Midnight Burger – The Audiobook Review

Read Time: 3 Minutes

If you’re a fan of audiobooks (and if you’re on this site, you probably are!), you might find this audio drama podcast to your liking. If you like humorous science fiction mixed with great storylines and a touch of Doctor Who-style vibes of travelling through time and space, then I shall point you towards Midnight Burger.

To quote the summary from their website:

Midnight Burger is a monthly audio drama about a diner at the end – and somehow the beginning – of the universe.
When Gloria took a waitressing job at Midnight Burger outside of Phoenix, she didn’t realize she was now an employee of a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner. Every day Midnight Burger appears somewhere new in the cosmos along with its staff: a galactic drifter, a rogue theoretical physicist, a sentient old-timey radio, and some guy named Caspar. No one knows who built Midnight Burger or how it works, but when it appears there’s always someone around who could really use a cup of coffee.
https://www.weopenatsix.com/

Much like the aforementioned Doctor and his TARDIS, the diner shows up where it is needed. Maybe you’re the last sentient plant on a dying world needs saving, or the psychotic robotic embodiment of your ex-girlfriend needs to harass you some more… er, well, wherever or whenever it is needed, the employees of Midnight Burger are there to help.

The characters include Gloria, the most recent addition after stumbling in looking for a job. Leif, a self-exiled engineer turned cook; Ava, a brilliant theoretical physicist; Effie and Zebulon Mucklewain – two old-school god-fearing preachers that exist as a radio broadcast; and Caspar, who was the first to stumble into the diner and has been there an extraordinarily long time.

I’ve just finished Season 2 of the podcast, with a full season still ahead of me. Over the last few days, I’ve listened basically back-to-back as it has me seriously hooked. What starts out as seemingly distinct episodes slowly begins to morph into a larger, overarching storyline.

The writing is fantastic, complex at times and irreverent at others. A deep dive into what it means to be human, coping with change, and accepting the inevitable. I did see some reviews which complained about bible-thumping, but even as someone who generally dislikes organised (and disorganised) religions, I didn’t have an issue with it. I guess if you’re ultra-militant anti-Christian, then you’ll have an issue, but if you’re a live-and-let-live type of person, then you’ll realise they’re not trying to convert you, and you’ll be okay.

Production was excellent, and as an audio drama, it features a cast of voices and sound effects. So far I’ve only listened through my podcast app, and it is supported by ads, but these are like one per episode if I happen to get one at all.

You can also subscribe via Patreon or Apple podcasts if you want to go fully ad-free and/or support the production and the cast.

Check them out at:

or search them up on your preferred podcast app.