Anthropomorphic Dreams Publishing

PodCastle, the fantasy podcast ran an interesting story with a different kind of anthropomorphism.

While it doesn’t have any animals in it, Remembrance is Something Like a House by Will Ludwigsen is a wonderfully inventive idea. In it a long vacant house, haunted by a dark memory of the past, goes in search for the family who used to live within it.

Artificial and cybernetic constructs make for interesting characters because they offer the ability to glimpse into a non-human intelligence. Oded the Merciless by Tina Starr is a good albeit dark example of that.

While it doesn’t have any animal characters in it, the story makes good use of anthropomorphism. The computer AI is an intriguing and disturbing character which allows atrocities to be carried out first by passive limitations of  its programming and then actively with dark experimentation on the nature of the human condition.

Warning: Pseudopod is a horror podcast and the story has strong horror elements of the visceral and psychological, and is for fans of the genre and not for the faint of heart.

Besides Variant Frequencies story Heart of Clay: A Saint Darwin’s Spiritual there are two other podcast stories which use golem characters.

These are from the more canonical sense, building on Jewish Mysticism and the dark historic setting of World War II. Both have some wonderfully moving character drama as well. They are:

Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane by Jonathon Sullivan on Escape Pod.

Brothers by J. C. Hay on Pseudopod.

While it doesn’t have any animal characters, this Variant Frequencies podcast story has an interesting flavor of anthropomorphism to it. Heart of Clay: A Saint Darwin’s Spiritual by D.K. Thompson is a nice noir fantasy steampunk crime story.

Ever since Saint Darwin returned with harvested seeds from an Egyptian bush that wouldn’t burn, golem constables have worked alongside human and ghost inspectors. They patrol England’s cobblestone streets together, keeping them safe from the monsters the patron saint of scientists exposed to the world. But when inanimate golems are being trafficked by a shadowy group of businessmen dressed up in wicked smiles and sharp teeth, it’s up to the Paranormal Patrol’s newest created member – Constable Lump – to go undercover in the gaslit night and learn where his missing brethren have vanished to, without sacrificing his newfound life getting the answers.

Pseudopod’s recent story Love Like Thunder is a wonderful mix of Native American folklore and mythology along with a nice tale of a sympathetic monster.

It has mature content due to bits of violence and horror imagery, but it also has some nice drama.