Escape Artists
Escape Pod => About Escape Pod => Topic started by: Jim Crow on February 01, 2007, 09:58:27 PM
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The recent Oscar nominations got me thinking to much earlier last year, when I was first directed to Escape Pod, and upon catching up on all the previous stories I noticed that several of the introductions referenced "Union Dues: Iron Bars and the Glass Jaw" as the most popular episode of Escape Pod from 2005. And it got me to thinking, was there ever a discussion or consideration over what was the best story of 2006? I have my own personal opinions, but I want to wait and make sure that some sort of conference over this hasn't already happened.
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No, this is great. It was a discussion I kept meaning to bring up. I want to put a poll up on the site -- but making it user-editable last time turned it into sort of a mess, so let's have some nominations here first instead. >8->
Thanks!
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If the last episode of 2006 was Episode 86, then the first episode of '06 must have been...episode 35 or 36?
Well, going back over the list, and listening to a few for a second (or sometimes third) time, this is a list of my favorites.
L'Alchemista
Shadowboxer
Anyone Can Whistle
Observation in the City of Angels
Barnaby in Exile
I Look Forward to Remembering You
Tk'Tk'Tk
The Clockwork-Atom Bomb
Connie, Maybe
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Without a list of all of them, I can't be sure, but based on Jim Crow's, the ones I recall fondly are:
L'Alchemista
The Clockwork-Atom Bomb
And two not on the list:
King's Tail (#66)
Margin of Error (#81)
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Shadowboxer and I Look Forward to Remembering You
Strongly Seconded.
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Barnaby in Exile.
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To me, Shadowboxer and Craphound (you ran that at the beginning of January, right?) stand so far above everything else it's just a given. On mention of which: has Scott Fletcher been turning down other offers to narrate? He was fantastic for Shadowboxer.
But in order to big up a few of the lesser to me but still fantastic episodes - L'Alchemista, Little Worker, The Clockwork Atom Bomb.
And in order to join Slic in sticking a few nails in coffins: Single White Farmhouse, Mountain Man.
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Barnaby in Exile.
Forgot about that one. An additional "Seconded"
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And in order to join Slic in sticking a few nails in coffins: Single White Farmhouse, Mountain Man.
Uh-Oh, what I meant was that King's Tail (#66) and Margin of Error (#81) are missing from the top ten list. I voted for King's Tail as one of the best stories in one of the previous polls.
I did not like Mountain Man, either.
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If we're also doing least-favorites, I'd like to toss Seventy-Five Years in there as well. The fact that it was also a Hugo nominee just magnifies it in my eyes.
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Hmmm. Well, doesn't look like I'm likely to borrow books from Jim Crow. I thought Seventy-Five years was excellent while Tk'Tk'Tk bored me.
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This kind of isn't what this thread is supposed to be about, and I'm kind of sorry I kept it going. I don't know if the forums are about this, but we could maybe do a separate thread for our least favorite Escape Pod stories? Because I could/would go into detail about my dislike for Seventy-Five Years in the same way I could gush about Tk'tk'tk.
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This kind of isn't what this thread is supposed to be about, and I'm kind of sorry I kept it going. I don't know if the forums are about this, but we could maybe do a separate thread for our least favorite Escape Pod stories? Because I could/would go into detail about my dislike for Seventy-Five Years in the same way I could gush about Tk'tk'tk.
If you want. As long as you're not insulting individuals -- including the story authors -- you're welcome to criticize what you like.
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I need to go back and look. For economy of space I don't keep back episodes, but The one that really justs jumps into my mind is I Look Forward to Remembering You.
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To help with the discussion and take up a lot of space here's the list of last year's episodes.
EP035: Hero By Scott Sigler.
EP036: Connie, Maybe By Paul E. Martens.
EP037: Craphound By Cory Doctorow.
EP038: L’Alchimista By N.K. Jemisin.
EP039: My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie By Eugie Foster.
EP040: Even Vadsø Thaws By Bruce Holland Rogers.
EP041: Ambient Sleaze By Jeffrey R. DeRego.
EP042: Practical Villainy By Janni Lee Simner.
EP043: Little Worker By Paul Di Filippo.
EP044: Show and Tell By Greg van Eekhout.
EP045: Are You Ready For the End of the World? By Danny Adams.
EP046: Natural Order By Michael Jasper.
EP047: Poet for Hire By Sue Burke.
EP048: Soul Food By Paul E. Martens.
EP049: Union Dues - Off White Lies By Jeffrey R. DeRego.
EP050: The Malcontent By Stephen Eley.
EP051: Is You Is / Is You Ain’t? By Michael Canfield.
EP052: Single White Farmhouse By Heather Shaw.
EP053: Seventy-Five Years By Michael A. Burstein.
EP054: Tk’tk’tk By David D. Levine.
EP055: Down Memory Lane By Mike Resnick.
EP056: The Clockwork Atom Bomb By Dominic Green.
EP057: Chuckles Mulrooney, Attorney for the Damned By Scott Sigler.
EP058: Shadowboxer By Paul Di Filippo.
EP059: Anyone Can Whistle By David Walton.
EP060: Creature For Hire By Paul E. Martens.
EP061: I Look Forward To Remembering You By Mur Lafferty.
EP062: Union Dues - The Baby and the Bathwater By Jeffrey R. DeRego
EP063: Observations From the City of Angels By William Shunn.
EP064: Head of State By Ed W. Marsh.
EP065: A Green Thumb By Tobias S. Buckell.
EP066: The King’s Tail By Constance Cooper.
EP067: Life in Stone By Tim Pratt.
EP068: Depth of Field By Stephen Dedman.
EP069: Her By Tobias S. Buckell.
EP070: Squonk the Dragon By Pete Butler.
EP071: The Capo of Darkness By Laura Resnick.
EP072: Joe Steele By Harry Turtledove.
EP073: Barnaby in Exile By Mike Resnick.
EP074: Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law By Kevin J. Anderson.
EP075: Nano Comes to Clifford Falls By Nancy Kress.
EP076: The Dinner Game By Stephen Eley.
EP077: A Single Shadow By Stephen Dedman.
EP078: The Shoulders of Giants By Robert J. Sawyer.
EP079: Mountain, Man By Heather Shaw.
EP080: Union Dues - Cleanup in Aisle Five By Jeffrey R. DeRego.
EP081: Margin of Error By Nancy Kress.
EP082: Travels With My Cats By Mike Resnick.
EP083: Ulla By Daniel Schwabauer.
EP084: Smooth Talking By Tobias S. Buckell.
EP085: Merry Christmas from the Heartbreakers By Mur Lafferty.
EP086: When We Went to See the End of the World By Robert Silverberg.
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ooh, great great topic!
im quite fond of
L'Alchimista
Connie, Maybe
Shadowboxer
Anyone Can Whistle
... in no particular order...
probably Shadowboxer as my favorite, followed by L'Alchemista... then... dunno...
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Hmmmmmmmm. Here's my choices:
Craphound
I Look Forward to Remembering You
Depth of Field
Barnaby in Exile
Union Dues: Clean-Up in Aisle Five
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These two stick out immediately:
Barnaby in Exile
Connie, Maybe
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Shadowboxer
Craphound
Tk'Tk'tk
and my favourite story of 2006:
Little worker
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EP036: Connie, Maybe By Paul E. Martens.
EP038: L’Alchimista By N.K. Jemisin.
EP066: The King’s Tail By Constance Cooper.
EP072: Joe Steele By Harry Turtledove.
EP081: Margin of Error By Nancy Kress.
were my favorites. Don't ask me to choose.
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There are many good ones, but here are my top 5:
The Malcontent By Stephen Eley (No, I'm not trying to suck up. I really liked it.)
Tk’tk’tk By David D. Levine.
Life in Stone By Tim Pratt.
Barnaby in Exile By Mike Resnick.
Nano Comes to Clifford Falls By Nancy Kress.
The Shoulders of Giants By Robert J. Sawyer.
Union Dues - Cleanup in Aisle Five By Jeffrey R. DeRego.
OK so that's 7. Forgive me, I have 14 fingers.
Regarding Tk’tk’tk, I don't think I would have liked it in written form, but read aloud, it took on a new life, placing me in that world. Kudos to Paul Tevis for the reading.
One more thing: Honorable Mention for Squonk the Dragon by Pete Butler. It was a great change of pace!
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L'Alchimista, hands down.
But then, I'm a history and food nerd, so what else would I choose? Paul Tevis did probably the best reading of the year, too, so there's that.
Though I seem to remember The Uncanny Valley being really good...I wonder why that's sticking in my head...
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From a very rudimentary look at it, and on the postings on this thread.....if you're going to do a top five to vote on....
L'Alchemista
Barnaby in Exile
I Look Forward To Remembering You
Tk'tk'tk
Connie, Maybe
There are others like The King's Tail, Craphound, Anyone Can Whistle and maybe another got two people vouching, but all the ones above had more than two.
It all depends on how many you want to narrow the vote to? I don't know.
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This is a hard topic for me because I loved a great deal of them. I recently went through the whole year of listening in a couple of days, to make sure I listened to them all. I think some of these stories were made much more interesting when the 'perfect voice' is found for them, even if the story on its own might not be my favourite, the right voice made it amazing. Connie Maybe is the perfect example, Witchita Rutherford made that story one of my favorites... if it was anyone else it wouldn't be anywhere as good.
L'Alchimista is probably my favourite, but Tk'Tk'Tk, Little Worker, Connie Maybe (as mentioned above), Shadowboxer, The Shoulders of Giants, and Travels with My Cats, round off my top 5 list (a list utilizing a slightly larger variation of the accepted numbering system ;) )
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From a very rudimentary look at it, and on the postings on this thread.....if you're going to do a top five to vote on....
L'Alchemista
Barnaby in Exile
I Look Forward To Remembering You
Tk'tk'tk
Connie, Maybe
There are others like The King's Tail, Craphound, Anyone Can Whistle and maybe another got two people vouching, but all the ones above had more than two.
It all depends on how many you want to narrow the vote to? I don't know.
dont forget Shadowboxer in that list!
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You're right. Maybe best out of six then.
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I've tried very hard to assemble a list of my favorites for 2006, but it's turned out to be harder than I thought, this is my best effort:
Union Dues series - it's hard to single out one as better than the others
A Single Shadow - a fun character piece
Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law - I'm a sucker for a good Time Travel story
Observations from the City of Angels - I loved the way this one was told, it's make a great film
Head of State - The Reading on this one was awesome
I look Forward to Remembering You - more time travel!
Creature for Hire - Laugh out Loud funny throughout :)
Shadowboxer - awesome mood piece
Chuckles Mulrooney, Attorney for the Damned - How can you not love a story with a title like this
Tk'Tk'Tk - not one of the best, but worthwhile
Are You Ready For the End of the World? - surely Paul S Jenkins deserves more appearences here
Connie, Maybe
Hero
I made a list of those I didn't like, which turned out to be surprisingly short:
The Dinner Game - bit of a Jar of Tang story
Margin of Error - All this author's storys seem to be based on the idea
nonotech is bad, and babies are good!
barnaby in Exile - bleh, sweeter than candyfloss and about as much
substance
The Capo of Darkness - bit heavy-handed with its preaching
The King's Tail
Down Memory Lane - way too sentimental and depressing for me.
Seventy-Five Years - this is practically a script, it's so short on prose
My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie - this is a title with potential :p, sadly it's not lived up to
Simon Painter
Shropshire, UK