Author Topic: EP587: Someday  (Read 3922 times)

eytanz

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on: August 11, 2017, 12:06:15 PM
EP587: Someday

AUTHOR: James Patrick Kelly
NARRATOR: Ibba Armancas
HOST: Mur Lafferty

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Daya had been in no hurry to become a mother. In the two years since she’d reached childbearing age, she’d built a modular from parts she’d fabbed herself, thrown her boots into the volcano, and served as blood judge. The village elders all said she was one of the quickest girls they had ever seen — except when it came to choosing fathers for her firstborn. Maybe that was because she was too quick for a sleepy village like Third Landing. When her mother, Tajana, had come of age, she’d left for the blue city to find fathers for her baby. Everyone expected Tajana would stay in Halfway, but she had surprised them and returned home to raise Daya. So once Daya had grown up, everyone assumed that someday she would leave for the city like her mother, especially after Tajana had been killed in the avalanche last winter. What did Third Landing have to hold such a fierce and able woman? Daya could easily build a glittering new life in Halfway. Do great things for the colony.

But everything had changed after the scientists from space had landed on the old site across the river, and Daya had changed most of all. She kept her own counsel and was often hard to find. That spring she had told the elders that she didn’t need to travel to gather the right semen. Her village was happy and prosperous. The scientists had chosen it to study and they had attracted tourists from all over the colony. There were plenty of beautiful and convenient local fathers to take to bed. Daya had sampled the ones she considered best, but never opened herself to blend their sperm. Now she would, here in the place where she had been born.

She chose just three fathers for her baby. She wanted Ganth because he was her brother and because he loved her above all others. Latif because he was a leader and would say what was true when everyone else was afraid. And Bakti because he was a master of stories and because she wanted him to tell hers someday.


Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!



Varsha

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Reply #1 on: August 20, 2017, 05:43:32 PM
I enjoyed the strange mating ritual.
I also enjoyed the feeling that a larger universe exists in this world, "scientists" seem like normal people who are not stuck in biology anymore. I'm not sure which is better -_-

Narration was excellent.



Katzentatzen

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Reply #2 on: August 24, 2017, 11:18:01 PM
This one troubled me... I'm not sure what the scientists want with her and her baby.

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
--LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN


Zelda

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Reply #3 on: September 02, 2017, 06:19:04 AM
The ending felt ominous to me. It felt as though Daya was making a decision she might come to regret.



Ichneumon

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Reply #4 on: October 18, 2017, 10:55:48 PM
I enjoyed the world building! A place where you can have your pig and eat it too!
I think part of Daya's (possibly disastrous) decision to leave with the scientists came from everyone around her telling her she was too clever for the village. The Blue City may have been a great environment for her to grow, but the world she chose may be too big and strange.



CryptoMe

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Reply #5 on: December 13, 2017, 05:06:21 AM
I really enjoyed the mating ritual here, but found it so alien as to assume that the the MC and villagers were in fact alien.

I too worry that the scientists don't actually have the MC's best interests at heart and I am very uncomfortable at the thought of the love-interest scientist experimenting on/with the MC, both physically and emotionally, for the scientists own curiosity.

Very thought provoking. Well done.