I did the Best Of Escape Pod 2006 thread, and the way those types of ideas usually work is that brings to mind both the best and worst of. Some people mentioned Mountain Man and Single White Farmhouse, and I brought up Seventy-Five Years. Slic disagreed saying that he loved Seventy-Five Years and was bored by Tk'tk'tk (one of my favorites). I wanted to expand upon my opinion without turning the Best Of thread into a Best Of/Worst Of at the same time, so I started this one. So this can be a little bit of a sounding board for stories that you disliked on Escape Pod, but I ask that you also explain why so that it's not just random listings.
Why I disliked Seventy-Five Years by Jim Crow.
I'll preface this by saying that I listened to it again today, not wanting to rely solely on the memories of a story that I listened to over half a year ago. Upon the second, deeper listening I'm willing to concede a thing or two about my original impressions, but I'll get to those after my problems with the story.
First of all, my problems with 75 Years is that it feels like a trite soap opera to me. I know that condensing any story down to sarcastic basics can make the themes feel simple, but it boils down to this kind of story for me:
"Hello, my ex-husband turned political honcho."
"Hello, my ex-wife historian."
"You can't do this thing!"
"Why not?"
"Because I know your secret!"
"Oh yeah?"
"You're a clone!"
(gasp)
"You're right. It will ruin me!"
"No! Be proud of your clone-identity! Be the best clone you can be!"
"I just might! No, I will! But only with you by my side!"
"Oh, Jim...."
(swoon)
(curtains fall)
I realize that there are other aspects to the story that are likely more important to other listeners, such as equality for all, be happy with who you are, the bigotry of the simple-minded everyman, and the sincerely more interesting but barely touched upon at all idea that continually delaying a census erases history, but they all seem to take a backseat to the cental crux of the story - which feels to me like a simplistic and laughable impersonation of a Twilight Zone episode.
Which brings me to the second listening, and I will concede now that I was probably too harsh. This was actually the second episode I'd listened to, with Tk'tk'tk being the first. Tk'tk'tk impressed me beyond belief - I felt like I was immediately thrown into a scary, imaginative, original, and unpredictable world. And then I followed that up (the next day for me) with a world that felt almost exactly the opposite. It felt to me a little bit like going and seeing something like Blade Runner for the first time, and following it up with something like Spy Kids.
Upon the second listening, I can now say that 75 Years isn't that bad. I just don't think it's that good. And considering how much I thought of the other three Hugo nominees we got to hear (what happened to the fifth, I wonder?) it added an extra heaping layer of disappointment on top of it.