EP178: Unlikely

[ryos]

When I heard this was by the author of "Friction", I immediately perked up. Unfortunately, it seems lighting did not strike twice. This story was merely good, not fantastic like "Friction".

I LOVED Samuel's character. Favorite line? "I don't care if they're recorded on tapes, CD's or flying butt monkeys!" Which is, of course, a very clever and appropriate reference to Wayne's World. "So, the mere fact that we're together decreases the accident rate. Right, and monkeys might fly out of my butt." He made me laugh several other times, too, but that line nearly had me waking up my roommate.

[wintermute]

Hey! I really liked this one! Yes, it could be more fleshed out but then it is a short story. Wasn't the "luck" statistic thing dealt with briefly in Ringworld?

Birthright lotteries, with Puppeteers manipulating the outcome to breed lucky humans, the end result of which Teela Brown; it's strongly implied that she'll be lucky enough to avoid dying until the heat death of the universe.

At the risk of a thread hijack, I thought Teela turns out to be the least lucky of those with the luck gene; that's why she's the one that winds up getting transformed into the Protector for those that are genetically similar.  Or does Niven change his mind about that in one of the later novels?  I can't remember anymore which was the last one I read.

I'm pretty much sure it was in Ringworld itself; she was the most lucky, and being a protector was was part of the path her luck led her on to becoming immortal. But the Tree of Life was in a later book, I think. In Ringworld, all they worked out was that the Ringworld was edge-on to the galactic core, so she'd survive the Core Explosion in 20,000 years...

[alllie]

Spoiler Warning: Ringword Saga

Hey! I really liked this one! Yes, it could be more fleshed out but then it is a short story. Wasn't the "luck" statistic thing dealt with briefly in Ringworld?

Birthright lotteries, with Puppeteers manipulating the outcome to breed lucky humans, the end result of which Teela Brown; it's strongly implied that she'll be lucky enough to avoid dying until the heat death of the universe.

At the risk of a thread hijack, I thought Teela turns out to be the least lucky of those with the luck gene; that's why she's the one that winds up getting transformed into the Protector for those that are genetically similar.  Or does Niven change his mind about that in one of the later novels?  I can't remember anymore which was the last one I read.

I'm pretty much sure it was in Ringworld itself; she was the most lucky, and being a protector was was part of the path her luck led her on to becoming immortal. But the Tree of Life was in a later book, I think. In Ringworld, all they worked out was that the Ringworld was edge-on to the galactic core, so she'd survive the Core Explosion in 20,000 years...

Come on, Louis Wu killed Teela cause she tried to stop him from killing billions of Ringworlders to save the entire ring. She was only lucky for Ringworld. Not so much herself. She was 20 on the first trip so not all that much older when she died.

[stePH]

At the risk of a thread hijack, I thought Teela turns out to be the least lucky of those with the luck gene; that's why she's the one that winds up getting transformed into the Protector for those that are genetically similar.  Or does Niven change his mind about that in one of the later novels?  I can't remember anymore which was the last one I read.

I'm pretty much sure it was in Ringworld itself; she was the most lucky, and being a protector was was part of the path her luck led her on to becoming immortal. But the Tree of Life was in a later book, I think. In Ringworld, all they worked out was that the Ringworld was edge-on to the galactic core, so she'd survive the Core Explosion in 20,000 years...

The Protector matter doesn't enter the story until The Ringworld Engineers.  And there are no other Ringworld novels following that book. 

[goatkeeper]

The story may have been good, but I was distracted by the voices (especially the female falsetto). I would like to see Steve pass on the voices and focus on the storytelling. This NPR story pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95090092

I actually didn't mind Steve's girl voice, I thought he did a good job.

Then, I also thought that NPR story was a bit silly.  "Bad Readings of Audiobooks Ruin Audiobooks"
uhm....yah

[DKT]

I liked the concept of this story, I think, but some of the execution felt a bit off.  It's not that I minded that they fell in love (or even that they had a happy ending).  That was all fine.  But when they fell in love so fast and then the car crash happened, and then Tuesday woke up in the hospital, I literally groaned. 

On the brightside, I'm glad that Tuesday didn't die, because that would've really annoyed me.

I liked the scene before the crash when Sam slowly peeled off his bias and began to truly picture himself with Tuesday in incremental degrees of intimacy.  I think we have all done that in various ways.  He realized how lonely he was; and here was a woman who wanted to be with him who he had come to know and appreciate.  Once he let the barriers down and let go of the spite, i figure he was thinking, Who cares about the statistics and other people's expectations.  I'm willing to love this woman.  Then not being too experienced at the relationship thing, he just went for it full bore with the kiss.  I can totally see this as a real reaction.

This part just went by way too fast for me.  Maybe I'm just wired differently but for someone to be that closed off to someone because of pride, and then all of a sudden to realize all those potential possibilities with someone like Tuesday, I don't know. It just happened way too fast for me.

One thing I would've liked to have seen happen is when the relationship soured a bit and they got into an arguement, became sick of each other, but then felt this kind of guilty responsibility to stay in a close proximity to one another because of the statistics.  But that's probably a whole different story. 

Not that I hated this story, I liked it well enough, especially the ideas.  It just didn't knock me out or anything.

[Swamp]

I liked the scene before the crash when Sam slowly peeled off his bias and began to truly picture himself with Tuesday in incremental degrees of intimacy.  I think we have all done that in various ways.  He realized how lonely he was; and here was a woman who wanted to be with him who he had come to know and appreciate.  Once he let the barriers down and let go of the spite, i figure he was thinking, Who cares about the statistics and other people's expectations.  I'm willing to love this woman.  Then not being too experienced at the relationship thing, he just went for it full bore with the kiss.  I can totally see this as a real reaction.

This part just went by way too fast for me.  Maybe I'm just wired differently but for someone to be that closed off to someone because of pride, and then all of a sudden to realize all those potential possibilities with someone like Tuesday, I don't know. It just happened way too fast for me.

One thing I would've liked to have seen happen is when the relationship soured a bit and they got into an arguement, became sick of each other, but then felt this kind of guilty responsibility to stay in a close proximity to one another because of the statistics.  But that's probably a whole different story. 

Yes, it was a bit fast.  A gradual realization would have been better.  This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

[Zathras]

Listened again.

Figured out what I didn't like about it.  The sci-fi aspect is about details.  I despise details.  I am a big picture kind of person.  I generally go for the bigger hammer solution over the trim the edges solution.

Still, it was an enjoyable story.

[DKT]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

[ieDaddy]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

[DKT]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

Read by Steve Eley 

[Windup]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

Read by Steve Eley 

Escape Pod fans demand to know what Steve Eley sounds like when he's faking it!!   

(Does anyone besides me think that sounds like a potential PodCastle?)

[ieDaddy]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

Read by Steve Eley 

Escape Pod fans demand to know what Steve Eley sounds like when he's faking it!!   

(Does anyone besides me think that sounds like a potential PodCastle?)

I think we already did that with Desire of Houses (or whatever it was called....)

[Thaurismunths]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

Read by Steve Eley 

Escape Pod fans demand to know what Steve Eley sounds like when he's faking it!!   

(Does anyone besides me think that sounds like a potential PodCastle?)

I was thinking Pseudopod myself. ;P

[deflective]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

sure, it's all laughs & giggles until they find the link between fake orgasms and kitten death.
then peta advertising gets weird. weirder.

[Windup]

This story would have been phenominal if it would have taken a more When Harry Meets Sally approach.  It's still good IMO, but could have gone for more.

Now that would've been funny

Only if they left in the orgasm scene 

sure, it's all laughs & giggles until they find the link between fake orgasms and kitten death.
then peta advertising gets weird. weirder.

But possibly a lot more fun to watch....

[Hatton]

Felt like I was listening to a story set on a world where nonsequiturs can be used to answer the Schrodinger's Cat question.

Good, though - I liked the narrative and the story ended at a good point.

[contra]

This topic is taking a disturbing turn. 
I will attempt to put some railroad tracks on it for the sake of all of us.

So, the story.  I tried to listen earlier in the week; but I wasn't in hte mood and turned it off after 5 minutes.
I just finished it now, and I enjoyed it.

I think had it been a longer story, a lot of the critism we have would just go away.  He wouldn't suddenly slip from skeptic to true believer; as he would have had time to find out its limits, area of effect, and other things about this statistical effect they have.
But this reminded me of a moment in 'Good Gmens', when a telesales people are stopped from calling people; and that people were not annoyed, interupted, and distracted; made them so much happier in tiny ways that goodness flowed out in ripples across the country.  And making phone calls impossible at 1pm spread so much badness in tiny ways, that made people malicious and generally worse.

So I look at the effect they have on the world like this. People seeing an older and a younger person together, gives small amounts of hope to all that pass, just knowing that love exists in some form.  Thenselective memory aftertelling people about these people would expand the percieved effect. 
While seeing an old (seemingly)bitter man out clearly not happy, or a cute girl alone and looking for someone may effect the world badly in a thousand small ways.

So back on my track.... gradual would have happened if it was longer.  The end felt tied on just to get a conclusion on it... but hey... that would just be the ending of the first chapter... or the start of a second one...
There is a long way you could go from there.  From conspiracies to chaos theory. 

Also that the cyclists didn't know what they were, may be a sign that the experiment was gonig in different ways to see if the effect still happened.  I liked that.  As there didn't seem to be a lot of other testing of it...

Ah well.  I'll listen again... but not for a while....

[ryos]

Also that the cyclists didn't know what they were, may be a sign that the experiment was gonig in different ways to see if the effect still happened.  I liked that.  As there didn't seem to be a lot of other testing of it...

I'd say the cyclists knew what they were and were just repeating the official line.

[Anarkey]

I liked this story a lot better than I liked "Friction", and like ajames, was surprised by how much I liked this story.  

I can see where people are going with causation/correlation question, and it's true that at one point during the story I was on that track like most everyone else here and a little distracted.

I also felt (like most everyone else) that the ending was a mite weak.

But I still liked the story a lot.  There's a theory that posits that all people have three aspects: the people they are, the people they think they are, and the people other people see them as.  To me this story was a lens to see those three aspects of the protag.  And what happens at the end of the story is that the three aspects line up, become one, creating a whole person.  To me that was very satisfying, regardless of the romantic aspect.  For me, that worked.  
 

[Ersatz Coffee]

Never thought I'd say this about a Will McIntosh story, but: "meh!".

[Father Beast]

I'm struck by the similarity of concept to a story called "Tracking The Random Variable", Which I read a long time ago, and can't recall the author.

That had a guy working in inventory at an auto shop, and could use various unrelated things to predict how many mufflers, brake shoes, and so forth they would need for the coming week. much less fun than this story because of the emotional trauma in it.

Still, I think it was pretty neat, even if the core concept isn't all that original. I liked that we were never given any real explanation for why it all worked, but that people were moving it forward simply because it did. I'll listen again.

[Thaurismunths]

I'm struck by the similarity of concept to a story called "Tracking The Random Variable", Which I read a long time ago, and can't recall the author.

That had a guy working in inventory at an auto shop, and could use various unrelated things to predict how many mufflers, brake shoes, and so forth they would need for the coming week. much less fun than this story because of the emotional trauma in it.

Still, I think it was pretty neat, even if the core concept isn't all that original. I liked that we were never given any real explanation for why it all worked, but that people were moving it forward simply because it did. I'll listen again.

Marcos Donnelly

[JoeFitz]

The story may have been good, but I was distracted by the voices (especially the female falsetto). I would like to see Steve pass on the voices and focus on the storytelling. This NPR story pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95090092

I listened to the NPR program about the narration of audiobooks and disagreed with some of it. While a bad narration can ruin a story, a good narration can make it. I see escapepod, podcastle and pseudopod less about audiobooks and more about the return of the kind of radio where voice acting was the rule, not the exception. Often a story that I could barely force myself to read becomes sharp and interesting just because of the way it was, not narrated, but acted.

Maybe I'm just used to Steve's voice - but I really look forward to stories he narrates. It's not that other readers are unwelcome for me, or that extra talent is a bad idea, I just find it well done and comforting. I especially like Steve's falsetto.

[JoeFitz]

A little late to this story, but I accidentally skipped it, and had a good commute today to catch up.

I enjoyed the dialogue and Sam's character quite a bit. Tuesday was a dream. But were these people 50+ or 15? You can't apply earth logic to a relationship. I doubt an analyst would have such a breakthrough with Sam, let alone the girl of his dreams if he would only allow himself to dream. I know it's part of the romance genre to fall in love with the person who saved you, but I would rather have had Tuesday push Sam out of his shell and him take up with the waitress and her one of the cyclists than the ending we got.

I was taken by the romance of the story but drawn out of it when Sam fell head-over-heels so easily and completely. Ending the story with the crash would have been nice and appropriately ironic, I think. Instead, we had to go on and have the baby tooth on a chain - ick.

Still... I'd listen to it again. I'm not asking for romance every week, but please don't avoid it on my account.