Escape Pod 782: Electronic GhostsAuthor: Innocent Chizaram Ilo
Narrator: Mofiyinfoluwa Okupe
Host: S.B. Divya
Audio Producer: Adam Pracht
Escape Pod 782: Electronic Ghosts is an Escape Pod original.
The title fits like a charm. Although it’s just a computer program, it haunts the MC as if it was really a ghost. Reminded me of Ghost in the Shell’s theme.
The dialogue is too expositional. It’s “as you know, Bob” at its finest, even when the author tried not to make it so. For instance, when the mother says, "It's 2090," she's actually talking to the reader. I wished I saw technology that would give me a hint of the time period. But there's an actual ZipPhone
“I’ve always wondered what it is a neuro-programmer does? Is it a real job, or something this faux-Utopia invented so people like my daughter can have jobs?”
There are some deus ex machinas. For instance, the MC convinces the cop on the phone too easily, and she performs CPR using the textbook procedure she learned during the Health And Safety class in uni, and does so for thirty minutes straight. I don't know if you already tried CPR (or even massaged someone)...it's exhausting! And she did it without any practice.
I like how they didn’t abandon their beliefs in the far future. They keep talking about witchcraft and things like that, even with all the technology. That's important!
All in all, I'd still recommend this story. It reminded me of
Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another by Robert Silverberg, Hugo Award winner for best novelette, first published in Asimov’s in 1989; and it also reminded me of an illustration by Moi Escudero: