Author Topic: Nominations for Best Escape Pod episode of 2014  (Read 6881 times)

Ocicat

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on: January 22, 2015, 02:44:33 AM
Your friendly neighborhood Poll-cat here, stepping in to run the Escape Pod Best of 2014 poll.  At this stage, we're just nominating things.  The list of eligible episodes is below.  All you have to do is pick your three favorites.  That's easy, right?  When you've figured it out, post them in this thread.  The episodes mentioned most frequently will go into the poll, sometime in February.  Nominations will last somewhere between 2 weeks and a month, depending on how frequently nominations continue to come in (there will be notification of at least a few days before nominations close). 

429:   The Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth
430:   Heart of Joy by Kate O’Connor
431:   The Golden Glass by Gary Kloster
432:   Inappropriate Behavior by Pat Murphy   
433:   That Other Sea by William Ledbetter
434:   Coping Mechanisms by Gerri Leen
435:   Made of Cats by Judith Tarr
436:   Into the Breach by Malon Edwards
437:   A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny
438:   Enjoy the Moment by Jack McDevitt
439:   Cradle and Ume by Geoffrey W. Cole
440:   Canterbury Hollow by Chris Lawson
441:   Kumara by Seth Dickinson
442:   Eater of Bone by Robert Reed
443:   This Is As I Wish To Be Restored by Christie Yant
444:   Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes by Daniel Marcus
445:   Black Swan Oracle by Ferrett Steinmetz
446:   The Way of the Needle by Derek Künsken
447:   Rachel in Love by Pat Murphy
448:   Paprika by Jason Sanford
449:   An Understanding by Holly Heisey
450:   Valedictorian by N.K. Jemisin
451:   The Aliens Made of Glass by Helena Bell
452:   Repo   Aaron by Gallagher
453:   The Grotto of the Dancing Deer by Clifford Simak
454:   Stop Me if You've Heard This One by KC Ball
455:   Keep Your Shape by Robert Sheckley
456:   To Waste by Luke Pebler
457:   A Struggle Between Rivals Ends Surprisingly by Oliver Buckram
458:   If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky
459:   The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere by John Chu
460:   The Ink Readers of Doi Saket by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
461:   Selkie Stories Are For Losers by Sofia Samatar
462:   Women of Our Occupation by Kameron Hurley
463:   Rockwork by R.M. Graves
464:   Red Dust and Dancing Horses by Beth Cato
465:   The Sky Is Blue, and Bright, and Filled With Stars by Edward Ashton
466:   Checkmate    by Brian Trent
467:   Trash    by Marie Vibbert
468:   The Law of Gravity by Samuel Ferree
469:   Inseperable by Liz Heldmann
480:   Transdimensional Horsemaster Rabbis by Sarah Pinsker
481:   Shared Faces by Anaea Lay
482:   The Mercy of Theseus by Rachael K. Jones
483:   Soft Currency by Seth Gordon
484:   In Coppelius's Toyshop by Connie Willis



Fenrix

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Reply #1 on: January 22, 2015, 03:30:39 AM
I'm going to have to go with:

429:   The Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth

This one made me hunt down Kornbluth's The Marching Morons, which dovetailed nicely with Bachigalupi's Pump 6. Great stuff.

437:   A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny

This one made me hunt down a couple hundred thousand words of Zelazny this year. Most of it in short form. So much great stuff by this guy. Don't judge him by only Amber. Some of the best: 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai; The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth; The Horses of Lir; Auto-Da-Fe; For a Breath I Tarry - everyone should hunt down this stuff and reward their brains.

457:   A Struggle Between Rivals Ends Surprisingly by Oliver Buckram

I loved the world building and character development in this one and the narrative was, as Al says, needlepoint precision fiction.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Varda

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Reply #2 on: January 22, 2015, 01:11:15 PM
Really tough choice. I'm forcing myself to overlook the Hugo nominees and classic SF (which was all really awesome), so I'm gonna go with:

1. Kumara

2. Transdimensional Horsemaster Rabbis of Mpumalanga Province

3. The Aliens Made of Glass

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adrianh

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Reply #3 on: January 22, 2015, 02:20:14 PM
Meta comment: Linking to the episodes would make it easier for folk like me with a terrible memory for titles and authors…

Off to do a bunch of searching…



adrianh

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Reply #4 on: January 22, 2015, 02:47:14 PM
My top three:

1) The Grotto of the Dancing Deer by Clifford Simak — Because, Simak. He's one of my favourite authors, and this is one of my favourite Simak shorts.

2) The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere by John Chu — Because I'm an active member of the liberal left-wing conspiracy that's ruining SF for everybody. Or maybe because I really liked it ;-)

3) That Other Sea by William Ledbetter — Some great world building. Some nice aliens. A great story. Really nice. Want to read more in that world.

Honourable mentions to all of these:

  • A Struggle Between Rivals Ends Surprisingly by Oliver Buckram
  • If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky
  • Inappropriate Behavior by Pat Murphy
  • Keep Your Shape by Robert Sheckley
  • Selkie Stories Are For Losers by Sofia Samatar
  • Soft Currency by Seth Gordon
  • The Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth
  • Women of Our Occupation by Kameron Hurley

Wish I had more than three votes to give…



matweller

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Reply #5 on: January 23, 2015, 03:46:42 AM
435:   Made of Cats by Judith Tarr
443:   This Is As I Wish To Be Restored by Christie Yant
445:   Black Swan Oracle by Ferrett Steinmetz
446:   The Way of the Needle by Derek Künsken
448:   Paprika by Jason Sanford
458:   If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky



Chairman Goodchild

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Reply #6 on: January 23, 2015, 02:51:41 PM
EP442: Eater of Bone  Fantastic sprawling hard sci-fi on a believable world where the author has obviously done his research into geology.  Great world-building backed up with a great story. 

EP444: Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes Loved the narration on this one as much as the story.  For something written in 1996, it seems a bit dated, but that's part of its charm.  The heroine is part of a larger universe that she never gets to experience.  Poignant.  

EP433: That Other Sea  Science fiction as written thru the eyes of the other.  We're the aliens here, and it's a well-thought out world that the author presents to us.  
« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 02:55:43 PM by Chairman Goodchild »



albionmoonlight

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Reply #7 on: February 03, 2015, 10:21:51 PM
The water that falls on you from nowhere
Eater of bone
The way of the needle



GForce

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Reply #8 on: February 07, 2015, 02:03:20 AM
429:   The Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth
457:   A Struggle Between Rivals Ends Surprisingly by Oliver Buckram
459:   The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere by John Chu



Unblinking

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Reply #9 on: February 09, 2015, 04:01:33 PM
Rachel in Love
That Other Sea
Kumar



Ocicat

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Reply #10 on: March 03, 2015, 05:51:54 AM
Not many nominations this year.  Hoping for a few more, but will close them in a few days.



TrishEM

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Reply #11 on: March 04, 2015, 10:25:34 AM
446:   The Way of the Needle by Derek Künsken
This is the only EP that I went back and listened to again, for fun. Delightfully weird aliens and their alien psychology/sociology.

439:   Cradle and Ume by Geoffrey W. Cole.
A lot of food for thought in this story: Great dilemmas/clashes of philosophy and epic character arcs.

447:   Rachel in Love by Pat Murphy
Great story.

Honorable mention:
433:   That Other Sea by William Ledbetter



Windup

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Reply #12 on: March 06, 2015, 02:31:07 AM
433:   That Other Sea by William Ledbetter
441:   Kumara by Seth Dickinson
482:   The Mercy of Theseus by Rachael K. Jones

Wow, that was hard.  In the end, I liked them all for very different reasons.  That Other Sea for a believable look inside an alien mind; Kumara for insights on humanity and a moral dilemma with a poignant resolution; The Mercy of Theseus for an excellent meditation on friendship, and how it changes, and how it does not.

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