So close. So damn close. Rework the ending into something meaningful rather than boring, and this could be a first class, grade A story.

Just my 2 cents, naturally.

On a production note, the computer voice was unintelligible, and unbelievable. Present text to speech technology is much better than that, and would really be advanced if people can be turned into fish.

Sorry,could not resist.

By the way, I would have liked the character better if he was a bit more emotionally accessible; like Mr. Limpet.

I sincerely hope your bad day did not turn into a string of them. I will pray for you tonight.

First, the extremely sad Edward Bear story. Now this one where the author goes on and on in graphic detail about how lonely and depressed and mutilated the main character is. This is the first Escape Pod story I couldn’t finish despite trying several times.

As a long time fiction reader and Escape Pod listener I’ve built up a tolerance to stories about murderers and lesbians and zombies and other violent or sexual themes that would get an R or X rating if they were a movie. But please, Mr. Eley, leave the psychologically damaging stories for Pseudopod where your listeners expect that sort of thing.

I know it has been about a week since your “worst day”. I’m sorry to hear that. I’m a first time poster/commenter to this site. I was turned onto podcasting recently at work, as I was told we could not listen to streaming radio online, but podcasting was okay. Previously, I had heard about it, but never partook in its magnificence. After listening to all I could stand of NPR podcasting, I searched around a little bit and stumbled upon this place. I ravenously gobbled up the audio of every story in the subscription list and am working my way through all the past stories. Needless to say, I’ve been greatly inspired by your work and am taking up writing again because of its direct result. To that, I say thank you. I hope things are going well for you.

Best Regards,
Joe Arndt

The story did nothing for me. The main character gave me no reason to empathize at all. From about the second minute I felt like he was selfish and really uncaring. In addition the ending was quite predictable.

I do agree with you that the inner space of our oceans have been neglected by Sci-Fi writers. When they do decide to write about it the story generally turns in to a we down here versus them up there story. Perhaps that is because when it comes to our oceans truth is really stranger than fiction.

Bringing this back around to Pressure, I would have respected the cyber-merman more if the reason for not surfacing was an unstoppable urge to find out what is out there and how he could join with “it” and become a better human. But in the end he did it to avoid his lack of humanity and only wanted to hide. Pathetic.

Thank you for everything, keep up the great work Steve.

I did enjoy the story, although the ending seems a bit like a punch out ending. It’s as if the author was not sure exactly how to get to the ending he wanted, so he just threw in this completely out of nowhere eco-terrorist attack to give the protagonist the escape opportunity that was needed.

For me, the best parts of the episode were not the story itself, but the Coulton song at the end (Johnathan Coulton = win), and the way you described The Ropecast being about BDSM in the same way one might say a podcast is about cats.

I hope your RL situation improves. Your mentioning it has clearly made a lot of us listeners concerned.

It’s as if the entire story spent all of it’s time in the upper atmosphere, never exiting our solar system let alone our own planet sphere.

That said it was still a good listen and well worth the time. Way to try something different

PS Hope you’re feeling better, just look at the comments, everyone loves you.

It is the protagonists who give up some of their selfish defences that draw me into a story.

Speaking of which, Steve, I share the rest of the sentiment around the board in hoping that everything will be well with you.

This time is different, I was near the computer and working, and well we all know how much people crave distraction when working….

All I could think about during this whole story was the South Park episode where Kyle’s dad gets turned into a dolphin. I wonder if that is where the author got the idea?

Cute how the song matched

Generally I just enjoy the stories and leave the comments to others, but since I’m here, I feel obliged:

As a diver myself, I appreciated the the underwater beauty of the story. It was soothing to remember the feeling of flight and exploration in such a serene environment. However, the plot itself was telecast from afar and the ending left me flat. Also, the protagonist’s desire to be alone seemed at odds with his strong need to remain in contact with his family.

(tee-hee)

hoping you’re well, you big damn geek.

johnathan coulton+EP= all sorts of goodness.

Best wishes Steve.

Deeply disturbing, bleak and depressing – but some of the best books I’ve read in the last few years. They’re even available for free under a Creative Commons license on his website at http://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

(and as always) please send more Jonathan Colton…

Thanks Steve,
Jacob

I am still not sure how I feel about this story. The beginning was very interesting and caught my attention, my mind going “hey what a cool idea, where can i sign up?” However when the bad soap opera family problems kicked in you lost me. The pseudo science was not as upsetting to me as the simplistic predictable ending.

All in all I thought it was a decent story to listen to at night while doing other work, but not one i am going to listen to again and again.

I still think he should have run into the Nautilus and Captain Nemo.

I am also wondering about the intro and the audio book site, thanks for pointing out the site but it still sounded a little too much like an advertisement and sounded out of place in what i have come to know as the EP intros

I didn’t like this story at all. Maybe the reason there are so few undersea Sci-fi stories is that the basic science and conditions are better understood – bad science is more easily noticed.
For example: a gel to protect individual cells from the pressure? – Pressure may have some effect on liquids and solids but it’s main effect is on gases in the body. If there is no air in the body, as in the case of this diver, pressure effects are minimal or non-existent.
What kind of radio was the guy using when the torpedoes came in? Radio doesn’t work underwater. If he was using sound, then his sonar would attract the torpedoes as well.

Bad science, bad father, bad story.

Take Care

I am new to Escape Pod, but I caught up on the last 40 or so episodes in the last few weeks and look forward to participating more in the future.
Thanks for the great podcast.

This story is one of the best I’ve heard [I've been steadily working through the archives this week and enjoy each entire podcast] your choice of closing music was excellent.

At the beginning of the story I was reminded of Brin’s alien viewpoint descriptions in “Brightness Reef” but perhaps Carlson has surpassed them.

All the best,
andrea

Worried ’boutcha, bubba.

I’m deeply concerned by that, and wish you the best.

As a dramatic device casually leaving a line like that was like reaching into my throat and grabbing random gobs of gore and pulling just enough so I noticed, and then a bit more so I can feel the slight give as reality prepares to slip free of its bounds.