Anthropomorphic Dreams Publishing

Now that we’re halfway through October, we have another Halloween story. This is the second of Simon Barber’s H. P. Lushcraft tales to have appeared here, which are loving comedic homages to the milieu of H. P. Lovecraft. The story mixes wry dark humor with horror elements, as well as some romance this time.

“The Cuteness That Came to Asgarth” by Simon Barber

Read by Peter Katt

Music cues by Infinity Squared

“The Cuteness That Came to Asgarth” appeared in the fiction anthology Alone in the Dark. If you liked this story, you may be interested in that book.

Download or listen to this episode here.

The Drabblecast, the podcast of strange-fiction has a nice tribute for H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday again this year.

The Outsider does not have animal characters, but it is another wonderful use of anthropomorphism and dealing with The Other. It’s a nice bit of dramatic and sympathetic horror and Norm Sherman does a wonderful job narrating the tale.

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.

Drabblecast, the podcast of strange fiction for strange listeners, brings three odd and interesting tales.  Trifecta XI’s theme is anthropomorphic animals, and includes the following stories:

The Existential Lizard by Alasdair Stuart

Cod Philosophy by Stephanie Campisi

Monkeys Imitating Humans Imitating Monkeys by Nancy Stebbins

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.