I honestly quite liked this one, sure so far S2 of the Benny Audios never reached the Highs of its first Series, but I do think this one was quite fun. Yes, the Sound Design is poor and does put the Story overall a bit more down for me, but outside of it, I can’t think of too many tun-offs. Quite liked the Idea, while I think it could have had a better execution at times, how it’s told works quite well. The Atmosphere does of course do the heavy lifting for it and of course Lisa is as good as ever, not much of an Opinion on Adrian yet, but he’s alright in my Eyes.
Overall, a fun Story, that maybe falls a bit too short in places.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

“THE STONE'S LAMENT – A SQUARE-SHAPED TRIANGLE DRAMA”

The Stone’s Lament sees Bernice Summerfield return to her archaeological roots—though not without the usual bizarre side-effects. Set on a rain-soaked world, this gothic sci-fi tale begins with a traditional mystery setup: Benny joins a dig investigating an alien artefact near the automated mansion of Bratheen Traloor, a reclusive and wealthy tech magnate. The entire excavation team has mysteriously vanished, and naturally, Benny’s curiosity (and poor survival instincts) compel her to investigate.

Enter Adrian Wall, the hulking Killoran from the Braxiatel Collection. This story marks Adrian’s debut in the series, and Harry Myers makes a solid first impression, even if the character doesn’t. Gruff, inebriated, and far from likeable, Adrian spends much of the first half leering at Benny and picking fights with Bratheen. It’s not the most flattering introduction, and the subsequent attempts to redeem him feel a bit too quick and convenient. Still, Adrian would go on to become a major part of Benny’s life, so it's interesting to see how his arc begins here—however clumsily.

WHEN HOUSE LOVES YOU BACK

The mystery of the vanished workers quickly fades into the background once the true nature of the story emerges: Bratheen is obsessed with Benny. Not in a cute fanboy way, but in the I've-plastered-my-mansion-with-photos-of-you-and-programmed-my-AI-to-mimic-you kind of way. Yep, the house—simply called House—has been designed to emulate Benny's mind and mannerisms, and now it's grown sentient, jealous, and dangerously unstable.

The result is a bizarre love triangle (square?) between Benny, Bratheen, Adrian, and House. Bratheen believes he’s in love with Benny, House believes she is Benny, and Benny believes everyone around her has completely lost the plot. When House decides to fuse with Bratheen to become the “real” Benny-lover, things escalate into a proper technogothic horror, complete with voices whispering through the walls, creepy obsession, and existential meltdowns.

The idea of a sentient planet or structure manipulating its inhabitants isn’t new (Marvel’s Ego, Doctor Who’s Xoanon, or even HAL 9000 come to mind), and The Stone’s Lament doesn’t quite bring anything fresh to the table. The jealous computer trope can be played for laughs or tragedy, but this story does neither convincingly. It’s a little too absurd to be scary, too self-serious to be funny, and not insightful enough to be tragic.

FROM DIG TO DRIVEL

While the early scenes suggest a spooky archaeological mystery, the dig itself is swiftly discarded in favour of the more melodramatic “mad computer in love” plot. It’s a shame, because the setup had promise: a cursed site, a strange artefact, and a vanishing team. But the story chooses to focus on Bratheen’s increasingly unhinged infatuation with Benny and House’s descent into possessive madness.

There’s atmosphere to be had, certainly—the relentless rain, the ghostly voices calling out to Benny, and the crumbling madness of the AI all contribute to a haunted-house-in-space vibe. But these elements are undermined by sound design that can only be described as a lot. Echo effects, screeching noises, and garbled voice filters clutter many scenes, making dialogue hard to follow and even painful to listen to at times. The climax, where House tries to destroy itself (and Benny with it), is a sonic onslaught that may have you reaching for the volume dial or the paracetamol.

PROBLEMATIC AUDIO AND HALF-BAKED IDEAS

Production-wise, The Stone’s Lament is let down by subpar mixing. House’s voice is particularly unpleasant—sure, it's appropriately artificial, but it's grating and difficult to parse. The use of echo and layered voice effects to represent the House’s mental deterioration makes thematic sense but ends up muddling the clarity of the story’s most important scenes. The final confrontation is a mess of distortion and yelling, lacking the emotional payoff the story seems to be reaching for.

Thematically, the story feels like it’s groping towards ideas about identity, obsession, and consent—House believes it’s earned Bratheen’s love because it was made in Benny’s image—but these are brushed past in favour of overwrought melodrama. Unlike the thoughtful, melancholy AI in the brilliant movie Her, House is a caricature: a computer programmed to think like someone who ends up trying to murder the original out of romantic jealousy. It’s a daft premise that could have worked with a more knowing script or a stronger emotional core. Sadly, The Stone’s Lament is neither subtle nor self-aware enough to pull it off.

📝VERDICT: 4/10

The Stone’s Lament starts with an intriguing archaeological premise and descends into a muddled, melodramatic mess of AI obsession and sonic overkill. While Lisa Bowerman is typically excellent as Benny, and Harry Myers’ Adrian Wall shows glimmers of future potential, the story itself fumbles both its character arcs and its central concept. The haunted mansion setup is atmospheric but ultimately hollow, and the sound design actively works against the listener.

i do enjoy a good haunted house story where the house itself is the enemy, its not being haunted by something. this is a fun example, which works pretty well with the genre conventions without being too samey

Bernice Summerfield

#2.02. The Stone’s Lament ~ 7/10

◆ An Introduction

A planet made entirely of rocks and filled with thunderstorms. Bleak, desolate, and the perfect place to go on holiday if you’re having a mid-life crisis and have a taste for My Chemical Romance. Welcome to Rhinvil… where Benny is going to meet a rather disturbing fan.

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Bratheen Traloor, reclusive billionaire, has lived alone for over twenty years on the planet Rhinvil.

Now he has broken his isolation, inviting Bernice Summerfield to examine a mysterious artefact unearthed during building work at his sprawling mansion.

Accompanying Benny is Adrian Wall, the Kiloran construction manager from the Braxiatel Collection. Adrian is responsible for overseeing the work, but his construction crew has vanished, and soon he and Benny discover that Traloor is not as alone as they might think…

◆ Prof. Bernice Summerfield

Lisa Bowerman does a pretty good job in ‘The Stone’s Lament’.

Benny thinks the artefact on Rhinvil sounds interesting, so she’s been up bright and early to do a little bit of homework on the planet, and their host. It’s clear that Adrian has some rather different views on archaeology to her, and she’s appalled at his lack of respect for history – what point is progress if the past ends up destroyed in the process? Benny believes that people tend to just complicate your life, but that she’s just gotten used to the complications. The archaeologist's life suits her; something that gives her a lot of pleasure. She thinks archaeology has a lot more life in it than you may expect. Benny is quite rightfully horrified at the obsessive collection of her photographs Traloor has compiled.

◆ Adrian Wall

This episode is notable for introducing possibly my favourite character in the whole range: a seven foot Killoran who got his rocks off with Benny, not realising that she was possessed by an evil witch named Avril Fenman – trust me, we’ll be discussing the novels from this series in due course. Voicing our favourite big dog is the wonderful Harry Myers, who delivers a top notch debut performance.

Adrian is convinced that Traloor is barking mad for wanting to settle on Rhinvil. He can think of far more comfortable ways of getting some privacy, like a pleasure station or a private island. It never ceases to amaze him that Benny can dig up anything at all with a few trowels and brushes… as he’d rather focus on using a JCB to dig the biggest hole possible! Killorans are apparently born uncouth, but Benny vouches for Adrian, and claims that he is a good man. Adrian decides to get hammered in Traloor’s bar, and then nearly cacks himself when someone pretending to be Benny starts shouting after him!

◆ Story Recap

Barren, rocky, and surrounded by thunderstorms: that’s the best way to describe the desolate planet of Rhinvil. Nobody ever wants to come here, so it’s the perfect place for a reclusive billionaire to build his gigantic mansion.

Bratheen Traloor is in the midst of having a new wing built onto his home, with plans to turn it into a gallery for any artefacts he comes across during his amateur archaeological expeditions. Only, something has went very wrong on the planet’s surface.

It appears that the Killoran construction crew have vanished without a trace, meaning work on the new wing has ground to a halt. The head of the construction crew, Adrian Wall, has been sent to investigate by Irving Braxiatel. Accompanying him is Prof. Summerfield, as Traloor wants her expert opinion on an artefact found during the construction work… but his interest in Benny extends far beyond mere academia.

◆ Prof. Summerfield and the Yandere!

Mike Tucker has written some excellent audio adventures – with the only major dud from him being ‘Dust Breeding’ – so I was naturally excited to hear him tackle a different range. Unfortunately, this episode felt a little half-baked.

The mansion is sentient, trying to force Benny and Adrian to leave, because it contains the consciousness of the planet who is head over heels for its billionaire owner.

The plot is easily one the weaker aspects of ‘The Stone’s Lament’. That being said, even I wasn’t expecting Traloor to be revealed as a literal yandere: his bedroom walls are plastered with photos of Benny, and he’s got all of her lectures recorded too! I’m sure your imagination can probably guess what he gets up to in that room, so let’s not even mention it, because I don’t particularly wanna lose my appetite.

◆ Sound Design

How unfortunate! Toby Richards and Emily Baker are still doing their best to deafen me and overpower all the dialogue. The soundscape for this episode was pretty average.

Heavy rain during a thunderstorm on Rhinvil. The distorted voice of the House sounds like someone has stuck a Dictaphone inside a fish bowl. Construction equipment being moved around by Adrian. Voices phase in and out of earshot, disorientating our Collection representatives. Music playing inside of Traloor’s mansion bar. Waves lapping against the pebble beaches of Rhinvil. The mansion begins to collapse, great big stones and rocks rolling into the sea.

◆ Music

The music is alright in ‘The Stone’s Lament’, but I really wish it wasn’t overpowering everything around it. I would like to be able to hear something of the dialogue at one point.

◆ Conclusion

“I like to surround myself with beauty, Bernice.”

A sentient planet that has merged with an artificial intelligence, that just so happens to love its owner… and the owner just so happens to be a reclusive billionaire who has an unhealthy obsession with Benny.

‘The Stone’s Lament’ is pretty inoffensive, and it definitely wont set the literary world on fire. That being said, Lisa Bowerman delivers a really good performance, and Harry Myers does an amazing job as Adrian Wall (who may have just become one of my favourite characters in this whole range). It’s a good enough story, but by no means exceptional.