Just a co-host folks, no worries! From what I understand you'll only have to deal with me on a somewhat consistent basis.
For what it's worth, I was expecting this week's story (Kress) to be my "hey everyone!" episode, not Boyfriend, which perhaps was a bit guilty of excessive and acute Normisms... (these shows are recorded well in advance, btw.) Sorry if you were left a bit befuddled. I'll only say things like "glory hole" in R rated stories, and I'll be Mr. Nice Norm in any others, pwomise.
In general, I'll do my best to set the story up well and leave you with a decent-enough taste in your mouth after the show is done.
I'm not Steve Eley at all. I love the guy, but if I tried to be him I would fail miserably.
I'm Norm, and while your criticisms are more than welcome and considered on my part, I am who I am, and that's who I'll continue to be, because that's why I'm here. Similarly, Escapepod will continue to be what it is: a great frikkin science fiction podcast, and what I say won't change that at all, because-- even though Steve is amazing-- what got us all here is the great science fiction, right?
However,...
That said, I also don't want to detract from the effectiveness of Escapepod as a whole. Gimme a lil time, and if my style begins to rub most people the wrong way, then I'm not too stubborn to tone it down. Because again, this isn't about me, it's about the stories.
And regarding that, I didn't care for this week's story at all.
Melopolea sums up my thoughts pretty well-- I was struck and annoyed at how much the main character worried about herself, wallowing in her own self-pity, during such a communal tragedy. Part of me thinks Kress did this on purpose.
Tynlamzic brought up another big thing: what did this character do to to exempt her from everyone else in contacting the aliens/discovering the truth? Really, it takes a kid's broken leg to open inter-galactic diplomacy? Then-- no problem-- "I'm an alien, glad someone finally bothered asking! Let me tell you why we had to annihilate most of your population. Again, thanks for asking, nobody else has."
Finally, like cercle said, the city lists were too much-- almost comical (hence my parody at the end) and while I too LOVE this type of story (alien invasion/Armageddon) I couldn't bring myself to love this story. Maybe next time.