Author Topic: EP711: Carols on Callisto  (Read 1321 times)

divs

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on: December 22, 2019, 12:03:16 AM
Escape Pod 711: Carols on Callisto

Author: Deborah L. Davitt
Narrator: Ibba Armancas
Host: Mur Lafferty
Audio Producer: Adam Pracht

Escape Pod 711: Carols on Callisto is an Escape Pod original.

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On the surface of Callisto, Rebecca Fox struggled with tangled, 3D-printed branches, her fingers clumsy inside the bulky gloves of her suit. The swollen belly of Jupiter dominated the horizon, a swirl of muted white and orange, and the Great Red Spot stared like a baleful eye. The landing lights of ships crossed the planet’s face, heading for the port. The vibration of their engines in the regolith rumbled underfoot as they landed.

“This is idiotic,” a voice broke in over the radio as her companion bounce-walked to her, holding another set of printed branches. “It takes us twelve years to orbit the sun. Why do we need to celebrate Earth’s holidays here? We should be creating our own.”

“The kids like it,” Rebecca defended. She had this conversation with Dieter at least once every three months. “They enjoy designing their trees at school, which is a good use of their CAD skills. They like seeing something they’ve made go up. The plastics get recycled, so it’s not a waste.”

“It wastes time.”

“You get to charge hours for this,” she reminded him lightly. “Hush.”




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skeletondragon

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Reply #1 on: December 28, 2019, 04:08:53 PM
Mostly enjoyed it, although I went "really??" at the sort of "lady gives birth in an elevator" storyline, which felt kind of...over the top and overplayed. But I had a lot of fun imagining this as a Hallmark Christmas movie set in space. (To be clear, that's a compliment. I am strongly in favor of more sappy xmas movies set in space)



CryptoMe

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Reply #2 on: March 06, 2020, 04:52:44 PM
I liked how the author worked to include other, non-christian, holidays in this Christmas story. At the beginning, I was rolling my eyes at the implication (from the focus on Christmas) that space would be christian-dominated. But further in the story I was feeling better about the Christmas theme. I particularly liked that the children's concert included a variety of songs from different cultures, presumably celebrating a variety of feasts. Nicely done.