EP162: God Juice

[Ocicat]

The story was, while not boring, completely forgettable. 

There were a number of flaws, and I was just never sold on the world.  So, it's essentially Las Vegas, set on an alien world for no good reason.  They messed up the biosphere, so it's only of interest to archeologists and... gamblers?  You mean people take interstellar space-flights here to just for casinos that look and sound exactly like old Earth ones?  I know this is a fluff piece, but come on!  Not buying the setting makes loosing yourself in the story a lot harder.

The character was pretty good though, and there were a number of chuckles. 

[Listener]

I should not have liked this story, but I did. I quite liked the aging Amazon heroine, and the narration. Very entertaining, with odd little twists here and there, and a soupçon of Noir.

 

Two Kyle MacLachlans up?  That's a new rating system for me. *grin*

[Listener]

and the constant use of "said juice from said artifact" and "one might do what one pleases for ones own one-ness" annoyed me a little bit, but seemed to be a ... (loss of wording... damn cant think of it) property? (no) of her everyday speech pattern (my IPU, i cant think of how to say it right! someone please correct me... you get what i'm saying tho right?)

I actually liked that bit of it.  I like to play with language when I'm writing for humorous effect, and I appreciated it in the story.

[Ragtime]

So, if I'm understanding the heroine's motivations correctly, having lots of money and a spirit for adventure, and now coming into possession of an artifact that can give her god-like powers (when combined with a native man), she:

A.  Firms up the boobies.
B.  Gives the artifact to the guy to fix and repair his world, apparently having no more interest in god-like powers.

Now, I'm not criticizing the motivation, or the thought that using your powers as a fountain of youth wouldn't be the first thing I'd do, too, but why doesn't the story end with the heroine and the native walking -- arm over shoulder -- into the sunset, saying, Casablanca style, "With my brains and your sweaty pits, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"?

The heroine is adventurous, forward-thinking, and bold.  Her story should be a tale that begins with sagging rump and ends with taut bod.

[stePH]

Two Kyle MacLachlans up?  That's a new rating system for me. *grin*

Two out of how many?

[Ragtime]

Two Kyle MacLachlans up?  That's a new rating system for me. *grin*

Two out of how many?

It has always been my understanding that there is no theoretical maximum to the number of Kyle MacLachlans.

[Listener]

Two Kyle MacLachlans up?  That's a new rating system for me. *grin*

Two out of how many?

It has always been my understanding that there is no theoretical maximum to the number of Kyle MacLachlans.

Well, there are 29 McLachlans in a Prochnow, and 17 Prochnows makes a single Stewart, so that may help your math a little.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the numeric and unit reference mashup.

[Planish]

Well, there are 29 McLachlans in a Prochnow, and 17 Prochnows makes a single Stewart, so that may help your math a little.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the numeric and unit reference mashup.

Other than the "Dune" movie connection for the names, and the numbers being the tenth and seventh prime numbers, I got nuttin' yet.

[eytanz]

After listening to the story, and thinking back to Steve's intro, I decided that the first half of the story was actually quite a lot better than the second half. Not that the second half was bad, but, as pointed out, things wrapped up awfully neatly awfully fast and both the protagonist and Zee seemed to have undergone a rather abrupt earnestness injection.

Still, an enjoyable adventure story.

[Windup]

I liked this story.  But it was a ripoff of one of Ray Bradbury's stories and it wouldn't have been sci-fi if our heroine had two bewbies instead of three bewbies.   

I believe our heroine had two.  The slut on the bordello flyer had three.

I believe said slut was actually one of the rotating displays on said herione's t-shirt, which may be where the confusion came in...   

[stePH]

I liked this story.  But it was a ripoff of one of Ray Bradbury's stories and it wouldn't have been sci-fi if our heroine had two bewbies instead of three bewbies.   

I believe our heroine had two.  The slut on the bordello flyer had three.

I believe said slut was actually one of the rotating displays on said herione's t-shirt, which may be where the confusion came in...   

Right, I believe you are correct.  I just remember a three-titted slut on some bordello advertisement; the precise nature of the advertisment had escaped me.

[Listener]

Well, there are 29 McLachlans in a Prochnow, and 17 Prochnows makes a single Stewart, so that may help your math a little.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the numeric and unit reference mashup.

Other than the "Dune" movie connection for the names, and the numbers being the tenth and seventh prime numbers, I got nuttin' yet.

"Dune" is correct.  The other is technically true, but not what I was aiming for.  Keep guessing...

[goatkeeper]

Failing that, this might be a good place to start: The Speech Accent Archive, at http://accent.gmu.edu/

Whoa, that site is awesome.  Thanks for sharing.

I loved the story- it had me cracking up.  The line about the controlling father who was a brain wired to a computer was priceless.

 I thought the read really brought it to life too.  It's subjective of course, but I've heard accents that were spot on that still distracted me from the story.  If it works in the context of everything it doesn't bother me if it's not perfect- as long as it's not really bad.

[Windup]

Well, there are 29 McLachlans in a Prochnow, and 17 Prochnows makes a single Stewart, so that may help your math a little.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the numeric and unit reference mashup.

Other than the "Dune" movie connection for the names, and the numbers being the tenth and seventh prime numbers, I got nuttin' yet.

"Dune" is correct.  The other is technically true, but not what I was aiming for.  Keep guessing...

Hmmm... so a Stewart would be a Patrick Stewart (a.k.a. Gurney Halleck)?

[Listener]

Well, there are 29 McLachlans in a Prochnow, and 17 Prochnows makes a single Stewart, so that may help your math a little.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the numeric and unit reference mashup.

Other than the "Dune" movie connection for the names, and the numbers being the tenth and seventh prime numbers, I got nuttin' yet.

"Dune" is correct.  The other is technically true, but not what I was aiming for.  Keep guessing...

Hmmm... so a Stewart would be a Patrick Stewart (a.k.a. Gurney Halleck)?

Yep.  But the other part (the numbers) has nothing to do with "Dune".

Here's a hint to the other part:

7/13, 7/21

[Roney]

So, if I'm understanding the heroine's motivations correctly, having lots of money and a spirit for adventure, and now coming into possession of an artifact that can give her god-like powers (when combined with a native man), she:

A.  Firms up the boobies.
B.  Gives the artifact to the guy to fix and repair his world, apparently having no more interest in god-like powers.

That seemed to fit very well with what I understood of the narrator's character.  She was someone who had been extremely successful partly through knowing her limits, accepting them and making the most of what she had.  (I should listen to the story again and try to find references to back this up, but I'm not sure I'd find any.  It's more an impression I got from her unflinchingly realistic appraisal of various situations, which seemed to extend to herself.)  I would expect her reaction to be that god-like powers are for gods, and she didn't want anything to do with them.

Even more importantly, the God Juice wouldn't belong to her.  One shot at it for a quick youth treatment is an earned reward for obtaining the puck and figuring out how to use it.  She deserved that.  Any future use of the God Juice would be in Zhee's gift, for him to bestow or withhold as he saw fit.  Being the kept woman of a rich husband doesn't strike me as remotely palatable for her.  I think it's a lesson she's been taught eight times...

Anyway, my biggest concern was when the introductory scene seemed to go on a long time but the story itself was long enough that it didn't overbalance it.  And the wry tone of voice, the absurd set-ups and the repeated choice of the most farcical resolution to any given incident made the piece ultimately irresistible -- not nourishing for the soul, perhaps, but a very tasty treat.

[DKT]

If Escape Pod exists to give us fun stories, then I think this one delivered.  I had a good time listening to it, and it's probably my favorite reading of all the stuff we've from Christiana Ellis.

[ermghost]

I was a huge fan of this story; maybe not so much for the story itself, but because I simply loved the protagonist. She wasn't like the humorless-yet-sexy femme fatales that usually end up in this kind of story. She was big, fat, funny, and old. Although it wasn't completely unique, it was still very interesting.
Plus, the narration lended itself well to the characters.

[errant371]

Pretty good tale.  Like liked especially the voice actor whose intonation was spot on.  The info dump at the beginning was somewhat tedious, but was dispensed with fairly quickly.  That is about my only grief with "God Juice".  Good fun.

[Sandikal]

I'm fairly new to the whole podcast experience and I've really been enjoying the stories I've been listening to on Escape Pod.

I just had to comment about EP162: God Juice.  I loved the protagonist in this story.  I'm a middle-aged woman and I thought the author hit the nail on the head with her characterization of the aging Amazon.  The narration was perfect too.  Keep up the good work!

[JoeFitz]

I liked most of this story, especially the main character's internal monologue. I disliked the fall into Romance and the neat bow of an ending. Wouldn't any member of Zhee's people do? Why not the lady from Madame Lustbucket or the dealer?

I agree with the comments above that our Amazon would not have thrown a huge poker pot for a roll in the hay that could have taken place a few minutes later. At a 140+ and what 8 husbands, to end with a feeling that what our sexy, savvy, rich Amazon really wants is a good screw from Lawrence of Arabia in a tent after getting the guy high on mystic power so he becomes a God full of God Juice (ew!) seemed a little bit jarring.

[eytanz]

I liked most of this story, especially the main character's internal monologue. I disliked the fall into Romance and the neat bow of an ending. Wouldn't any member of Zhee's people do? Why not the lady from Madame Lustbucket or the dealer?

No, I think she stated in the end that only some of the species will, who have a particular genetic trait. Of course, that makes the whole premise a huge coincidence - she happened to fall in the arms of exactly the right person in exactly the right time - but I have a feeling that's deliberate.

[Chodon]

and the constant use of "said juice from said artifact" and "one might do what one pleases for ones own one-ness" annoyed me a little bit, but seemed to be a ... (loss of wording... damn cant think of it) property? (no) of her everyday speech pattern (my IPU, i cant think of how to say it right! someone please correct me... you get what i'm saying tho right?)

You aren't the only one this bothered.  It drove me nuts.  Once, or maybe twice is okay.  This was overused in this story and really drove me nuts.  It reminds me of my high school english teacher who would always mark me down for use of the "ambiguous you".  He made us write like this story and I hated it.  It just sounds un-natural.

[wakela]

Kind of fun adventure, but I found the main character annoying and uninteresting.  And the obligatory environmental message a little tired.  Not enough interesting science fictiony stuff.   

[Tango Alpha Delta]

I liked this story.  But it was a ripoff of one of Ray Bradbury's stories and it wouldn't have been sci-fi if our heroine had two bewbies instead of three bewbies.   

I believe our heroine had two.  The slut on the bordello flyer had three.

Doh!  My dog must have been barking during that part.

He was talking... and telling you to look at the cool zeppelin!