Author Topic: EP662: Another Day in the Desert  (Read 3601 times)

divs

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on: January 22, 2019, 09:14:58 PM
Escape Pod 662: Another Day in the Desert


AUTHOR : Mame Bougouma Diene
NARRATOR : Halima Salah
HOST: S.B. Divya
PRODUCER: Summer Brooks

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“I’ll trip you first abba!”

Tagedouchet teased her father as she leaped over the long stick he swung at her ankles, raising a puff of sand with her sandals, the gritty substance drifting between her toes, and landed, folding her knees, narrowly dodging the swing of her father’s Takuba sabre.

She swung her stick at his knees. He parried with his own and hammered her with his curved sword. The old, wiry man was still strong. Her blade blocked his attacks, but her shoulder bent almost to dislocation. She used a break in his thrusts to roll over to the side and sweep him off his feet with a sharp spin of her long stick. He hit the ground without a word, rolled over, and leaped back to his feet.

“Told you!” she said, the thick turban wrapped around her face muffling her words in the evening sun, setting behind the dunes around them.

“It’s important for trainees to build up some confidence, and…”

The beating wings of a Han Industries helithopter cut his words short, leaving a shadow across the sand like a giant firefly.

They instinctively covered their eyes, closed their mouths and stopped breathing. Some people said it did little good — whatever radiation seeped from the uranium transported from the mines would trickle in — but they did anyway, perhaps more in disgust of the corporation than for protection.

Her father spit a gob of black phlegm into the sand at the thopter’s passage, traces left from his own years working the mines around Arlit.

“Let’s get going,” he said “the drones’ll start flying soon.”


Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!




TrishEM

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Reply #1 on: February 14, 2019, 07:00:24 AM
Interesting and sad, but the events at the end didn't seem like quite enough to spark a widespread rebellion, to me. Maybe it was just the final straw, but the people had seemed more resigned to the situation than simmering with tension.



Moritz

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Reply #2 on: February 27, 2019, 01:31:50 PM
I enjoyed this a lot and would like to read more in that setting. Probably when the other stories are collected in one anthology :)



Ichneumon

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Reply #3 on: March 01, 2019, 05:18:13 PM
The reading of this story was not as strong as usual. The narrator had a lovely voice but the flow of the reading was off.



Scuba Man

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Reply #4 on: March 05, 2019, 03:04:38 AM
Unfortunately, I struggled listening to the narrator. It wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped. I’ll try listening to it again in the morning.   :(

I'm a stand-up philosopher until 2024. Then, I move onto my next gig. I'm a gentleman forester and farmer. I also enjoy jumping into Lake Huron and panicking the fish.


Scuba Man

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Reply #5 on: March 07, 2019, 01:05:14 AM
Nope. The next day I listened to it, I couldn't finish the story. The narration just didn't work for me. Pity.  :-\

I'm a stand-up philosopher until 2024. Then, I move onto my next gig. I'm a gentleman forester and farmer. I also enjoy jumping into Lake Huron and panicking the fish.


CryptoMe

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Reply #6 on: March 12, 2019, 07:57:45 PM
I also struggled with the reading of the story. It seemed like the narrator needed more practice with the story before recording. As a result, the halts and odd rushes did detract from the story for me.

That said, I wasn't a great fan of the story. It was sad and very dystopic, but lacked a redeeming punch. I'm not convinced that the ending was that punch, since it seems like the resistance is doomed anyway.