EP138: In the Late December
Published by SFEley on 25 Dec 2007 at 1:27 am.
Discuss on the forums.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
Nebula Award Nominee!
By Greg van Eekhout.
Read by Stephen Eley.
Closing Music: “Chiron Beta Prime” by Jonathan Coulton.
First appeared in Strange Horizons, December 2003.
They come to a cloud of silver mist, and there Santa finds a little boy made of molten silver with liquid silver eyes and sweeping silver delta wings. His wrists are ringed with missile launchers, and a rounded cone emerges from a cavity in his chest. Once there were many silver boys, fleets of them, protecting the outermost parts of inhabited space against things that came from outside inhabited space. But now, there is only the silver boy.
“You, sir,” the silver boy says, “are a tiresome consciousness cluster. Your binary value system remains as laughable as it is irrelevant. How you manage to remain cohesive is beyond me.”
“My value system is hardly binary,” Santa says. “In between naughty and nice I’ve made room for you: grumpy but fundamentally sound. Do you want a toy or not?”
Rated PG. Contains some dark Santa-related imagery, and the heat death of the universe.
22 Comments to ‘EP138: In the Late December’:
Please visit the forums to comment on this story.
little boy on 26 Dec 2007 at 2:39 am: 1
Murray Klizmus to you all.
What was the link to the closing song artist?
Awesome EscapePod today « Ifblog (ponderings 2.0) on 26 Dec 2007 at 7:59 am: 2
[...] Filed under: Commentary, SciFy — ifireball @ 14:59 I just finished listening to the special Christmas story EscapePod released yesterday, and while I’m Jewish and live in Israel where this time of a [...]
Quinn on 27 Dec 2007 at 12:24 am: 3
Greatest emotional range of a podcast … ever
The Doctor on 30 Dec 2007 at 11:58 am: 4
Thank you thank you thank you for this emotional roller coaster. I laughed, I cried, I was scared, relieved, happy, sad, OMFG. One of the best Escape Pod stories ever. Merry XSHKW (Xmas/Solstice/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/Whatever) all!
Paul Elwood on 31 Dec 2007 at 1:26 pm: 5
Awesome, santa vs. entropy; this is destined to be a Christmas classic (in some circles, anyway) … just awesome.
Martin R on 1 Jan 2008 at 5:13 am: 6
Entropy? I know there was some physics in-joke there that I just wasn’t getting!
Nora on 1 Jan 2008 at 11:02 pm: 7
I’d forgotten how absolutely brilliant that story is. Rudolph as tricked-out mecha warrior. The heat death of the universe forestalled by Santa Claus. Gorgeous and powerful and delightful.
RR Anderson on 3 Jan 2008 at 5:02 pm: 8
Humanisim is obsolete? No way. This is story illustrates clearly how self-awareness can be crippling. And that being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular. As long as I have this story I’ll never be alone. Good job team Escape pod !
SirLordCaptainKcirehs1203 on 4 Jan 2008 at 2:57 am: 9
Well this is kind of more of a general remark about Escape Pod as opposed to a remark on the story in particular. I love Escape Pod and I really enjoy the storys every week and have gotten several friends interested in it too. I have the first five collection CDs, but there seems to be a problem with collection number four. I haven’t listened to collection five yet, but with collection four ep 88 through 93 and several flash fiction peaces and reviews will not play. 15 files in all. They appear to be only 2kb in size as opposed to the rest which are 20mb or 19mb or whatever. I got collections four and five just before the holliday which was great, but it was somewhat disappointing to find this problem when I had found no problems with the first three discs which I thought were nearly perfect and I can’t wait for up coming collections and when there are more I will probably get the Pseudo pod discs as well. Anyway I guess in part I am wondering if anyone else has found this problem with their copy of collection four or what. Yes, I know I can make my own, but I like the idea of supporting you guys and you might include things I might miss. For example the interview with one of the writers that was on I think collection two.
Nikolai on 5 Jan 2008 at 9:02 pm: 10
I’m alarmed by the tendency to envision Santa as God. I recently heard a Christmas song with the lyric, “Santa loves you whether you’re rich or poor.” Isn’t it supposed to be God or Jesus loving you?
And now this story - We all exist only because Santa believes in us!
That said, I really enjoyed this story. It’s a delightful irony that what matters is whether Santa believes in you, not the other way ’round.
Gary H on 6 Jan 2008 at 1:06 pm: 11
I guess I’m one of the few that didn’t care much for this story. It depressed me. Christmas is supposed to be fun. Santa is supposed to be fun and bring wonder, excitement, and imagination into the minds of our children. I love Christmas because my kids love it. Santa exists because my 5 year old thinks he squeezes through the heater vent, not because he brings gifts to a puddle.
Sorry, didn’t work for me but I am glad for the variety in EscapePod.
Audita Sum on 10 Jan 2008 at 3:43 pm: 12
I respectfully disagree with Nikolai. In my opinion, since gods are a creation of man (also my opinion), Santa could, possibly, be a god in his own right. I mean, there’s certainly a lot of theology about him in the form of Christmas songs. It’s no different than how Islam grew, largely, out of Judaism. Though Santa started as a saint in the Christian faith, he could be recognized as an offshoot god.
Anyway, I liked the idea of intelligence clusters. I also liked that Santa was humanized in this story. Though he tried to fit his usual perameters of being jolly and whatnot, he had weaknesses, not necessarily in his psyche, but in his entire being. He let the Big Empty kill his wife just to keep himself alive, for Mods sake. The story was pretty grim, which was, I admit, a little disappointing, but it did its job. It was well-written, and pretty awesome. Greg van Eekhout’s stuff often is.
Cayce on 11 Jan 2008 at 12:57 pm: 13
The story was well written, but I got the feeling that is was “the Never-ending Story” in space. Only by giving the princess a name/concentrating on the details can the nothing be defeated. Having said all of that, I still felt the pain of the reindeer disappearing and the happiness of the return of the remaining beings banding together to help in the fight. Not a bad 30 minutes spent.
Vance M. on 17 Jan 2008 at 7:20 pm: 14
Interesting and inventive but it pulled me down into a depressing sink hole. I also agree that I enjoy the variety that Escape Pod shares with us, but honestly I really did not like this one. I guess maybe I’m a little sentimental during Christmas time, and expect stories of hope, love, sharing, good will towards men and all that jazz. After hearing this I just felt sad and numb.
Eric Conrad on 29 Jan 2008 at 1:55 pm: 15
After listening to the whole story, my only comment would be, “eh”.
scatterbrain on 20 Mar 2008 at 2:57 pm: 16
What can I say; weird plus one.
Steven Smethurst on 27 Apr 2008 at 4:34 pm: 17
Good story, I liked the idea of Santa delivering gifts to all the good boys and girls across the universe not just little old earth. Enjoyable
The Osteomancer’s Son, by Greg van Eekhout « Stuff to read on 1 Jun 2008 at 9:34 am: 18
[...] (I won’t say ‘fan’ because I’m not fanatical enough) ever since I heard In The Late December on Escape Pod last Christmas. That will most definitely be getting its own post one of these days. Either way, I [...]
::A Geek in Korea:: » Blog Archive » The Post Apocalyptic Countdown Part 2 on 15 Jun 2008 at 9:02 am: 19
[...] Heat death of the universe, dying stars, and entropy the end of the universe as we know it. [...]
Podcast Round Up 7/8 « Strange Latitudes on 9 Jul 2008 at 11:35 am: 20
[...] Escape Pod 138: In The Late December by Greg van Eekhout [...]
saintnick on 6 Oct 2008 at 1:23 am: 21
thanks for thats, how are you doing for this xmas? i took your reccomendation and purchased a surrender for my wife
http://foundit.open.ac.uk/story.php?title=fun_christmas_gifts
Some Assembly Required » Blog Archive » Happy Holidays! (no post today) on 29 Dec 2008 at 12:23 pm: 22
[...] Pod’s short-fiction podcast has not one but two Christmas [...]