The Best Podcast Short Fiction of 2014

Last year, when I first started writing for SF Signal, I posted a series of lists that was the Best Podcast Short Fiction of All Time, which picked my favorite episodes from thousands of podcast fiction episodes from more than a dozen podcasts over many years.  I already do a yearly Best Of list over on Diabolical Plots for each of the podcasts I listen to regularly, but I thought it might be interesting to do a cross-podcast best of the year list.

Full disclosure, I haven’t listened to every podcast episode that exists in 2014, so this list is pulled from the fiction podcasts that I do listen to.  The full list of those podcasts is: Pseudopod, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Drabblecast, Beneath Ceaseless Skies podcast, Clarkesworld, Dunesteef, Lightspeed podcast, Cast of Wonders, Journey Into…, Toasted Cake, Nightmare podcast.

THE LIST

1. “The Screwfly Solution” by James Tiptree Jr (Pseudopod)
2. “The Clockwork Soldier” by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld)
3. “Heartless” by  Peadar Ó Guilín (Podcastle)
4. “Drones Don’t Kill People” by Annalee Newitz (Lightspeed)
5. “No Sweeter Art” by Tony Pi (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
6. “The Magician and LaPlace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld)
7. “The Carnival Was Eaten, All Except the Clown” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Drabblecast)
8. “That Other Sea” by William Ledbetter (Escape Pod)
9. “The Wriggling Death” by Harold Gross (Pseudopod)
10. “Miss Carstairs and the Merman” by Delia Sherman (Fantasy)
11. “Phalloon the Illimitable” by Matthew Hughes (Lightspeed)
12. “To Whatever” by Shaenon Garrity (Drabblecast)
13. “The Drawstring Detective” by Nik Houser (Lightspeed)
14. “The MSG Golem” by Ken Liu (Podcastle)
15. “Rachel in Love” by Pat Murphy (Escape Pod)