Comments on: EP136: Bright Red Star

By: Julio

Julio — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:58:18 +0000

This story blew me out. Amazing. It made me wish there were whole novels about this universe. I really liked old man’s war, but I think this is what that book wanted to be.

By: Raving_Lunatic

Raving_Lunatic — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:54:30 +0000

Incredible story.

By: rubso

rubso — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:59:41 +0000

you mean the ending means that they were suicide soldiers??? The reades was soooooo great that I almost yelled out … “ouch”

By: Bud Sparhawk

Bud Sparhawk — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:30:00 +0000

I am amazed that no one realized this was a 9/11 story.

By: Judy

Judy — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:07:00 +0000

I almost thought this story to be true. Our world today is so close to this that it is’nt funny

By: john

john — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 03:20:56 +0000

You know the MBA thinking that goes, "we'll make it up in volume." It seems to me that this same strategy is being applied in the story. "Let's kill everyone so nobody falls into the enemy hands" is a bit like selling things for less then it costs to make. That somehow these items will cause everyone to flock to the store to buy and while there will buy other items that are more profitable. Eventually the store has to close because they never made a profit. Applied to the story at some point there won't be any people left.

Seems to me that the enemy has already won. Twice.

By: Martin Rundkvist

Martin Rundkvist — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:57:02 +0000

I read this story in Year's Best SF 11 back in June '06 and found it pretty ho-hum-yawn. I liked the narrated version better, though it still wasn't a great story.

By: Stephen Middleton

Stephen Middleton — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:57:37 +0000

Real class stuff, great atmosphere – certainly one of the best Escape Pod. Only slight downer was the ending was too predictable.

By: BJ

BJ — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:52:13 +0000

Awesome! Great story, great reader.

By: Marion

Marion — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:59:59 +0000

Bleak and powerful. One of the very few I listened to twice. But, as others have pointed out, this is a strictly black and white vision. I think reality is more complex.

By: Dirkson

Dirkson — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:03:17 +0000

Bright Red Star is a neat piece with a good twist… But it was a neat piece with a good twist a couple years ago wben I read it in Analog/Asimov’s. Far be it from me to make disparaging comments, since I’ve been listening and loving escapepod since the beginning, but re-published stories are always such a let down for me. I get all hyped up because it’s Thursday, and it turns out to be something I’ve read before. Admittedly, my friends tell me I’m something of an odd duck for only reading, listening to, or watching passive entertainment once, but I think my point still stands.
Anyway, keep up the stories. I’m fantastically excited about the upcoming (Very upcoming. It’s been upcoming for months. By now it should be upcame.) podcastle, and can’t wait for that to start up.
Cheers!
-Dirkson

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:03:18 +0000

For me, this story was a little too close to real-life war propaganda for comfort. The utterly evil, rampaging enemy who hates us for no reason and must be stopped at all costs, the need to commit atrocities to stop their horrible crimes, the foolish civilians who just don't understand, the need to utterly destroy the enemy so they don't destroy us. This is what societies convince themselves when they commit genocide.

And the thing is, the story doesn't give us any real proof the threat is real. Unless I'm forgetting something, we never really see the aliens or their actions - just hear accounts of them. And the accounts mostly come from a soldier who, by his own account, has been modified in every way to be the perfect soldier against this enemy. As a result, I can't see him as reliable - if they did so much to modify his body, they could've done just as much to modify his mind and indoctrinate him.

All of this could make for an interesting story, but I don't get the feeling that the author thought much about any of it. Instead, it seemed like we're supposed to accept that the aliens are pure evil and must be annihilated. And, while the story is suspenseful and well-written, I found it awfully disturbing.

By: Windup

Windup — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:59:41 +0000

I liked the reader as well, but like jazzmodeus, found that this one just didn’t grab me. Maybe just a tad too bleak.

By: jazzmodeus

jazzmodeus — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:07:05 +0000

This one didn't grab me for some reason. I agree with Dan that the extensive modifications on suicide troops seemed weird -- maybe the mods are cheap enough to make them a matter of course? But then why would the settlers be so frightened or surprised by them?

I also wondered whether it was meant to be a surprise that the mission was to kill the colonists. I got it from the first conversation with Becky, and kept waiting for a further twist to prove me wrong.

By: Gab

Gab — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:22:25 +0000

This was really good.
Wasn’t expecting them to be suicide troops at all.
That was an awesome ending in my mind.

By: ComputerKing

ComputerKing — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:28:58 +0000

Awesome. Although I got an idea of the full extent of the soldiers' mission early on, it wasn't predictable or derivative in any way I can describe. Maybe it's my own bleak view of things, but I kept thinking "a rescue ship's not practical at this stage" whenever the little girl mentioned it.

I loved the description of the soldier's enhancements, especially the failsafe at the end. The shards' use of the "survivors" was a great twist, as well.

What put the icing on the cake, however, was the reader's voice. He has the deep rumble I would expect out of such a shoulder, without overdoing it (And without making me expect him to burst into a Movie Promo Voiceover).

Bravo.

By: bod

bod — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:04:01 +0000

Bleak, but brilliant. Listened to it twice, and both times the ending got to me.

My new favourite since "Cinderella Suicide".

By: Ericdean

Ericdean — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:00:52 +0000

Although I haven’t watched Starship Troopers in a while, the Mormons settling a planet – causing the war with the aliens was a good plot point.
Mix in the plot of Space Above and Beyond, make it boring and dull, and you have got the photocopy of a photocopy called “Bright Red Star”.
I hope the chigs – oops shards don’t attack without apparent reason or rationale, or do anything to the human’s brains…. cause that would be just a blatant rip off. Wouldn’t want that…..

By: Lee Murdock

Lee Murdock — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:05:05 +0000

Darkest … Escapepod … evar… Great job!

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:02:56 +0000

Great story. I thought it a little odd how they the soldiers were just suicide troops.

All those modifications seem expensive for suicide soldiers. Wouldn't they rather pick the guys that weren't awesome soldiers?

By: Bryan Hitchcock

Bryan Hitchcock — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:39:48 +0000

Vivid and intense!

This story called Heinlein's Starship Troopers to mind, but with a post Viet Nam ruthlessness.

While I wouldn't call this my favorite story, the writing was excellent. So much imagery and history in such a short story. As opposed to Sparks in a Cold war, where I was left with lots of questions about the world and the politics, this story was very clear, even if the situation was a lot more black and white.

Excellent, episode, though I think we need something a bit cheerier after this one. =)