Author Topic: EP611: When We Fall  (Read 4049 times)

eytanz

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on: January 20, 2018, 05:24:57 PM
Escape Pod 611: When We Fall

AUTHOR : Kameron Hurley
NARRATOR : Ibba Armancas
HOST: Tina Connolly

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I don’t remember the first time I was abandoned and forgotten, but I have told the story of the second time so often that when the memory boils up it feels hot and gummy, like the air that day.

Whoever cared for me – and I can’t be certain they were legal guardians, let alone relatives – took me with them to beg at the crossroads just outside the interplanetary port. I don’t know how long they had me, but I know they were not the first. I remember being hungry. I remember a tall woman with dark hair pulling me close and saying, “Stay here Aisha.” She gave me a length of sugarcane and a mango. Her skirt was red. I still think of the red skirt when I think of home.

The people I saw as I sat out there, day after day, were all engineered for different worlds. The world I was on then, there was something about the sky… bloody red most of the day; stars the rest of the day, and a night filled with blue light. People were tailored to fit where they were from, or the place they’d chosen as home, whether that was a world or the deep black between the stars. Some were tall and fat, short and squat, or spindly; willowy as leaves of grass. Gills, webbed toes, ears that jutted out sharply from faces with eyes the size of jack bolts… many had tails; a few had four arms or more. Many wore respirators; teeth gleaming purple behind translucent masks or fuzzy full-bodied filters or suits that clung to their bodies like a second skin.


Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!
« Last Edit: February 13, 2018, 06:43:34 PM by Talia »



Father Beast

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Reply #1 on: January 22, 2018, 12:14:47 PM
I found this story to be quite enjoyable. I found it especially interesting that she felt this instant prejudice when she  discovered that this woman she had such an important connection with was not a standard type of person. The ship handled it excellently by declaring that she was not human, but she was most definitely a person.

And then the main character overcomes her prejudice and forges a relationship with the ship. I felt like I didn't understand what was in the tomato, but perhaps it doesn't matter, beyond that it would somehow free the ship from her programmed constraints.



Ansible

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Reply #2 on: January 24, 2018, 04:58:53 PM
The mind virus in the ship idea reminds me of TNG 'I Borg'



CryptoMe

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Reply #3 on: January 26, 2018, 04:18:46 PM
I really liked this story!! I liked the main character arc between the MC and the avatar. And I liked the tonnes of little concepts that were thrown in, like the fleshy hull of the ship the MC was woking on during the accident, learning via viruses, hiding viruses in food, and of course the ship ai having avatars. All really cool stuff!!



Jethro's belt

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Reply #4 on: January 30, 2018, 02:05:10 AM
Economically written with an unusual story path and organic ships, all cool.  A story like a hybrid of what I think of as great novels, Ancillary Justice with it's ship bodies and The Sand Pebbles where Holman is really just searching for a place to belong (which does not really come across in the movie) I liked this a lot.  And tomatoes, the new forbidden fruit.



Katzentatzen

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Reply #5 on: February 08, 2018, 08:09:08 AM
I love found family stories. As mentioned above, concepts like bio-ships and engineered viruses is incredibly intriguing!

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
--LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN


irishlazz

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Reply #6 on: February 10, 2018, 10:02:25 PM
Fascinating premise and intriguing way to script a 'computer virus'. Loved this.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." A.Einstein


Fenrix

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Reply #7 on: June 07, 2018, 02:55:51 AM
Excellently crafted, and evokes so much in such a compact space.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Fenrix

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Reply #8 on: September 15, 2019, 01:27:45 PM
I'm reading Meet Me in the Future right now and re-read this one. I still really enjoy it, and recommend Hurley's new collection to anyone who enjoys her short fiction.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43801821-meet-me-in-the-future

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”