roguemaker
Humans and an alien population from the planet Tand live peacefully together in space and enjoy their extraterrestrial existence: they go to the rings of Saturn for a glass of wine, to the Sirius Spa and Station Resort for a music competition. The English-language sci-fi radio play “Roguemaker” takes place in this lovingly thought-out universe – which has its own website that explains everything, and not without reason. crew and passengers Plutonic Flight 999, the space equivalent of a cheap flight, have to flee into escape pods shortly after takeoff because the engines break down. Cut off from the outside world, they are waiting for the rescue crew – and they are all suspected of having sabotaged the flight. An exciting space chamber play unfolds, in which the passengers gradually reveal their true characters in soliloquies and dialogues, interrupted by futuristic audio advertising. Lilly Brosowsky
earth sea
The sound is full: We recommend listening to this radio play adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s fantasy bestseller with headphones because of the spatial sound. WDR has announced two seasons, each with six episodes, and the first is now available. In flashbacks, Jörg Schlueter stages how Ged, a magician from the island kingdom, and Tenar, a high priestess from the kingdom of Kargad, find each other. In the beginning, the two are still facing each other on two sides of a front that separates this fantasy world – and both of them also need a character maturation before they are suitable for heroes. They manage to put a ring back together that is supposed to finally bring peace to Earth, so this world from another time is supposed to return to a kind of innocent original state. But this is not easy, fights and dangers have to be overcome, and that on the basis of insufficient knowledge of deep secrets influencing the fate of all. Stephen Fisher
Breaking the Glass Slipper
The claim that male writers rule the genres of horror, fantasy and science fiction is not entirely true. Because many creative women are now writing that men just push themselves better into the spotlight. This British interview podcast clears that up wonderfully. In the very first episode, Megan Leigh, Charlotte Bond and Lucy Hounsom – all themselves authors – dissect the usual best-of and top ten lists of genre books. Only two women among 50 names? Completely absurd. That was in 2016, since then the hosts have only invited female and queer authors to their show, immersing themselves in fantastic worlds full of black blood magic, cyberpunk high-tech, the souls of ticks and oppressed princesses. There are stereotypes waiting everywhere that want to be broken by feminists. In between, memorable sentences fall: “We are a generation away from utopia, people just have to stop being assholes.” All wonderfully nerdy and free of advertising, the three are financed by donations. Joshua Beer
cryptos
How do I escape a reality that is increasingly turning for the worse? I escape from my living capsule into virtual worlds where everything is possible. The world designer Jana develops such digital refuges to offer people a temporary way out of the climate crisis, water shortages and energy shortages. But after people disappear in a world she created, she realizes that these people are actually dying. In search of the reason, Jana gets caught between the fronts of two groups that operate from the shadows. She herself is being hunted and can only stay in virtual worlds. Her only chance to return to reality alive: she must solve the mystery of the dying people in the six short episodes of the dystopian climate fiction podcast, which is based on the bestseller of the same name by Ursula Poznanski. Tim Uhlendorf
abomination
A valley in the Chiemgau mountains, the Catholic Church has been trying to gain a foothold there for centuries. But the inhabitants of the village of Quill do not allow themselves to be proselytized by the monks. So the two groups live side by side, according to medieval custom. Until the blacksmith’s daughter is murdered by a beast – was it a particularly cruel person, a bear or the legendary monster Grëul? The village thirsts for revenge, the convent pursues its power-political intrigues – and the Archbishop of Salzburg is also drawn into the affair, as he naively allows himself to be drawn into an intrigue. Much is concrete in this eight-part medieval action by Stuart Kummer and Edgar Linscheid, for others there are no earthly explanations. The WDR production has a prominent cast with Axel Prahl, Julia Koschitz, Peter Simonischek, Joachim Król, Rainer Bock, Lavinia Wilson, Bjarne Mädel and Peter Jordan. Stephen Fisher