Author Topic: EP694: Hunting the Mighty Space Whale  (Read 3202 times)

divs

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 175
on: August 23, 2019, 11:20:00 PM
Escape Pod 694: Hunting the Mighty Space Whale


Author : Miranda Ciccone
Narrator : S. Kay Nash
Host : Alasdair Stuart
Audio Producer : Summer Brooks

Hunting the Mighty Space Whale is an Escape Pod original.

---

They sent me to blow up the ship, which is a pretty dramatic way to inform an employee that her services are no longer required. On the other hand, it’s sort of my own fault because it didn’t occur to me to say no until after the interview at the recruiting station. Which makes me a good cautionary tale about not sleepwalking through your life, especially when your life involves being a deep-space ecological terrorist.

I suppose in my defense I could argue that I just sort of fell into sabotaging mining vessels and planting IEDs in the offices of PRE (Planetary Resource Extraction) Ltd.’s CEOs, in much the same way another person might fall into a career in accounting, or dressing up like a clown for kid’s parties. I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy and, well, the whole story is pretty long and boring and mostly about networking. But it does kind of emphasize the whole ‘don’t sleepwalk through your life’ moral of this little Aesopian piece.


Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!
« Last Edit: September 27, 2019, 07:06:00 PM by divs »



Jack Molesworth

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Reply #1 on: August 25, 2019, 11:20:27 PM
This was just awful. This story was so bad it got me off my butt to register for this forum just to gripe about it. Holy cow, what was the point of this tale? Here, let me save you time if you haven't heard it. Here's an accurate summary:

A lady sees a space whale and it is just amazingly gigantic.

That's it. That's all that happens. This would have been better as a 100-character Twabble than a short story. It would have been just as bad but then it wouldn't have spent as much time irritating me. There is nothing to recommend this story. No real characterization, no tension, no payoff, nothing. I'm struggling to understand why anybody would pull this from the slush pile and take the time to produce it. It should have been chucked into a paper shredder. Blech. Please, please, PLEASE stop running awful stories.



adaz

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Reply #2 on: September 14, 2019, 09:52:48 PM
I liked this story - it fit in to the theme around the Scythe series as well that if humanity can't die a lot of stuff (including metal) becomes sort of meaningless. A person spending 60,000 years just finding a way they could die and have it be meaningful was pretty cool. A mild take on a future dystopia



acpracht

  • EA Staff
  • *****
  • Posts: 229
Reply #3 on: September 26, 2019, 04:22:29 AM
I liked this story - it fit in to the theme around the Scythe series as well that if humanity can't die a lot of stuff (including metal) becomes sort of meaningless. A person spending 60,000 years just finding a way they could die and have it be meaningful was pretty cool. A mild take on a future dystopia

Hi, adaz,

Did you intend this feedback on "The Last Stellar Death Metal Opera" perhaps?



divs

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 175
Reply #4 on: September 27, 2019, 07:10:02 PM
Quote
This was just awful. This story was so bad it got me off my butt to register for this forum just to gripe about it.

Sorry this one didn't work for you!

We saw it as a story of transformative experience, the kind of thing that makes people examine their lives and make big changes. Plus, space whales!  ;D



Fenrix

  • Curmudgeonly Co-Editor of PseudoPod
  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 3996
  • I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Reply #5 on: December 03, 2019, 02:23:41 AM

We saw it as a story of transformative experience, the kind of thing that makes people examine their lives and make big changes. Plus, space whales!  ;D


I really appreciated and am still unpacking the emotions wrapped up in the angry anarchy of youth being tempered by the cosmic horror of one's insignificance. Thanks for making me grapple with this on the way to work.

Also, we totally need to steal S. Kay Nash to read something for us.

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


CryptoMe

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1146
Reply #6 on: February 07, 2020, 08:53:34 PM
I didn't get this story at all. There was an interesting hint of a character (who I would like to know more about), but then they saw a giant space whale and the story was over. Huh?? Didn't work for me.

For those who like the concept of large space-faring beings, I point you towards the Binti series, by Nnedi Okorafor. That story has amazing space "whales", who also function as space ships. Now that is cool!