Author Topic: Pseudopod 162: Suicide Notes, Written by an Alien Mind  (Read 15766 times)

Listener

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 3187
  • I place things in locations which later elude me.
    • Various and Sundry Items of Interest
Reply #25 on: October 30, 2009, 12:54:02 PM
I don't really think the title related very much to the story. I mean, I understand it, but I didn't really like the title.

The story was good, and the ending was good, but I was reminded too much of some of the old war movies I've seen, but dropped onto another planet.

Phil Rossi's reading was very dramatic and very in the moment.

I think the story overall was good but something about it bothered me -- not the subject matter, but the story itself.

"Farts are a hug you can smell." -Wil Wheaton

Blog || Quote Blog ||  Written and Audio Work || Twitter: @listener42


lowky

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 2717
  • from http://lovecraftismissing.com/?page_id=3142
Reply #26 on: October 30, 2009, 01:18:57 PM
I don't really think the title related very much to the story. I mean, I understand it, but I didn't really like the title.

The story was good, and the ending was good, but I was reminded too much of some of the old war movies I've seen, but dropped onto another planet.

Phil Rossi's reading was very dramatic and very in the moment.

I think the story overall was good but something about it bothered me -- not the subject matter, but the story itself.

you came close to my feeling.  It reminded me too much of Thin Red Line, which focused more on everything but the war movie that it told us it was supposed to be.  Same thing here, it was less about the action and more about how they felt about said action.  If you talk about how you feel about the action, we really need more action than just the last few minutes of the story to have any.


wakela

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 779
    • Mr. Wake
Reply #27 on: November 18, 2009, 12:20:15 AM
The ideas in this story were every bit as thought provoking as other commenters have said.  And reading the comments has given me a greater appreciation of the story.  Now I wonder if the Decharai were even aware that they were in a war.  But I thought the story was too long, and the military characters too cliche (can we please have one high-level officer who knows what's going on?  I know they are out there).  The friendship of Christian and Muslim seemed a little forced and remarking on it in the far future was as illogical to me as remarking about my friendship with a Jew or a Japanese or a Black person.  I also couldn't get past the lack of futuristic, or even modern, weapons.  We have sites on our own planet that have been nuked and are now vibrant cities or ecosystems -- heck if the ozone layer was so thin the planet was being bathed in radiation anyway.  There are also poison gas, robotic drones, bunker busters...

But again, the idea of aliens that effortlessly dish out enlightenment and that necessitates humans killing them is well worth the price of admission.  A better fit on Escape Pod, IMHO. 



ElectricPaladin

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1005
  • Holy Robot
    • Burning Zeppelin Experience
Reply #28 on: December 15, 2009, 11:22:52 PM
But again, the idea of aliens that effortlessly dish out enlightenment and that necessitates humans killing them is well worth the price of admission.  A better fit on Escape Pod, IMHO.

I kind of agree. My final opinion was "this is a neat science fiction story that happens to have a bad ending." For me, that doesn't make it horror. You can do horror with nothing more than telepathic aliens, but somehow this story failed, for me, to be horror.

I think it was in the tone. The only thing that was really horrible was the end. The rest felt like a classic science fiction war story - not my scene, but I can appreciate the subgenre well enough - so the "horror" element (the bad ending) felt merely tacked on.

Captain of the Burning Zeppelin Experience.

Help my kids get the educational supplies they need at my Donor's Choose page.


Millenium_King

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 385
    • Ankor Sabat
Reply #29 on: June 03, 2010, 12:30:23 AM
This was a solidly written "Space Marines Kill Aliens" story.  I liked it on that level, but felt it really fell apart upon closer inspection.

1. Why not just chain up the soldiers as they slept?  Automated systems could release them if the aliens attack at night.

2. Why not just keep the soldiers in orbit?  Or better yet - why not just attack the aliens from orbit with bombs or chemical weapons?

3. Why not clear out the alien's mountain with heavy ordinance?  I am aware that they didn't use nukes because of the radiation, but have you ever heard of a bunker-buster bomb?  They use them in Iraq against Al-Qaeda deep in caves and can penetrate hundreds of feet of rock.  Surely in the future it would be easier to just drop a few dozen even more powerful versions of the bunker-buster onto the aliens' redoubts rather than sacrifice thousands of lives.

4.  In Starship Troopers, they hypnotize the soldiers so they can achieve their objectives.  Surely counter-conditioning might help?

5.  Entering caves?  Without flamethrowers?

6.  Why not use robots?  We have predator drones already.  Nothing better is available in the future?

Anyway, fridge logic aside, I liked this one.

Visit my blog atop the black ziggurat of Ankor Sabat, including my list of Top 10 Pseudopod episodes.


Nitequill

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Reply #30 on: June 04, 2010, 04:56:15 AM
Phil Rossi rocked! That was a really fine reading.



Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8729
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #31 on: June 02, 2014, 06:13:05 PM
I put this as #40 on my Best Podcast Fiction of All Time:
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/05/the-best-podcast-fiction-of-all-time-31-40/