H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
By Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer, www.hppodcraft.com
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
Do you love Lovecraft? Do you like free stuff? Well, then, that’s all you need to know about The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. Go there now and enjoy!
That’s the quick and dirty way to sell this wonderful website and podcast, but it doesn’t even begin to do it justice.
The creation of two Lovecraft fans, Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer, this website offers a new podcast every week discussing the stories of HPL. The shorter tales are usually covered in one podcast, while the longer ones are separated into multiple parts and released consecutively. The HPLLP started with Lovecraft’s first tale, “The Tomb,” and have run through the rest of his catalog in the chronological order in which he wrote them. As of this writing 97 episodes are available for download and Lackey and Fifer are currently in the Golden Age of Lovecraft, when the Grand Old Gent penned some of his best stories.
They’re all free. But, like the infomercials always say, “Wait, there’s more.”
Listening to The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast is one of my favorite weekly addictions. While there are plenty of choices for auditory editions of Lovecraft’s tales, few are this polished, faithful to the sources and fun to listen to as the excerpts (and occasional full productions) here.
Each episode Ping-Pongs back and forth between a well-performed dramatic reading of the story and critical commentary by Lackey and Fifer. This means that no one aspect of the show ever gets stale. Background mood music and sometimes sound effects enhance the dramatic reading. However, what really sells me on this podcast are the hosts.
It is clear that Chris and Chad are good friends. They have a nice, relaxed way that is very easy to listen to. They are devoted to Lovecraft but they’re not such fanboys that they gloss over the questionable parts of his work or the times when our favorite author just doesn’t deliver the goods. They’re surprisingly funny and they can be silly and weird in the same way that my friends and I can be, which I love.
And just in case all of the above isn’t enough to get you clicking their way, terrific special guests sit in of the tales from time to time to offer their own two cents on HPL’s stories. Robert M. Price, Kenneth Hite, S.T. Joshi, and Stuart Gordon are some of the Who’s Who in Cthulhu circles that have joined Chris and Chad on the show.
The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast consistently provides entertaining and informative listening week after week and asks for nothing in return. It easily gets ten out of ten phobias.
This review appeared in The Eye of Light and Darkness in The Unspeakable Oath 19.
Reviewed items are rated on a scale of one to ten phobias:
1-3: Not worth purchasing.
4-6: An average item with notable flaws; at 6 it’s worth buying.
7-10: Degrees of excellence.