Not as enjoyable as the podcast, but fun to look back & binge together in this format.

Bizzaro-lite. Nouveau-weird. What's the appeal? Maybe this: we recognize more what it is to be human when we're shown what is not. Human, I mean.

4 stars. It's weird. You're gonna like it.

This was the best thing ever. Welcome to Night Vale is my favourite podcast EVER so it was really interesting to get to read their thoughts about the episodes.

Have you ever listened to a podcast?

Depending on whether you have or not, you may (or may not) know that Welcome to Night Vale is one of the podcasting phenomena of recent years. It has an estimated 400 000 listeners to each twice-monthly podcast, and over 100 million downloads on iTunes.

What Night Vale does is effectively dip into the world of the serial thriller. It deliberately echoes the old radio shows of the 1930’s and 40’s, though it is set in a contemporary world. Like Lights Out, Suspense! or their TV equivalents The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, it shows us glimpses of places that seem normal but are not. There is definitely something not quite right about this desert town, with its quaint houses and small-town image. I aimed to write about ‘a town where every conspiracy theory is true and people just have to get on with their lives’ says creator and co-writer Joseph Fink in his Introduction to this book.

Here in the UK I’ve heard of, but not heard any of the podcasts. So here is a treat for those of us catching up. Mostly Void, Partially Stars is a collection of the first season’s scripts, but told in prose form. Whereas the podcasts last for about twenty minutes, each of the twenty-five episodes in prose is about six or seven pages long. What adds to this is that at the beginning of each episode you get a commentary about how each episode was written and how important they are to the writers, actors and fans of the series. There’s some lovely black and white illustrations by Jessica Hayworth that add to the feel of the book.

The prose structure is, like the audio I presume, a fairly traditional pattern. Most of the broadcast is composed of public announcement reports that usually suggests something more than the usual. In olden radio shows where there would usually be a break in transmission for a musical interlude, here every episode has a Weather forecast (usually in song, I gather, but not given here.) Each episode/chapter ends with a Proverb, such as “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A basilisk.”

It’s surreal, it’s often creepy and yet wonderful, filled with what seem like mundane notices about not letting dogs in the Dog Park, disappearing airplanes and hooded figures. There are characters that we shouldn’t like but we do. Imagine a town like Perfection, Nevada (see the movie Tremors) filled with people like the log lady from Twin Peaks, that is regularly visited by aliens in flying saucers and has Cthulhu watching over it and you get a glimpse of the goings-on at Night Vale. Here we have Old Woman Josie, who converses with angels, whilst we are reminded not to approach one if we see them. Beautiful lantern jawed Carlos, who has a love affair with Cecil. And a man with a suitcase full of flies.

Of course what makes this work is that to every unusual event there is enough reality, enough emotional connection, for us to recognise and sympathise with. We thrill at the hint of things that are unusual whilst we relate to the human drama shown here behind closed doors. As much as the events here are odd, there’s the sort of mundane details around that you would expect from a local news radio broadcast. There’s more humour than I expected too, though it is somewhat dark.

I wasn’t sure whether the transition from spoken prose to written prose would work – they don’t always – but this really did for me. There’s some nice (and not-so nice!) images of the place in my head created as I read, crafted from the prose. Because the stories are short, they have power, that makes you remember them after you’ve finished. Like the pulp stories of the 1930’s, they worked better for me if I didn’t read too many all in one read, though. These are stories to be carefully pored over, or perhaps even read aloud, and then left to be cogitated over for a while.

In summary, if you are a fan already, you’ll love this book. And if you’re new to the phenomena, and want some idea about what Night Vale is like, this is a great start. It will make you go off and find the radio shows – it did me.

3.5 stars.

It's hard to rate this book. Do I rate it as the first part of the Night Vale podcast? Do I rate it as a book? As a script? As an unfinished narrative? Do I factor in my nostalgia and all of my personal baggage with the show?

Ultimately, I am rating this book using two criteria: First, I am treating this as a stand-alone book, with only a cursory glance to the future. Second, I have to give props to the amazing Cecil Baldwin for his performance as Cecil. This is not a story to be read, so make sure you listen along as you read this.

Jumping all the way back to Year One with a more critical eye was both a good and bad thing. It was nice to return to the most basic year of Night Vale without any of the baggage that new episodes have (There is almost too much emphasis on guest characters now, if you ask me). I love how early some characters are dropped into the universe. Doug, who recently had a major development in the show, is mentioned in the first or second episode. Intern Dana is around much earlier than I remembered her being. Small memories like that will be a treat to remember for longtime listeners.

This nostalgia can also work against the book and show, however. I never really liked what they did with The Man in the Tan Jacket, and these early episodes really lay his potential on strong. I forgot how much presence he can command, and personally I found his story never got better than his introduction.

A nice bonus are the reflections of writing the show that the team (mostly Joseph and Jeffery) wrote before the episodes. I would have appreciated even more here, but as small snippets into their writing process, I loved them.

As I mentioned before, this is first and foremost a radio play. Listen to it no matter what you do. You'll be glad you did.