Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Swamp on December 04, 2009, 02:34:26 AM
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EP227: His Master’s Voice (http://escapepod.org/2009/12/03/ep227-his-masters-voice/)
by Hannu Rajaniemi (http://tomorrowelephant.net/).
Read by Peter Piazza; courtesy of Starship Sofa (http://www.starshipsofa.com/20090902/aural-delights-no-98-hannu-rajaniemi/).
Guest introduction by Paul Graham Raven of Futurismic (http://futurismic.com/).
First appeared in Interzone (http://ttapress.com/interzone/), October 2008.
Before the concert, we steal the Master’s head. The Necropolis is a dark forest of concrete mushrooms in the blue Antarctic night. We huddle inside the utility fog level attached to the steep southern wall of the ice valley. The cat washes itself with a pink tongue. It reeks of infinite confidence.
“Get ready,” I tell it. “We don’t have all night.”
It gives me a moderately offended look, and dons its armor.
Rated R.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://cdn1.libsyn.com/escapepod/EP227_HisMastersVoice.mp3?nvb=20091204022227&nva=20091205023227&t=07595dc718524465565de)
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Yet one more time when I must comment with...
Um...what?
You would think that a story with clones, talking dogs, and flying cats (The Ely surely loves that!) would be good.
Not so much.
Hard to follow. Waaaay to abstract for audio. Not the worst by a long shot, but not the best by that same long shot.
The reading kinda made up for the story, but not enough to call it enjoyable.
While it's good to hear Steve's voice again (been on a PodCastle week here at work), it sucked to not hear "It's story time." I'm used to that with EP (just like "I promise, it's true" on PseudoPod).
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I thought maybe it was just that I was listening in bed and getting sleepy that I didn't get this story. But cdugger's reaction seems to confirm mine.
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I think I liked this story, but I'm only about 70% sure of what was actually happening in it. This might be another one of those stories that worked better in written form.
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great story, you can see why it's been picked so many times. it did a solid job of maintaining the catness & dogness of the characters even as they advanced beyond familiar animals. i want to hear a dog composed symphony now even if my consciousness needs to be put into a fingernail to do it.
there was a lot of plot packed into forty minutes. i was impressed by how much happened and particularly enjoyed the animals' rise to fame from a daikaiju existence in nanoville. so much world building in such a small passage.
i did wish that the story was laid out chronologically but that's because this was audio.
i've greatly enjoyed the new style of story that ep's been running, i also understand that it could become frustrating to people who've been used to ep's usual format. if ep does return the normal format i hope you'll still include something like we've been hearing every month or two. particularly stories that play with tech without making it an antagonistic force.
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This story definitely had merit, and I liked some of the ideas in it, but I too had a bit of trouble following the plot.
I got used to it eventually but the sound of the recording was a bit jarring. I guess it was good to get a 'freebie' in that it was recycled from another podcast, but perhaps it could've been re-recorded in a little higher fidelity.
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This one was the Atlas Shrugged of EP pod casts. I had to lock myself in the basement and listen to it through ear buds. Three times! The author is clearly knowledgeable about matters both technical, cultural, and legal, but a story like this might play better at a venue like slashdot (if they published fiction), or some other similarly geek oriented webzine. I must reveal myself now as a lazy bum who prefers not to work so hard to grasp the essence of a story even if it's good. At least not a on a regular basis anyhow. :D
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I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I loved it! Woo hoo, go dog & cat teamwork. Rescue Pets. :) Very interesting world created here. I'm envisioning an entire galaxy full of mind photocopies of people. All sorts of moral delimmas brought up there.
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Like the previous story, this story packed in a lot of concepts that have worked in other SF/F -- talking/technology-savvy animals, sovereign states (the oil rig), DRM, cloning/robot bodies... but I agree that too much was happening. The whole thing where the master was rebuilt in the music was a little too much like the end of LOTR:ROTK, where "it's over, they win... wait, now it's over... wait, NOW it's over". I was pleased that they got their revenge on the Wrong Master, however. I just... beyond that, I don't really remember the ending.
The consistency of the characters was well-done.
I agree that the sound quality was sharp-sounding, but it was good enough that I didn't notice it after a while.
Overall a pretty good story. I liked it about as much as the last one, though I have less to complain about with this than the previous.
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I must confess that even though I was pretty lost, especially towards the end, I loved this story's emotional content. For all that it was also a story about transhuman hypertech and a future that went completely over my head, it was also a story of a man, and his dog, and his cat, and of the love that drove a dog above beyond all reason to bring his family back together, and that's something I can't ignore. For that, alone, this story gets high marks from me.
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I found the concept interesting, although (like the other readers) I got a bit lost with the plot at the end. This is what I can figure out
Master: I'm a super l33t hacker guy in the future. Technology is so advanced that you can copy and download yourself like an MP3 into awesome robot bodies. It's so awesome, except there's a DRM law that says you can only have one copy at a time. But that's lame, so Imma gonna copy myself anyway.
Not-the-Master: Wut up!
Dog: Oh hai, I'm a dog. Master's been enhancing me.
Cat: I'm a cat. Ditto.
Not-the-Master: I'm illegal? WTF, totally turning u in.
RIAA: Muhuhahahaha, pwnt!!!
Master: Dude, take care of my pets. *zap!*
Not-the-Master: whatever...
*later*
Dog: Dude, I somehow got all this crazy hacker tech.
Cat: Ditto.
Dog: Let's break into the super hacker-jail!
Cat: Word.
*they do*
Dog: Dude, we got the master's head, but for some reason we're going to turn his brain waves into MP3 music and remix him so we can legally break the DRM or something...
Cat: Okay.
Not-the-Master: Aha! I totally work for the RIAA now, and I just pwnt the whole planet just so ur plan doesn't work.
Cat: I'm totally going to cut off ur head now...
Not-the-Master: What? AHHHH!!!
*something happens and they jump into the magic Internet black hole*
*the end!*
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I found the concept interesting, although (like the other readers) I got a bit lost with the plot at the end. This is what I can figure out
Master: I'm a super l33t hacker guy in the future. Technology is so advanced that you can copy and download yourself like an MP3 into awesome robot bodies. It's so awesome, except there's a DRM law that says you can only have one copy at a time. But that's lame, so Imma gonna copy myself anyway.
Not-the-Master: Wut up!
Dog: Oh hai, I'm a dog. Master's been enhancing me.
Cat: I'm a cat. Ditto.
Not-the-Master: I'm illegal? WTF, totally turning u in.
RIAA: Muhuhahahaha, pwnt!!!
Master: Dude, take care of my pets. *zap!*
Not-the-Master: whatever...
*later*
Dog: Dude, I somehow got all this crazy hacker tech.
Cat: Ditto.
Dog: Let's break into the super hacker-jail!
Cat: Word.
*they do*
Dog: Dude, we got the master's head, but for some reason we're going to turn his brain waves into MP3 music and remix him so we can legally break the DRM or something...
Cat: Okay.
Not-the-Master: Aha! I totally work for the RIAA now, and I just pwnt the whole planet just so ur plan doesn't work.
Cat: I'm totally going to cut off ur head now...
Not-the-Master: What? AHHHH!!!
*something happens and they jump into the magic Internet black hole*
*the end!*
FTW! ;D
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I found the concept interesting, although (like the other readers) I got a bit lost with the plot at the end. This is what I can figure out
Master: I'm a super l33t hacker guy in the future. Technology is so advanced that you can copy and download yourself like an MP3 into awesome robot bodies. It's so awesome, except there's a DRM law that says you can only have one copy at a time. But that's lame, so Imma gonna copy myself anyway.
Not-the-Master: Wut up!
Dog: Oh hai, I'm a dog. Master's been enhancing me.
Cat: I'm a cat. Ditto.
Not-the-Master: I'm illegal? WTF, totally turning u in.
RIAA: Muhuhahahaha, pwnt!!!
Master: Dude, take care of my pets. *zap!*
Not-the-Master: whatever...
*later*
Dog: Dude, I somehow got all this crazy hacker tech.
Cat: Ditto.
Dog: Let's break into the super hacker-jail!
Cat: Word.
*they do*
Dog: Dude, we got the master's head, but for some reason we're going to turn his brain waves into MP3 music and remix him so we can legally break the DRM or something...
Cat: Okay.
Not-the-Master: Aha! I totally work for the RIAA now, and I just pwnt the whole planet just so ur plan doesn't work.
Cat: I'm totally going to cut off ur head now...
Not-the-Master: What? AHHHH!!!
*something happens and they jump into the magic Internet black hole*
*the end!*
Now THAT one need to be in audio! That was great!
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I didn't have the trouble following the events (but then, I didn't have trouble following Uncanny Valley, either, which apparently threw everyone else for a total loop.) Heck, I thought they spent a little too much time explaining stuff I'd already figured out. I am disappointed at the repeated use of Uplifted dogs and never Uplifted cats as the protagonists. Everyone loves the lovable, cheerful, loyal pets and not the disdainful half-wild sociopaths, I guess.
I'd rather have heard the story of the cat's career as a nanotech gladiator, personally.
((BTW, just for reference, the magic Internet black hole is uploading to the transhuman colonies in the Darkness Between the Stars. Remember, the ones who were behind the "small animal" who helped with the Uplifting process?))
Overall, enjoyable, but it gets dinged points for being a little too busy shoving sci-fi tropes into every nook and cranny to pay enough attention to the plot. And I'm also taking ten points from Gryffindor for making me listen to the loyal'n'friendly dog instead of the cat (who probably mostly wanted to use the "retrieve the Master" project to prove its chops and get uploaded to the transhumanists rather than actually wanting the Master back.)
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i'm a fan of the lovable, cheerful sociopath myself.
why yes! i will have a donut, thank you Dexter.
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i'm a fan of the lovable, cheerful sociopath myself.
why yes! i will have a donut, thank you Dexter.
He's such a nice guy:)
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What's this "cats are sociopaths" business? They're just as loving and loyal, albeit in their own strange way, as dogs are. Because they're not moral actors in the same way that humans are I don't think they're even capable of being sociopathic as we apply the term to humans. If the species were enhanced in the manor the author describes then that would be different. And not an especially good idea either, given what an lethal apex predator felines are, eh? ;)
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I liked the story - what I could understand of it. The audio was really bad this time. I listen from my iPod in my car. Normally all is fine, but this time the audio had a slight tin-canny sound to it, plus every time that the reader made an "s" sound, it was like some type of audio bomb going off in my ears and was almost painfull. Ouch. At least I could understand the basics of what was going on, though, and didn't have to constantly rewind to try and figure out the words like I have to do sometimes when the reader has a heavy accent. On those, I tend to find myself repeating the heavily accented word to myself and trying to figure out how in the heck the speaker could ever learn to spell when the vowels are spoken so oddly. ;)
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The audio was really bad this time. I listen from my iPod in my car. Normally all is fine, but this time the audio had a slight tin-canny sound to it, plus every time that the reader made an "s" sound, it was like some type of audio bomb going off in my ears and was almost painfull.
I also listen in the car from my ipod, and had the exact same experience. The 's' sounds were three times as loud as anything else. I had to turn it off, and try again on my laptop at home.
There the sound was okay, actually. I noticed the 's' sounds, but not anything like on the ipod and car speakers.
The story itself was diverting, but I was lost a lot of the time myself.
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I had a hard time figuring out what was going on some of the time but I think I got most of the story. Pet stories get me every time and overall I liked it. I will probably listen to it again and I would love to read it if it is available in print somewhere.
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Really? I listen in my car on my ipod too and had no difficulties with the audio...
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Well, I got a mild thrill from the fact that the author is Finnish, and mild amusement from pretty bad pronunciation of his name. Otherwise I couldn't listen the story. I was using Iphone and Zagg buds, and every "s" sound sent daggers to my ears.
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Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Blended so much stuff together in such a short space and did it so well. Wonderful. The animals jumping into the... thing... at the end had a high emotional impact for me -- quite choked me up! (slightly embarrassing when you're listening on a public tram)
Caveat: I'm a real sucker for a "good dog" story. :-)
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I really like a bunch of the concepts in this story - cloning, laws against it, uplifted dog as DJ superstar, etc. But, I didn't particularly like the execution of the story.
Like many previous posters, I found the story
a) hard to follow because it jumped around too much (audio vs. written issue?),
b) had too many different concepts squished into a small space,
c) tried too hard to use fancy language and ended up tripping over itself instead.
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Ok, so I've finally started working on my 3-week EA backlog. I really like this story, for the first 95% of it - and then the deliberate pacing and revealing of information turned into a short, incomprehensible action sequence. Which made me realize I was tuning out all the action sequences earlier and concentrating on the flashbacks.
I think that overall this is a great story that involves wonderful world creation with neat characters - both animals and humans - but I think the action bits let it down.
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I did like this although I must admit I'm not entirely sure what happened, especially at the end. I admit it, I listen to Escape Pod just for the funny noises.
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I have to say, I really loved this story, even though the SF bits was hard for me to follow. The best parts for me were the cat bits. I loved its standoffishness and coolness, but to me it also show how much it cared about its master, just in an entirely different way from the dog's. I loved how the two of them worked together to get their master back, and though I was initially confused by the music part, it turned into a giant win.
A very sweet, creative story.
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I liked this story a lot, and followed it mostly. I caught a few plot holes, but it may have been holes in my understanding. I really enjoyed the idea of nanotech, a tech that I have found surprisingly lacking in most SF these days, and I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps because nanotech is becoming more of a reality and less of a fiction.
Parts of this story reminded me of the world brought about by Neal Stephenson in Diamond Age, with the small animal in the dog and cat's dreams being analogous to the Young Lady's Primer, teaching the dog and cat everything they know. I also found it excellent that the evolution of man was to digitize themselves rather than stick themselves in robots, and I think it was done MUCH better in this story than in many others, including Uncanny Valley.
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Loved it! To begin with, dog POVs are almost always a win for me (including PC's Nine Sundays in a Row and this one). There were a lot of things I probably didn't "get" as far as the setting, but it didn't really bother me at any point, because it was clear that the dog did not understand them either, and since I'm looking through his POV it's not a big deal. I loved the cyber-enhanced animals that still keep their animal traits, and the multiple Masters. Very cool throughout and had me wide-eyed as a kid as each cool thing rolled by. :)
And, a quote:
"The only thing cuter than the cutest cat is any dog."
--Tosh 2.0
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I was very pleased to hear this story and intrigued. The cyber-pets turned pop stars was a great touch, and reminded me of the bloggers in O.S.Card's book Ender's Game. The Author's action writing very telling of the tech of the realm the story took place in - I hope to hear this author's voice again.
Also, I liked being challenged by the vagarious times and points of view presented. I prefer stories in which time and memory aren't linear. Because, well, it isn't.
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I thought of a more quotable way to say I liked this story: "It was confusing in all the right ways."
That is, the confusion about the setting was what drew me in, and even though I'm not sure I understood every detail of what happened, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and loved the characters.
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I admit I found it quite odd that anyone had trouble following the story. I thought it was pretty straightforward. Uncanny Valley, sure, that was just one big hot mess of random imagery. Anyway, I loved the story and how the dog retained his essential dog-ness throughout. I also thought it was fairly obvious that he'd genetically modified his pets to slowly become more and more intelligent, and his AI taught them as much as it could. Also, that the Not Master was an illegal clone of the Master, who the Master made to help him do whatever the frick it was he was working on.
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I just listened to this story and it inspired me (for better or worse) to post. I stock up on various podcasts and listen to them while i am out in the Gulf of Mexico for work. A month at a time on the job means that i have plenty of time where if i am not putting info in my brain, i slowly go crazy.
A note about the sound, if you are able to, a better quality level of headphones may help out. I know it did to me. I picked up a set of Grado SR80 headphones before i headed out this month and i can't even begin to describe how much this has helped the quality. Yes you look like someone from the 70s, its ok. The price is about 100 bucks though, but if you are in the market, sick of ear buds, and have the time, it would pay to check them out. Your ears will thank you. On a side note, i do not work at a secret grado production facility on the bottom of the gulf of mexico, they are made in new york, a place i never want to visit again.
Ok the story, i thought it was brilliant, though at times hard to follow, i had to back it up a few times to figure out what was going on, but i like a story that makes my brain heat up a bit. At the end i understood (or at least thought i did) that the cat and dog were going to their death. The giant intarweb black hole (it IS a series of tubes!!!) made me scratch my head a bit, but i understood the part were they shot the masters info up in to space and what not, so yea may live oneth for countless aeons... sure. Sounds great.
I assumed that cat and doggington were about to pay the price for de-headafication of the RIAA guy and were about to meet a host of bad ass robots that they could not possibly finish off. Hence all the hurrying and then the sad moment with the ball, that trick worked on me, i got choked up. It felt like to me that we were right on the cusp of a guns blazing finish.
At any rate, i LOVED the tech, loved the raidoactive cat barf (is there any other kind?), and since i am on something quite similiar right now, liked the setting of a oil platform.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this story and wish there was a sequel. As I listened to the story on my drive home from work, I couldnt help but picture this story made into an animated short movie.
I look forward to seeing some more work from the author.
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Just listened to it because he just got a Tor book deal. I'm in the confusing/interesting camp as well. Reminded me of Grant Morrison's WE3 comic. Gud dog??
(http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/55.jpg)