Comments on: Podcast Review #35: Dead Mech http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/ My views and opinions are my own. Are yours? Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:38:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: odin1eye http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-5357 odin1eye Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:43:23 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-5357 LOL.. Yes, I'm sure there are many podcasts you like. If not, you have more time to waste than I think is good for a soul. I think I agree on drabble novels not working, but perhaps for a different reason. With the 100 word limit it just ends up feeling a bit too choppy to me. Thanks again for your time and comments! LOL.. Yes, I’m sure there are many podcasts you like. If not, you have more time to waste than I think is good for a soul. I think I agree on drabble novels not working, but perhaps for a different reason. With the 100 word limit it just ends up feeling a bit too choppy to me.

Thanks again for your time and comments!

]]> By: JC http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-5354 JC Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:42:54 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-5354 Thanks. I promise that there are podcasts I actually like, even though my first two comments have gone scorched earth. I agree that it seemed as though the rookie was going to be at least a major character. There was a fight in the cage, helped get them out of the zombie swarm, and then....nothing. I like drabbles, particularly in something like the Drabblecast with Norm Sherman, but it seems to me trying to make a Drabble novel just doesn't work. It's a limiting concept. A limit for an inexperienced writer. Not a selling point. Thanks. I promise that there are podcasts I actually like, even though my first two comments have gone scorched earth.
I agree that it seemed as though the rookie was going to be at least a major character. There was a fight in the cage, helped get them out of the zombie swarm, and then….nothing.
I like drabbles, particularly in something like the Drabblecast with Norm Sherman, but it seems to me trying to make a Drabble novel just doesn’t work. It’s a limiting concept. A limit for an inexperienced writer. Not a selling point.

]]> By: odin1eye http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-5353 odin1eye Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:01:57 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-5353 Thank you for a very thorough comment/review! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts. It had been so long since I had listened to this podcast with so very many in between that I had to go back and read my own review to help me remember what I thought about it. I can not fault a single one of your reasons for disliking (mildly put) the story. I didn't have as many issues with it, but I can agree that not a single character seemed "necessary" and very few of them were memorable. I don't know about you, but I truly thought the "rookie" was going to be the main character or have something very unique about him at the beginning, and yet he ended being just another player in a cast of thousands. So yes, I do remember well enough to commiserate with you. Thanks so much for stopping by. I would love to hear any thoughts on any other podcasts reviewed here, whether we agree or not (especially if we don't ,^) ). Sincerely, thank you for the kind words expressed about these reviews. Thank you for a very thorough comment/review! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts. It had been so long since I had listened to this podcast with so very many in between that I had to go back and read my own review to help me remember what I thought about it.

I can not fault a single one of your reasons for disliking (mildly put) the story. I didn’t have as many issues with it, but I can agree that not a single character seemed “necessary” and very few of them were memorable. I don’t know about you, but I truly thought the “rookie” was going to be the main character or have something very unique about him at the beginning, and yet he ended being just another player in a cast of thousands. So yes, I do remember well enough to commiserate with you.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I would love to hear any thoughts on any other podcasts reviewed here, whether we agree or not (especially if we don’t ,^) ).

Sincerely, thank you for the kind words expressed about these reviews.

]]> By: JC http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-5351 JC Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:40:12 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-5351 I have always been a horror fan, so tend to be more open to anything in that genre. But most horror in any media is so awful it makes me wonder why I am. This podcast doesn't improve that track record. This is one of the most original concepts I've heard of in a very long time. And I heard about it from Scott Sigler and I think from the Drabblecast also, so I was excited to hear it. The first quarter of the book the drabble concept helps create some tense action scenes. There are some deft moves between different scenes early. It feels as though we're going to learn more about this post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world and the Mech Pilots (why are giant tank operators called pilots? Don't do any thinking here, it'll only ruin the story) who try to bring it back. And the first quarter of the book it feels like we're moving in that direction. But from there on, the whole thing just fizzles. The characters are so thin they're interchangeable. You hear the name of one of the pilots and have to actively think "uh, is Rachel the one sleeping with Matthew, or is she the one who has a crush on Matthew?" I listened to the epilogue where the author was boasting about not describing the characters so we had to use our imaginations. This is ridiculous. It's still the author's job to create vivid characters we care about, and a world we find interesting, or believable. They're YOUR characters, bring them to life for me. A good songwriter can make believable characters in a 3 minute song, but Jake Bible couldn't bring me one character I gave a crap about in hours and hours worth of talking. The pilots respect their captain supposedly, but disobey him at every opportunity, swear at him, and ignore him. Some military organization. No wonder the whole flippin' world is run with zombies. The dialogue is painful to the ear. The characters blurt out long, clunky lines while they should be clipped, terse lines in the heat of battle. And every character says things the author thinks is a clever quip. None of them are. NONE. This also loses me. Listen to a group of people. In every group people speak differently, even people who spend a lot of time together. Everyone handles stress differently. Some quietly just get by. Others bitch and moan. Some do a little of both. Some try to always get out of doing the work. But all the characters sound the same. They have no individual personality. It's one thing to expect us to use our imaginations, and another to fail to do even the basics required of the author. There's one mechanic named Jay, and another named Jethro. Couldn't remember which was which most of the time. There's a pilot named Masters and one named Mathews. Too much alike. I listened to hours of this thing, but know nothing about the characters. The graphic sexual violence early would not be so unsettling for me if it had been balanced by the female character suffering it had been good, strong and believable. Otherwise it just feels like you're reading an S&M story on a creepy fetish website. The first major villain, the Boss, just makes no sense. And this story, though incapable of producing even one well conceived and executed villain, has like 4 or 5 villains by the time it's all over with. The Boss keeps his village in line with sadistic violence. Why don't the people overthrow him? It's hard to believe that if people are as primitive and desperate in the wasteland as we're supposed to believe that they would be too timid to do that. No idea. Why do they live in the Wasteland? No idea. What is life like in a citystate? No idea. We all have a limit that our belief can be stretched. I'll listen to a zombie mech podcast even though I'm not convinced either is in our very near future. But any fantastical world still needs a cohesiveness to it. It has a logic that makes sense to that world. This world doesn't. This world can produce enough food and equipment for a small army to pilot 3-story tall battlemechs with 50-cal guns, rockets and plasma cannons. But not enough food to keep small groups of people from eating human children. This world has coffee, but not cattle. In fact, don't recall any animals mentioned at all. Or plants. The only agricultural product ever mentioned is coffee. Do they eat coffee? And coffee needs to grow in altitude in shade. So, where did it come from? It may seem nit picky, but when there are so many of these examples of lousy world creation, the nit picky starts to be more noticeable. All of that adds up to make me start questioning the basic concept. How can a human society so barely clinging to existence and barely able to feed itself have the tech to have a giant mainframe computer with human integration, giant building sized mechs that can dance (yes, dance) and nano technology? Where are the factories? Our culture is technologically suprerior in most ways to that of this world, but we could not dream of reaper chips or Mechsand we have agriculture, Suspension of belief suspended. By the time the thing was supposed to be in its climax, I was looking at the iPod trying to figure out "how much more of this crap is left?" The point of horror is certainly about what are we afraid of. But behind everything is the real "what are we afraid of?" With zombies we're afraid of social collapse. We're afraid of losing our humanity and becoming mindless consumers, incapable of thought. With apocalypse we're afraid that humans will lose thousands of years of progress and decline into an animal state. Hundreds or thousands of humans, which are already sparse, die, but we're never put in a position to contemplate how close to the brink of extinction humans are being pushed. They're either used to create more zombie obstacles (and though this is seemingly about zombies, zombies aren't that prominent in this story), or die in a revenge for not helping the Mech Pilot storyline that goes nowhere. Humans almost destroyed would normally get me on the edge of my seat because it's a deeply held human fear. In this work? Nah, not important. Gets in the way of a Mech Pilot shouting foul langugage as it attachs a Dead Mech scene. By the end I was really rooting for the Nuke to wipe everyone out. Really. To me there are several ways to judge a work. First, no matter how much I paid, or how I got the work, the first question is: Is it good? Second, is more subjective. How would I feel if I had paid my money for this work? If i had paid money for this, I'd be really jacked. Wooh, man I was glad to get that off my chest. P.S.I love that this site exists, and what you're doing for podcast reviews. I have always been a horror fan, so tend to be more open to anything in that genre. But most horror in any media is so awful it makes me wonder why I am. This podcast doesn’t improve that track record.
This is one of the most original concepts I’ve heard of in a very long time. And I heard about it from Scott Sigler and I think from the Drabblecast also, so I was excited to hear it.
The first quarter of the book the drabble concept helps create some tense action scenes. There are some deft moves between different scenes early. It feels as though we’re going to learn more about this post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world and the Mech Pilots (why are giant tank operators called pilots? Don’t do any thinking here, it’ll only ruin the story) who try to bring it back. And the first quarter of the book it feels like we’re moving in that direction.
But from there on, the whole thing just fizzles. The characters are so thin they’re interchangeable. You hear the name of one of the pilots and have to actively think “uh, is Rachel the one sleeping with Matthew, or is she the one who has a crush on Matthew?” I listened to the epilogue where the author was boasting about not describing the characters so we had to use our imaginations. This is ridiculous. It’s still the author’s job to create vivid characters we care about, and a world we find interesting, or believable. They’re YOUR characters, bring them to life for me. A good songwriter can make believable characters in a 3 minute song, but Jake Bible couldn’t bring me one character I gave a crap about in hours and hours worth of talking. The pilots respect their captain supposedly, but disobey him at every opportunity, swear at him, and ignore him. Some military organization. No wonder the whole flippin’ world is run with zombies.
The dialogue is painful to the ear. The characters blurt out long, clunky lines while they should be clipped, terse lines in the heat of battle. And every character says things the author thinks is a clever quip. None of them are. NONE. This also loses me. Listen to a group of people. In every group people speak differently, even people who spend a lot of time together. Everyone handles stress differently. Some quietly just get by. Others bitch and moan. Some do a little of both. Some try to always get out of doing the work. But all the characters sound the same. They have no individual personality. It’s one thing to expect us to use our imaginations, and another to fail to do even the basics required of the author. There’s one mechanic named Jay, and another named Jethro. Couldn’t remember which was which most of the time. There’s a pilot named Masters and one named Mathews. Too much alike. I listened to hours of this thing, but know nothing about the characters.
The graphic sexual violence early would not be so unsettling for me if it had been balanced by the female character suffering it had been good, strong and believable. Otherwise it just feels like you’re reading an S&M story on a creepy fetish website.
The first major villain, the Boss, just makes no sense. And this story, though incapable of producing even one well conceived and executed villain, has like 4 or 5 villains by the time it’s all over with. The Boss keeps his village in line with sadistic violence. Why don’t the people overthrow him? It’s hard to believe that if people are as primitive and desperate in the wasteland as we’re supposed to believe that they would be too timid to do that. No idea. Why do they live in the Wasteland? No idea. What is life like in a citystate? No idea.
We all have a limit that our belief can be stretched. I’ll listen to a zombie mech podcast even though I’m not convinced either is in our very near future. But any fantastical world still needs a cohesiveness to it. It has a logic that makes sense to that world. This world doesn’t. This world can produce enough food and equipment for a small army to pilot 3-story tall battlemechs with 50-cal guns, rockets and plasma cannons. But not enough food to keep small groups of people from eating human children. This world has coffee, but not cattle. In fact, don’t recall any animals mentioned at all. Or plants. The only agricultural product ever mentioned is coffee. Do they eat coffee? And coffee needs to grow in altitude in shade. So, where did it come from? It may seem nit picky, but when there are so many of these examples of lousy world creation, the nit picky starts to be more noticeable. All of that adds up to make me start questioning the basic concept. How can a human society so barely clinging to existence and barely able to feed itself have the tech to have a giant mainframe computer with human integration, giant building sized mechs that can dance (yes, dance) and nano technology? Where are the factories? Our culture is technologically suprerior in most ways to that of this world, but we could not dream of reaper chips or Mechsand we have agriculture, Suspension of belief suspended.
By the time the thing was supposed to be in its climax, I was looking at the iPod trying to figure out “how much more of this crap is left?” The point of horror is certainly about what are we afraid of. But behind everything is the real “what are we afraid of?” With zombies we’re afraid of social collapse. We’re afraid of losing our humanity and becoming mindless consumers, incapable of thought. With apocalypse we’re afraid that humans will lose thousands of years of progress and decline into an animal state. Hundreds or thousands of humans, which are already sparse, die, but we’re never put in a position to contemplate how close to the brink of extinction humans are being pushed. They’re either used to create more zombie obstacles (and though this is seemingly about zombies, zombies aren’t that prominent in this story), or die in a revenge for not helping the Mech Pilot storyline that goes nowhere. Humans almost destroyed would normally get me on the edge of my seat because it’s a deeply held human fear. In this work? Nah, not important. Gets in the way of a Mech Pilot shouting foul langugage as it attachs a Dead Mech scene.
By the end I was really rooting for the Nuke to wipe everyone out. Really.
To me there are several ways to judge a work. First, no matter how much I paid, or how I got the work, the first question is: Is it good? Second, is more subjective. How would I feel if I had paid my money for this work? If i had paid money for this, I’d be really jacked.
Wooh, man I was glad to get that off my chest.
P.S.I love that this site exists, and what you’re doing for podcast reviews.

]]> By: odin1eye http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-889 odin1eye Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:14:02 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-889 Nope. Was more like, for all of the reasons mentioned, I didn't expect to like it but I did. Nope. Was more like, for all of the reasons mentioned, I didn’t expect to like it but I did.

]]> By: Doc Coleman http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-888 Doc Coleman Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:20:31 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-888 Are you saying that this is one of those podcasts where they basically do everything wrong, but when you take it all together it somehow comes out right? Doc Are you saying that this is one of those podcasts where they basically do everything wrong, but when you take it all together it somehow comes out right?

Doc

]]> By: odin1eye http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-581 odin1eye Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:00:23 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-581 Valid question. Have you ever gone to a movie, watched a show etc. That really wasn't something you would have thought you would have enjoyed, but you did? Dead Mech, by description, might not have been my choice, and truthfully, I almost didn't recommend it. However, when I realized it was one I was waiting for, I also realized that sometimes a story is more then a sum of it's parts. Valid question. Have you ever gone to a movie, watched a show etc. That really wasn’t something you would have thought you would have enjoyed, but you did? Dead Mech, by description, might not have been my choice, and truthfully, I almost didn’t recommend it. However, when I realized it was one I was waiting for, I also realized that sometimes a story is more then a sum of it’s parts.

]]> By: kmaimer http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-580 kmaimer Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:24:04 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-580 Funny thing is, after the review I didn't expect Odin to suggest the podcast to other people. Throughout the review itself I had quite the impression that this wasn't the kind of Podiobook that he would wait every week for. If any criticism, I wasn't completely able to follow the train of thought why exactly Odin was waiting every week for it - especially knowing that he found Half Share very sexual, and LA LA LA's in the presence of the F-Word. So yes, a question from me - why were you waiting for the story every week? Funny thing is, after the review I didn’t expect Odin to suggest the podcast to other people. Throughout the review itself I had quite the impression that this wasn’t the kind of Podiobook that he would wait every week for.

If any criticism, I wasn’t completely able to follow the train of thought why exactly Odin was waiting every week for it – especially knowing that he found Half Share very sexual, and LA LA LA’s in the presence of the F-Word.

So yes, a question from me – why were you waiting for the story every week?

]]> By: odin1eye http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-579 odin1eye Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:36:19 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-579 I agree with everyting you stated... it is a good story and very very dark. I agree with everyting you stated… it is a good story and very very dark.

]]> By: Scott Roche http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/06/28/podcast-review-35-dead-mech-by-jake-bible/comment-page-1/#comment-578 Scott Roche Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:46:07 +0000 http://viewfromvalhalla.com/?p=913#comment-578 I'm a big fan of zombies and horror in general. I try to limit my intake because too much darkness can have an adverse affect on me emotionally. I saved a place in my podcast diet for this though. It's dark, grisly stuff but it's got a lot to say about the power of family and the sheer cussedness of the human spirit that will survive ANYTHING you throw at it and that made it totally worth all the F bombs (there were too many and I had the same rather humorous thought you did re: word count) and some of the more disturbing content. I'm glad for Jake' success and can't wait to see what he'll put out next. I’m a big fan of zombies and horror in general. I try to limit my intake because too much darkness can have an adverse affect on me emotionally. I saved a place in my podcast diet for this though.

It’s dark, grisly stuff but it’s got a lot to say about the power of family and the sheer cussedness of the human spirit that will survive ANYTHING you throw at it and that made it totally worth all the F bombs (there were too many and I had the same rather humorous thought you did re: word count) and some of the more disturbing content.

I’m glad for Jake’ success and can’t wait to see what he’ll put out next.

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