Author Topic: EP316: Site Fourteen  (Read 16822 times)

Balu

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Reply #25 on: November 06, 2011, 12:43:07 AM
Thanks! I thought about turning off the alarms shortly in, but after listening a couple times, I found that I liked the way it kept the feeling urgent and then when it wasn't there for the conclusion, the starkness seeped in. I was going to offer an alternate with the alarms faded down after like 20 seconds, but I wanted to see how it played out first. As long as it didn't make it impossible to listen to the story, I stand by it.

Keeping the alarms in really worked for me.

It was a bold move, and it could have tanked, but as things turned out it worked to intensify rather than to distract from the action.

It's also one of the reasons this reminded me of Avatar - outstanding production sugar-coating a cookie cutter plot. Not that I mind. Enjoyed both.



statisticus

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Reply #26 on: November 06, 2011, 03:44:45 AM
For those for whom this story didn't download (eytanx, Bill), did you sort this out?  If not, did you try going to the web site & downloading it directly?

The story page is:
http://escapepod.org/2011/11/03/ep317-boxed-in/

The direct link to download it is:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/escapepod/EP317__BoxedIn.mp3

FWIW, I use Itunes also, & it downloaded fine for me.

Agree with most of the comments.  This one had an interesting set up, but ending was a bit flat.  I liked the alternative history aspect of it - in this world we have the Sea Race instead of the Space Race, and Cold War rivalry occurs deep under water.  I like also that there was a practical aspect; that the sea bases were used for energy (OTEC) as well as national prestige.  It was well thought out and, as others have noted, the narration/production was done very well, but the ending of the story left me wanting more - just not in a good way.

I am a Statistician.  One false move and you're a Statistic.


SF.Fangirl

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Reply #27 on: November 07, 2011, 01:27:12 AM
Ditto.  I was really enjoying this story until it just ended after a huge amount of interesting world building, but world building alone does not a plot make.  After that much of an info dump, I expect at least as much length devoted to an actual plot.  Site 14 lost, main character has to deals with the loss of him dream/job by saying "oh well" was very disappointing and not a coherent plot.

But I agree the effects were great and added to the reading.



I'll start with the positive:

I loved the narration on this, Matt did a great job on the hard bitten commander and I liked the extra audio production for the pings and the klaxons. (Though in a real situation wouldn't they switch the alarms off after a few mins? Once they were in the control room and knew the problem, it wouldn't distract their attention then )

However saying all that is a bit like going to see a film and coming out and saying it was beautifully shot.

Where was the story? I listened on my drive to work. It was 20 minutes of set up: info dumps about the history of sea exploration and the current political situation or the detailed layout of the gate station. Way too long. I arrived at work just as the alarms went off.

I hadnt looked at the length of the episode so when I listened to the rest of the story on my drive home I was expecting much more than just "oh it blew up, we have to leave & the government won't be interested in doing anything for a while"

At the very least I thought we'd find out what caused the explosion and hopefully some actual scenes from down there.

Very disappointing.





Unblinking

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Reply #28 on: November 07, 2011, 05:11:46 PM
I listened for about fifteen minutes, but I kept zoning out.  It was a neat idea to have a Sea Race instead of a Space Race, and so that was neat, but that was pretty much all I got out of it.  I didn't find the setting details all that interesting, and in that first 15 minutes that's pretty much all there was. 



Leevi

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Reply #29 on: November 10, 2011, 12:05:25 PM
Good story and surprising how just two alarm sounds turned it from a simple good reading to audio drama. Props to Mr. Weller.



knigget

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Reply #30 on: November 13, 2011, 10:18:38 PM
It did feel like an old-time audio drama - complete with Mom telling me to take out the garbage and coming back having missed the best part.

Someone needs to go and write the middle. And splice it into the narration. With klaxons and all!

http://www.apoGrypha.blogspot.com

What would have been written. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


CryptoMe

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Reply #31 on: November 15, 2011, 02:51:05 AM
It did feel like an old-time audio drama - complete with Mom telling me to take out the garbage and coming back having missed the best part.

Brilliant! I totally agree.

I must say, the best part of this story for me was all the wonderfully creative and funny ways the forumites have come up with for summing up their almost identical feelings for this story. Absolutely delightful!



Dem

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Reply #32 on: November 15, 2011, 10:34:03 PM
It did feel like an old-time audio drama - complete with Mom telling me to take out the garbage and coming back having missed the best part.

Brilliant! I totally agree.

I must say, the best part of this story for me was all the wonderfully creative and funny ways the forumites have come up with for summing up their almost identical feelings for this story. Absolutely delightful!
I'm entertained by the notion of being a forumite. Brings to mind an organism that hangs from the ceiling and spits acid at passers-by.
Yep, that works  ;D

Science is what you do when the funding panel thinks you know what you're doing. Fiction is the same only without the funding.


rotheche

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Reply #33 on: November 17, 2011, 01:01:56 AM
This story isn't so much about the deaths of the crewmen, its about the death of dreams.
This is what I took from it as well - and I did enjoy it.  The lack of information doesn't bother me: like spaceflight disasters, the inquiries and analyses will come later.  Right now, though, the story's about how he still wants to be a part of this program and for the program to continue.  We're built to explore, even in the face of adversity and death.



El Barto

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Reply #34 on: November 17, 2011, 02:25:17 PM
Bah!   This story was such a disappointment.  It wasn't just missing an ending -- it was missing an entire middle.   

I was waiting for the "real story" to start as we received hints of what happened below, and it never came.  Aliens?   Found artifacts?   Intelligent squid?   Mulder and Scully's bodies?  What?

Also, I pictured the station where the action happened as being a mid-point between the surface and the ocean floor, and thought the author was setting up a situation where the crew at the station was going to have no choice (because of life support failure) but to descend to the ocean floor facility and be cut off from the entire topside world.

Narrative blueballs indeed.

I did love the narration and usually can't remember the names of narrators but this one was so good that I went back and listened to Norm's intro again just so I could catch the name of Matt Weller again.  Good stuff.



FireTurtle

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Reply #35 on: November 24, 2011, 02:54:40 AM
*finishes story and frantically checks the comments, utters a huge sigh of relief* and says: Oh Thank You Lord I Did Not Have a Stroke While Listening to This.

Sadly, my mental capacities do not encompass the ability to pay attention to long info dumps. I am sure it was fascinating, but I have a short attention span when to many facts are thrust upon me. Basically I heard the "Wah, wah, wah" of the Peanuts origin and then... the story was over.

I was pretty certain I either had a stroke or experienced some sort of hop forward in time. While moving around in time might be incredibly awesome, the feeling of having possibly had a little stroke, not so much.

Many people funnier than I have described it far better. I'm just glad my brain is ok.

“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”
Ursula K. LeGuin


hardware

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Reply #36 on: December 14, 2011, 05:59:28 PM
I think this was a pretty neat idea, a well thought out environment but the end product lacked in a few areas.

Most obviously, and as many pointed out the story was somehow short-circuited. It was much too straightforward, it is almost bewildering to listen to a story where everything goes exactly in the direction it seems to from the start without any twists or surprises.

Second, while the deep sea race instead of space race is an intriguing idea, this story doesn't make much out of it. It felt a bit too much like a re-telling of the space race, just with a Find and Replace of 'Space' with 'Sea'. Also, there is not really anything happening in this mission that couldn't have happened in a space mission. I was expecting some serious Das Boot vibes. 



jwbjerk

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Reply #37 on: February 02, 2012, 03:21:43 AM
Sometimes when the quality of the atmosphere and worldbuilding is high enough, i don't miss the lack of a plot.  Add solid narration, and it's a win.  Actually, i don't know if i would have liked the story if i read it-- the narration probably raised the quality of the whole.

This sort of story reminds me of some of the later golden age radio shows (Suspense, Escape, Nightfall). Not so much about the story going somewhere, as a compelling experience.  For me, this episode really brought the undersea world to life.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2012, 03:26:00 AM by jwbjerk »



LaShawn

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Reply #38 on: April 17, 2012, 04:41:26 PM
Why isn't this a novel? WHY ISN'T THIS A NOVEL?

Infodumps aside, this had me riveted. It was a fascinating look at a waystation beneath the sea. When the narrator mentions the demise of other sites, I figured something would happen to this site too, so I was prepared for that. Like everyone else, I found the ending was too abrupt. But man, if the writer can expand on this, use this as a leaping base for a novel, that would be awesome.

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matweller

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Reply #39 on: April 28, 2012, 03:18:07 AM
If you aren't already, subscribe to Leviathan Chronicles, it's not exactly the same, but it tickles some of the same itches.