Author Topic: EP212: Skinhorse Goes to Mars  (Read 18811 times)

Void Munashii

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Reply #25 on: August 26, 2009, 12:05:47 PM
I'm not sure that I fully understood everything in this story, but I still really enjoyed it. Space zombies clones are awesome, but I really did not understand why you would want to have them become their killer; that's going to mess with the heads of your own troops a lot more than the enemy.

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Listener

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Reply #26 on: August 26, 2009, 12:47:12 PM
Great reading. Where single-narrator podcasts beat audio-drama podcasts is that if the reader has imperfect equipment, after a while you start ignoring it. (Within reason.) Mike Bori's equipment wasn't awesome, but it was good enough and after about five minutes I stopped noticing the quality of the recording in favor of the story.

The story was great, though I too missed the Rabbit-clone angle. I do like the way the author dealt with the subject/verb agreement when they were down on Mars; I've had similar situations in my own writing where I've had to figure out how to pull that off. The techno- and historial-infodumps were too long in places, and a bit preachy; I found my attention wandering during a couple of them. I think I've figured out how the zombies used electricity to stay alive.

The concept of a vertical city has always been cool, perhaps because I can't think of any examples of such cities existing today. They also provide good dramatic tension in that you can go up or down as the plot/story requires.

The title was a tad misleading. I can't explain how, but I wasn't expecting what I got.

Overall a very good episode.

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Doom xombie

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Reply #27 on: August 27, 2009, 03:43:01 AM
I'm not sure that I fully understood everything in this story, but I still really enjoyed it. Space zombies clones are awesome, but I really did not understand why you would want to have them become their killer; that's going to mess with the heads of your own troops a lot more than the enemy.

Well they had to overwrite the victim's personalities with someone  with the virus thing, so why not the people who infected them. Probably simpler and they probably needed to invade sooner than later, and that's that.

Loved this story, love firefly, love Jedi, love Ewoks, so damn cuddly after you get past the creepy stage.

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wakela

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Reply #28 on: September 02, 2009, 12:09:28 AM
I guess I'm the only one who thought that the jovial quality in the narator's voice didn't match the darkness of the main character.

There were some interesting ideas, like the zombies and planet cancers, but they weren't explored to an interesting depth.  I found most of the other stuff to be well traveled ground.  The special ops vet who has been modded to within an inch of his humanity and did things for someone else that he regrets...the anti-capitalism...the environmental destruction of everything humans touch...I've read or heard these enough times that they're not all that interesting to me. 

Steve said that he beleived that good SF is a social commentary.  I'm not arguing with that at all.  But the commentary always seems to be the same.   And it always seems to be directed at people who already agree. 



heyes

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Reply #29 on: September 11, 2009, 06:06:09 PM
Well, it's been a while since I was so aggravated by a story that I felt the need to share it.  Forget too many notes, too damned many symphonies. The reading was a turn off, the pacing of the reader was just... off for me.  I don't know, I guess I've been spoiled by Escapod's recent entries (recent in my 4 episode behind everyone else time line), but this was bad enough not only to put me to sleep, but to wake me back up so that I could throw my iPod across the room.  Gah.

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doctorclark

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Reply #30 on: September 25, 2009, 03:45:56 PM
bad enough not only to put me to sleep, but to wake me back up so that I could throw my iPod across the room.

Yikes! While I've definitely had stories like this, "Skinhorse" was not one of them.  I agree with all of the positive comments on the reading: the tone and pacing matched the protagonist perfectly.  Also, the "jargonness" was at a level just right for me.  Thanks for the great story!



JoeFitz

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Reply #31 on: September 26, 2009, 05:16:27 PM
Echoes of a lot of great things, and couldn't help thinking it had a heavy does of Firefly (with the accent mostly, but also other things). Would like to think there was more to this universe, but often, like some of my favourite shorts, it might be better in the mystery.



Jagash

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Reply #32 on: September 28, 2009, 12:12:07 AM
Well written, though a bit of infodump.  Alas, it was not as captivating for me as it could have been.   I appreciated it but I don't love it.

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Unblinking

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Reply #33 on: May 03, 2010, 05:02:46 PM
An interesting story, but where it got REALLY cool was landing on Mars among the zombie troopers.  That was quite a moment for me. 

So...  was this supposed to be a really messed-up futuristic take on The Velveteen Rabbit?  I ask because I've only ever heard of a character named "Skin Horse" in The Velveteen Rabbit, where he acted as an advisor to the beloved bunny.  The fact that the protagonist of this story's name was Rabbit and Skinhorse was his advisor made me suspect it's intentional.  But other than the name and the basic relationship I didn't see any obvious parallels. 

The Velveteen Rabbit develops emotion and becomes a real animal because of the love of a sick little boy, he is able to escape his own destruction and live among the other bunnies.  Whereas Rabbit becomes a zombie plague.  I suppose he was named Rabbit because of his rate or reproduction, but why is Skinhorse named what he's named?