EP368: Springtime for Deathtraps

[timprov]

Near the halfway point they met up with the team who
were working the river angle, who had found the water intake for the
traps, along with some pressure-loaded spikes and a very active
piranha colony

This is the only quote I could find about the river being booby-trapped, but it was just at the intake point, could they have damned the river say, a mile away? 

[Gamercow]

Being an engineer and a DM, I found this story to be wonderful, like the other two Xnab stories.  If I was a teacher, I would use the stories and the death traps as physics/engineering lessons, and ask the students on how they would break in, ask them to reverse engineer the traps, and how they might improve upon the traps themselves.

Anyway, there is definitely a line in the story about altering the water pressure: 
"The rumor about this place
is that that’s how he rigged the self-destruct. Try to interfere with
the operations and the place comes down on your head.”

Finally, I would point out that Xnab's name should probably be pronounced "ISH-nab" or "ISH-nub" according to a friend with Mayan roots.

[hilmera]

Among all the pop-references (I didn't groan aloud until "Say hello to my little friend") I think the main one should have been a giant aural asterisk and disclaimer... "With apologies to Terry Pratchett". It made me wonder where my copy of Pyramids has gotten to.

Apologies, however, probably weren't needed. I enjoyed James' mixture of tongue-in-cheek references and highlighting the absurdities of the jungle-temple genre mixed with the ancient-temple-contractor idea. Good writing doesn't need to stick to sober ideas, nor does it have to worry about being identified too closely with like material. Marjorie James and the further adventures of Znob are definitely on my list.

[hilmera]

Excellent story, and an excellent reading. Except of course for the ever-present (and rather tiresome) complaint about the lack of an audio cue between scenes.

I noted the same thing. I think the answer is to ensure a explicit pause, long enough to evoke the extra space used for the same purpose in text, but not long enough to sound like dead air. Could the lack of scene breaks be an artifact of the processing of the audio for broadcast? Editing the audio from looking at the squiggles rather than listening to the context?

I don't know what the behind-the-scenes logistics are, but perhaps EA needs to move to a system where it solicits from the readers the reading of every separate scene in a separate file, with excess dead air at the beginning and end, then matching them properly for the final file.

[CryptoMe]

Yeah, Xnob! Always fun.

Not much else to add, except that I didn't get the toads line pop-culture reference. I am sure I'm just not looking at it the right way, so if someone could give me a nudge, it would be much appreciated....

[Thunderscreech]

Not much else to add, except that I didn't get the toads line pop-culture reference. I am sure I'm just not looking at it the right way, so if someone could give me a nudge, it would be much appreciated....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flge_rw6RG0
Hope that helps!

[Talia]

'Say hello to my little friend' made me laugh a bunch.

A fun installment. I truly enjoy this series.

[Devoted135]

I love the deathtraps stories, and this was no exception. It's refreshing to hear a fun story that exists merely to provide enjoyment and a few puzzles. Also, I'm totally on board with "stonepunk" as an emerging genre. Great story, and great reading!

[Kaa]

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to bring up the pop-culture reference in the title of the story, but since no one else has, it falls upon me.

Anyone ever see The Producers? In it, a couple of schemers decide to make money by producing a Broadway play that is absolutely doomed to fail. They collect a bunch of money from investors -- more than necessary -- and plan to head for South America when the play flops with all the stolen money.

Unfortunately for them, their show -- Springtime for Hitler -- is a huge success rather than a flop.

I can't help but assume that the title of this story is a gigantic reference to that.

[CryptoMe]

Not much else to add, except that I didn't get the toads line pop-culture reference. I am sure I'm just not looking at it the right way, so if someone could give me a nudge, it would be much appreciated....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flge_rw6RG0
Hope that helps!

Thanks Thunderscreech. That does help.

Now knowing the connection, it's still too big a stretch for me and I'm not surprised I didn't get it. Oh, well. Vive la différence.

[CryptoMe]

Anyone ever see The Producers? In it, a couple of schemers decide to make money by producing a Broadway play that is absolutely doomed to fail. They collect a bunch of money from investors -- more than necessary -- and plan to head for South America when the play flops with all the stolen money.

Unfortunately for them, their show -- Springtime for Hitler -- is a huge success rather than a flop.

I can't help but assume that the title of this story is a gigantic reference to that.

Now this one I got. And kept singing the silly, silly song in my head far too much during the reading. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovCf9VRLnDY&feature=fvwrel

[Talia]

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to bring up the pop-culture reference in the title of the story, but since no one else has, it falls upon me.

Anyone ever see The Producers? In it, a couple of schemers decide to make money by producing a Broadway play that is absolutely doomed to fail. They collect a bunch of money from investors -- more than necessary -- and plan to head for South America when the play flops with all the stolen money.

Unfortunately for them, their show -- Springtime for Hitler -- is a huge success rather than a flop.

I can't help but assume that the title of this story is a gigantic reference to that.

You know I HAVE seen, and enjoyed, that show, but I didn't pick up on it. That makes it even more great, haha.

Now I'm re-envisioning the entire story as a musical.

[Myrealana]

"Stonepunk" -- Love it!

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to bring up the pop-culture reference in the title of the story, but since no one else has, it falls upon me.

Anyone ever see The Producers? In it, a couple of schemers decide to make money by producing a Broadway play that is absolutely doomed to fail. They collect a bunch of money from investors -- more than necessary -- and plan to head for South America when the play flops with all the stolen money.

Unfortunately for them, their show -- Springtime for Hitler -- is a huge success rather than a flop.

I can't help but assume that the title of this story is a gigantic reference to that.

Ah!

I totally got that the title referred to "The Producers," but I couldn't figure out how it applied.

Now I get it. Tuak thought he was producing a big flop, but he ended up with disaserous success instead.

Strike a light!

[Myrealana]

It took me a little while to get into this story. I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. I'm pretty sure I've listened to all the episodes of Escape Pod since the beginning, but remarkably, I don't remember the first two deathtrap stories.

That said, after a couple of minutes adjustment to get into the spirit of the story, I loved it. I just got back from a vacation in the Yucatan, where the 2012 end date of the Mayan calendar is part of the discussion at every tourist stop. I loved imagining the millenia-old ruins I had been walking through as the setting for Xnob's work.

Loved the story. I hope we'll get more soon.

[cDave]

I've seen quite a few authors recently refer to their work as "Fantasy, but with a Science Fiction attitude". I wouldn't count this story amongst those works. Just because something is set in the past, that doesn't make it fantasy.

I'd say this was straight up fun Science Fiction, with engineering as the science in question.

More Deathtraps please!

[Carlos Ferreira]

That was fun, without being extraordinary. It's a bit like an Indiana Jones film: a cool bash down some tombs, a slight twist at the end of the story, and thank you very much, I'll be here all week! I just wish there was some depth, some character development somewhere, but I'll happily listen to the next story in the series.

[startrek.steve]

Lion Dance, Springtime Deathtrap, Passengers and Carefeeding mammalian Bipeds had no episode title and as such crashed my Sandisk MP3 player! Luckily I store all my podcasts on the SDcard, so I was able to remove it and get it to boot up, I then had to go through all the podcasts to find the offending ones. the ID3 stuff was all there apart from the Episode Title, once I editted it manually and put the title in it worked ok. Darned annoying though!!

Steve

[Fenrix]

This was an enjoyable fun story. I heartily endorse all publications of fun stuff. I don't need deep brain stimulation on my commute. And piffle on the genre balkanization. It's spec fic, was submitted to EscapePod, purchased, and published here. Extra points for being part of a series, which I'm going to add to the top of the queue for consumption.

[Scatcatpdx]

I think calling this stone punk fits the bill, perhaps could this term fit  the Flintsones?

Overall i 100% enjoyed this one and others  Xnab / deathtrap story. There seem and overall theme  of reputation, losing face and  cover up  and the the complication it can in both Ilhan design and Tuak  business.

[hardware]

Fun but forgettable. There's a place for these. Moving on.

[childoftyranny]

I enjoyed this as one of those stories that have a concept that isn't exactly serious but does well by keeping itself serious in-universe, I have a great fondness for the sillyness that sort of approach allows for!

[Max e^{i pi}]

I love it when childoftyranny shows up. It makes me recall some of the awesome stories we've heard in the past and smile.

[Fenrix]

I love it when childoftyranny shows up. It makes me recall some of the awesome stories we've heard in the past and smile.

Once and future stories. I know this one is in my "relisten" pile, particularly once I've listened to all the previous stories in the series.

[childoftyranny]

I love it when childoftyranny shows up. It makes me recall some of the awesome stories we've heard in the past and smile.

I'm glad to hear my falling behind serves some purpose other than creating quite the long list of stories that I need to comment on