I wonder if the author checked the number before using it… and I wonder if the OFAAA of BC has gotten some strange voice mails lately…

i laughed

I hate rewriting stuff I just said >.< stupid technology.

Was I the only one who seriously considered calling 1-800-GO-UNION to see what it was?

Another teriffic story in the UD saga. More please!

They just come so far apart! Speed ‘em up!

I watched a parent die for ten years, and this didn’t even make me feel sad about it, it was that good. Strange, isn’t it?

Jeez, oh no! Ok I’ll say it damnit! There’s no need for the gun!

Ahem… to buy Siglers fantastic new, soon to be bestselling novel, Infected available in all good book stores from April 1st…

Ok I said it! damnit let me go

Damned megalomaniac… oh ummm sorry Mr Sigler I said Damned good writer.

The characters are great and I am honestly impressed that the author consistently avoids the “Woe is me, why have I been cursed with these powers boohoo” crap that you get all the time, just look at the Wheel of Time books for the most frustrating power = curse characters ever (I am a fan of the books though )!

Great work on the reading and keep ‘em coming!

I always figured that there was just the one Union that had made arangements with the governments of the various countries that have Union pyramids. It would be interesting to get an international view of the UD universe though.

Seems to me that Timmy is one of us who has always dreamed about being a super hero, and I’m finding it difficult to think of many characters in comics who are like that. Or that don’t become total jerk-offs ([cough]Booster Gold[/cough]) and I think that is why Hiro Nakamura became such a popular character.

How many of the popular comic heroes (Spider-man, Superman, Batman, Wolverine) wanted to be heroes in the first place? Why is this character-type, as far as I can see, so rare? I find myself connecting so much more with characters who want the means to do good for others and hold to their ethics.

I haven’t heard much of the Union Dues series, but I look forward to following Timmy.

Another great tale, as allways. Another one of my favorites keep up the great writing Jeff.

Also Steve? Did you have some voice acting lessens? Your voice has allways been amazing when reading stories, however this story was phenomenal.

Superhero stories also, for some reason, allow me to achieve a greater suspension of disbelief than other types of stories. I was never much of a superhero fan growing up, and the only superhero I read regularly now is The Punisher, but I still really enjoy Union Dues.
If UD ever gets made into graphic novel format, I would be sure to buy it, until that happens, I hope many more of these stories will grace my ears.

i have been listening scince year 2, heard all the episodes
finally started listening to psuedopod this past summer
and am anxiously awaiting podcastles premier episode
ya’ll do excellent work in selecting stories, even the ones that don’t resonate with most subscribers (just like fooling people, you can’t please them all of the time)
steve, et. al, keep up the good work.
Thomas, a.k.a. “treed” the hyper-active commenter @ sigler’s space

The superhero genre is at its foundation one of high-contrast distinctions. That gives us heroes who attack problems in a head-on and largely thoughtless manner. If any of the 4-color heroes really thought about how to best use their powers to help the world, they wouldn’t be dressing up in tights and “fighting crime”, but would be using their superhuman abilities in far more useful ways. Why hasn’t Reed Richards solved the world’s energy problems yet? Why hasn’t Tony Stark created exoskeletons that let quadriplegics walk again? Why doesn’t Storm water the deserts or prevent hurricanes from devastating costal cities? Well, that would be a totally different kind of story (but read The Authority for one possible set of answers). My point is, it’s hard to write convincingly in the superhero genre while crafting a story that breaks the fundamental rules. You can tell good stories, but there’s something about them that doesn’t feel quite right. I’m glad to see Scott Sigler getting back to the real superhero roots and giving us a story we can enjoy without feeling too sorry for the heroes.

Thanks for the quote from John Ciardi. However, his name is pronounced somewhere between “chee-ar-dee” and “char-dee”, not “see-ar-dee”. Of the various creative pronunciations I’ve heard on Escape Pod, this one is probably the most forgivable since it’s a name and less common than even random Yiddish words, but it’s still poor form to bungle someone’s name while quoting him. I’d suggest every time you see a word you’ve never heard before, look up the pronunciation. That’s about as basic as using a spell-checker, and not doing so is out of keeping with the otherwise high production quality of Escape Pod.

Oh yeah… It’s taken me over a year since I started listening to Escape Pod beginning with the early episodes, but I finally caught up with the feed so I get to comment the week a story comes out. Woot! On the down side, I only get one story a week now. Good thing Podcastle launches soon!

Thanks for all the stories and fun times, and I look forward to seeing the results of you leveling up in your game.