Wow. It has been a long time since I posted anything. Without making any promises, I hope to start remedying that a bit.
Last week, basically by accident, I was exposed to a couple of really interesting pieces of media exploring concepts of first contact between humans and aliens. First, I went to see Arrival, which was great. Independent of that film, I'm a longtime fan of the Serial Podcast, and of the Slate Serial Spoiler Special, which led me to subscribe to the Panoply Media RSS feed. For a while, Panoply was putting out a lot of varied material, but that feed has slowed to a trickle. So, when I saw something new and different a few weeks ago, I decided to check it out. It's called LifeAfter (stylized as "lif-e.af/ter"), and you can check out the Teaser, Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3.
LifeAfter is a production of GE Podcast Theater (in association with Panoply Media). I'd never heard of GE Podcast Theater, though I find it interesting to see that we've returned to the golden age of radio and the early days of television, when a single company would sponsor an entire program (typically with advertisements written into the content of fiction programs). I ended up discovering that LifeAfter is actually GE Podcast Theater's second offering: I missed The Message (RSS) in 2015. I listened to the entire run of The Message on Friday (it's just under two hours in total duration). You can listen, too - and in case you're too lazy to look it up, here are the direct links!
I don't know if there was any "cross-pollination" between The Message and Arrival, but I found the plotlines to be very similar. For film buffs, the obvious examples of inspiration for both are Independence Day (1996) and Contact (1997). However, specific elements of The Message reminded me of a book I read in 2006: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Easily one of the best, most thought-provoking books I've ever read, and one I appreciated enough to give to my mother-in-law. I'll spare everyone any spoilers, but if you've enjoyed The Message and/or Arrival, or just enjoy original science fiction that's not a retread of Star Trek, The Sparrow is definitely worth the investment of your time. (I heard the sequel didn't meet the same high benchmark, but I didn't read it, so I can't say that for a fact.) You can even get it on your Kindle, which wasn't even a thing when I read it!
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