Issue #26 of The End — SPINES & Terms + 11 recently complete audio fiction tales & 1 with a new season coming soon!

Greetings, fabulous fan of fiction audio!

It’s a longer issue today because of so many audio fiction shows that recently reached a season finale or the series conclusion, so be sure to hit “show complete message” if this truncates. And it probably will.

A quick note for audio fiction creators who read this newsletter: There’s a new “friend of the newsletter” opportunity you can be a part of! It just went live yesterday, so get it while it’s hot!

Also, I finally put together an actual page for the companion podcast, so you can listen right on the page or follow the show via any podcast listening app of your choice.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Featured Audio Fiction

These are my personal recommendations for great-sounding audio fiction. As with all things in life, YMMV.

SPINES — Narrated horror from ZoomDoom Stories

• Series complete as of 3 Mar 2018
• 3 seasons, 24 episodes
• Listening time: 9h 15m
• 💀🌪️🕳️

One day, Wren wakes up covered in blood, suffering from memory loss, and surrounded by the remnants of some strange cult ritual.

SPINES is the story of her search for answers, and the deadly, powerful people she encounters along the way. Listen to the complete series now.

Terms — Dramatized thriller from Airship

• Series complete as of 13 Feb 2017
• 13 episodes
• Listening time: 4h 01m
• 🏛️🗳️😰

On election night, two-term president Oliver Pierce watches in disbelief from the White House as Charles Dunwalke wins a controversial electoral college victory. With only 73 days before Dunwalke’s inauguration, president Pierce makes a secret decision to act, with historic and possibly catastrophic consequences.

Season Finales & Finished Series

11 shows for you this week, from musicals to western to the hard-to-classify. Check these out if you need a finished — at a season or the series level — audio fix!

The Unseen World: A Podcast Musical — Dramatized musical scifi from Ira Marlowe

• Series complete as of 1 Mar 2023
• 9 episodes
• Listening time: 1h 55m
• 🎬🔮🤣

A raucous ride that is part Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, part Rocky Horror Picture Show, part Tommy yet completely original.

The Occult Adventures of Norman P. Blank — Dramatized urban fantasy comedy from Laughing Skull Audio

• Season 1 finale released 28 Feb 2023
• 12 episodes
• Listening time: 5h 21m
• Season 2 starts Oct 2023
• 🤣🪄📖

Part urban fantasy, part Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and part Lord of the Rings all presented in an “old timey” radio format with queer characters and themes.

Superman: Son of El: The Unauthorized Biography of Clark Kent — Narrated superhero from Isaac Bluefoot

• Season 2 finale released 24 Feb 2023
• 32 episodes
• Listening time: 15h 04m
• Season 3 starts Dec 2023
• 🌞🕊️❤️‍🔥

In this Unauthorized Biography, we follow our hero from his childhood home in Smallville as he searches for his place in the world.

The American Immortal — Dramatized western urban fantasy from 2222 Media

• Season 1 finale released 22 Feb 2023
• 6 episodes
• Listening time: 2h 48m
• Season 2 starts Jan 2024
• 🐺⛰️🏹

After an unscrupulous thief and an obstinate Native American teen kill each other, they take a wrong turn on their way to the Afterlife and wind up back among the Living by mistake.

I Am Echo — Dramatized scfi thriller from Voyage Media

• Series complete as of 20 Feb 2023
• 5 episodes
• Listening time: 1h 22m
• 🙀🤫👻

A young woman looks for answers behind her father’s mysterious death and discovers repressed memories… that may be someone else’s memories.

The Mars Prophecy — Narrated essays from Matthew Confalone

• Season 1 finale released 14 Feb 2023
• 7 episodes
• Listening time: 0h 32m
• Season 2 starts soon
• 🙏🙌🌞

Designed for people who see signs of the future before it happens.

The Kestrel Files — Narrated scifi from Gravestone Productions

• Season 2 finale released 13 Feb 2023
• 24 episodes
• Listening time: 2h 53m
• Season 3 starts Jun 2023
• 🚀🤖👾

Science fantasy stories are told from the perspective of Kestrel, a personal assistant similar to Amazon’s Alexa, through the use of audio logs, recordings, and other overheard conversations by the ever-listening intelligence.

CAST SO FAR — Dramatized scifi comedy from Maria & Gary Craige

• Season 1 finale released 1 Feb 2023
• 6 episodes
• Listening time: 1h 56m
• Season 2 starts Feb 2024
• 👽🛸🤭

This bumbling crew travel through time and space trying to save their planet from global warming, meeting aliens and getting into all sorts of predicaments and dangers sending them cast so far from reality.

PAUSE for Dramatic Effect — Dramatized urban fantasy from Kyle M. Bondo, Gagglepod, Oncetold

• Season 1 finale released 17 Jan 2023
• 17 episodes
• Listening time: 1h 59m
• Season 2 starts Nov 2023
• 💍🎖️👿

A decorated Iraq War veteran stumbles upon a ring in an empty parking lot that forces him to confront a secret he didn’t know he was keeping.

Burner Face — Dramatized scifi from The Augmented City LLC

• Season 1 finale released 5 Dec 2022
• 5 episodes
• Listening time: 3h 15m
• Season 2 starts Oct 2023
• 🐈⛈️🧬

Burner Face is design fiction about a fantastic but plausible world of tomorrow based on current climate and technology futurism.

The Subjective Truth — Dramatized scifi from Jeremy Ellett

• Season 1 finale released 13 Apr 2020
• 10 episodes
• Listening time: 6h 06m
• 🛸👽🐐

A strange land of cryptid encounters, UFO Sightings, mysterious vibrations, and dark shadows hiding just behind your back, waiting for their moment.

New Seasons Coming Soon

Folxlore, a narrated horror show from In The Works x Tin Can Audio, returns for Season 2 on on 5 Mar 2023.

• 14 current episodes
• Listening time: 3h 37m
• 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😱

That’s it for this week! See you next Friday, Medium!

Originally published on The End, the newsletter that shines a light back on audio fiction shows when they’ve reached the finale of a season or the conclusion of the series.