Podcast Review - Escape Pod (science fiction)
Short Stories on Sci Fi Podcast Leader Push at Edges of Genre
Sep 27, 2009
The bulk of podcasts on the Web are the equivalent a person mumbling about their day to themselves - someone might stumble across and listen every now and then, but it's mostly for the podcast creator's own benefit and not necessarily for anyone else to listen to.
Escape Pod takes a different tack. The science fiction short stories read here are edgy, well-written and engaging for a simple reason:
It pays the writers. It pays them well.
This attracts high-quality work and allows the editors to select the cream from the dross, and this simple idea has yielded success for the podcast.
A Successful Venue for Science Fiction Stories
Since Stephen Eley began the podcast in May 2004, it has produced more than 200 episodes and consistently logs thousands of downloads (its Facebook fan page alone has more than 500 members). It has also spawned two sister podcasts - PodCastle for fantasy and PseudoPod for horror - that have attracted their own following.
The production value is superb, the host banter before and after the "storytime" is witty and the range of the stories through the years means that even if a listener doesn't care for the current week's show, there's sure to be something in the archives.
That range includes everything from the classics "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov and "All You Zombies" by Robert A. Heinlein; to short "flash" podcasts about five minutes long; to an annual reading of Hugo award nominees for short story. It even featured a live reading of a story at the Baltimore science fiction convention, Balticon.
Every episode comes with a movie-style rating. These are fair, accurate and occasionally humorous ("Rated PG after intensive clinical testing"; "Rated PG: contains Elvii"; and "Rated PG and now available in a wide variety of colours!")
Changes Coming to the Podcast
In August 2009, Eley announced that he is stepping back as owner of Escape Artists, the owning company of the three podcasts, and reforming the company as a non-profit. When completed, this will allow the mission of the podcast to be controlled by a board of directors and make any donations to the show tax deductible for United States listeners.
A review of three episodes from Sept. 3, 2009 to Sept. 17, 2009 give a good overview of the show's range.
Episode 214: "Sinner, Baker, Fablist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster
Rated R "for sex, masks and violence", Foster's story represents one of the darkest offered by Escape Pod.
The prose is crafted well, with an interesting commentary on the role of labels in society and escaping those masks. But it contains copious amount of sex and graphic violence to make the point.
Drilling down from the general concept story to the specific "science" behind the fiction, it becomes confusing to the reader how the mechanics of the story actually works. For example, how does stabbing someone wearing a mask somehow only kill the personality in the mask and not the body underneath?
Alasdair Stuart is a competent host, although his delivery is at times a bit dry and pedantic.
Episode 215: "Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store" by Robin Sloan
The most interesting and innovative of the sampled stories, Sloan's story was inspired by a single Twitter post about misreading "24 hour book drop" as "24 hour book shop."
"Mr. Penumbra's" was not published in a traditional venue, but instead on Sloan's blog.
The first-person protagonist is a laid-off worker who snags a job in a stuffy 24-hour book shop. Odd characters come in at odd hours of the night urgently looking for obscure books. The owner requires him to take meticulous notes on each customer. Eventually the narrator begins using computers and even Google to data mine his notes.
In addition to the creepy Twilight Zone vibes of the story's climax (which will not be given away here), Sloan uses modern jargon to both humorous and literary effect.
For example, describing a seedy neighborhood as "a euphemistic area of town." Also, as the main character contemplates pushing the owner's rules: "If fidgets were Wikipedia edits, I would have completely revamped the entry on 'guilt' by now, and translated it into six new languages."
Stephen Eley hosts and narrates with his trademark enthusiasm and sharp sense of humor.
Episode 216: "Boyfriend" by Madeline Ashby
"Boyfriend" (spelled with the Beta symbol for the "B") gives a whole new twist on the advertising slogan "There's an app for that."
Teenagers download beta versions of boyfriend and girlfriend apps that emulate the perfect companion. But these apps evolve beyond their original programming. The idea is intriguing, largely because the technology to make it happen is quite plausible.
Norm Sherman, who has also served as a whiskey-voiced narrator, makes an engaging host as well with a "Daily Show"-style, tongue-in-cheek intro about his Nigerian Internet girlfriend who started demanding his account numbers.
The passion of those who work for Escape Pod can be summed up with a quote from the site: "We're doing this because we want to. It sounded like fun and nobody else was doing exactly what we're doing."
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