In a twist, I actually feel the need to write something here rather than just post my photos. A couple of friends had been discussing The Sparrow & Children of God in of me. While the stories sounded dark & disturbing; they also were described as being very well done. Having now read the books, I would describe the experience as having eaten a meal by my favorite chef who does an exquisite job of preparing the food, only to find out after I’d eaten the meal that every dish I’d eaten contained an ingredient that my digestive system cannot tolerate. Maybe it was good experience, once, but it’s definitely not something I’d be eager to repeat.
Tag: Sci-fi
Without question, Me and My Shadow the best episode of Escape Pod I’ve listened to in quite some time. It’s got just the perfect amount of creepiness to suck me into the story, rather than sending me running for cover. Additionally the level of tech seems entirely believable in that we could theoretically be doing this to criminals in the real world within a generation of now1. Those two factors are blended together into a tasty treat2 by the writing of Mike Resnick and Stephen Eley’s reading of the work.
1 As rule I prefer my Sci-Fi to be extrapolated from existing science to have believable future tech rather than wildly unlikely technology. Though if something with wildly unlikely tech has an interesting story or characters that can be fun too (e.g. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi).
2 I’m glad lunch is coming up soon, I’m starting to get pretty hungery. *smile*
As a general rule, I love Escape Pod. The stories (and readers!) tend to be excellent, however this week must be the exception which proves the rule. Maybe it’s because I never got into the whole MMORPG thing but I found this week’s story to be a bad rewrite/adaption of Groundhog Day. The movie wasn’t all that great and Save Me Plz is even worse. At least in Groundhog Day Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, had to do all the work himself; in Save Me Plz, Devon forces Meg into doing all the work for him. Even worse she liked the world the way it was!
So I say shame on you Mr. Eley for bringing us this tripe and implore you to look for more stories like:
- #005: Snow Day
- #007: The Trouble With Death Traps
- #013: The Once and Future Dentist
- #020: The Burning Bush
- #028: Your Corporate Network and the Forces of Darkness
- #031: Robots and Falling Hearts
- #034: Free Will, Baby
- #038: L’Alchimista
- #039: My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie
- #042: Practical Villainy
- #045: Are You Ready For the End of the World?
- #047: Poet for Hire
- #052: Single White Farmhouse
- #054: Tk’tk’tk
- #056: The Clockwork Atom Bomb
- #061: I Look Forward To Remembering You
- #064: Head of State
- #070: Squonk the Dragon
- #075: Nano Comes to Clifford Falls
- #076: The Dinner Game
- #078: The Shoulder of Giants
- #082: Travels With My Cats
- #100: Nightfall
- #102: The Angle of My Dreams
- #104: Lust for Learning
- #110: Frankie the Spook
- #123: Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane
Notes…
- Why no, this post is not a blatant attempt at being named BofW and getting a free book from Escape Pod. What would ever give you that idea. *grin*
- Ok, I could be fibbing when I made the above comment.
- Alright I was fibbing and it is a blatant attempt at just that.
- However I also wrote up this post to draw attention to what I feel are the very, very best of Escape Pod. Any sci-fi and/or fantasy fans not listening to Escape Pod should start and they should definitely start with the stories on this list!
I am:
A quiet and underrated master of “hard science” fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s. |
Well, that’s a new way of finding different authors to read. I mean I’ve been reading sci-fi for practically as long as I’ve known how to read and I’ve never heard of this guy. Thanks for the quiz/link Boing Boing
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
My Rating: 5 out of 5.
This book is a delightfully wacky tale of one man’s fight to keep a very special sheep alive. In the process, our hero will have to fight off various aliens and a few treacherous villainous humans. Scattered throughout The Android’s Dream are numerous one liners. Each one of these taken by itself and outside the context of the story are funny, but put together and in context they’re hysterical. LOL is a common abbreviation used online that stands for “Laugh Out Loud”. These days it is mostly used to indicate somebody found something else amusing and does not actually mean any truly laughed outside of their own head. I bring this up as I repeatedly found myself laughing out loud while reading The Android’s Dream. Below are a few of my favorite lines from the book:
Jesus, forgive me, he thought. I really shouldn’t have eaten that panda. “No more shoes in advance for anyone,” he said. “Today people have tried to kill me, the police are looking for me, and I’ve just discovered every Easter of my childhood, I ate one of my relatives with mint jelly. I’m just fine.” “I don’t know … You’d have to ask the sheep.” It drives physicists mad and every few years on e will snap and begin raving that sentient beings should nae fuck with that which they ken nae unnderstan’
If my little review here fails to entirely convince you to rush out and find a copy of this book to read, then try Bookgasm’s review