Author Topic: Pseudopod 124: Scavenger  (Read 10568 times)

Bdoomed

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on: January 18, 2009, 07:06:40 PM
Pseudopod 124: Scavenger

By Jonathan Kuhn

Read by Alasdair Stuart

No end in sight. He tossed aside the empty water bottle, now useless. One bottle left. Two more liters. But in this heat, that wouldn’t last long.

Maybe if he could pace himself. But he couldn’t. Because every second he wasted, it was growing closer.

It moved slowly, awkwardly jerking itself forward with each step it took. A moderate speed was enough to stay ahead of it. But the man had to rest eventually. And it didn’t.

Sand slipped under his feet as he scaled the next dune. This one was much steeper than the others, forcing him to rest halfway to the top. Perhaps it, with its one arm and poor coordination, would not be able to climb up. The top could mean safety. But this was only hopeful, foolish thinking. He knew it would find a way up. It would not stop until it had him.


This week’s episode sponsored by CONTAGIOUS, by Scott Sigler.



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Zathras

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Reply #1 on: January 18, 2009, 07:53:10 PM
Zombies, yay! 

Good story.  This is what zombie stories should be, about the survivors.  I liked Alasdair's outro, too.



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #2 on: January 19, 2009, 03:01:52 PM
I liked it, but a bit overdramatic in places.



gelee

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Reply #3 on: January 20, 2009, 07:16:51 PM
I liked it, but a bit overdramatic in places.
I agree.  The prose was a bit florid in places, but it was a good story, and well read.



Zathras

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Reply #4 on: January 20, 2009, 07:34:57 PM
I liked it, but a bit overdramatic in places.
I agree.  The prose was a bit florid in places, but it was a good story, and well read.

I attributed that to the character rather than the author.  I guess that's a tricky issue with first person narrators.



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Reply #5 on: January 23, 2009, 03:02:55 PM
Good zombie story.  Well done, and I enjoyed the back and forth story telling.  I do hope that if I find myself in a race with the undead, that I wouldn't throw myself off a cliff after just one day.  As long as my chocolate-covered coffee beans supply holds, I’m good to go. 

« Last Edit: January 23, 2009, 06:14:31 PM by Kevin Anderson »



Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #6 on: January 23, 2009, 04:50:58 PM
Although I suppose if you can't be dramatic about the apocolypse...



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Reply #7 on: January 25, 2009, 07:09:46 AM
Thought it was solid, if slight.  Would have made a nice page turner in an old issue of WEIRD TALES.  Had a matter of fact, logical progression that worked to its advantage, a nice small scale that made the horror particularized.  Good last line (much like DEEP RED, but this was a better story).

The brevity of the story was an asset, although it could have had a *bit* more internal character development.  I'm thinking specifically of some idea of the character's religious/spiritual/philosophical views, considering what he's experiencing.  He comments on the women's head scarves, it would have been interesting for the author to open his reaction a little more (I could have missed something).

Unfortunately, I'm really feeling zombie  burn-out at this point.  Not with this website, more with the genre of horror entire.  The zombie (and by that I mean Romero-esque version, not the Vodun version) is dangerously close to entering the zone of overexposure that vampires did under Anne Rice in the mid-80's, eventually leading to them being expatriated into an entire sub-genre I can't stand and don't read.  Please, zombies, please, say it ain't so...

Thanks For Listening
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Listener

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Reply #8 on: January 26, 2009, 03:23:49 PM
So... Zombies in Iraq?

Didn't do much for me.

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eytanz

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Reply #9 on: January 27, 2009, 11:19:35 AM
Not my favorite sub-genre, but very well written.



Sam Cade

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Reply #10 on: January 29, 2009, 01:58:38 AM
 Story was meh.

 It is worth noting that there are NO cacti in Iraq. ::)

 Cacti are exclusively new world plants.



eytanz

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Reply #11 on: January 29, 2009, 11:03:57 AM
Story was meh.

 It is worth noting that there are NO cacti in Iraq. ::)

 Cacti are exclusively new world plants.

First, I don't think this story was set in actual Iraq - the country was never named, and some things don't fit - I believe that women in urban Iraq don't necessarily cover their faces, it is a relatively secular Muslem country. It may be Afghanistan, or it may be a ficticious country modeled after current events (+ zombies).

As to the cactus issue - I've never been in Iraq, but I grew up in Israel, and I can assure you that there are cacti all over the place. Yes, cacti originated in the New World, but just like tomatoes and potatoes, they were brought over centuries ago and are now ubiquitous in the Old World.



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Reply #12 on: February 02, 2009, 10:01:46 PM
Zombie stories are generally not my cup of tea. But I did like this one - even with the cheese factor of the "girl must take off clothes" scene. Someone might be tempted to think that the narrator, having objectified the woman who was trying to treat her wound, was in turn objectified. He chose death; she didn't have a choice. I'm reading way too much into that, I know. I'm just saying.



MacArthurBug

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Reply #13 on: February 06, 2009, 09:57:17 PM
Somehow my podcatcher missed catching this one. The setting kept throwing me off, as if the writer only vaugly resurched his setting before putting things together.  over all- not a terrible story, not by any means my new fav or my new least favorite. It filled the space of silence, so- 's good.

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Russell Nash

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Reply #14 on: June 03, 2009, 08:20:53 PM
I took a break from PP for a while and now I'm catching back up.  I found that once I started listen to Al's outros I just had to keep hearing more.

I found this to be a pretty good story.  The image of the vulture eating the guy's back while he was still alive freaked me the hell out.



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Reply #15 on: September 01, 2009, 06:42:41 PM
This was a reasonably good story, sort of in the middle for me, neither great nor terrible.

For me, the time-jumping between scenes is a little hard to take in audio stories--I'm never sure if a pause is just a pause or if it's a section break.  That's not a criticism of the author or of the reader, just something inherent in audio stories, methinks.  If I'd read this story this probably would've been easier to take, because there would've been a couple empty lines with a * in between to signal a scene change.



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Reply #16 on: June 25, 2010, 09:07:54 PM
Eh, this one gets a lukewarm reaction from me - but it's closer to a C- than a C.  The idea of a zombie staggering after a man in the desert, hounding him to exhaustion, was a good idea.  But I felt all the flashbacks broke up the tension.  I was much more interested in what this poor wretch was going to do to escape his hellish pursuer than in the somewhat cliche events of a zombie apocalypse that preceeded the nightmare chase.

The suicide in the end was also a little blase.  I know there are only so many ways out of the situation that had been set up, but I would have preferred him to be devoured (the horror ending) or him to escape (the happy ending) or him to die and start shuffling onward alongside his tormentor (the ironic ending).  Basically anything besides the easy out of suicide.

And, although it's not explicitly stated, this guy seemed like he might be a muslim - yet never once does he consider this a punishment from God, nor does he resist the idea of suicide on religious grounds.

Oh - also: a bird's beak "inflicts" wounds, it does not "induce" them.  That bugged me.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2010, 09:32:24 PM by Millenium_King »

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Fenrix

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Reply #17 on: June 30, 2010, 07:45:08 PM
I liked this story. I'm not overexposed on zombies, so I still enjoy consuming them. All you zombie haters, go ahead and blame me for their creation. I can take it.

That being said, I think this one would have benefited from beginning-to-end narration. The advantages I saw to the jumping narrative were:

1. immediate tension starting with the primary conflict, and
2. the reveal that the zombie was his former companion.

Neither justifies the jumping narrative, particularly in an audio format. The flashback got action fast, and the companion reveal is underwhelming. It was more of an "oh, ok, that makes sense" not an "oh DAMN!"

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