Episode 2: Ruby Dixon, Barbarian Alien, and Worldbuilding Instincts

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Hello there and welcome to Nice Planet Librarians.
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I'm Tara Lederman, Laura Maven and main fiction writer for Starship Falkrie, a science fiction crisis simulator game and story universe based out of Southern California.
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And I love all things science fiction.
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Parish Baker being written through by Erna Semper, an author from the 32nd century.
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Erna is from the planet Iphigenia orbiting Tao City.
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The Parish lives in Humdrum, Kansas City, and Missouri.
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You might know Parrish and me from the Illicit Liaisons podcast, where we discuss the good, the bad, and the naughty of romance fiction with Janet Hart.
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This is our second episode on Nice Planet Librarians.
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And while we do work with a romance press and right science fiction, Parish and I are looking to get into the nitty-gritty of science science fiction, world building, and things like that.
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We'd like to experiment a bit, read science fiction and sci-fi romance, and discuss it and see what works for us as a format.
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We hope you liked the last episode and that you're buckled up for some more.
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This week we're starting with Ruby Dixon's second book in her Ice Planet Barbarians series, Barbarian Alien.
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As listeners might know, we both write sci-fi romance, so we thought assessing Dixon's work as science fiction would be interesting, which is what led us here.
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It's been a wild ride.
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It has been a very wild ride.
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I don't know where it survived for the third one.
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No, we will not.
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Oh, it hurt.
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It hurt me so bad.
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I I I wanted to.
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I really was I was very I was very optimistic.
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I said to myself, okay, she's got the first round worked through, she's got the jitters broken through, she's gonna go to town, and well, she did go to town, she did do that.
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Um it's less science fiction-y than the other one, quite frankly, if you ask me.
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She went to town, it turns out you and I don't like the town.
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Apparently not.
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No, it it has certain disadvantages.
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It was um, I mean, I will say that as I think as romance goes, it's probably more true to structure in romance.
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Yeah.
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I mean the ice ice ice plant uh barbarian, he had and she had linguistic difficulties to work through.
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And so it's very hard for them to like combine their stories and proceed along the story path.
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This one was much easier to do, but um it was it was pretty different.
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Yeah, I mean, I was I mean, honestly, yeah, I remember reading it just being like, okay, we're just we're just kicking up our heels and doing a romance now.
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All right, that's great, you know.
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And I don't read a lot of enemy lover's romance, so that that's part of it.
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It just kind of I think you and I said at some point that there there isn't much difference between this and if she had like made Rahosh uh an orc on Azeroth, you know.
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It's like at a certain point, it's like, well, how how sci-fi is this really?
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Like we have the same kinds of language difficulties that we might have between an orc and a human, we're in a cave.
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Um, there are some like other creatures around, but we could just be in a magical world at this point.
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Like it doesn't really matter that like we're in a like a science fiction setting anymore.
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That just kind of got us here.
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The only thing that it gives us is a contemporary heroine, a woman from our time and place.
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Um, and you could do that with portal fantasy as well.
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You know, you could have her go through a a portal and probably dispense with a lot of the hoopla of the first book quite easily just by having women fall through portals and get made into orcs.
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Uh so there is a lot of like, I don't know, tonal stuff, but also just kind of world-building instinct that to me does not feel like a science fiction writer when I read this.
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You know, like I there's like a good point in uh that it like I I think kind of is emblematic of this when she goes up against the the Metlacs, I believe they're called.
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Uh the they're like a Simeon race on this planet, and they do seem to be sentient, perhaps sapient, and um you know they care for their young and stuff like that, and they're very, very uh hostile to the Sakui and seemingly to her, although perhaps a bit less so.
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And at some point she takes their child hostage in order to get two Raho shoes fallen off of a cliff and protect him.
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Um, and this is the point where my my sci-fi world builder instincts are like, okay, at this point, because of what she's doing, she's sort of figuring out that like they're sapience enough to sort of protect their their young and not attack her while she is holding this child hostage.
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We're gonna learn something about the Matlax.
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You know, maybe they'll try to communicate with her.
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Um, maybe she'll make like a short truce with them, maybe they'll help her get Rahosh back to the cave or stop the other Metlacs from attacking her because she still has their child.
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But she releases a child that runs off.
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We don't see the Metlax again.
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That's it.
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It's just very like it's just enough to get us to the next beat of the romance and nothing else.
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It's like it's like the aliens in the first one that they they're there's a lot going on or could be going on with them, and they they are gone.
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I'm sure they'll show up in other server books.
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I don't doubt they're they showed up in the first one, I'm sure they'll be here in others, but they didn't perform any function except getting him really absurdly injured.
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Yeah, they're they're they're basically get us through the portal, you know.
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Uh and you know, like there's this this is like the it's not an unforgivable moment, like the aliens flying around for a second in the first one and then leafing.
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That was that was oh my gosh.
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But the a sort of lack of curiosity and the lack of like learning about the world, uh it kind of continues throughout the book.
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It's a it's a it's a predominant um perspective on the world that doesn't feel very science fiction to me, you know.
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Like I always feel like in science fiction we're trying to learn about the world, learn how it works, how things work together.
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Um, but nothing is here that is not necessary for the romance, you know.
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And it it really is just is science fiction set dressing, but it could it could have been fantasy just as easily, I think.
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I mean absolutely there's nothing about I mean the the the only the difference between it being fantasy or romantic as the case may be, I guess, or or science fiction is that she says that is this is this is the the position that she takes.
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And the first one, I mean, there is a certain amount of science fictional trappings, but once you get to the planets, it could be anything.
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And when this book has almost nothing to it as science fictional except the uh the the parasitical couti that's inserted into them to like allow them to be more survivable in this environment, be to be able to communicate.
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So that's kind of science fictionally, but it also could be magic.
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It it it just it isn't demonstrably one thing or the other.
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Yeah, the CUI to me feels like that's as a symbiont, it feels like the most science fiction thing.
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There are moments of like when they're talking about it changing her sense of taste, changing what she craves, changing her kind of her personality, changing her appetite sexually and physically, changing how she smells things, you know, like what she smells, what she perceives, what she doesn't, changing her sense of what is spicy, what isn't.
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All that's very interesting.
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And I can, with a science fiction brain, conceive of the reasons why it's doing that.
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But Liz isn't doing that work.
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I'm doing that work.
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You know, I'm bringing to the table all these sort of science fiction ideas of like, oh, maybe it's doing that because it's more efficient to eat raw meat on this planet, or it's actually it's more nutritional.
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So it wants her to have the most efficient nutrition, so it makes the the raw meat taste better to her than cooking the meat.
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Maybe it changes her sense of smell because being, you know, being uh repelled by the smell of her mate would be a problem for it.
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So it it dampens those senses because they're not useful here.
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Uh there's not enough enough volatilizing smells for it to be useful to like smell things, anyways.
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And she's not gonna develop a sense library, so it's just dampening her sense of smell.
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But I'm doing all that work.
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The book is not doing that, I'm doing that.
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Uh so without the author really bringing that to the table, yeah, it's you know, it the Symbion is doing something interesting, but mostly just to make the romance work, and not much more than that.
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Yeah, the the romance is the romance is the most important thing.
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I mean, it's which you know it makes sense.
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It's a romance.
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Um, and like I say, it in in as much as that goes, it's I think it's a a pretty effective romance.
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It it was not one that I I especially enjoyed.
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It was much more, I'm not really big on what I would call sticky romance, I guess.
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You know, something that's like a very visceral and sort of gooey situation.
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This is very animalistic in that sense.
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Um and words used to describe what was going on and substances that kind of turn me off a bit.
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I mean, I'm not gonna yuck anybody's yum, but it's great for you.
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That's just fantastic.
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Uh, but it didn't work in that sense, it did not work for me.
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And you know, I've I'm certain what my do repels people, and I know it does for a fact.
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And this kind of repelled me, but I am content to understand it was not written for somebody who felt that way about things like that, and so I'm not mad at it.
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It's just it was just a fact for me.
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Yeah, there's some tonal stuff that creates friction that I don't know it needs to be there.
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And most of the reason I say that is that if it was particular to Liz, I would be like, okay, it's just particular to Liz.
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This is just who Liz is a person.
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Liz says baby batter.
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But this was also a thing Georgie did.
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So I I do think that it there's some amount of it that is just Ruby Dixon, right?
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There's a there's a level of coarseness.
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I mean, I like coarseness.
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I mean, I wouldn't drop F bomb in every single podcast I'm I'm part of, right?
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Like I I love some amount of coarseness.
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I like that sort of level four, four chili pepper's spiciness where we're we're using we're using the word caulk, that's in there, like that can be fine.
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You know, I don't mind people dropping F bombs.
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That can be fine.
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That's sort of like uh harsh is fine, but there's like a level of coarseness, but like I don't like it when people use, you know, beaver.
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I don't I don't like it when people use baby batter.
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Like I it's like a level of coarseness that's so irreverent, so flippant in a really serious situation where I'm like, uh I feel like we're losing sight of the romance and getting kind of porny at a certain point.
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And like I don't mind kind of kicking like the characters kicking up their heels and fucking that's fine, but when it gets a too porny, I feel like it's it's indulging itself in ways that are problematic for the romance.
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Yeah, there was there was so much of it.
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I mean, that's it's again it's a matter of scale.
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I mean, I'm I am you know I'm fine with absolute open door, Lord only knows.
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You know me well enough in the writing that that is totally I'm happy to do it and will do it.
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But she and he missed no opportunities to be exhibitionists, to like, you know, engage in everything, but and when finally they broke through the the relationship barrier and finally you know crossed the end zone at that point, they just they they didn't five pages didn't go by, whether they weren't doing it or talking about doing it or recovering from doing it.
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It just went along like through the rest of the book, and that's fine too.
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It did it did edge no pun intended towards the the porny kind of end of it.
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It became unreadable to me because I I particularly since I wasn't especially enjoying how it's being presented, I'm like, oh dear, how many pages this do I have to get through to the end of the book?
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We should call it like the Black Del test, you know, like how much of this book is just the two characters engaged in extremely porny interactions.
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Yes, it really was.
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I mean, that's fine, but it it's it definitely in that sense was had nothing to do with science fiction except the fact he was an alien, which he could have been an orc, or he could have been a guy working at a gas station.
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But really, the relationship did not depend on his species, it depended on how she viewed her relationship vis-a-vis.
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Well, I I wanna I want to push back on that because I do think that his view of the relationship was highly uh was was within the framework of the the context of his culture, right?
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Like I think he was the kind of man you wouldn't necessarily see in a human culture anymore, not to this extent.
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His thoughts about the Kooy and Wooing and his trauma about his family being in exile and what happened to his mother and his baby brother, what happened to his father, and his own experiences being exiled from the tribe.
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Um, I think all of that creates a lens that is right on that.
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Yeah.
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But like that, like that could be from a fantasy setting.
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Like that doesn't have to be from a science fiction setting.
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I like I wish there was a stronger sense that, you know, the the the the Sakui as a culture are here because they crash-landed themselves and are from a more advanced culture that was able to they were from a civilization that was able to fly between the stars, and this was a pleasure liner, apparently, that they they crashed on.
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So they're they were so advanced a civilization that they were able to like fly around just for pleasure and crashed here.
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Um, and their their ship is still able to communicate with them, it's still able to do pretty incredible things, able to download large amounts of information all these years later.
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You know, it's been it sounds like over a century.
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Uh so like those science fiction elements could inform more about like why they have this strong system of exile, why they feel the way they do, um, about keeping their society together, or it could inform like what what kind of society they come from could inform that, or traumas from what happened once they crashed could inform that.
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But their their sense of their own history is so truncated and so like uh it's weird to me that they've forgotten already that this happened, that they were from this.
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It hasn't been that long, you know.
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It's not like it's been thousands of years, and they've already forgotten where they come from, you know, they've already forgotten that they were part of this advanced civilization, that they could fly among the stars.
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They've been crashed back to the stone age.
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Yeah, they should know that.
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They should know what the King of the Elders is.
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It hasn't been so long that they should have forgotten, unless somebody buried it, right?
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And like maybe as this series goes on, we get more of that mystery.
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But I I don't think that Dixon is doing a good job of teasing at that as a mystery because the characters aren't particularly curious.
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They're they're very accepting of this.
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Well, the the they the aliens are accepting of their situation and their culture, and the human beings are accepting the fact that they're very dubious about this culture and don't understand it.
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But there's not a lot of probing as to why are things the way they are.
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There's just weird guys doing this, oh gross, or these stupid humans don't understand this, ew dumb.
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You know, it's like it's basically kind of their dynamic.
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Yeah, and you know, I I think Liz Liz's perspective here, especially when she goes back, is frustrating to me.
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It's like, look, look, you he kidnapped you.
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Yeah, he kidnapped you and took you, like, took you to a cave.
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And I think Vechtel does a really good job of laying out the problem here that her Kooey could have died, and she could have died, and he wouldn't have been near any other Sa Kui to help him get another Kooey for her.
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That she could have just died when he did that.
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Like, there was no guarantee she would have accepted that Kooy that her body was strong enough to accept it.
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You know, she needed she could have needed a healer to help keep her Kuoey alive, and he took her away from those people that that could have kept her safe.
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That was an extremely screw, that was like a selfish thing to do.
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And she never once, you know, it says it, like, hey, like you risked my life.
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You know, she's just very like, yep, yeah, like he did that because he's traumatized.
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It's like Liz, like your friends were worried about you for perfectly normal, understandable reasons, and she's being such a dick when she goes back to the cave.
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Like, I was just like, like, wow, Liz.
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She's like, I want my mate, I want my mate.
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Why are you all like this?
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I want my mate.
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Like, Liz, like they're trying to protect you for really good reasons.
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What he did was fucked up.
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Like and 80 pages ago, you hated this guy.
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So, like, you know, calm down with a conversion here.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I mean, her I understood.
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I mean, I thought that the romance was pretty solid when it was the two of them.
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Yeah.
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I mean, of course, Enemy Silverse is a difficult landing to hit, right?
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It is very, very hard to stick that landing.
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But I do think that it was that the landing was stuck.
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There was much stickem everywhere to help with the sticking of that landing.
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Oh god, there it sure was.
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Uh but by the same token, I don't think that the that the incorporation back with the tribe and like and Liz's uh relationship with girls, that that that landing sticks, you know.
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Like we get back there and she just never sees things from their perspective quite well enough.
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And I find that very weird.
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It's like you haven't been with him so long that you are complete should be completely married to his perspective and not be able to understand why your friends feel the way they do.
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I thought that was a little strange.
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I felt she was trying the Ruby was Dixon was trying to like um make an additional argument against this being kind of weird, kidnapping, non-con, dubcon kind of situation.
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Because it's the more she demonstrates Liz as completely rolled over into the Sakui uh attitude and culture and understanding them, the better that you know uh Rahush looks, and and he's like less of a this jumpier predator guy.
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Right, but then the rest of the Sakui react to him like what he did was super fucked up.
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Yeah, I know.
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That's that's kind of the weakness of that.
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But it's like I I don't know.
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I I I mean it's uh I was trying to figure that out, and it's like, is she is she trying to make Liz earn this more by forcing herself into exile?
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And like, you know.
00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:07.200
But of course, letting her go out there, that just compounds the problem because she's pregnant and kids are like worth their weight in gold.
00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:10.400
And and what happens to her if something happens to her?
00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:25.920
Obviously, this place is not safe, and so their their own internal strictures against women going out to doing dangerous things is they're certainly you know, in in both books have been proved a correct instinct on the Sakuy's point of view.
00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:29.440
So it's it's a little shaky in every direction.
00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:31.200
Yeah, this is what I thought I found all that.
00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:34.240
Once we get back to the tribe, things feel very perplexing, you know.
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:46.480
I like they said that like you both had like the cooey, like madness, and and they are pretty obviously in the cave, kind of mad from their their cooey resonating thing is obviously so strong that it's making them both pretty crazy.
00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:52.480
And I don't know, maybe that should have been leaned into harder because you can you can see it, like I you could make that argument and I would believe it.
00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.319
It'd be like, okay, their cooey is just going crazy, they're both resonating hard.
00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:02.000
This dude's a virgin and never never gotten gotten it off before, gotten his rocks off before.
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:03.200
Of course, he's like this, you know.
00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:08.400
Like you could be I think Ruby could have made that argument harder and have him be like, but I was struck by the Kooey sickness.
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:11.039
But I think she wanted to have Liz choose him.
00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:11.759
Yeah.
00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:18.960
Um, and the only way to do that was kind of with this setup with everybody against her wanting to be with him.
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:21.279
But like everybody's arguments are really solid.
00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:26.319
So I mean as they say that I'm like, uh-huh, yeah, that's that is definitely what happened.
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:27.599
They're right.
00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:32.240
I could not disagree with with Vectel's opinion of the situation.
00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:34.640
Yeah, and I don't know what I don't know what it meant differently.
00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:41.519
Yeah, and Georgie too is like she's very of course Georgie's only been in contact with people about 36 hours longer than Liz has.
00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.880
I don't know what fund of knowledge she's speaking from, but she gets it.
00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:46.079
She gets it.
00:20:46.319 --> 00:20:49.759
Yeah, they all talk like it's been months, and it's like this has been like days.
00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:50.799
It's been literal days.
00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:53.119
Literal days.
00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:58.000
Uh okay, other okay, so I thought it was a solid romance.
00:20:58.079 --> 00:20:59.680
It did have a lot of problematic stuff.
00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:11.200
I I say problematic in that like way where I know someone on the internet is gonna hear me and be hear just like problematic, but it did feel a little Stockholm syndrome to me.
00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:13.839
So I was wondering what you thought about that stuff.
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:19.359
Um it it did to a certain extent.
00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:23.359
Although, I mean, I can say I really it's a lot of romance, dark romance, and stuff.
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:28.160
It's not I would guess it's not as bad as some of that.
00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:30.160
I've seen I've seen some stuff.
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:40.960
I've seen some stuff, and he was I mean, he wasn't threatening to saw her leg off, he wasn't like just absolutely assaulting her.
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:51.119
I mean, there are a lot of things that you could do in a perfectly respectable bot on Amazon Dark Romance that he did not, he didn't go there.
00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:59.759
Um she uh I mean she didn't you know just you know fall in love with him because.
00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:01.680
That was the role to take.
00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:19.519
I mean, she there was a certain amount of non-voluntariness that I guess you call it biochemically caused because of the uh the parasite, and which she wanted to reject from square one because she knew parasites in animals, and she knew that couldn't possibly be good for her.
00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:23.359
And from the perspective of Liz a few days ago, absolutely correct.
00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:25.119
She's totally right about that.
00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:35.599
So it's kind of uh I mean, he's totally a victim, if you want to call him, that of his own biochemistry.
00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:37.440
He's like, and his parasite.
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:43.359
He is he can't help going the way he's going, can't help wanting what she's wanting, what he's wanting.
00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:50.640
She can't ultimately help it either, because as this thing nests in her and gets used to where it is, it's totally taking over.
00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:56.559
And so they both get terribly disgusting and eventually have sex, and then they won't stop doing it.
00:22:56.799 --> 00:23:08.640
And so I it's I wouldn't, it's kind of outside the realm of Stockholm Syndrome because she does not see him as desirable just because he's holding her captive.
00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.079
She's gonna be does not become sympathetic to him because of that.
00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:19.440
It's because they've both got these things in them that are like making them do these things.
00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:23.200
So she's a kind of a puppet to something inside of her body.
00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:23.680
Yeah.
00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:30.799
The reason I call it Stockholm Syndrome in this case is that when she comes back, she has completely taken on the perspective of Raho.
00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:48.480
Like she's completely sympathetic to him and the trauma that he experienced as the reason for why he's done what he's done and cannot see everyone else's perspective, despite the fact that they are perfectly perfectly reasonable and much more aligned with the culture and the upbringing from which she comes.
00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:52.400
Yeah, it's still, I mean, there they're yeah, yeah, there's definitely.
00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:54.720
I mean, I still wonder how much of that.
00:23:54.799 --> 00:24:07.440
I mean, I'm trying to analyze this as if it were science fiction, uh, but uh how much of that is caused by the CUI and how much of it is is just written that way.
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:21.599
And I I don't know because you could be you could make a call that like she's really absolutely so taken over by it, and its objective is to make sure she sticks with him like glue that she is not able to think anything else.
00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.799
So it's it's almost arguable that that's what's going on.
00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:25.200
I don't know.
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:25.759
Oh, sure.
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:29.839
I mean, let's you and I bring in like serious science fiction sensibilities to the table, right?
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:33.519
Like, and then but at that point, it's not romance anymore, it's horror.
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:34.799
Right.
00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:36.799
It's sci-fi horror.
00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:46.319
Science fiction, that obvious body of horror, sci-fi body of horror, giant parasite inside of me, makes me want this seven-foot-tall blue man, right?
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:50.799
And nothing he can do is too loathsome or too sticky for me.
00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:53.759
I I want every damn bit of it, and he is all over me.
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.720
So it's it does become kind of horrific.
00:24:56.880 --> 00:25:04.240
I mean, the more you think about it, the worse it gets, but you can't really think about it too much because it's really, I don't think it's meant that deeply.
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:11.039
Yeah, it's like when I read it, when I was just reading it kind of for fun, right after reading Ice Planet with Barrance, like, oh, just doing a romance thing.
00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:15.440
And you know, you and I I want to be clear to everyone listening, we are editors at a romance press.
00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:18.079
We have read a lot of stuff.
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:27.920
Like we have read some of the most grotesque, sticky romance between the strangest protagonists that you can imagine, things that were accepted, things that were not accepted.
00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:29.039
We've even written some of it.
00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:30.559
It's hard to shock us.
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:32.880
Really, really hard to shock us.
00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:39.119
So when we come on here and we say we are shocked by something, please understand that that is a serious matter.
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:47.359
We are not, we are not, you know, blushing, uh newbies to to romance, we're not clutching our pearls.
00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:50.880
Uh this is the the this is this is pretty extreme stuff.
00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:53.279
I would call this five chili peppers.
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:54.000
Yes.
00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.680
Basically, like hit into erotica at times.
00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:58.640
Yeah, yeah.
00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:00.720
I mean, for quantity, if nothing else.
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:05.440
I mean, the fact it just kept on coming was like no pun intended, was was is kind of leads into that.
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:13.519
It's just the the sheer the sheer expelled mass of it coming at us was like, you know, became porny at times.
00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:14.799
Yes, yeah, yeah.
00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:21.680
And and the obsession with with pregnancy, like that to me is very like alien erotica, especially.
00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:34.480
Like, I really feel like we're getting into like the side of sci-fi romance that's all about like the kind of like body horror and filling human girls with babies, with half-alien babies or whatever, turn them into hosts, you know.
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:40.480
She's hosting a symbiont which has been forced on her, and then this guy is thinking about forcing himself on her, and then he wants to get her pregnant.
00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:42.720
Like, there's a that's that's all happening here, you know.
00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:50.160
Like, that's very much from the sci-fi romance, sci-fi erotica, monster fucking, alien fucking side of this genre.
00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:52.160
Like, that's all present, you know.
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.359
Uh, which is why we're analyzing it that way.
00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:58.720
Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it's certainly there.
00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:00.880
But it is, but it is what it is, right?
00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:06.079
Like, yeah, you know, to to just analyze it as romance and be like, oh, it's a piece of lover's romance.
00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:10.960
You know, I have to kind of remind myself that like it is doing this other stuff as well, you know.
00:27:11.119 --> 00:27:18.079
Yeah, and while I did review the first one as a romance for Tender and Tifteen Tales, because it does bill itself as a sci-fi romance.
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:20.640
It says that on its original cover, it's a sci-fi romance.
00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:24.640
Uh, it felt incumbent upon me to kind of be like, also, there's this other stuff going on.
00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:27.200
Like the alien deduction trope, definitely a trope.
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:30.240
Like the the monster fucking tropes, those are all here.
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:34.160
The like alien pregnancy, body horror stuff, that's here too.
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.640
Symbiont making you want to have sex with a weird alien, that's here too.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:48.640
Uh and I I I don't I don't know why I feel the need to remind people of that, other than the fact that like if folks feel like shocked by it, that's that might be why.
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:51.519
And also most science fiction romance isn't necessarily this.
00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:56.880
You have to pull in a lot of other kind of subcategories in order to get there.
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:00.240
Definitely.
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:32.720
Um, it's I mean the things that I mean the things, for instance, that you to you right or that I write, there are there's I mean, there's aspects in miniature of all of these different things, but the the essence of it is is not just the romance, and most particularly not just like the conclusion of the the corporeal aspect of romance, which is what this book definitely focuses on.
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:50.079
There's if I I feel, and I think that you feel that if you're going to write a a sci-fi romance, then you need to be writing from the genre of science fiction and in a more of a sense than just you know a framing device.
00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:56.319
And it's it's not entirely a framing device because everything that's going on is because of the science fiction aspects of it.
00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:06.240
But that is that's it's the frame is the is to contain the story is it is its own primary role, and then it contains all this excitement inside of it.
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:14.160
Yeah, I think it's a it to me, there's a world pillar it was a rule building impulse that Ruby is not utilizing or does not have.
00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:16.319
And I can't tell which one it is.
00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:19.599
Um maybe if I read more of hers, I would see more of that.
00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:21.759
I I you know, I think she's just having fun.
00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:35.440
I do think that that's a really significant part of this, is that she's read a lot of um material from this side of the subgenre, and I think wanted to do um of a version of that which was actually less problematic.
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:42.640
She wanted to have sweet guys who were more sweethearts, who wanted to take care of their mates and weren't just sort of like bam, bam, woman, barbarian man.
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:44.880
I'm going to make full fill you with babies now.
00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:47.359
Like they don't, she wants to do something better than that.
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:52.000
And in that sense, it is revolutionary, you know, it is something interesting.
00:29:52.160 --> 00:30:00.319
And she is getting into the differences between their culture and human culture, which is stuff you like to see in in alien hero romance, you know, like something other than just, oh, he's a barbarian.
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:06.400
I, you know, I guess it's just I just got to deal with him throwing me around by my ankle or him being a warlord or whatever it is, you know.
00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:09.359
Uh, it's more than just a fantasy.
00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:11.119
There is more there to explore.
00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:23.839
But by the same token, there's a lot of moments where she could explore more and do more science fiction and be interested in things where it feels like she doesn't want to get away from the romance or the erotica in order to do that.
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:25.200
Like she doesn't want to distract from those things.
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:26.319
And maybe that's good discipline.
00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:26.880
I'm not sure.
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:28.000
What do you think?
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:34.160
Well, I she as far as discipline goes, she's on point all the way through.
00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:42.640
She she sets up the scenario, she sets up the problem of like how how is Liz functionally going to survive here?
00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:47.519
Well, she has to have the coupie inside or where she's eventually going to cash in her chips.
00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:59.359
But when she has that, then she is compelled, encouraged, uh driven to act in this other, in a more positive fashion towards her fated mate.
00:30:59.680 --> 00:31:09.759
And they are both kind of dancing around in tighter and tighter circles until everybody's self-control breaks down and they and they consummate the relationship.
00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:17.359
And then his alien buddies show up and say, Hey, we finally tracked you down, and boy is Vectel pissed.
00:31:17.519 --> 00:31:31.200
And then we go through the last quarter of the book or so, where like we're dealing with with almost more interesting cultural and uh and judicial matters than the than the sex was for the first two-thirds of the book.
00:31:31.519 --> 00:31:37.920
So it it tries to do a whole lot of different uh shifts.
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:49.599
And I think that I mean, I it is be easy for me to sit here and slag it, but I don't want to because I don't think it deserves it, and I think it's successful writing, and I think it's a a successful story.
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:52.799
I would not have written it myself, but nobody asked me to.
00:31:53.039 --> 00:31:56.559
And uh I wouldn't have read it myself except you asked me to.
00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:01.440
And I read the first one voluntarily a couple years ago, and I survived the experience just fine.
00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:08.960
Um, so I would say that based on all that, it is a successful romance.
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:19.519
I think that even at this vantage point of two books in without a whole lot of depth, I think she has whether she's taken advantage of that yet, I don't know.
00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:22.079
Uh you'll have to find out for me.
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:27.759
Uh, I think she has the ability to go farther into this and expose more and more of this world as it goes along.
00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:31.359
I mean, uh allegedly the the green aliens come back in the third book.
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:31.920
Is this true?
00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:39.359
Yeah, I saw I saw that that was supposed, I mean, I don't know if it's in reaction to other people being like, wait a minute, they just flew around for a minute and then they disappeared.
00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:43.920
But it it feels like because it's one book later, it's not actually in the second book, but it's in the third book.
00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:46.640
So it's enough time for reactions to percolate.
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:51.359
I suspect that there's certain a certain amount of people being like, hey, what was that?
00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:54.079
What's going on with green aliens?
00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:56.160
Um, and that's perfectly acceptable.
00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:57.759
I think you should always follow reader interest.
00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:03.359
So if there was a certain amount of reader interest in like, I want to know what's going on with the little green men, why did they do why did they kidnap the girls?
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:04.480
What were they selling them into?
00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:05.519
Were they gonna get eaten?
00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:06.799
Were they going to a coliseum?
00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:08.160
Were they gonna be sex slaves?
00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:09.200
We need to know.
00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:12.640
Um, my hope is that those questions get answered in the third book.
00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:25.839
And my other hope is that because it's Kira's story and she has a personality that's very different from Georgie and Liz, that the that the language is different and some of the the tonal weirdness is a little is um is rounded off, is smoothed off a little bit.
00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:35.519
Um because I, you know, I I find both Liz and Georgie's modern coarseness alienating at times, weirdly enough.
00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:43.119
It's the most alien thing in the environment, and maybe that's intentional, but it actually just it kind of pushes you out of it.
00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:46.000
It creates a friction point that is not a positive for me.
00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:47.440
You know, it's like too much, you know.
00:33:47.519 --> 00:33:54.799
It's like it's feel I feel like you girls are not grasping the seriousness of the situation when you say things like baby matter, you know.
00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:15.599
And maybe I'm just an old lady shaking my cane over here, being like, girls, you girls don't understand how serious it is to be abducted by aliens and being dumped on a on a on an ice planet like I did back in my day when we were abducted by aliens, we were very serious and very polite to our captors, and we would never use words like baby matter, we would never do that.
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:18.400
So maybe that's just me being an old woman.
00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:20.079
I don't know.
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:32.320
For our listeners, I'm not, in fact, actually an old woman, I am a millennial, but my reaction to this is very like I feel like the characters are not grasping the seriousness of the situation every time they don't understand this shit, man.
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:33.840
They don't understand this shit at all.
00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:35.760
This is a serious situation.
00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:56.000
They don't need to understand it to grasp that it is serious, you know, and to be a little more there's a there is a reverence in the face of seriousness, and in the in the face of serious mortality that I feel that they lack that makes the situation not feel as dire as I know it to be.
00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:59.440
If nobody had died, I'd forgive them that.
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:05.199
But they've already had two, three casualties all right off the top of this adventure.
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:11.039
So they know that this is this is an issue of life and death.
00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:19.679
They know that there's at least one breed of aliens out there who will be happy to do unspeakable things to them and have in front of them already.
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:20.079
Yeah.
00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:27.599
So I I mean, you could say that, well, having seen all this stuff, these people are in shock.
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:30.639
And having gone through it, I'll bet you would be.
00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:42.880
But um there seems to be a level of um of matter-of-factness about it that I think is more matter-of-fact than I think it warrants.
00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:54.800
Yeah, it reminds me of young adult where you have like a if you had like a 16-year-old running around in this who did not grasp the seriousness of a situation, I would absolutely believe that because I don't think a 16-year-old could grasp the seriousness of the situation.
00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:56.320
But a 22-year-old I think could.
00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:10.320
Not to mention they're running around in like turbo space frozen Australia where everything, including like the ground itself, is trying to kill them, the air is trying to kill them, the reeds are trying to kill them, the trees are trying, everything wants to kill them.
00:36:10.559 --> 00:36:15.280
Everything except for worms in hearts of creatures that want them to stay alive.
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:16.639
Like, that's some shit.
00:36:16.719 --> 00:36:19.280
That's some that's some old turbo Australia shit.
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:22.880
Uh, and I'm, you know, I think I would be hysterical for a few minutes in there.
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:30.159
I might say a few choice things, but after that, I'd start being pretty reverent in the face of the sublime attempting to kill me.
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:32.079
Yeah, you have to be deadly serious.
00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:35.039
I it'd be like you would have to be watching constantly.
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:40.000
I mean, she like marches out of the place and starts just poking her arrows at whatever she can find.
00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:42.800
It's impressive she could put together a bow and arrow like that.
00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:57.360
Um, but um she does she and she knows consciously that it's dangerous, but you I I never absolutely felt that she was like, you know, totally terrified of her environment.
00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:03.039
Yeah, that was weird too, because like she had just basically had to drag Rahosh back after nearly getting killed by Metlax.
00:37:03.119 --> 00:37:07.119
And it's like obviously the outdoor environment is extremely dangerous, but we never get a sense of her terror.
00:37:07.280 --> 00:37:10.480
It's just very like, well, I guess I gotta start being the one to hunt around here.
00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:11.679
I gotta take care of him.
00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:15.519
Uh, and we don't get a sense of her feelings during that time other than her worry for Rahosh.
00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:16.719
Nope, no, I want to be clear.
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:17.840
I really like Liz.
00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:20.960
I think that Liz is a much more complete character than Georgie.
00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:25.519
Like, she is she misses her dad, who died some years before the events of the book.
00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:28.159
Yes, she is thinking about home, she's thinking about her backstory.
00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:30.400
She is a complete character, she's a real person.
00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:32.719
I and she is not a vessel for the audience.
00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:34.880
She's like a real person who is not me.
00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:36.159
And I think that's amazing.
00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:38.400
I I love that I'm here for that enrollment.
00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:39.679
And you can see why she's badass.
00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:41.280
She was hunting with her her dad.
00:37:41.360 --> 00:37:46.239
She comes from she comes from more like the woods, you know, like she's a kind of a woodsy outdoorsy type person.
00:37:46.400 --> 00:37:47.599
Makes perfect sense.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:49.039
That's all great.
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:52.000
Um, those that was a positive in the book for me.
00:37:52.239 --> 00:37:52.559
Yes.
00:37:52.719 --> 00:38:02.880
The other one was Rahos being a fucker and like not admitting that he spoke English for like what a fucker.
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:10.079
I knew I I knew she would absolutely hate him when she figured that out.
00:38:11.199 --> 00:38:12.239
That was hysterical.
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:12.960
That was funny.
00:38:13.119 --> 00:38:14.559
That was good writing right there.
00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:19.119
That was the reveal was the reveal was very good, where he's a sort of like, I I did.
00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:20.400
Where she's like, Did you want to see what I said?
00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:21.280
He just goes, I did.
00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:25.679
I was like, ha! Yes, that was great.
00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:27.360
That rock.
00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:28.800
Dude had a sense of drama.
00:38:28.880 --> 00:38:31.360
That was very I like a sense of drama, I like drama and a reveal.
00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:36.400
The reveals in the first one were not they were not solid reveals, and this one that that reveal was great.
00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:37.199
I was here for that.
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:44.559
So definitely like an uptick in quality in terms of our main character, our MMC, our romance, all that.
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:45.440
Yes.
00:38:45.679 --> 00:38:54.000
I I wouldn't call the the science fiction a downtick, it's just sort of like there's this kind of less of it, but we're not establishing the world anymore, so that makes sense.
00:38:54.320 --> 00:38:54.960
Yeah.
00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:04.400
The romance is probably better.
00:39:04.639 --> 00:39:08.559
Um I mean, it was more specifically, definitely something.
00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:13.519
Um, she was kind of George was kind of scrambling to figure Vectil out and vice versa.
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:20.480
And so it was more science fiction-y in that regard because you got the two aliens meeting, basically.
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:23.440
But this was definitely uh a romance trope.
00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:30.480
And it took the almost inevitable course that it probably would and should have taken.
00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:35.920
Uh, because she's gotta they have to like totally attune to each other, if you will.
00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:52.880
They've got to totally like, you know, get it on, apparently to quite an extent, and then eventually going to get back to the tribe who's gonna tell them that her that he's an ass because he is, and then she's gonna stand by her man, and because she can't like lose him because he got to have the hea.
00:39:53.199 --> 00:40:00.079
So really uh there's an inevitable consequence, I think, of the of the actions of the story was probably how it ended.
00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:05.760
I don't think Ruby Dixon ended it poorly or in a way alien to the story itself.
00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:07.440
Yeah, it's just the way we got there.
00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:13.679
Uh occasionally had some odd friction points, but I do think there are fewer of them in this book than in the previous one.
00:40:13.840 --> 00:40:17.199
So that's sort of a a solid, a solid B.
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:18.400
Yeah.
00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:20.639
Over over Ice Planet Barbarians.
00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:30.559
I I would I would because I I'm not a giant fan of of you know liquidy descriptions of of things of the sexual nature.
00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:38.239
I I would tentatively give it a B minus just because of my own personal prejudices, but I wouldn't push it down to a C because I'm aware they're there.
00:40:38.400 --> 00:40:39.840
I'm not gonna judge on that basis.
00:40:40.159 --> 00:40:41.039
That's super fair.
00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:45.599
The other thing is this is a tendency of Ruby Dixons, and I hope that this doesn't continue on.
00:40:45.679 --> 00:40:54.719
I do think that she I don't know, I'm not gonna say confuses, um, replaces emotional development between the couple with a lot of sex.
00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:05.519
I mean, I mean, how much opportunity, I guess, do they have to, but at the same time, you think you try to make the most what you had.
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:11.840
So yeah, I would say it is more it's definitely a sex-based relationship.
00:41:12.159 --> 00:41:19.199
I mean, they it can't hardly help being anything else, but you don't get a lot of yeah, I don't know.
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:21.360
You do get they they do work together.
00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:29.199
I think that I think the working together aspect of it is also possibly replacing a more traditional emotional thing.
00:41:29.440 --> 00:41:30.079
Yeah, I liked that.
00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:31.360
I like the working together thing.
00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:32.239
That was good.
00:41:32.559 --> 00:41:33.679
That really got going.
00:41:33.760 --> 00:41:45.360
I I liked that aspect of it because she was able to demonstrate to him not only things that he didn't know how to do, which makes sense because they had to literally revent it reinvent everything after they crashed, no, didn't they?
00:41:45.519 --> 00:41:48.239
Didn't have bows and arrows, they wouldn't know how to make them.
00:41:48.480 --> 00:42:01.920
So the fact she was able to figure this out, show him, impress him, make it functional enough to like do the trick, uh survive the skirmish with the MechLacks and drag him back.
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:09.599
Although I thought that was probably a non-realistic aspect, but I'll write it off to the Kui giving her extra strength and not complaining too much.
00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:10.880
That's what I figured that was as well.
00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:14.639
Yeah, I was like, Kooy is just making this happen for her right now.
00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:17.280
That's fine.
00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:18.719
I I'm I'm here for that.
00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:23.760
Like I I can get behind Kooey is giving her extra strength in order to save her mate.
00:42:23.920 --> 00:42:25.119
That's perfectly fine.
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:32.880
We don't really go into it in the story, but I again I'm bringing that to the story, and maybe that's a reasonable thing to bring to the story that she intends.
00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:34.639
I don't, it's really hard to know.
00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:39.360
Yeah, it it it's it's I mean, it's hard to say without interviewing her.
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:40.719
Hey, maybe we can do it someday.
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:44.559
We can like make fun of her to her face, and I'm sure she just love us for that.
00:42:45.119 --> 00:42:49.280
No successful author.
00:42:49.440 --> 00:42:52.320
Let's do it, let's just cause trouble for ourselves.
00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:55.519
For me, it's I I do believe in in death of the author.
00:42:55.679 --> 00:43:01.440
Not like I don't I don't want an author to die, but I do believe in formalism, which is that like what you put on the page is is what the story is.
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:16.480
Like you can't really, I mean, of course, like genre conventions and everything that's in the genre, that's those are paratexts that inform people's reading of the text, and other books in your series and other things you write are paratex, but like things you say to clarify, to me, those things don't count.
00:43:16.559 --> 00:43:19.039
So even if I were to ask Ruby Dixon, did you intend this?
00:43:19.199 --> 00:43:22.800
That would be kind of like beside the point because it kind of has to be on the page.
00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:26.320
That's why I say I'm bringing this to the page, because I don't think it was on the page.
00:43:26.400 --> 00:43:33.920
It's like a thing I'm inferring, and I don't really think that it's giving me enough clues all the time for me to infer those things.
00:43:34.079 --> 00:43:47.119
I am just attempting to sort of bring more science fiction to the table to explain how I things could be if they were depicted in a more science fiction sense and if the characters were more curious about them and discuss them more.
00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:58.480
Again, with this book probably could have stood another, maybe another 10,000 words just to have a little bit more science fiction in it to have a little more discovery, a little bit more discussion, a little bit more curiosity.
00:43:58.719 --> 00:43:59.760
Uh, and I don't think that.
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:02.559
It would have felt bulky at that point.
00:44:02.639 --> 00:44:14.320
I think that it just would have felt a little more complete and maybe a little more conversation and emotional development between them once they took their relationship to that level before they were torn away from each other.
00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:20.880
Because a lot of their emotional development past that point is through sex and some amount of working together.
00:44:20.960 --> 00:44:22.960
And that's kind of true of Ectal and Georgie.
00:44:23.039 --> 00:44:28.639
One thing I like about seeing them in this book is that we don't see them having sex and we don't see them desiring each other.
00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:40.239
We just see them working together and being a really good pair of leaders and like kind of bouncing ideas off of each other and working together, covering each other's back, like backing each other's play.
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:41.039
And that's good.
00:44:41.119 --> 00:44:43.039
They do look like a good pair of mates, you know?
00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:52.320
Um, and so I'm more convinced by their matehood in this book now that they are not the perspective characters, yeah, than I was in there in their romance.
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:54.559
Is that is that make sense?
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:55.760
That does make sense.
00:44:55.840 --> 00:44:58.559
So you're you're seeing them from an exterior perspective.
00:44:58.719 --> 00:45:06.719
You're seeing the other one, you're you're looking at um through the kind of the messy lens of them like you know, trying to work it out between them.
00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:23.119
Here we see them a number of days later in in Ice Planet Barbarian time, and they have come to an understanding of each other's uh authority and interests and perspectives, and they're working together much better.
00:45:23.280 --> 00:45:32.480
And so from that, yeah, from from outside, you can see how those two work together well without having to worry about all the the bumps that may be going on inside.
00:45:32.719 --> 00:45:35.679
They're together, they're working out the exterior view that they're giving other people.
00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:36.320
Exactly.
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:51.920
It's like you even see these great kind of married couple moments where like Liz is arguing with Vectel and Georgie, and Vectel looks at uh Georgie, puts his hands up in the air, and like walks away in this very like you deal with her kind of way, like married couple shit.
00:45:53.119 --> 00:45:54.239
I like that too.
00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:55.119
That was great.
00:45:55.199 --> 00:45:57.039
I just it was it was really, really well done.
00:45:57.119 --> 00:45:59.280
Uh, I was I was like kind of proud of that remote.
00:45:59.360 --> 00:46:01.039
I was like, good job, Ruby Dixon.
00:46:01.199 --> 00:46:06.159
Like that was really good body language, didn't have to say anything about them looking like an old married couple, like just did it perfectly.
00:46:06.239 --> 00:46:06.639
That was good.
00:46:06.800 --> 00:46:18.239
So I'm kind of I'm kind of hoping that if I read this the third one, maybe I'll see Rahosh and Liz from the perspective of another character and get a sense of what they look like from the outside.
00:46:18.800 --> 00:46:19.440
I was wondering.
00:46:19.519 --> 00:46:19.920
I was wondering.
00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:21.360
Yeah, have a sense of that.
00:46:21.440 --> 00:46:24.960
Maybe they just look like a pair of dicks who are super problematic.
00:46:25.440 --> 00:46:26.079
That's fun.
00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:35.679
If we say something about them, I wouldn't surprise me, and I wouldn't be disappointed by them doing that because that's kind of what they've set themselves up to look like.
00:46:35.760 --> 00:46:37.119
So yes, yeah.
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:42.960
Like, okay, we'll exile you together, you're both a pair of assholes, just get out, go be together.
00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:44.239
Made sense to me.
00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:48.079
Once it happened, I was like, okay, okay, I I get this, I get this.
00:46:49.519 --> 00:46:49.920
All right.
00:46:50.159 --> 00:46:50.800
Any other thoughts?
00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:58.000
Any other favorite moments or or least favorite moments or anything you want to talk about science fiction-wise about uh about barbarian alien?
00:46:59.039 --> 00:47:02.639
I think I've probably said all I have to say about them at this time.
00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:03.679
You are spent.
00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:04.239
Excellent.
00:47:04.559 --> 00:47:06.960
I've I've spent, yes, I'm totally spent.
00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:15.599
Well, folks, as you can probably tell from from that, we are not going to continue talking about ice planet barbarians for the moment on this podcast.
00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:21.679
I think we've we've uh plumbed the depths of that, and we definitely want to get on to re reading some sci-fi.
00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:27.360
Uh, one of the reasons we want to start this podcast is that we you know we had a place to talk about more science fiction and not romance.
00:47:27.679 --> 00:47:32.719
We we are inundated, drenched in romance most of our awakening lives.
00:47:33.039 --> 00:47:36.239
So we could read some some science fiction.
00:47:36.960 --> 00:47:40.400
Uh next week we are going to be reading uh some of three body problem.
00:47:40.639 --> 00:47:43.039
It's kind of a it's a thick boy, it's a big book.
00:47:43.199 --> 00:47:45.119
Uh so we're reading part of it.
00:47:45.199 --> 00:47:56.239
Uh, and talk we want to talk about world building, how to world build, how we keep track of stuff, uh differences between us and Liu Su Shen, um you know, approaches to things like the Fermi paradox and stuff like that.
00:47:56.320 --> 00:47:59.280
You know, like hard hard science fiction goodies, things like that.
00:47:59.599 --> 00:48:01.760
And Parrish, what are you what are you what are you reading?
00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:02.960
What are you working on this week?
00:48:03.039 --> 00:48:06.000
What's happening over in uh Iphigenia world?
00:48:06.719 --> 00:48:10.400
Um well as usual, I got you know juggling circsaws.
00:48:10.559 --> 00:48:17.360
Um I've got uh more more um Line in the Garden coming out.
00:48:17.440 --> 00:48:21.360
I've got another chapter lined up for part of a chapter anyway, lined up coming out.
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:27.599
Um I've that I can actually see I can see the end from here.
00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:31.199
I know I know where I'm going, I know how to get there.
00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:37.360
It just has to go through go go through go through the motions, go down the canal, if you will, to get there.
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:41.599
Uh and uh before you say other things, uh I want to I want to say something about that.
00:48:41.920 --> 00:49:00.480
Folks, if you're listening and you came to us because you like Ice Planet Barbarians, let me just say, uh we were joking that Parrish's blue uh character, Rados, his big blue man, uh Alambda, uh he's a kind a kind of clone in Iphigenia, uh, is like Parrish's Ice Planet Barbarians.
00:49:00.719 --> 00:49:04.000
Let me just say I think it is far superior to Ice Planet Barbarians.
00:49:04.159 --> 00:49:04.800
Really, really good.
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:09.679
Just a fantastic piece, good stuff, like really, really good uh sci-fi romance.
00:49:09.840 --> 00:49:12.800
Um it's it's like serializing for free on Substack.
00:49:12.880 --> 00:49:13.360
Go read it.
00:49:13.440 --> 00:49:14.239
It's really good.
00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:15.599
It is damn good.
00:49:16.559 --> 00:49:21.360
Well, it's I mean, I could I can even talk about it for a couple minutes if you want me to.
00:49:21.440 --> 00:49:22.639
I got no problem with that.
00:49:22.719 --> 00:49:31.199
I mean, he's he is he's yeah, you don't get a lot of his interiority, uh, unlike you say Vector Rahushta.
00:49:31.360 --> 00:49:32.960
There's no POV from his point of view.
00:49:33.039 --> 00:49:39.360
It's all from first person from the female main character's point of view.
00:49:39.519 --> 00:49:58.880
Uh, and he's he is, but he's very laconic, he doesn't have a whole lot to say, but he has a very absolutely definite perspective, social perspective on the life of his planet because he's been he is a clone, he is raised to be a slave and has been his his entire life.
00:49:59.039 --> 00:50:05.440
And he uh he got free, he escaped, and he has a destination that he's heading for.
00:50:05.920 --> 00:50:14.159
And in some respects, he doesn't care if he gets there or not, because the act of him being himself is the most important thing to him.
00:50:14.400 --> 00:50:27.840
And although he has an enormous psychological and emotional and physical impact on the female main character, he really can't engage with her in the way that she wants to engage with him.
00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:28.159
Yeah.
00:50:28.639 --> 00:50:31.760
She is a the pinnacle of her society.
00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:38.559
She is extremely wealthy, she is unusually independent as a woman in her society because she is a widow.
00:50:38.719 --> 00:50:46.000
She has total control over her property, over money, uh, over the people that she owns and the people that she merely dominates.
00:50:46.320 --> 00:51:07.199
But she and she has only one way to view human beings in her world, the dichotomy of them either being inferior to her or to being superior to her, and being at the top of her society, there is virtually no one who has an extensive amount of superiority over her, with a very small number of exceptions.
00:51:07.519 --> 00:51:10.960
And she only smacks them down when they try to have superiority over them.
00:51:11.199 --> 00:51:13.840
She she's able to dominate anybody who tries.
00:51:14.239 --> 00:51:14.880
Absolutely.
00:51:15.039 --> 00:51:30.320
She is able, you know, to to if not completely dominate and crush them, at least keep them at a disadvantage, and then walk out from underneath them if she needs to, which is what has happened to her when she's no longer on her own personal property.
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:52.639
Uh so she but so but she encounters him and she instinctively views him very quickly as this kind of superior being, which is a weird take that she has on this kind of human in her world, because they were created as just as grunts, as you describe them as as uh as ogres, the people who like just do this backbreaking labor.
00:51:52.719 --> 00:52:00.159
But inside this Frankensteinian body is equally Frankenstein original Frankenstein's monster type of intellect.
00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:09.920
And he is she sees him as a danger to her society, but not in the same way as other people who are looking for him to see him.
00:52:10.239 --> 00:52:15.440
She sees that he can could invert everything if everybody understood what he was.
00:52:15.760 --> 00:52:17.840
But he doesn't want that kind of domination.
00:52:18.079 --> 00:52:28.639
She wants him to dominate her in this regard, because she only looks at society again in that you know, I'm on top or I'm on bottom type of relationship.
00:52:28.719 --> 00:52:35.039
And he is obviously superior, therefore, she wants to place herself, you know, under him in that totem pole.
00:52:35.360 --> 00:52:46.639
Um gladly don't see things from his perspective because I like, I mean, there's only one way to do what you're doing, and that's to completely dunk people's head under the water and keep it there in Lohi's perspective.
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:49.119
Like coming up for air is not acceptable.
00:52:49.920 --> 00:53:00.639
In order to do what you're doing, to get into Elohie's perspective, to understand this thing about her society as deeply as we do, we have to stay in Lohi's perspective, the way that you've done this, you know.
00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:08.800
And the only little like peeps of air into a perspective that is more like our own is when Rados speaks and says Lohi belongs to Lohi.
00:53:09.039 --> 00:53:10.079
Rados belongs to Rados.
00:53:10.320 --> 00:53:17.360
You know, and these are things that we as a society basically believe it should be natural, and yet in in the context of Loki, it feels alien.
00:53:17.440 --> 00:53:18.320
It's really cool.
00:53:18.480 --> 00:53:21.280
But yeah, you got to keep us under the water for that to work.
00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:23.280
So that's what that's what's going on.
00:53:23.360 --> 00:53:27.280
I've I'd be anybody who's listening would come over and read it, you can absolutely do.
00:53:27.440 --> 00:53:40.320
So there's there's some portions of it that are paywalled, and those are what Ari would call the the three and four chili pepper zones, just because that's just how I place it.
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:40.880
That's what I'm saying.
00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:44.800
They're four chili pepper people, and you you want to you want to buy these chapters.
00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:45.280
Buy them.
00:53:45.599 --> 00:53:47.360
You gotta buy the book, you gotta buy the book.
00:53:47.679 --> 00:53:51.119
Or or wait till it comes out in uh an ebook uh or paperback.
00:53:51.199 --> 00:53:52.559
Uh, but it's fantastic.
00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:56.000
And I have the only Rattos shirt in existence, personally.
00:53:56.239 --> 00:53:57.039
Yes, you do.
00:53:57.760 --> 00:53:59.679
And I and I wear it proudly to events.
00:53:59.840 --> 00:54:01.199
It's a very nice shirt.
00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:03.039
People are like, who is that?
00:54:03.119 --> 00:54:04.719
And I'm like, it's only Rattos.
00:54:05.360 --> 00:54:06.800
Only, only Raddos.
00:54:07.039 --> 00:54:08.559
He belongs to himself, people.
00:54:09.360 --> 00:54:11.519
Well, and and to my closet.
00:54:11.920 --> 00:54:12.559
That's you.
00:54:12.800 --> 00:54:13.199
Yeah, yes.
00:54:13.599 --> 00:54:14.480
All right, onwards.
00:54:14.559 --> 00:54:15.760
I've said my piece.
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:17.199
So that's what I'm about to.
00:54:18.159 --> 00:54:29.599
Uh I'm still doing edits on uh which are really starting to skew off of where I was with uh Fallen from Stars, but I know where I'm going with that, and there's only a finite amount ahead of that, also that's good.
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:48.559
Uh I'm working on uh a mystery novella, uh the case of the parathex and labor broker, which is really stressful because I'm trying I'm walking a really fine line between Tardana doing horrible things and Dardana merely doing bad things, and so that's kind of difficult.
00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:53.280
Um it just is what it is because it's just that again, it's the damn society they live in.
00:54:53.360 --> 00:54:54.960
They it's not escapable.
00:54:55.199 --> 00:55:04.800
Uh and then I'm working on this uh other mystery project of mine, and I'm trying to keep ahead of that also, and everything else I do.
00:55:05.039 --> 00:55:13.920
So that's what I am that's what I'm writing, and I'm reading uh more of my uh Didius Falco Roman mystery.
00:55:14.079 --> 00:55:16.719
Uh they just killed a 16-year-old girl.
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:18.800
So he's gonna know who the hell murdered.
00:55:18.880 --> 00:55:28.480
Yes, yeah, because this is his his initial client has been murdered, and so he's gonna end up going to Britain and meeting her cousin, who now definitely I understand why she hates him.
00:55:28.719 --> 00:55:37.519
Because everybody's all the whole double family of this of this girl, left and right, they all hate him because they think he's at least quasi-responsible, which kind of is.
00:55:38.480 --> 00:55:40.480
Uh so that's going on.
00:55:40.639 --> 00:55:45.920
And if my three body problem book arrives in time, I'll be reading some of that before we're the next pod.
00:55:46.079 --> 00:55:49.440
So I gotta decide where we're going in that, like how far we're gonna read.
00:55:49.519 --> 00:55:52.000
And that will be decided by when the book arrives for you.
00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:55.519
It certainly is, because it's like it, I don't know when that'll be.
00:55:55.679 --> 00:56:00.480
And if if it ain't, I'm sure I can find enough of it online to get the first couple of chapters in.
00:56:00.559 --> 00:56:07.119
And then I've I've heard about it and I've read a little bit about it in an analytical sense just because of the Fermi Paradox thing.
00:56:07.199 --> 00:56:10.000
So I can probably talk intelligently about it, even if I hadn't read much of it.
00:56:10.239 --> 00:56:11.280
Yeah, I'm excited about it.
00:56:11.360 --> 00:56:15.360
I I've been wanting to read this, it's been sitting aspirationally beside my bed.
00:56:15.440 --> 00:56:22.880
And um, you know, I'm a I'm a an old English major and was a PhD in English, and I'm very used to having like seminars to talk about books in.
00:56:22.960 --> 00:56:29.679
So, like, while I like to read a book, I feel weird just reading it and then just sitting and having no one to talk to it.
00:56:30.079 --> 00:56:40.960
You know, I feel like I've like I feel like a like a volcano with all this magma that needs to become lava, words coming out of my mouth, talking about a word, talking about like the book.
00:56:41.119 --> 00:56:44.000
So uh yeah, I always feel weird if I don't have anyone to talk to about it.
00:56:44.079 --> 00:56:47.039
So now I have someone to talk to about the science fiction, you know.
00:56:48.559 --> 00:56:52.000
I can't even talk, I can't even like read a romance without wanting to talk to people about it.
00:56:52.079 --> 00:56:54.239
Like, God forbid, a hard science fiction.
00:56:54.400 --> 00:56:55.440
Like that's torture.
00:56:56.239 --> 00:56:58.239
Let's analyze this book.
00:56:58.719 --> 00:56:59.760
I think it's worthy of it.
00:56:59.840 --> 00:57:01.039
I think it's very worthy of analysis.
00:57:01.119 --> 00:57:11.039
I almost feel bad at analyzing something like Ice Planet Barbarians, not because anything is unworthy of analysis, but like I don't think that she wrote it to be an analyzed.
00:57:11.119 --> 00:57:17.599
I think she wrote it just for herself to have fun, like sort of kick up her heels and do something wild and different, you know.
00:57:17.760 --> 00:57:24.239
And it's meant to be sort of like popcorn, and there's something unkind about sitting there and like analyzing popcorn.
00:57:24.559 --> 00:57:30.320
Yeah, this kind of abuse we're raining down here is totally undeserved, and I feel halfway bad about it.
00:57:30.400 --> 00:57:32.079
But you know, it's it's what we're doing.
00:57:32.159 --> 00:57:40.239
We're like looking to sci-fi aspects, and once again, and for the millionth time, I want to reiterate I don't hate it, I don't think I can read any more of it.
00:57:40.320 --> 00:57:42.239
And if you love it, then good.
00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:49.280
I'm glad you do because it it's kind of warm and lovable in a way that doesn't interest me, but I totally understand if you do.
00:57:49.360 --> 00:57:51.920
And so I I have nothing against it.
00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:53.119
I really don't.
00:57:53.760 --> 00:58:07.440
I think the only thing I don't really like about it, like really genuinely do not like, and then and and not in a preference kind of way, is that it is what people think of when they think of sci-fi romance, that it is so much of people's understanding of the of the subgenre.
00:58:07.599 --> 00:58:08.880
That makes me sad, right?
00:58:08.960 --> 00:58:11.840
So I know that there is so much more in the subgenre.
00:58:12.239 --> 00:58:13.199
It's not her fault, though.
00:58:13.280 --> 00:58:15.119
I mean, it's just not there.
00:58:15.280 --> 00:58:23.679
A bunch of people imitate it, and so it's like that it's like that woman who is going after romantic because of things that weren't even true about romantic.
00:58:23.760 --> 00:58:31.679
It's like it's yeah, people have a have a viewpoint of the thing based on just R's and intuitions that are not necessarily real.
00:58:31.840 --> 00:58:37.599
So yeah, it's not Ruby Dixon's fault that this is something that is liked by a bunch of people and is like people's understanding of it.
00:58:37.840 --> 00:58:42.800
Any more than it's Stephanie Meyer's fault that when people think of vampire romance, they think of Twilight, right?
00:58:42.880 --> 00:58:48.559
Like she had a dream, she wrote it down, she didn't think it was gonna be a big deal, and it went crazy, right?
00:58:48.639 --> 00:59:01.119
And that became kind of there's a lot of things that are following after it that are kind of copying it to some degree, and it really changed the trajectory of YA paranormal romance uh for for years to come.
00:59:01.360 --> 00:59:03.679
Um, and that's not Stephanie Meyer's fault.
00:59:03.760 --> 00:59:08.159
It's just sort of it's just something that happened, essentially.
00:59:08.480 --> 00:59:09.119
It just happened.
00:59:09.199 --> 00:59:09.840
It just happened.
00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:10.639
That's okay.
00:59:10.800 --> 00:59:11.599
That's okay too.
00:59:11.920 --> 00:59:16.719
We're here to help, you know, make other suggestions if anybody is curious about taking them.
00:59:16.800 --> 00:59:18.000
And if they're not, that's cool too.
00:59:18.079 --> 00:59:18.800
We're just having fun.
00:59:19.199 --> 00:59:19.840
Yeah, we're having fun.
00:59:19.920 --> 00:59:22.000
Okay, getting a chance to to talk about stuff.
00:59:22.400 --> 00:59:24.320
Uh yeah, what am I working on here?
00:59:24.480 --> 00:59:27.119
Um, I am still serializing Fox Protocol.
00:59:27.280 --> 00:59:30.559
Talk about uh other kinds of uh sci-fi romance.
00:59:30.639 --> 00:59:33.360
That is a sci-fi romance I'm serializing to Zebstack right now.
00:59:33.840 --> 00:59:34.320
Good one too.
00:59:34.480 --> 00:59:35.440
Read it, please.
00:59:35.679 --> 00:59:38.400
I I think that it's definitely more on the sci-fi end.
00:59:38.480 --> 00:59:46.239
If you really enjoy uh seeing your FMC and your MMC talk at length about exonematodes, I am your bag.
00:59:46.639 --> 00:59:47.840
Uh join me.
00:59:48.239 --> 00:59:48.800
You know it.
00:59:48.960 --> 00:59:54.079
It's probably a lot more than exonematodes, but that's the thing that's really emblematic to me of like, wow, I'm getting way into sci-fi here.
00:59:54.159 --> 00:59:56.239
I'm talking way too much about nematodes.
00:59:57.840 --> 00:59:59.280
And I regret nothing.
00:59:59.679 --> 01:00:01.119
But it's well done, it's good.
01:00:01.199 --> 01:00:01.519
I like it.
01:00:01.599 --> 01:00:03.679
I've been reading an eagle every time it comes out.
01:00:03.760 --> 01:00:06.880
I like, you know, as soon as I have time, I go in there and slog down, right?
01:00:07.119 --> 01:00:15.199
It's like, hey, damn, they've got more nematodes, more warlords, more arrow trains, more more stuff you can like, you know, really enjoy.
01:00:15.760 --> 01:00:17.039
I like getting into the sci-fi, yeah.
01:00:17.199 --> 01:00:18.639
And I've got a love triangle in it.
01:00:18.719 --> 01:00:19.840
Uh, we'll see where that goes.
01:00:20.079 --> 01:00:23.760
Yes, yes, podcast yesterday with Mara Heath and Jenna Hart.
01:00:23.920 --> 01:00:28.000
Our our hot take was why do people are why are people so harsh on love triangles?
01:00:28.079 --> 01:00:30.480
And I was like, I don't know, I'm writing one right now.
01:00:31.119 --> 01:00:35.440
So uh I it might turn into a white shoes, we'll see where it goes.
01:00:35.519 --> 01:00:41.119
It's one of those things where it's like I have an idea, I can see where we're going, but it could go one way or the other.
01:00:41.199 --> 01:00:45.440
I'm leaning kind of hard in one direction, but it could go in a different one.
01:00:45.519 --> 01:00:46.079
And I like that.
01:00:46.159 --> 01:00:49.199
I'm a discovery writer, I'll see where I'm at when I get there.
01:00:49.519 --> 01:00:51.440
And we're gonna do what feels natural.
01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:53.760
I might ask the beta readers what they think.
01:00:53.920 --> 01:00:55.119
That includes you, Perry.
01:00:57.039 --> 01:00:58.400
Like, what do you think happens from here?
01:00:58.480 --> 01:00:59.199
That kind of thing.
01:00:59.519 --> 01:01:01.280
Uh who do you stand?
01:01:01.440 --> 01:01:04.159
Are you are you a team Vox or Team Lance?
01:01:05.360 --> 01:01:10.960
I having met Lance first, I am instinctively um Team Lance.
01:01:11.039 --> 01:01:13.280
I understand the attraction of Vox.
01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:29.679
I think that as far as uh a good intellectual partner and political partner and scientific partner, and probably for the benefit of his planet, probably Team Vox is the best way to go.
01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:37.760
Um I mean, I am plainly a wide choose kind of guy, but I don't know how that relationship would work out in their society.
01:01:37.840 --> 01:01:42.159
I don't have a deep enough feel for that, and they feel a little prickly, so I don't know how that would work out.
01:01:42.239 --> 01:01:43.440
So yeah, for real.
01:01:44.079 --> 01:01:45.920
Yeah, that is that is an issue.
01:01:46.079 --> 01:01:48.000
Uh yeah, interesting.
01:01:48.159 --> 01:01:51.119
Did you have you seen Rob's comments about being pro-vox?
01:01:52.480 --> 01:02:06.480
Uh, I have seen them, but they didn't did not inform me because he he just he just seems, just because of his uh of how he approaches and how he understands her, Lance seems to have what I would describe as a lot of hero worship towards her and also patron worship.
01:02:06.880 --> 01:02:18.239
She's she's she's the contract, she's she's the person who's who who is at least through the uh the Earth Relic's embassy, is basically funding his position.
01:02:18.480 --> 01:02:25.119
So he sees her as the paycheck, and he has culturally a lot of respect towards that.
01:02:25.440 --> 01:02:36.239
But Vox does not have that liability on his personality, he's more free to feel what he feels, although he's limited in his capacity to like express that just because he's supposed to be a neutral party.
01:02:36.400 --> 01:02:40.159
So he's got a different kind of longing, if you will, coming out of him.
01:02:40.320 --> 01:02:45.599
I think is more on the same wavelength that she would normally operate herself.
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:46.559
Yeah, okay.
01:02:46.639 --> 01:02:47.039
I like that.
01:02:47.119 --> 01:02:49.199
Yeah, I'm getting I'm getting longing back into romance, people.
01:02:49.360 --> 01:02:52.239
This is the same we're always talking about on the podcast that we're at listening to liaison.
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:53.679
It's like, where's all the longing?
01:02:53.840 --> 01:02:56.000
It's in box protocol, peeps.
01:02:56.159 --> 01:02:57.039
Lots of vlogging.
01:02:57.280 --> 01:02:57.760
Exactly.
01:02:58.480 --> 01:03:00.400
So much longing, so much flirting.
01:03:00.880 --> 01:03:03.760
Uh the box is obnoxious with how much he flirts, but yeah.
01:03:03.840 --> 01:03:04.480
So I'm doing that.
01:03:04.880 --> 01:03:10.400
Uh just started uh serializing what remains to uh Substack, shut down the ghost site where it was at.
01:03:10.480 --> 01:03:15.760
So if you've been following me on Ghost, it's going up on Substack, editing chapters, added a prologue.
01:03:16.000 --> 01:03:17.039
I love prologues.
01:03:17.280 --> 01:03:19.679
I love anything that aspires to have a prologue.
01:03:20.079 --> 01:03:23.440
Uh that's my that's my big hot take in the world is that I love prologues.
01:03:23.679 --> 01:03:24.480
Come at me.
01:03:27.199 --> 01:03:28.480
I feel very strange saying that.
01:03:28.559 --> 01:03:29.519
I thought everyone liked prolongs.
01:03:29.599 --> 01:03:32.800
And there's all these people are like, I hate prologues, it's just author, yeah.
01:03:32.960 --> 01:03:33.679
I don't know about that.
01:03:34.000 --> 01:03:35.440
Everything we do is author, yeah.
01:03:35.519 --> 01:03:36.239
What are you talking about?
01:03:36.400 --> 01:03:43.440
Anyways, uh so yeah, doing that, doing remote prompts, uh editing sapphics of Saturn, um, fighting mono.
01:03:43.519 --> 01:03:44.480
I'm very tired.
01:03:46.880 --> 01:03:48.239
But yeah, that's where we're at right now.
01:03:48.320 --> 01:03:49.599
And we're gonna read some three-body problem.
01:03:49.760 --> 01:03:50.480
I'm very excited.
01:03:50.639 --> 01:03:51.280
All right, folks.
01:03:51.360 --> 01:03:57.360
Uh, we are nice planet barbarians, yet another science fiction podcast, talking sci-fi and sci-fi romance and whatever the hell else we want.
01:03:57.519 --> 01:04:01.840
If you have topics you'd like us to discuss, books that you think that we should read, please do tell us.
01:04:01.920 --> 01:04:05.119
Uh, this will be hosted on YouTube, uh, where we're creating our very own channel.
01:04:05.199 --> 01:04:06.159
Oh, that's up now.
01:04:06.320 --> 01:04:11.920
It should be, I think all of these are going public on there, uh, as well as on Parish Baker Substack and on BuzzSprout.
01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:14.480
And you can find us basically um in every single directory.
01:04:14.559 --> 01:04:18.960
You can find us on Apple, you can find us on Spotify, uh, you can find us on iHeartRadio.
01:04:19.039 --> 01:04:20.800
We are on every single directory you can think of.
01:04:20.880 --> 01:04:23.599
And if you can't find us on a directory, let me know, and I'll make sure we're there too.
01:04:23.679 --> 01:04:28.480
Uh, so you can listen on your favorite platform and like just make sure you let me know if we're missing something.
01:04:28.639 --> 01:04:30.960
Um, and if you're hearing us right now, thank you for tuning in.
01:04:31.199 --> 01:04:37.920
Uh, Nice Planet Barbarians is written by Tara Lederman, that is me, hosted by Parish Baker and Tara Lederman with sound engineering and editing by Parish Baker.
01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:38.480
Thank you to him.
01:04:38.639 --> 01:04:40.880
And anything else done for this thing was probably figured out by one of us.
01:04:40.960 --> 01:04:43.280
We have no sponsorships nor ARC copies of what we're reading.
01:04:43.440 --> 01:04:48.480
These books were bought by us, and they're our opinions are um uh see you on a planet far away, folks.