This week, you do get two media posts in a week, because I recently finished reading The Pseudopod Tapes by Alasdair Stuart.  I heard about this book from Alasdair while listening to Escape Pod, and I’m really quite glad that I did, because this book was awesome – I enjoy listening to Pseudopod and the outros make the podcast that much more amazing.

I’ve probably hyped this book a bit more at this point than other stuff I’ve read, so let me really talk about why I liked this book a little more objectively.

First, I like this book as a piece of genre meta-fiction.  I can’t say that there are many books in this field, and so it’s something of a treat to read something non-fiction that is about fiction that I care about.  I think this is why I like listening to the intros and outros of the Escape Artists podcasts in general – the fiction is great, but I also get to hear about what is going on in the genre fiction industry (even if it’s a few years old), how other people perceive the work, and what sorts of cultural references are important to them.  In the case of The Pseudopod Tapes, Alasdair talks about a lot of things that I know of, that resonate with me, and gives me another way to think about genre fiction in general.

The other thing I like about Alasdair’s writing is the edited stream-of-consciousness that he pulls off here.  He starts with a thesis and within just a page or two at most, he’s poked and prodded and drifted into something else, but he leaves it there.  I never felt like he exhausted his topic, or overstayed the time he spent; it was like hearing someone’s thoughts, but not being imposed upon.  When I think of the kind of blog I would want to read, this is it, which I think is why I enjoyed it so much.

Overall, I might hesitate to recommend this to someone if only because of its niche, but if you have interest in genre meta-fiction, or just want to hear Alasdair Stuart in your head for a few days, then this is definitely for you.  I give this book four and a half pseudopod tentacles – wiggly and wriggly, but oh so comfortable.