EP446: The Way of the Needle

[Dwango]

I really loved this story and the way it used alternate cultures to explore ideas of class.  The ideas that the social lubricant of the nobility is through "honor" while the servant class used the idea of friendship.  The question of what really is honor and how we relate are such human ideas, but they are presented in this alien world in a way that really entertained me.

I never really thought of the aliens as crabs.  I had this idea of metalic creatures made of pins and bits of metal, brought together by magnetism powered by the energies of the microwaves.  This is really great world building and alien development, the kind of thing I really enjoy about science fiction.

[Max e^{i pi}]

(BTW, if anyone would care to share a remixed version of this story with better audio, I would love to have it.)

Assuming you have the version with the female narrator, delete it and re-download from our feed. I re-recorded and re-released it. If you have the version with me narrating and still can't hear it, you're SOL.

Aww man! I think I'm going to listen to it again. I know I missed parts in the old narration. It sounded very good, she really put a lot of emotion into the reading, but the quality was just too low. I do feel that this story deserves another chance, because what I could grasp sounded truly excellent. Magnetic fields coalescing into sentience? It doesn't get much cooler than that. Oh wait, how about microwave-eating, X-ray seeing martial arts masters breaking through their caste system?
I am definitely going to listen to this again.

I listened again. It was even better than the first time around.

[Fenrix]

(BTW, if anyone would care to share a remixed version of this story with better audio, I would love to have it.)

Assuming you have the version with the female narrator, delete it and re-download from our feed. I re-recorded and re-released it. If you have the version with me narrating and still can't hear it, you're SOL.

Glad I checked the thread. Thanks for putting together another version. I'll go clean out the original version and re-download.

[hardware]

I liked the worldbuilding and the story is engaging enough once you get into te world but then as Cutter said, the longer it went on, the longer the protagonist slipped towards traditional human (western) ideas and morals which was a bit of a wasted opportunity for me, I was hoping for something truly alien. Of course, it then instead became a pretty straightforward story of class - which in itself is a story worth telling.

[Jax]

One of the very few EscapePod episodes  that I didn't finish, nothing I can put my finger on, it just didn't click. 

I had no connection with the story or the characters, and no interest in finishing.

Obviously in the minority ;-)

[Max e^{i pi}]

In case you guys were wondering what these folk look like, D-Link has you covered.



(Image is clicky, it will take you to the article)

[CryptoMe]

I'm way behind on my listening, but somehow I got the female narrator. Even so, I didn't find the audio horrible. I generally listen on my iPod shuffle during my runs, so maybe I don't expect the best quality. Either way, I didn't have a problem with the sound.

That said, I just loved the story. I originally listened to it about a month ago. Then I stumbled upon it again more recently. Instead of forwarding to the next story, I actually listened to this one again, on purpose, because I knew I would enjoy it. I very rarely do that. Very nifty world building.