Episode 504: How Many Threes out of Three?

The Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: All three hosts are here and ready to talk about sci-fi; no science, sorry. Devon tells us about a birthday party at a trampoline park and Steven played a bunch of Star Wars board games. Meanwhile Ben was recording his son’s performances on his iPhone. Ben’s also been playing digital pinball on a vertical monitor. Devon has finished the Three Body Problem on Netflix and was pleased that it included elements from the second and third book. He was worried they would only include the first book, which he feels is only the prologue to the real story. Steven gives us a rundown of Tales of The Empire on Disney Plus. This show provides backstory to characters in Ahsoka. Ben and Steven talk about X-Men ’97. If you’re not watching X-Men ’97, you should be! It includes wacky and wild, heart stopping moments. X-Men ’97 was written for us, but new viewers could still understand about 90% of the show.

Book Club: For this episode we read the short story “2043… a Merman I Should Turn to Be” by Nisi Shawl.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58647676-2043-a-merman-i-should-turn-to-be?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=UGvenc3N0K&rank=1

Devon made sure to read the short story for this episode and has read the story for the next episode. Devon thinks the story would be better as a digital short given the “off-the-wall” concept and action in the story. Ben reminds us that the story is connected to the Jimmy Hendrix song: 1983 A Merman I should Turn to Be. The story reminded Ben of Lovecraft Country. Ben liked the statement about enemies wanting the same things we do. Steven enjoyed the story but was confused on some of the elements. We have a discussion of who and how people would actually modify their bodies to live in different habitats. We note that adapting to new habitats is not easy and ponder what the first inhabitants of the Moon, Mars, etc. will face. We all give the story 3 out of 4 stars.

For the next episode we are reading The Jaunt by Stephen King.

https://archive.org/details/the-jaunt-stephen-king

Until next week, keep watching the skis! I mean skies.