From the Podosphere: December ‘07 podcasts

Greg Van Eekhout’s “In the Late December,” read by Stephen Eley, is a good old-fashioned, sense-of-wonder, weird SF tale with a modernist twist. It seems that we are close to the end of all life in the universe, no less. Santa and his reindeer are still alive, as are some “children” scattered across different planets. Santa is delivering their presents, while the all-consuming Big Empty is trying to destroy everything, when Santa encounters a silver child, to whom he gifts a rocket launcher to add to the child’s already-impressive armoury, then visits a cephalopod girl on another planet. Weird stuff? Certainly. But engaging and, surprisingly, given the subject matter, very dark. At the end, the Big Question isn’t whether children believe in Santa, but whether Santa believes in children.

In Mur Lafferty’s clever “Citytalkers,” read by Deborah Green, we have three protagonists: TV weatherwoman Gloria, “urban shaman” Toby, and the city of Charlotte. Yes, the city itself is a protagonist; Charlotte, in fact, hates Christmas. Escape Pod has established a tradition of running Mur Lafferty Christmas stories, and this urban fantasy is strange but oddly affecting. The idea of a city trying to rid itself of human parasites is not itself a new one, but Mur’s take on it is compelling and surprising, and has a nice twist in the tail. I found myself enjoying Mur’s lovely writing style—clear prose leavened with surprising images and turns of phrase.

A boy grows up with a fascination for the inventions of an eccentric scientist in “Stu” by Bruce McAllister. His father is an inventor as well, but it is Stu who produces the most extraordinary work. However, it is the military that is most interested in Stu’s inventions, such as the tracking device that looks like a plant, dropped into Vietnam to plot the movements of enemy troops. Told through the developing, warm relationship between boy and inventor, the morality of scientific innovations used in warfare is continually questioned. Ultimately, McAllister’s story (read by Stephen Eley) is a touching piece of drama, a coming-of-age spread over decades. I really enjoyed the style of the writing and vividly imagined characters. The ending contains no major surprises but rather a summation which thoughtfully mixes melancholy with optimism and raises intriguing moral and political questions.

The alien enemy in Bud Sparkhawk’s powerful story “Bright Red Star,” read by Paul Haring, are the Shardies, who harvest humans to use as components in their weapons, keeping only their heads alive. And when New Mars comes under attack, an ostensible rescue operation is mounted with scientifically enhanced soldiers. The line “Humanity couldn’t allow any more people to become components for the Shardie offense” sounds not unlike America’s political stance against Saddam Hussein and consequently gives the story a contemporary feel. And like any war against “the enemy,” the decisions to be made are complex and difficult, especially when deciding the fate of the very people a government is trying to protect.

December’s roster of stories on Pseudopod finishes with my own “Rapunzel’s Room,” which I am not reviewing for obvious reasons. But I can say I enjoyed Alasdair Stuart’s intro and outro and MAinPA’s excellent reading.

In the December 14, 2007, offering by Daniel Braum, read by Ben Phillips, Nate is a “minder” escorting Alexa, daughter of a big-name mystic in southern America, back home. She’s being pursued by demons, and her only hope of escape is “Across the Darien Gap,” a stretch of rainforest that will ultimately lead her to home and safety. But in spite of the magical “wards”—like a mystical electric fence—that Nate and his team use to protect her, all does not go as planned. A relationship begins to develop between Nate and Alexa, but the forces of evil are conspiring against them. This is an effective chase story with demons and ghosts aplenty and an exotic locale for flavour—well written, punchy, and worth a listen.

“The Excavation” by Ben Thomas, read by Alasdair Stuart, is a Lovecraftian tale about two palaeontologists who dig up more than they bargained for. As a pastiche, it works well, and the monsters are wonderfully imagined and described. Nevertheless, it does not have much of a story to tell; it’s difficult to sympathise with the protagonists, and it doesn’t take us on an emotional journey. Instead, it seems to be a lead up to a monster scare with a bit of reflection on the nature of humanity at the end. It’s a shame; Thomas can clearly write, and his prose is actually better than some of Lovecraft’s. And the cosy feel of the first part had charm, engaging of itself. I’d recommend that Thomas dump the Lovecraftian stuff and find his own path.

The nasty ghosts in Ian Creasey’s noirish “Memories of the Knacker’s Yard,” read by Ben Phillips, bear an uncanny resemblance to the trio of spooks who use Casper the friendly ghost as their personal slave. While infinitely more unpleasant than Fatso, Stinky, and Stretch, these ghosts similarly are up to no good. The policeman investigating a murder even has to let some of his experiences (in this case childhood piano lessons) get sucked out of him as the price of admission to the Knacker’s Yard, neighbourhood of the dead who may be able to help with his investigations. A highly unusual tale, hard-boiled detective meets supernatural horror, I enjoyed it for the snappy dialogue, general nastiness, and unusual twist to the detective thriller. Oddly, I didn’t find it disturbing or especially chilling, but it was fun.