Author Topic: EP299: Plus or Minus  (Read 15410 times)

Reed

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Reply #25 on: July 28, 2011, 09:34:06 PM
What was the point of the reveal of Richard's fantasies?  They didn't really come up again throughout the story.   Were they really only there so that he could be given a redemption at the end?  Why did Beep reveal them anyway, when he was unwilling to do anything about them, instead just creating tension?  He said himself that he can't police thoughts, but if that's how he really believed then he shouldn't be snooping and sharing people's thoughts with others. 
It weren't Richard's fantasies, it were Beep's, as he confessed to Mariska before leaving the ship.
I got the strong impression that Beep had been attracted to Mariska's mother way back when was Mariska's age.  And that their relationship somehow turned out bad - after all, he says that Natalya pronounced him unfit to be a spacer, which probably changed all his prospects in life. Note how he finds it important that Mariska knows his true name, too. There's probably quite a story behind this and I liked how it shone through.

I also liked the whole story. It might have been a little long in parts and perhaps it could have had an additional twist or punch, but it was well written and I enjoyed it.



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Reply #26 on: July 29, 2011, 01:49:30 PM
What was the point of the reveal of Richard's fantasies?  They didn't really come up again throughout the story.   Were they really only there so that he could be given a redemption at the end?  Why did Beep reveal them anyway, when he was unwilling to do anything about them, instead just creating tension?  He said himself that he can't police thoughts, but if that's how he really believed then he shouldn't be snooping and sharing people's thoughts with others. 
It weren't Richard's fantasies, it were Beep's, as he confessed to Mariska before leaving the ship.
I got the strong impression that Beep had been attracted to Mariska's mother way back when was Mariska's age.  And that their relationship somehow turned out bad - after all, he says that Natalya pronounced him unfit to be a spacer, which probably changed all his prospects in life. Note how he finds it important that Mariska knows his true name, too. There's probably quite a story behind this and I liked how it shone through.

I also liked the whole story. It might have been a little long in parts and perhaps it could have had an additional twist or punch, but it was well written and I enjoyed it.

Wow I completely missed the reveal that those were Beep's fantasies.  I'm still not really sure what the point of having them in the story was, as they didn't really affect anything.



Faraway Ray

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Reply #27 on: August 01, 2011, 01:56:21 PM
Were they Beep's fantasies though? I got the impression that he was just covering for Richard, knowing that they would need each other in whatever came next and that it'd be tough if the crew didn't trust one another.


A story of lust, violence and jelly.

Well, Here I Am. My little slice of the blaggin' world.


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Reply #28 on: August 01, 2011, 05:39:35 PM
Were they Beep's fantasies though? I got the impression that he was just covering for Richard, knowing that they would need each other in whatever came next and that it'd be tough if the crew didn't trust one another.

Either way makes not much difference to me, still didn't really become important at any point.



olivaw

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Reply #29 on: August 01, 2011, 09:20:48 PM
Either way makes not much difference to me, still didn't really become important at any point.

I think it makes a fair bit of difference to know whether or not the guy who bravely sacrificed his life for you was a creepy malicious asshole.



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Reply #30 on: August 02, 2011, 01:27:40 PM
Either way makes not much difference to me, still didn't really become important at any point.

I think it makes a fair bit of difference to know whether or not the guy who bravely sacrificed his life for you was a creepy malicious asshole.

Hm...  I guess it doesn't to me.  Both Richard and Beep died saving her, so it doesn't really matter which of them did it.  They can't do it again, and they both had enough good in them to give up their lives for the others.  Either way, some dead guy did it, what does it matter?

She only really thinks about the videos momentarily anyway, when the action finally picks up the videos don't come up again.  And rightly so, because they're all trying to find ways to survive.  As creepy as that would be from her position, it became quickly irrelevant because of more pressing matters.  And by the time those pressing matters were resolved, whoever did it was dead.



hardware

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Reply #31 on: August 11, 2011, 04:37:00 PM
I liked this one a lot. I think the longer format actually works to the advantage here, you have some time to inhibit their world, the story has more place to develop it's theme and let things run their course. I found the character pretty believable in her flaws, prejudices and general teenagieness. But I found myself eyerolling a bit when Beep was going, could we please have one deep space travel story without someone sacrificing him/herself to a certain death in deep, cold space. But I didn't expect the ending actually, and found it surprisingly touching without overdoing it.



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Reply #32 on: August 12, 2011, 02:09:58 PM
But I will freely confess: I am a total sucker for asteroid miner stories - have been ever since I first came across Kim Stanley Robinson's "Icehenge"...waaay back when.

Shall I direct you to Heavy Time by C.J. Cherryh, then?  :)

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eytanz

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Reply #33 on: August 17, 2011, 08:00:33 AM
This is one of the stories I skipped a while ago when work made me too busy and tired for the longer stories. And one of the downsides to being the EP moderator is that I need to read threads even if I haven't heard the stories. But the plus side in this case was that it was long enough ago that I forgot the details.

Yesterday, I started listening to the story while driving, and got about 40 minutes in before reaching my destination. So far, it's been teenage soap opera - but it's in SPACE!. I know, from my vague memories of this thread, that eventually something else is going to happen, but I don't know what it is, and nothing I listened to yesterday compelled me enough to want to find out. If this was the only story in my backlog I would have finished it, but as there are currently twelve others (over the three podcasts), I don't think I'll ever hear the second half of this one.



LaShawn

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Reply #34 on: September 02, 2011, 09:17:14 PM
I thought this one was sort of blah. Narration itself was cool, but for me I kept trying to wonder why on earth (space) teenagers was being allowed to fly around spaceships and do duties astronauts spend years training for.

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