Category: Fiction

I'm becoming a big fan of audio dramas, or "fiction podcasts" whatever you want to call them, at the moment as they're often an entertaining and easy listen to replace the audiobooks I constantly have in my ears. The latest and greatest of these I've listened recently was The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark, the latest audio drama by Warner Bros and Spotify Studios, the same people that brought you Batman Unburied and Harley Quinn and The Joker; Sound Mind. The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark focuses on another of Batman's anti-heroes, The Riddler. The description on Spotify describes it as: "A masked vigilante is on the loose, murdering notorious super-villains all over Gotham City… and all clues point to the suspect being the Caped Crusader himself, Batman. Now, with…

Audio dramas or fiction podcasts, whatever you want to call them, are a huge part of the podcast space now with some of the larger ones often being seen at the top of the most-listened to lists on any podcast streaming platform. One that really took my eye recently was Ad Lucem by the prolific QCODE who do a great wealth of other fictional podcasts. Ad Lucem is their latest and features a couple of big names to help bring in the audience. But is a well-known cast enough to make this audio drama one worth listening to? Ad Lucem is a science fiction audio drama set in the future where an incredibly smart AI called "Cara" has become a huge part of the way that people interact with one…

The rise of the fictional podcast drama is truly on with many great examples already having been set and new, big-budget series coming out what feels like almost every week. Batman Unburied is the first original podcast drama from DC led by their most-popular hero. It's high budget and it's filled with some big names voicing the characters. Batman Unburied intrigued me for a few reasons: firstly because I'm a big nerd and love all things superheroes, especially Batman. Secondly, it repeatedly popped up in the top list of fictional podcast dramas on Spotify, so I knew I had to listen. My final thoughts are mixed, to say the least. Batman Unburied plot - 4/5 Batman Unburied is a sweeping story that sometimes feels like the writers weren't really sure…

"What's this? A review of a podcast?" I hear you say. "I thought you only really reviewed books?" you continue. Well, Case 63 impressed me so damn much I wanted to write a review about how good it was. Plus, it is just one of many of the fiction podcast genres which has shot to popularity recently with some massive names including DC and Marvel getting involved. If you've never listened to a fictional podcast before, they're not just people reading out a story - they're full productions these days - like you're listening to a film. They have background noises including all the sounds you need to hear to know what the actors are doing. Case 63 was actually advertised to me on the Spotify app when I logged…