EP742: Them Ships (Summer Flashback)

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Escape Pod 742: Them Ships (Summer Flashback)

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrator: Dani Cutler
Host: Alasdair Stuart
Audio Producers: Summer Brooks and Mat Weller

“Them Ships” first appeared on Escape Pod 510 on Nov 12, 2015, and in We See a Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology

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Content Warning:
Contains much profanity.


Leonardo says that the Americans are going to fire some rockets and free us from the tyranny of the aliens and I say: who gives a shit. Lemme tell you something: It wasn’t super-awesome around here before the aliens. At least we get three meals every day now.

I used to live in a cardboard house with a tin roof and collected garbage for a living. They called my home a ‘lost city’ but they should’ve called it ‘fucked city.’

Leonardo talks about regaining our freedom, ‘bout fighting and shit. What damn freedom? You think I had freedom in the slums? Leonardo can talk freedom out his ass because he had money before this thing started and he saw too many American movies where they kill the monsters with big guns.



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[Cyber Spirit]

I always loved this story.  I could imagine both the characters and world so well in it.  One of the things it made me think of was post-apocolyptic fiction.  I think one of the draws of this type of fiction for many people including myself at times in my life, is the idea of society's deck reshuffling and your card coming up on top.  Particularly, when I was doing a lot of customer service type of work and felt as if I couldn't get any lower on society's rungs, stories like this one would almost make me wish the aliens would come.  Now that I have a better job though and a bit happier of a life, I kinda want them to stay away.

Consequently, after this story, I became a bit of a fan of Sylvia Moreno-Garcia.  If you like sci-fi horror I really recommend her latest book Mexican Gothic.  It was pretty epic.  Her short story "Lacrimosa" in Nightmare (http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/lacrimosa/)was pretty good too.

[TrishEM]

This story is even more relevant and impactful now than when I first heard it.