Escape Pod 132: Sparks in a Cold War

Last Thursday a new Escape Pod dropped, and due to not working Friday as it was Jack’s first birthday I only got round to listening to it this morning. Epsiode 132 was ‘Sparks in a Cold War’ by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and read by who else but Stephen Eley. I have just noticed as I have scrolled down my blog that she wrote the first Escape Pod I blogged on ‘Results’, this is a different story from that.

Ok, onto the story, it is a hunting party gone bad on a hostile world. It had me gripped and as good Sci Fi should be it is a great parody/expansion on the situation the US (and the UK) are in at the moment.

Episode Link

Another great story, and I guess everyone can’t agree on everything else the world would be a pretty boring place but in the feedback at the end there were some people that did not like the last Union Dues story

Escape Pod 130: What We Learned From This Morning’s Newspaper

Last weeks Escape Pod story was ‘What we Learned from this Morning’s Newspaper’ by Robert Silverberg, and read by Stephen Eley. I am behind on my listening (as you can tell I guess) with three days working from home due to car troubles.

I wouldn’t normally blog on something so late but I really enjoyed this story. It opens with a note from Stephen that it was originally published in 1973, that explains the stories in the newspaper not that the story is dated, it works well.

I have always enjoyed time travelling stories, which I guess this sort of falls in, and the characters act as most people would with the information given (ie try to make money) and avoids some of the pit falls that longer ‘time travel’ stories can fall into.

Episode Link

I have not come across Robert Silverberg before (at least I don’t recognise the name) but as he is incredibly prolific I will be going out and looking some of his work up

Pseudopod Review: Halloween

Another pleasant surprise appeared in the Pseudopod feed  appeared overnight, Alasdair Stuart is reviewing classic horror movies and started with (appropriatly enough) with John Carpenter’s Halloween.  In the Pseudopod feed is a non spoiler five minute review and there is a longer ‘mini directors commentary’ available which I haven’t listened to.

I really like Alasdair (he read this weeks Pseudopod 061 – ‘The Keeper’ which I didn’t comment on) and I had forgotten how great a film Halloween was, give the review a listen to refresh your memories this Halloween

Episode Link

EP Bonus: Playing for Keeps

Pleasantly surprised to see an Escape Pod bonus episode tonight, even happier when I realised it was the first chapter of Mur Lafferty’s new superhero book Playing for Keeps.

Mur’s new book launches on 1st November and a link is now available on the right for her site for this book.

Episode Link

Pseudopod 60: The Heart of Tu’a Halaita

Caught the latest episode of Pseudopod on the way home from work this evening and it was a story by Tara Kolden called the heart of Tu’a Halaita.

I loved this story, there is something creepy about missionaries going of to jungles to spread Christianity you can easily see something like this happening.

Episode Link

Escape Pod 128: Union Dues – Send in the Clowns

Caught the latest Escape Pod story over lunch today, and it is another instalment of the Union Dues series – a superhero tale, and I I do think that it stands alone, but if you want to catch the other 4 Union Dues story look up episodes 27, 49, 62 and 80.

I really enjoy this series and I will admit to letting out a smile when I saw that this weeks Escape Pod was a Union Dues one, Jeffery R DeRego we owe you a huge thanks for these stories.

Episode Link

Escape Pod 127: Results

As this is my first post about Escape Pod (or any of the pod family) I will briefly summarise Escape Pod. It is a Sci Fi short story podcast edited by Stephen Eley. There are two other spin off podcasts, Psuedopod a horror short story podcast edited by Ben Phillips, and the forthcoming (October the last I heard) Podcastle for straight up fantasy short stories.

Anyway onto this story Results by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This is what a good science fiction story should be, a very plausible premise and raises questions that need to be answered. As Stephen said at the end, sadly it does not take a huge leap of faith to see the male of the species acting this way.

I loved this story and it saddens me to think that things could/will go down this route.

Episode Link