I think the story had a good premise, though the documentary style with no definitive ending left me a little cold. Had there been a definitive ending, I'd have been happier.
I think this is definitely one of those stories that's better read than heard.
The points made in the story -- the immense distances between planets, the difficulty of getting from here to there, et al -- were all quite valid, and the debates everyone had about whether it was real or not were interesting from an intellectual standpoint.
Once I found out the ship was the size of two grains of rice, "the invasion fleet was swallowed by a small dog" ran through my head. (One wonders if the fleet then shot its way out of that dog... I mean, they did have laser cannons or something, yes?)
An interesting concept, but I don't know if I'd've called it one of the best SF stories of the year (as the Hugo nomination seems to contend, being that it is one of the "best" awards for SF writers to get).
I liked Eley's comment at the end about Invasion being on Fox.
There are, what, two more Hugo nominees left in this category? And one is "How to Talk to Girls at Parties"? I sure hope I like the other one, because while HTTTGAP was a compelling story, it wasn't amazing or anything IMO. Maybe I'll like it better when I revisit it with EP.
On the whole alien thing, I firmly believe that if aliens are out there, they'll pass us by, laughing all the way. 40 years of manned spaceflight and all we've accomplished is picking up some rocks and building a tin can that sits in orbit with three people aboard? *sigh*
Although Dr. Smith's son was absolutely right -- humans are the meanest and most adaptable species out there. Better for aliens to leave us be, monitor us, and figure out what to do with us once we get out of our star system. That is, if we don't blow them away, given that spaceflight is (for now and IMO the foreseeable future despite private space initiatives -- get me started on that in another topic please, I'm starting to ramble) controlled by the military. Anything more powerful than us comes along, they're likely to shoot at it anyway, just to see what happens.
All that being said, Eight Episodes was entertaining enough that I listened to the whole thing while taking a walk with my daughter (she was in her stroller; it's not like I was ignoring her or anything) this morning.