Hello! I've done lots of fun things recently, like celebrate our first wedding anniversary, go on holiday to Finland and experience (and accidentally staff at) Worldcon in Helsinki, but I am writing this post to let you all know about the most important thing that has been in my life this month.

It is the podcast Wolf 359. It is my new fannish shiny and it has completely taken over my brain. It is also a really tiny fandom, and I am at the stage of all-out begging my friends to listen too.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (and feel free to link this post around!)

That said, the early episodes are a little shaky in the way of new productions -- it takes a while for them to find their feet and the story they want to tell. If you want a skip list, listen to ep 2 and then ep 8 onwards. Ep 12-13 (two-parter) is where it REALLY takes off. These early ones are all about 15-20 minutes each.

Anyway, that's enough prelude! So, basic premise and characters:

Setting: Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star. Around it is orbiting a slightly clanky space station, the USS Hephaestus. On board is our crew, who have at the start of the show been up there for just under 500 days so far on a scientific research mission which has produced basically no results, at the behest of a corporation called Goddard Futuristics, which in the AU of the show was apparently born from the fusion of Boering and Apple. Everyone is fed up and random weird shit keeps happening. THEN PLOT STARTS.

Doug Eiffel: He is the communications officer. By now he would much rather be back on Earth. He's the POV character, and it took me a little while to warm up to him (I am primed to find comic relief dudes not interesting) but now he is lovely. If you like loyalty kink then stick around.

Lieutenant Commander Minkowski: She is in charge. Kind of out of her depth. She is very much THE RULES WILL SAVE US ALL except when rules are actually stacked against her and lead to heartbreaking angst instead. She is also I WILL PROTECT MY CREW AT ALL COSTS. She works so hard and tries so hard and is so idealistic and finds it really hard to be flexible and I love her inordinately is what I'm saying.

Doctor Hilbert: Incredibly morally ambiguous older scientist. He is very plot-relevant but not so much part of the team team. (He is also played by the same voice actor as Eiffel, so this isn't short-changing him.)

Hera: She is the AI who runs the station. She is... not great at some things but she tries very hard. She also is a massive enabler of bad ideas (and good ones!). She develops fabulous relationships with Eiffel and Minkowski. The show goes really deep into AI and personhood and disability stuff with her, it's wonderful (and more than a little heartbreaking).

Additional characters joining the cast later are [spoilers] but include another really badass lady and there is lots of her and Minkowski being badass and competent with and at each other.

Other things which the show features:
* Amazing competent military ladies in space
* Lots of early mysterious plot threads which actually become coherently woven into each other and answered
* Loyalty kink EVERYWHERE
* Really compelling and emotional storytelling
* Ethical quandaries and fallout
* Ridiculous space science
* Really lovely and subtle examination of AI
* Loads of character and relationship (gen) development
* It's really funny! (when not stomping on your feels!)

So... maybe give it a try? ALSO as a taster I offer a clip from a live show they did. This link should set to start at 05:33, which skips the intro (with spoilers) and goes into character interaction. If you watch for a little bit you might get an idea of whether you might enjoy it. (As long as you stop before or at the 30 min mark you will again avoid too many spoilers.)