Episode 641-With Curtis C. Chen

The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Curtis C. Chen, author of TRUE BLUE KANGAROO.

About TRUE BLUE KANGAROO: Welcome to the spacefaring future, where humanity travels between planets with ease and has abused that power to establish outposts in some questionable places.

Take Venus, for example: a sister world to Mother Earth, similar in size and gravity, it’s also known for having a toxic atmosphere and hellish landscape at ground level. But climate-controlled habitat domes stay in eternal sunlight and offer vacationers endless good times while floating through blue skies above the clouds of deadly acid.

Meanwhile, hidden down inside those poisonous clouds are other floating habitats, so-called “blue sites”—government-controlled secret prisons where inmates are incarcerated with no oversight and no hope of escape.

And why, pray tell, would secret agent Kangaroo, with his pocket superpower and bleeding-edge biotech implants, need to infiltrate such a secure facility? Might it be to rescue another spy who’s gone radio silent? Or perhaps to extract a high value asset who claims to have been wrongly imprisoned therein? Possibly both?

It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. Questions are a burden to others, and answers a prison for oneself.

What do you want? Information? That would be telling.

About Curtis C. Chen: Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen (???) now writes stories near Portland, Oregon. He’s the author of the KANGAROO series of funny science fiction spy thrillers and has written for the Realm original podcasts Echo Park, Ninth Step Murders, and Machina. Curtis’ shorter works have appeared in Playboy Magazine; the ENNIE Award-winning Kobold Guide to Roleplaying; The Year’s Best Fantasy, Volume 2; Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey; and elsewhere. His homebrew cat feeding robot was displayed in the “Worlds Beyond Here” exhibit at Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum.

This week’s picks:

• Curtis: Slay The Spire (Game)
• Tracy: Knightmare Chess (Game)
• Patrick: The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 (Prime Video)

Links:

• Curtis C. Chen on Instagram
• Tracy Townsend on the network formerly known as Twitter
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2024 Patrick Hester

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