First off, respect to Christiana Ellis who did a great job of reading this story, and managed to include some accents that added life and colour to the characters - well done.
I enjoyed this story, it had a poignant feel to it; I enjoyed the exploration of themes around the fragility of people, their weaknesses, their fears, and the belief that we all have it in us to rise to acts of selflessness and courage. What I particularly liked, even found intriguing, was the fact that the signal acts of selfless courage came from the 'scumball' guys in the story, both of who evidenced some unpleasant characteristics, they both seemed like perverse and intimidating bullies in the earlier part of the story.
Also, the author managed to charge the story with a strong sexual tension, and I more or less believed in the integrity of the characters as they created that tension (although I did have some reservations - see below). Sci-fi mixes well with sex, if it's all done properly!
I think the number juggling was nice, I'm not especially responsive to this kind of tension in a story but i think if you like that sort of thing it was cool.
The description of the ship, it's environment and workings, was good: believable, with just enough info to set the scene without turning it in to a distracting excursion in to the wonderful world of space ships.
One thing that I wasn't sure about, in fact THE thing I wasn't sure about, was whether the author truly captured the character of a fifteen year old female. I can't help wondering whether this was a guys view of a girl, it maybe that he nailed it, maybe he didn't. The fact that the story touches on sexual themes makes it even harder for me (as a 40 something male) to gauge how a teenage female would feel in these circumstances. I'd be interested to read an opinion from some of the female reviewers on here.
That said, it was a entertaining story, and I enjoyed listening to it. Thanks James for a good tale, and thanks EP for providing it to us.
A