Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: eytanz on March 02, 2018, 04:16:53 PM
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Escape Pod 617: A Cure for Homesickness (Artemis Rising) (http://escapepod.org/2018/03/01/escape-pod-617-cure-homesickness-artemis-rising/)
AUTHOR : S. L. Scott (http://escapepod.org/people/s-l-scott/)
NARRATOR : Erik Luke (http://escapepod.org/people/erik-luke/)
HOST: Mur Lafferty (http://escapepod.org/people/mur-lafferty/)
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Krem was dead.
Well, not exactly, yet, but he knew death when he saw it, and the scavenger holding a plasma shotgun three feet from his face sure looked like death. The Torqu might have exoskeletons strong enough to keep hardened steel from piercing, but that wouldn’t stop the ensuing explosions from ripping him apart. They’d just be nice big chunks instead of tiny pieces. Not that Krem was surprised he’d go this way. He’d signed up for glory and adventure traveling the galaxy, and what that really meant was boring travel time followed by constant near-death experiences. The former he’d learned to live with; the latter, it seemed, would be harder to ignore.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://traffic.libsyn.com/escapepod/Escape_Pod_617_A_Cure_for_Homesickness.mp3)
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First of all, Eric Luke is one of my favorite narrators. I did really love this crew, definite fan fiction potential for speculating how they came together and where they will go from here. I loved Krem as the straight man next to Max's human impetuousness and risk-taking behavior for seemingly nonsensical reasons. The plot twist reminded me of this tumblr post.
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I loved this story as well, the world building - giving us the information we needed, but still allowing us enough freedom to speculate on the hows and whys of this world.
And Krem was the perfect straight-man for Max.
I look forward to hearing more from the author.
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I'm with Mur on this one: MORE PLEASE!!!!
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Artemis Rising, AKA business as usual.
This was an awesome story. Despite the general bad-assedness of the human in the story, it clearly showed that war weariness can come upon the most hardened of vets. I was originally quite skeptical when Dell said, "I've got this". I was sure that he was overlooking some detail of human psychology.
But, Omigosh, he did indeed "have it". Then I laughed continuously for the last five minutes of the story. I had to rewind and listen again, and it was even better. This is exactly the kind of fun Steve Eley was looking for when he started this podcast.
Thumbs up! (as if you couldn't tell).
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I also want more! This world (galaxy? universe?) is so rich with potential, and I want to see the bond grow between Max and her new raok.
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Who's a good Psychopathic Homicidal Jungle cat? That's right, You Are.
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I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but, well, let's be honest... You love all your kids, but there is that one who has you wrapped around their finger, yes?
This is the story version of that... :)
Eric Luke I could listen to all day, and the characterization was spot-on.
But what really did this one for me was that the alien species felt, well, alien... They don't get each other, but they respect each other and, dare I suggest, even love each other.
Not much S-F does this well. This one blew it out of the water.
-Adam
Producer
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I really enjoyed this one, too. It's weird, because it almost seemed like 2 stories in 1. First you had the action adventure flick and then you had the touchy-feely story. I usually would have found this very jarring, but here it somehow worked.
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THIS WAS GREAT!!!!
I loved every single thing about this story. The world building, the character interaction, the plot development, the narration, and the even the cute "pet" at the end.
Cool guns, cool aliens, comradery, killing bad guys, narrow escapes and cool science stuff!!!
Love love love.
More in this world! Please!
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I enjoyed this one, mostly because of the crew's cohesion despite being from different species. I was a fan of Farscape and Firefly for similar reasons... I like stories were people come together as teams, stronger together than they would be solo.
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Reading the comments I see that I'm in the minority here, but this one really rubbed me up the wrong way. Some clever ideas and good world building, but the story came across as incredibly patronising and condescending. The human female hurt herself? Patch her up and she'll be as good as new! The human female is lonely? Give her some weird animal and she'll be happy again! Nobody understands why human females like these hideous creatures, but if it keeps her happy we can put up with it, and maybe she'll turn out to be a good team member after all. No real attempt to sympathise or empathise with the human female, just to find out whatever weird things are needed to keep her happy.
I know, not what the author intended and not what anyone else here heard, but I found this story seriously annoying. Not what I expected from Artemis Rising at all.
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I didn't find it patronizing, but I did find it boring. I found the alien-ness of the aliens (or the human) over-explained and the story non-existent. Person gets wounded, person gets healed, person gets an alien cat and is now happy? Krem was an interesting character, but that's about it.
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This story is easily my favorite Escape Pod of the year, and quite possibly, after a few listens, may be one of my favorites ever. Space marines with good action plus KITTIES! I was completely locked in and had a wash of anxiety when Max took a bullet when the cover fire slacked off for a moment. I was super excited by the appearance of Commodore McFlufferton, and really appreciated the fine craftsmanship that allowed cat people to project cat onto the critter and dog people to project dog onto the critter.
This gives me the same warm fuzzies of the good run of Captain Marvel, including Chewie.
(http://78.media.tumblr.com/d0ae29b833661e54ab0f802a2d30f8e1/tumblr_inline_nepevoJUsG1t42857.png)
The human female hurt herself? Patch her up and she'll be as good as new! The human female is lonely? Give her some weird animal and she'll be happy again! Nobody understands why human females like these hideous creatures, but if it keeps her happy we can put up with it, and maybe she'll turn out to be a good team member after all. No real attempt to sympathise or empathise with the human female, just to find out whatever weird things are needed to keep her happy.
The way I heard it, is Max was presented as a human. Not a human female. I don't think gender was even a consideration for Krem. Doing a word search in the story, the word "female" never shows up. "Woman" only appears twice in this context: "With more care than finesse, Krem snatched up the woman sitting on a table in front of Sovad with two claws and deposited Max in her place with the other two. The woman gave Krem an indignant expression that didn’t make him feel bad for interrupting."
I think it might be worth considering what you're projecting into the story, and what is on the page. The appearance of the pet is crafted with the same care, as I pointed out above. I am totally a cat person, so Commodore McFlufferton was a kitty for me. I am willing to place a wager that dog people will defend it being a dog. [Insert meme: RAOKS ARE DOGS -- CHANGE MY MIND]
Readers are always well served to consider what they are bringing to their reading experience.
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Ooh! Another awesome thing about this story that I forgot in the last post. It's about two friends with no romantic subplot. Their affection is real, but there is no need for romantic love anywhere in this story. Underrepresented themes in storytelling in the house!
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Ooh! Another awesome thing about this story that I forgot in the last post. It's about two friends with no romantic subplot. Their affection is real, but there is no need for romantic love anywhere in this story. Underrepresented themes in storytelling in the house!
I think that underlines a major point of why I was drawn in so hard. As a woman who has had a few successful and strictly platonic close friendships with men, it is great to see it represented in fiction.
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I really enjoyed this story.
I'm a sucker for adventure stories, and space pirates. But this story was just so darn sweet!
Well done, and excellently narrated!
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I didn't find it patronizing, but I did find it boring. I found the alien-ness of the aliens (or the human) over-explained and the story non-existent. Person gets wounded, person gets healed, person gets an alien cat and is now happy? Krem was an interesting character, but that's about it.
Maybe this story didn't have the most complex plot, but the details and world building make it vibrant and engaging. You didn't like the multitasking doctor, or the centuries old bioluminescent captain? Because I did. Although, I do feel like the idea that humans are the special glue that holds the mismatched crew together gets overused in science fiction, and fantasy stories for that matter.
I am totally a cat person, so Commodore McFlufferton was a kitty for me. I am willing to place a wager that dog people will defend it being a dog. [Insert meme: RAOKS ARE DOGS -- CHANGE MY MIND]
I'm a cat person, but the goofy tongue convinced me the roak is a doggie.
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I'm a cat person, but the goofy tongue convinced me the roak is a doggie.
Totally agree. The description of the roak made me think it was dog-like. (Didn't the story describe them hunting in packs?)
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Well, lions hunt in packs. I heard both catlike and doglike elements and really liked that -- it's an alien critter, so it shouldn't necessarily be directly analogous to any earthlike species.
I'm a cat person, but the goofy tongue convinced me the roak is a doggie.
Totally agree. The description of the roak made me think it was dog-like. (Didn't the story describe them hunting in packs?)
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Loved the story, world building, character development and the ending made me laugh & grin like an idiot. This episode almost makes up for the horribly sad ending of Sparg.
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a bit late to discover but my escape-pod favorite too! I find it smart and sensitive, straight forward but also shows out of the box thinking. WE WANT MORE!