Escape Artists

Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Russell Nash on June 18, 2009, 09:09:17 PM

Title: EP204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Russell Nash on June 18, 2009, 09:09:17 PM
EP204: The Fifth Zhi (http://escapepod.org/2009/06/18/ep-204-the-fifth-zhi/)

By Mercurio D. Rivera.
Read by Steve Eley.
First appeared in Interzone.

Zhi 4’s scream pierces the Siberian night.

My spiked metal boots crunch through the snow as I race towards him, with Zhi 6 running at my side. The nanochip in my brainstem clicks on, and I reach out with my mind, but I can’t sense even a trace of Zhi 4. A few seconds earlier his form had been outlined by the dark turquoise glow of the force field.

We stop twenty feet short of the field’s perimeter. Beyond it, the hazy silhouette of the colossal Stalk looms, its millions of cilia undulating.

My bodysuit hums as it transmits data back to Xiang Xu Base, situated behind the Rusanov ice cap half a mile away.

My pulse flutters in anticipation and I take a deep breath to try to rein in my excitement. I — like all Zhis — have been designed with an insatiable curiosity about the Stalk’s origins and vulnerabilities. Knowing I’ve been bred to feel this way doesn’t make me feel it any less. Where did the Stalk come from? Why is it here? How can it thrive in these temperatures? I see the same questions reflected in Zhi 6’s expression.


Rated PG-13 for cloning and some adult themes.


(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://media.rawvoice.com/escapepod/media.libsyn.com/media/escapepod/EP204_FifthZhi.mp3)
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Yargling on June 19, 2009, 12:56:27 PM
Great story, really interesting to consider the concept of non-mass based sentience - and given dark matter seems to be 90% of the matter universe, it seems possible that some form of life within the realms of dark matter or dark energy
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Nobilis on June 19, 2009, 11:00:48 PM
Listening to this, I got a very strange feeling of deja vu.  But that might just be a holdover memory from my clone-father.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Praxis on June 20, 2009, 10:47:08 PM
So......the earth's pretty much over after the stalk, yes?

Or would we not be engulfed in vast, deep lava flows?
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Nobilis on June 21, 2009, 01:48:45 AM
The story said that the only global effect of the Stalk was the nightmares.  No earthquakes, no volcanoes, even though there should have been.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Doom xombie on June 21, 2009, 09:11:30 PM
For the first 10-15 minutes I expected Zhi to somehow change to jack.... Anyway, I found this to be an alright story but for some reason it didn't hit my buttons. I think it probably has to do with the fact that the main character had problems with his father and I can't relate. It made the story more foreign than I think was intended. I also think that the part of the story that I  might have enjoyed more, the cloning, took kind of a backseat to the father idea.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Ocicat on June 22, 2009, 01:51:55 AM
Great story, worked for me on several levels.  The father stuff did work for me - I can completely relate - my father is a distracted scientist type who was very hard to please.  I really liked the atmosphere of the story too, and the strange alien plant thing.  I was curious about the mystery of it, and the feeling kind of harked back to the Golden Age of Science Fiction - which is to say, when I was 8 years old.  It just evoked that sense of wonder.

So ya, big thumbs up here!
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Listener on June 22, 2009, 02:03:13 PM
I didn't really like the story. It was pretty well-written, and interesting, and the way the Stalk thinks and the reason it's there is interesting too, but I didn't actually like the story, per se. Can't really explain it.

Kudos to the author for vomit-tech.

Michael Crichton, in "Sphere" via the character of Norman, asked what would happen if aliens came to our planet and breathed air but excreted toxic gas... or something similarly alien, so alien that it was impossible to understand or killed us inadvertently. I rather think the Stalk wasn't trying to hurt us; it was just trying to learn more. About a race that, when children repeatedly ask "why", has been known to ask its offspring to "go play with your toys and stop asking so many questions".

Interestingly, Norman's focus group in "Sphere" also was overseen by a general who came in, read the report, looked at the alien they'd "created" for the purpose of their exercise, and said "where's the anus?" I read "Sphere" when I was 12 or so, and that made me laugh.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Praxis on June 22, 2009, 05:53:57 PM
The story said that the only global effect of the Stalk was the nightmares.  No earthquakes, no volcanoes, even though there should have been.

Yes, I listened to you the story too.

I wiz meaning, after the stalk is killed off (and it has no way to mitigate the effects of its presence on/in the earth), there would be possibly, a pretty big hole through the earth, unless the stalk was not really displacing anything.

I thought this was one of the better EP stories for a while.  Well paced and an interesting main character (if you don't count Mr Stalk as the main character :P  )

Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Praxis on June 22, 2009, 06:03:25 PM
Michael Crichton, in "Sphere" via the character of Norman, asked what would happen if aliens came to our planet and breathed air but excreted toxic gas... or something similarly alien, so alien that it was impossible to understand or killed us inadvertently.

I think that is why I thought this story was so engaging, even if it did take till late in the story before it was made explicit: 
we meet alien life only, being alien, it is pretty much impossible to relate to in any way, good or bad.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: MacArthurBug on June 23, 2009, 04:36:28 AM
really odd good bit of fic. It threw me for a spin. The ending was skin tingling.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Talia on June 25, 2009, 07:31:32 PM
I hope Zhi 5 had a happily ever after existance of traversing the universe with his alien buddy. It's hard to tell.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: deflective on June 26, 2009, 08:37:56 PM
i enjoyed the scope of this one, bizarre stuff happened and interesting concepts were explored.

after the stalk is killed off (and it has no way to mitigate the effects of its presence on/in the earth), there would be possibly, a pretty big hole through the earth, unless the stalk was not really displacing anything.

this is a reasonable explanation, it did come from a massless existence.  as mentioned in an earlier post, there was a sentence about the stalk not having expected effects on the planet (the core may have stopped spinning!!!) so it's probably something the author didn't worried about.  i appreciate it when authors takes a moment to acknowledge that parts of their story aren't fully thought out since it can save frustration on the reader's part.

it looks like ep's 'dehumanized constructed consciousness month' was arranged to culminate on father's day.  not sure what to make of that.  this year, as well as collect calls, fathers get a full month of neglected and discounted offspring striving for acceptance.

this particular story seems to have a strong theme of god as a surrogate father figure.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: wakela on June 29, 2009, 05:06:51 AM
The stalk and the clones were good ol' ideas-based, mind expanding SF.  The father issues and the idea that that even though a giant alien comes to Earth, gives everyone nightmares and kills people, it is we who are the enemy, kind of tired to me and not very interesting. 

Yes, I like "good ol'" and don't like "tired."  Make of that what you will. 
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Russell Nash on June 29, 2009, 11:15:46 AM
Yes, I like "good ol'" and don't like "tired."  Make of that what you will. 

Man, you're a pain in the ass.   8)
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: wakela on June 29, 2009, 11:27:41 PM
Yes, I like "good ol'" and don't like "tired."  Make of that what you will. 

Man, you're a pain in the ass.   8)

Yeah, but you're a real sack of peaches, Rus. ;D
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Russell Nash on June 30, 2009, 07:55:46 AM
Yes, I like "good ol'" and don't like "tired."  Make of that what you will. 

Man, you're a pain in the ass.   8)

Yeah, but you're a real sack of peaches, Rus. ;D

Don't you forget it!
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Planish on July 13, 2009, 07:37:50 AM
I didn't really like the story. It was pretty well-written, and interesting, and the way the Stalk thinks and the reason it's there is interesting too, but I didn't actually like the story, per se. Can't really explain it.
Me neither. There were a couple of interesting ideas, in some of the details. I couldn't root for any of the characters, (the zhi were what, clones? robots? cyborgs?) and the ending (such as it was) was a non-sequiteur, like the police arresting everybody at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

No, I take that back. MPatHG had hints of the arrest all through the movie.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: izzardfan on July 17, 2009, 09:46:30 AM
I'm really getting tired of the "authority figure doesn't believe the hero and tries to prevent his actions, even though we know the hero's right" thing.*  It's a really annoying and tired plot device.  I'm no writer, but can't they think of something else?

An example (spoiler, highlight text to read):  I've been watching Merlin on NBC, and in one episode, King Uther tries to keep Arthur from going after a rare flower to use as an antidote to a poison.  Without it, Merlin, who drank the poison, will die.  Even though Arthur retrieves the flower successfully, upon his return, Uther throws him in the dungeon and crushes the flower, saying "Maybe someday you'll learn to do things the RIGHT way." There's got to be a better way to bring drama to the story.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Darwinist on July 21, 2009, 11:46:08 PM
Loved it.  Crazy, misunderstood alien sitting in the snow.  Wish we would have something like that show up in MN in January to spice things up a bit.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: kibitzer on July 27, 2009, 11:21:06 PM
Didn't work for me I'm afraid. Quite dull and uninteresting. Also didn't quite go with the reading -- too over-enunciated making it seem cramped and formal.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: veganvampire on August 01, 2009, 08:34:07 PM
I did like this story, except for a imagination glitch that was my own fault.

For some reason, I imagined the protagonist as a monkey.  I have no idea why.  I tried to change him into a human, but he stayed a monkey, ever since I read the title.

Have I been listening to too much Jonathan Coulton?

Anyway, great story, although it makes my head hurt to imagine something not mass-based.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: wakela on August 03, 2009, 03:34:34 AM
For some reason, I imagined the protagonist as a monkey.  I have no idea why.  I tried to change him into a human, but he stayed a monkey, ever since I read the title.


Great idea!  next time I'm bored with a story I'm going to do this.
Title: Re: EP 204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: saquan on September 05, 2009, 12:41:25 AM
Cool story indeed!  Does anyone know which Daikaiju track plays at the end of EP204? It sounds way cool and I want to buy it!

EDIT: found it on wikipedia:

Escape Pod's music is provided by surf rock band Daikaiju with the band's permission. The opening theme is the instrumental song "The Final Phase," and the closing theme is "Choujikuu Mitsukai" ("Super-Dimensional Angels"). Both are from the album The Phasing Spider Menace,.

Next question: where to get it??? Seems like it's not being sold anymore.  Any links / torrents?
Title: Re: EP204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Gamercow on October 12, 2009, 07:17:31 PM
This one came down right in the middle for me.  I could not connect with the "absent father", but I enjoyed the tech, and I thought the clones were very well done.  There were also a few disconnects, like how long it would take to climb anything into the ionosphere and beyond, out into microgravity.  5/10
Title: Re: EP204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Jago Constantine on December 12, 2009, 11:48:03 AM
We're listening to this story today as part of Science Fiction Saturday, a weekly science fiction discussion group in Second Life.

The meeting is Saturday 12 December at 2.00pm Pacific Standard Time (Second Life Time) at the Bookstacks venue

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/136/125/25 if you're attending!
Title: Re: EP204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: Unblinking on April 27, 2010, 01:53:37 PM
I'm on the fence on this one.

When it started with a clone army, I groaned.  I've seen a bunch of stories with big groups of clones as the protagonist and they rarely appeal to me.  I'm not sure why, it just seems like the characters, despite differentiating characteristics, are just too similar.

It bothered me that they decided to wage warfare on this thing because of nightmares.  And then continued on that path even when there's hints of sentience:  "Well, we decided to attack it, so we're attacking it" is about as ironclad as the parental justification "Because I said so".  That wasn't really a flaw in the story though, just something that bothered me with its plausibility.

But I do like a couple things in particular:
1.  Meeting with aliens where method of communication is not obvious, and may even be impossible.
2.  The exchange between #5 and Dad "You thought you mattered."  Ouch!
Title: Re: EP204: The Fifth Zhi
Post by: justenjoying on January 21, 2012, 04:14:16 AM
This story was really about, what we are if we were no longer the top of the food chain. How would we react. I also loved
the implication that the robot is way more human than we wanted to believe, and that is convenient at the time, but that is the
only reason he was able to save us, because how he didn't conform, how he was himself and lonely. It is a wonderful rabbit
whole I had a blast exploring. This by no means has a happy ending, but in that it acctually is a succesful ending. Triumphant
even. This is a great bundle that leaves you with so much to chew on.