Author Topic: EP460: The Ink Readers of Doi Saket  (Read 18083 times)

eytanz

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Reply #25 on: September 11, 2014, 09:26:29 AM
From http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-categories/


Science Fiction? Fantasy? Horror?

"While the World Science Fiction Society sponsors the Hugos, they are not limited to sf. Works of fantasy or horror are eligible if the members of the Worldcon think they are eligible."



That's why this story got nominated for a Hugo. The fact it got nominated for a Hugo is the reason we're running it here. If there's any way for the Mods to sticky this post to the top of the topic? And indeed every single Hugo nominated short story topic from here on out? That would be great.

I really wish there was. Or a way to record SpareInch's song and have it play on a loop in the background of the thread.



lisavilisa

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Reply #26 on: September 11, 2014, 11:21:40 AM
I've said it before and I'll say it again.

This forum needs the equivalent of a 'swear jar'. Everytime someone says it's not Fantasy/Sci Fi/ Horror, 5 bucks into the jar.




ElectricPaladin

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Reply #27 on: September 11, 2014, 01:53:57 PM
I've said it before and I'll say it again.

This forum needs the equivalent of a 'swear jar'. Everytime someone says it's not Fantasy/Sci Fi/ Horror, 5 bucks into the jar.

Let's do it! And then all of us who are sick of this stupid conversation split the money to pay for our therapy.

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matweller

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Reply #28 on: September 11, 2014, 02:08:54 PM
Maybe we should just make one page with the explanation on it, and anytime someone says it, the mods delete everything in their post and replace it with a link to that page.



Max e^{i pi}

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Reply #29 on: September 11, 2014, 05:28:11 PM
Maybe we should just make one page with the explanation on it, and anytime someone says it, the mods delete everything in their post and replace it with a link to that page.

And while we're at it a drone sneaks a Gremlin into your house and feeds it after midnight.

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albionmoonlight

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Reply #30 on: September 11, 2014, 05:34:38 PM
And while we're at it a drone sneaks a Gremlin into your house and feeds it after midnight.

The drone should come with advanced AI and definitely be sent by Escape Pod.  The Gremlin, of course, would be supplied by Pod Castle.  And the idea of feeding it after midnight is pure Pesudopod.

So I'd be OK with this idea, but only if all the component parts of the plan were supplied by the correct podcast.



matweller

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Reply #31 on: September 12, 2014, 01:10:07 AM
And while we're at it a drone sneaks a Gremlin into your house and feeds it after midnight.

The drone should come with advanced AI and definitely be sent by Escape Pod.  The Gremlin, of course, would be supplied by Pod Castle.  And the idea of feeding it after midnight is pure Pesudopod.

So I'd be OK with this idea, but only if all the component parts of the plan were supplied by the correct podcast.
I hate you.



DKT

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Reply #32 on: September 12, 2014, 02:26:15 PM
From http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-categories/


Science Fiction? Fantasy? Horror?

"While the World Science Fiction Society sponsors the Hugos, they are not limited to sf. Works of fantasy or horror are eligible if the members of the Worldcon think they are eligible."



That's why this story got nominated for a Hugo. The fact it got nominated for a Hugo is the reason we're running it here. If there's any way for the Mods to sticky this post to the top of the topic? And indeed every single Hugo nominated short story topic from here on out? That would be great.

I really wish there was. Or a way to record SpareInch's song and have it play on a loop in the background of the thread.

Seriously. That was pretty great, SpareInch. I'm gonna be rocking to it the rest of the day :)


ElectroSquid

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Reply #33 on: September 13, 2014, 05:32:16 PM
I'm just surprised it got nominated because I didn't think it was good enough, not due to its genre. However a thought... this is probably not doable but it might stop some grousing...would it be a possibility for the Escape Artists podcasts to share the Hugo stories? So the fantasy ones go to Podcastle, horror to Pseudopod etc? It would seem to make more sense as there may be people who only listen to one of the podcasts because they don't like the other genres, and so miss a story that they would actually like...or get annoyed because they are listening to one they wouldn't normally be interested in. I listen to all three so don't really care but it might be a popular decision for some listeners?



Gary

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Reply #34 on: September 14, 2014, 07:55:40 PM
Okay ... so clearly I must be damaged because I really enjoyed this one.
I liked it's wry, sideways wink at what was going on (of course ... all that was just a coincidence) and the way seemingly random things were mentioned and the story would go chasing off after them for a little bit before coming back to where we were. I've been trying to think what other writer's style that reminded me of and it just hit me - Douglas Adams.
Oh, and to prove I am obviously a poor data point, I else really enjoyed the narration. I thought it was spot on for this story.
Very early in the story I too had that twinge of "wait ... where's the scifi?" before remembering "Hugo Awards". I wonder if some bit of the negative reaction to this story might be from those who were just never able to shake off that feeling of being in the wrong podcast?

Oh well, I'd take this story 3 to 1 over that falling waters story.  
« Last Edit: September 15, 2014, 03:18:31 AM by Gary »



Myrealana

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Reply #35 on: September 15, 2014, 03:58:36 PM
I didn't really follow the point of this story from beginning to end. I'm not really sure where I started or where I ended up, but all told, I enjoyed the journey.

I found myself looking forward to the next random tangent moreso than the main story. I thought the narration fit the story perfectly.

I can't say it's one of my favorites, but I did like it.

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matweller

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Reply #36 on: September 16, 2014, 03:20:02 AM
Okay ... so clearly I must be damaged because I really enjoyed this one.
IMO, joy should never be a thing of shame. Anytime I don't get a story, I assume the failure to connect to the author for enjoyment is either mine or nobody's fault. And if it misses, I move on to the next thing. I think it probably leads to me enjoying a lot more.



bounceswoosh

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Reply #37 on: September 16, 2014, 03:48:35 AM
I enjoyed it, but I found myself wondering if it would be a better read than a listen. I haven't gone back to read it and find out. There was a lot going on in that village.



Unblinking

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Reply #38 on: September 22, 2014, 02:16:20 PM
Okay ... so clearly I must be damaged because I really enjoyed this one.
IMO, joy should never be a thing of shame. Anytime I don't get a story, I assume the failure to connect to the author for enjoyment is either mine or nobody's fault. And if it misses, I move on to the next thing. I think it probably leads to me enjoying a lot more.

Woot!  This cannot be said enough.  There's nothing wrong with liking something other people don't.  (The fact that this was on the ballot meant that some significant portion of nominating fandom did like it anyway)



Unblinking

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Reply #39 on: September 22, 2014, 02:19:48 PM
My review of it in my Hugo Short Story Review post
Quote
“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013)
“People send their dreams and wishes floating down the Mae Ping River with the hope that those dreams will be captured, read and come true. It is a surprise what some wish for and why. One can never know what’s inside someone’s heart—what they really truly want, and those dreams sometimes reveal our true selves.”

This is the introduction before the story starts, and the story is exactly what is described by those few sentences.  The story starts by explaining the wishes of a bunch of people that are cast into the river, and then as the story plays out it’s shown how those wishes are granted, not always in a straightforward fashion.  Young Tangmoo dies in the opening paragraphs, drowned in that same river, and the story rolls back to reveal his wish and the wishes of others.

This was an interesting thought experiment about how one must be careful what one wishes for, but to me it never really extended beyond a thought experiment.  Some of the turns of phrase were interesting and strange and definitely lent something to the story.  But in the end I just was never really connected with it, and the concept itself was also not something new to me.  Not bad by any means, but easily forgettable.

Not much to add to that, other than that I thought it was very distantly told and I would've liked a protagonist (Tangmoo is presumably supposed to be the protagonist but he was offscreen for something like half the story).



Devoted135

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Reply #40 on: September 22, 2014, 06:18:49 PM
It's been a bit since I listened so I'm getting a bit fuzzy on the details. I think I found the concept to be interesting, but thought that the execution got in the way for me. It was such a meandering tale that I had a hard time following it while doing other chores about the house. I did find the ambiguity at the end to be intriguing: the whole story says that the wishes are granted by greedy people, but then we see a river goddess (?) after all...



Springaldjack

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Reply #41 on: September 23, 2014, 07:28:21 PM
Any Buddhist would tell you that when karma causes events, those events still have proximate causes, except when they don't.

Of course there is nothing strange about believing in both Buddhist rebirth and spirits, rebirth as deva (gods), asura (demigods), humans, animals, preta (hungry ghosts), and nakara (hell beings) is all right there in the Pali Canon.



WillMoo

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Reply #42 on: September 29, 2014, 10:05:36 PM
This story was fair at best in my opinion. I was also left wondering where the science fiction was in the story. While I am not opposed to fantasy stories such as this, when I want to read or listen to a sci-fi story that is kind of what I want.



bounceswoosh

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Reply #43 on: September 30, 2014, 01:29:10 AM
All right, where is the swear, I mean genre, jar?



Max e^{i pi}

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Reply #44 on: September 30, 2014, 06:56:14 AM
All right, where is the swear, I mean genre, jar?

Right here. Far right, under the tennis ball thing.

Cogito ergo surf - I think therefore I network

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ElectricPaladin

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Reply #45 on: September 30, 2014, 01:14:52 PM
All right, where is the swear, I mean genre, jar?

Right here. Far right, under the tennis ball thing.

And... Max wins the thread!
« Last Edit: September 30, 2014, 04:20:08 PM by eytanz »

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UnfulredJohnson

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Reply #46 on: October 14, 2014, 09:18:30 PM
My favourite hugo story so far. I was laughing my ass off at this one. I found great satisfaction in seeing all their wishes coming true at the end. It all tied together very neatly indeed.  Also a refreshing amount of sex in this story. It's not often we see sex dealt with in this light hearted manner in genre fiction. I enjoyed it. I laughed my ass off.



hardware

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Reply #47 on: October 19, 2014, 09:28:05 PM
I liked this one, it was quite different from most SF stories. In particular, I liked the way he gave a flavor of the whole village in only a few short sentences, and how a story of an honest spiritual quest was mingled with one of religious and political corrruption to finally end out with a fantastical, allegorical ending, in the style of movies like Magnolia or Breaking The Waves. I can imagine that if it was translated, the language might have suffered somewhat, some formulations felt a bit 'off'. 



CryptoMe

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Reply #48 on: April 24, 2015, 02:34:38 AM
Also a refreshing amount of sex in this story. It's not often we see sex dealt with in this light hearted manner in genre fiction.

Okay, I had a tough time understanding and getting into this story for many of the reasons already mentioned. But, I didn't realize how out of this story I was until I read this comment. Honestly, if there was any sex in this story, I didn't notice (or remember?) it...  How funny is that?