EP099: Start the Clock

[Swamp]

Yes there may be an explicit warning but there shouldn't be and explicit story at all on this feed. (by the way, my iTunes does not list this episode as explicit)
According to the Escape Pod Classic website, unlike standard Escape Pod, Classic is "suitable for most ages. For current stories (including some material for mature audiences only) please visit the main Escape Pod site."
Medfordguy

Are you saying that you received Start The Clock on your Escape Pod Classic feed?  I am subscried to both EP and EPC (using iTunes).  I only got this story on the EP feed, and not the Classic feed.  Are you sure you didn't get the feeds mixed up?

[wakela]

That said, did this story have to be explicit?  No not really, the characters could have taken a couple of steps back.  Seemed like the author was ruining an otherwise good story.

Of course this question is entirely a matter of taste, so the following is just my opinion.
At first I thought the explicit sex description was unnecessary.   I mean, who really doesn't know what's happening.  And if you don't, then you shouldn't be listening to it.  But on the other hand, I think that the brief, graphic description helped support the feeling of the adultness of the children.   It must have been challenging to portray the characters as adults and children at the same time.  I'm thankful that I was spared 40 minutes of aggressively cursing kids for the sake of edginess.

But, if this story went out of EP Classic, it shouldn't have.  And if it doesn't have an explicit warning, it should.  I'm at my work computer (shhhhh, don't tell anyone), so I can't check my itunes. 

[DKT]

heavy-handed homages = just too much for me

couldn't get beyond them enough to enjoy   

What were the homages?  I must've missed them...

[The Word Whore]

What were the homages?  I must've missed them...

The weighty nod to Neverland, for one (admittedly, could be the only true "homage"
-- just would have prefered it to be a bit more subtle)...  a little Nolan/Johnson and
a dash of Golding (possibly unintentional...?)

Don't know why this altered my enjoyment, but it did 

[slic]

Yes there may be an explicit warning but there shouldn't be and explicit story at all on this feed. (by the way, my iTunes does not list this episode as explicit)
According to the Escape Pod Classic website, unlike standard Escape Pod, Classic is "suitable for most ages. For current stories (including some material for mature audiences only) please visit the main Escape Pod site."
Medfordguy

Based on a comment for NightFall (ep:100) on the website, I just today found this site:
http://ottolejeune.com/index.php/downloads/P15/
It is mp3 files of a 1950s NBC sci-fi broadcast call X-Minus One.  It's really pretty good all things considered, and as far as it goes for me and my kids, it's totally safe.

[Swamp]

Based on a comment for NightFall (ep:100) on the website, I just today found this site:
http://ottolejeune.com/index.php/downloads/P15/
It is mp3 files of a 1950s NBC sci-fi broadcast call X-Minus One.  It's really pretty good all things considered, and as far as it goes for me and my kids, it's totally safe.

Thanks for the site.  I heard the X-Minus One presentation of Nightfall when it was run on the Spaceship Radio podcast.  Unfortunately, Spaceship Radio has been inactive lately.

[RichGarner]

Based on a comment for NightFall (ep:100) on the website, I just today found this site:
http://ottolejeune.com/index.php/downloads/P15/
It is mp3 files of a 1950s NBC sci-fi broadcast call X-Minus One.  It's really pretty good all things considered, and as far as it goes for me and my kids, it's totally safe.

Thanks for the site.  I heard the X-Minus One presentation of Nightfall when it was run on the Spaceship Radio podcast.  Unfortunately, Spaceship Radio has been inactive lately.

I love X Minus 1. I've been listening to them for years. X Minus 1 is also available here: http://www.archive.org/details/XMinus1_A

[jeffwik]

This was a fine, fine episode.  I sometimes feel that many of the short stories on Escape Pod could be reworked to excise the SF or fantasy elements without much change, that the SF elements are just backdrop.  This story was a breath of fresh air in that regards.

[Kronikarz]

Please, please respect the non-English listeners. Some of actually us have difficulty understanding what you blurt out at 250 mph. I couldn't keep up with what she was reading, just because she was reading it a bit too fast. Spaces are there for a reason, darn it! No offense to anyone, but she just isn't suited well for this kind of reading

[tpi]

Please, please respect the non-English listeners. Some of actually us have difficulty understanding what you blurt out at 250 mph.

That is something I must second, as another non-english.native listener.
Story was very fine, the voice of the reader was very nice and easily understood, but the pace was a bit too fast.

[ElectronicSupersonic]

I actually thought the sexuality in this story worked really well because it fit the character.  I imagine that having the choice to move up into puberty would produce some really interesting social consequences, sexual attitudes being one of them.

I really liked the narration of this story too.  She nailed the sort of "committed activist experiencing a few pangs of self-doubt"  tone very well.

[Planish]

What were the homages?  I must've missed them...

The weighty nod to Neverland, for one (admittedly, could be the only true "homage"
-- just would have prefered it to be a bit more subtle)...

For a while there, I thought I must have been the only to think "Peter Pan" as soon as they mentioned the galleon.
So, was the Augmented 3 channeling Tinkerbelle, the Crocodile, or both? 

[xtian]

I really enjoyed these characters. They were well played by the dialog. It reminds me of the "Special Forces/Ghost Brigades" units in
Old Man's War by John Scalzi (TOR, 2004)--genetically grown super soldiers born adult size with all the military knowledge they require to, well, soldier at ages ranging from 3-15. Scalzi sets up these child-soldiers as born with the full knowledge of adults, but with the emotional ages of children. The character plot is very similar to our story. The charactes reminds me of the book Microserfs by Douglas Coupland (HarperCollins, 1995). The childish, outlandish, and youthful vagrancies of over paid and over worked tech workers in the Dot-Com-Boom-Days--adulthood postponed.

There was little room in "Start the Clock" to philosophise on dealing with child-adults, or what it means. That's left to us to discover for our selves. Instead the conflict of one character leaving the fold is emotionally gripping in its simplicity. Well done.

Thanks, I'm enjoying the stories and look forward to the future… ehehe.

Xtian
//reposted with additional options

[chornbe]

Maybe I'm a little too conservative... but I was a little disturbed by this story.

I think the concept of stopping the biological clock is unique and interesting, but I'm not sure about stopping it age 14 or 9 or especially 3. And hearing/reading/imagining a conversation between 9 year olds regarding sex just makes me feel all nasty... but not in the good way.

However, I was hooked on the story and I was very interested in finding Abby and hearing about her motives for going stealth.

I mostly agree. I found it more frightening than disturbing. The new monster du-jour (again) these days is the zombie. People inexplicably turning into zombies. This story opens up with that same kind of "I don't know how we got here" vibe, and that's what's scary abou tit. I could definitely see this as a movie, or as a series of short stories connected, but not necessarily linear; like Union Dues.

[Unblinking]

This story was great!  It was an excellent example of the author envisioning a complex new world and then just letting me discover it as the plot travels on, instead of just telling us how this situation came to be in a big info-dump.

The premise of being frozen at one age for your entire life was intriguing and terrifying, especially if you were frozen as a teen.  I was pretty happy as a kid, and am pretty happy as an adult, but ye gods I did not care for the teen years.  Being stuck there would really suck.

My favorite part of the story, though, was the 3 who seemed very transhuman.  It seemed like the younger you were, the more likely your parents would take pity on you for being stuck at that age and would compensate with cybernetics. 

I'd love to see this in Anime.