling your family you haven't seen in 10 years that you were working for a popup Panera bread at the rail roads instead of just saying- #that you got a better more stable job? #being able to resurrect anyone and only chosing to do podcasts and interviews instead of bringing back preformers #they're all idiots your honor #wwdits #what we do in the shadows #guillermo de la cruz #nandor the relentless #laszlo cravensworth #nadja of antipaxos #wwdits guillermo #nandor wwdits #wwdits nadja #wwdits laszlo #i mean-Jackie Daytona

[seeminglydark]

‘I wasn’t allowed to watch scary things, so I told one of the stories my childhood best friend and neighbor told me. The one about the girl in the mirror.

But the thing is, when he would tell me these stories, I would cover my ears and squeal and giggle and miss half the tale, so I wasn’t sure on the specifics of WHY there was a girl in the mirror. I just knew there was one. And supposedly, you could evoke her to appear, covered in blood, by saying her name three times in the mirror in the dark.

You know this story. Everyone has some version of this story.

So I told it.’

(Tw cartoon blood warning below the jump)

(Mary is from my horror fiction podcast, Mil-Liminal, episode 4, found wherever you listen)

#original characters #bloody mary #ghost stories #horror podcasts #I love her so much I had to draw her #urban legends #mil-liminal podcast #ghosts #mirrors #blood

[reliand]

The Mirror of Ecidyrue by Starbrigid

All it takes is one look in a mirror and an ill-advised attempt to shatter it, before an embittered Draco Malfoy fresh out of Azkaban is sent back into his body on the day he gets his Hogwarts letter.

It's been a year since I started making art again, and this fic was the instigator for awakening inspiration in me again. In this piece, a twelve-year-old Draco who is still desperately afraid of ruining a future where Harry wins, and is being held back by his older self from the blue loop. This younger version is how a picture Draco in book 2, The Heir of Slytherin, when he's growing out his hair to emulate Snape.

#draco malfoy #harry potter #the mirror of ecidyrue #drarry #I started making this forever ago and decided I needed to finish it for Halloween #i just started recording book 4 which means I'll be posting book 1 soon as my very first podcast soon \o/ #my art #my artwork

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hey. Could you rec any podcasts with sapphic couples as their mains? Or a sapphic story. And so on. I only really know about where the stars fell and Alice isn't dead.

You're off to a strong start. Here's 20, there's more out there, but I tried to pick a variety. I'm going to put a ★ next to the ones I think will fit best, but they're all good.

Arden: (Fictional "True Crime", Investigative, Comedy). On the 25th of December, 2007, heiress and young actress Julie Capsom crashed her car into a tree and fled into a nearby forest clearing, leaving a trail that seemingly vanished into thin air, and a dismembered torso in the trunk. A decade later, Bea, the first reporter on the scene, and Brenda, a detective on the case, are hosting a true crime podcast about it, and neither is remotely impressed with what the other has to say. Arden is also a retelling of various Shakespeare plays.

The Author's Anathema: (Horror) Looking for some extra cash, and with some help from her girlfriend Eleanor, college student Natalie takes a small job to narrate an audiobook for a reclusive anonymous author. The book being a horror wouldn't be such a bother, but the stories within are... Familiar. Too familar.

The Beacon: (Urban Fantasy) Bee is a perpetually anxious university student who discovers she has the ability to create fire, and decides to start a podcast to find others like herself. She quickly discovers she's not alone, but a series of bizzare animal attacks suggest superpowered freshers are far from the only strange thing on campus.

The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio: (Weird Fiction, Horror, Sci-Fi) On day one of a new job at the Department of Variance, in the middle of her workplace orientation, Jasmine's new workplace goes into lockdown. Guided via walkie-talkie by Scarlet, an experienced security officer, Jasmine must make her way down 20-odd shifting floors of strange entities and experiments. Ideally without becoming one of them. As a disclaimer, this one is the only addition to this list that isn't actively romantic yet, however there are canonically sapphic characters, and I am fairly confident it's headed that way.

★ Elixir: (Urban Fantasy, Romance) Set in a fantasy world's equivalent of the american prohibition, lawmakers daughter Elsie approaches someone unexpected in search of her missing sister: Vera, an alchemist and propriator of the local now-elicit hush bar.

The Far Meridian: (Magical Realism) An agorophobic young woman wakes up to discover her lighthouse home has moved overnight. It quickly becomes clear this isn't a once-off, and she decides to use this as an opportunity to search for her missing brother, having some strange encounters along the way.

Interference: (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance) Jacq is a D&D podcaster. Geneva is an orc scientist studying ancient human ruins the next world over. What happens when these women from different realities begin picking up each other's broadcasts?

Khôra Podcast: (Sci-Fi) Somewhere between adapted from and inspired by various greek myths, Khôra follows four women who deserved better (Atalanta, Echo, Medea, and Medusa) on a grand space adventure to find the golden fleece while keeping out of the reach of the olympians who own and run the galaxy.

★ Mabel: (Mystery, Supernatural, Horror, Romance). The live-in carer of a dying elderly woman attempts to contact her granddaughter, with little success. The contents of voicemails only get stranger, and what starts as a subtley creepy mystery-horror develops to poetic lesbian fae body-horror.

★ Midnight Radio: (Light Supernatural, Romance). Sybil McIntyre, host of the ever-popular 1950's nightly radio hour, begins exchanging letters with an old fan who has reluctantly returned to visit Sybil's beloved town.

Mina's Story: (Sci-Fi, Romance Elements) Still dealing with a major loss in her family, a young woman volunteers for a long-term cryonics project. The episodes are her audio logs after waking up each time, always the same place but centuries after she went to sleep. A story about grief, change, and the intersection of past and future.

Mirrors: (Sci-fi, Mystery, Supernatural). The audio journal of three women from different periods (past, present, and future) who seem to share little in common bar the strange inhuman, ghostly figures they have started seeing.

Night Life: (Supernatural, Noir) Utterly wacky one-episode story (more of a short audio movie) about an ex-vampire hunter turned private eye who finds herself dealing with the shenanigans of mafia and vampires in the wake of an upcoming mayoral election. Find it on the feed for The Lightning Bottler.

The Night Post: (Supernatural, Mystery). The conscripted couriers of Gilt City are both respected and shunned, integral to the city's function, but inexplicably tied to the supernatural. It's not something they like to talk about. When his husband goes missing on the job, Milo is called to take over. Clementine took over from her father a long time ago, yet recently someone else with her face has been delivering her own unsent letters. Val's not going to discuss how she ended up there, but she will absolutely open people's mail (filled with their own supernatural tales) to read aloud.

Palimpsest, Season 2: (Horror, Romance, Fantasy Elements). Set in the 1800s, a young woman becomes the maid to a supposed fairy noblewoman, who is being kept as one of many "denizens", living curiousities, in a large house. Each season is a different story, this is Season 2.

★ The Pasithea Powder: (Sci-Fi, Thriller?) The last major interplanetary war was full of atrocities, but none more infamous then the creation of Pasithea Powder, a memory altering drug which was used to horrible effect and landed it's entire team of creators in prison. So when decorated war hero Captain Sophie Green sees one of them wandering free, worlds away from his prison, she gets in touch with a very old, estranged friend: one Dr. Jane Gonzalez, who's behind bars for the very same reason.

Starship Q Star: (Sci-Fi, Comedy) The small crew of a tone-deaf space agency's attempt at a PR mission wake up at Mars to discover that they - and the one botanist abandoned on Mars base - are now the last surviving members of humanity. Co-captains and ex-girlfriends Aurelia and Sim must now dedicate themselves to protecting their crew and finding a new home, but they're rarely on the same page about how best to do it.

★ The Strange Case of Starship Iris: (Sci-Fi) When the shuttle carrying the crew of scientific research ship Iris explodes, Violet Liu finds herself stranded in space, the last survivor with no way out. Until her emergency broadcast is picked up by a passing ship. But the crew aren't who they seem to be, there's more going on here than anyone knows yet, and Violet must decide who she can really trust.

Unwell: (Supernatural). Lily Harper revisits her supposedly haunted childhood home to help take care of her aging mother. The house is weird, sure, but there's something far stranger haunting the town of Mount Absolm than simply ghosts.

Weaver: (Supernatural, Romance Elements). The musings of the entity within the old house about the girl she fell in love with (the only thing she can remember), and her two new coinhabitants, who do not yet know she exists.

#audio drama #█████ posts #podcast #recommendations #arden #the beacon #the author's anathema #the department of variance of somewhere ohio #elixir #the far meridian #interference #khôra podcast #mabel #midnight radio #mina's story #mirrors #night life #the night post #palimpsest #the pasithea powder #starship q star #the strange case of starship iris #unwell #weaver