After hearing you quote that phrase today, after listening to later story, I am thinking it might be not a good phrase to quote.

It now seems to me the quote exemplifies that the person stating this, does not have the imagination, nor the realization that there are things in existence that we are unaware of; but vehemently denying its existence, does not make it impossible – it only makes it impossible for you to see it yourself.

btw: great, great stories

Attention: All authors submitting to EP- THIS is how you do an ambiguous ending.

You see, because we don’t KNOW if the guy who wrote the letter was right about his view of the world, OR if Atkins was right, or if BOTH of them were (are?) right; or even maybe neither of them. It remains to the listener, not to FINISH the story, that’s been done, but to ponder the story. To wonder about it. To savor it long after they read or hear it. THAT is how you write compelling fiction.

NOT by just getting bored or frustrated or running out of ideas and tacking on some lame “well, why don’t you all just guess what this ending means!” or worse “decide for yourself what happened!” arbitrary nonsense that I keep hearing in EP and PP “stories”.

So, yeah. This story rocked. Well written, well designed, well read, and most importantly, well ended.

Good pick, Steve. Thanks!

This comment is about Escape Pod in general, not this story in particular. (Though I can’t wait to get around to it!)

I discovered you 6 or 8 weeks ago, and couldn’t believe that original narrated fiction was actually available free; as a result I had very low expectations for what I’d find. (I’m just now picking my jaw up off the desk. ‘Nightfall’? Really? Holy Expletive, Batman!)

And I’ve been amazingly impressed with what you do. Excellent stories, excellent narration, and on and on. I’m over the moon. I started pushing my office’s broadband lines to the limit, and I’ve pulled in nearly your whole library. I’m going through them 3 or 4 a day. Clearly this can’t go on forever; your archives are finite.

So I went looking for others. If you’re doing donation-fed fiction maybe others are too, right? And yes, they are! Yay!

But here’s the thing. The more other feeds I find, the more I try, the more I’m impressed by Escape Pod. The quality of your stories, the quality of your narrators, the quality of the moral values expressed in your intros and outros (Shutting down donations for Katrina and Christmas? Low whistle of awe)

Anyway, after all this gushing, it pains me not to leave a donation. I owe you big. But my mortgage company seems to feel more entitled. But one day soon some significant funding will come in, and I’ll make good on my debt. Meanwhile, I’m spreading the good word to co-workers, friends, and online acquaintances. Your link is in my AOL sigline. I wait anxiously for the next story.

-Chris

It was K-Pax, but from another angle.

Unfortunately, I think the writing was a little too directed; each part took me so fluidly into the next that it felt like I was following a map from a high-level view. There were no surprises, nothing new, nothing not predicted well in advance.

p.s. I’m praying for you, Steve. Thanks for continuing to do what you do.