The SFFaudio Podcast #883 – Virgin Planet by Poul Anderson (2 hours 35 minutes) read by Alex (Pulpcovers), followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion are Jesse and Alex (Pulpcovers)

Talked about on today’s show:
Venture Science Fiction, January 1957, the expanded book version, not a fix-up, 7 mars stories, how much more expanded is it?, one real scene added, laketown, another town, Burkeville, all the same woman, they all think the same because they’re all the same woman, kidnap the man, added sentences and paragraphs, twice, a new version, great interior illustrations that enhance the story, what’s in the text, one pronunciation error, “quay”, weird etymological one, on the water, the armour, cuirass, first audiobook, not too long, 6 days, editing the file, long pauses between sentences, tightens up the narration, go yell, clip this out, no barking is aloud, stop barking, Jesse gets his mean voice out, c’mon mom, this house was not designed by me, insulation in the ceiling for a recording booth, soundproofing, a scene early on, it wasn’t super clear he was nude, fun writing, quite deep in the book, a kilt malfunction, what’s wrong with your kilt, later cover, fits into the standard 60s sex novel, so much of the book interested in having sex, titillation, the premise is great, describing the premise to Eric [S. Rabkin], after 300 years, some parthenogenesis, clone of themselves, early feminist novel, a science fiction novel, Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a nation filled with women and no men, some sort of disaster and men weren’t available, nature finds a way, Jules Verne explanation, a plateau in South America, hot air balloon, much more like a utopian novel, how money works, not a lot of militancy, corpral maiden, horspur, horse bird?, like that game Joust, massive infodump, worldbuilding, Freetoon, picturing a lot of this, a really fun animated movie, the story being told is a bit bawdy, adultish story, Heavy Metal but with less guitar and more laughs, an adaptation today, porn version or feminist twist on it: and that’s terrible, play this straight, part of the fun of plot, a planet full of virgins, I need to get out of here, giant animal, a lot of ladies in here, crushed by the corpse, stuck under, completely soaked in blood, it’s metaphor or something, not twins, cousins, just clones of each other, a scar on the hand, at the end of the book, rolling dice to see who goes with him, what if I just kept both of them, here in the future, they’d just kill each other, hinted at, makes those thoughts, Twins/Two Much, identical females and one man, the same sort of jump, not in the Westlake book, he was a cad, the women end up winning, the women are deciding which one of them has the man, whichever one of them wins, he had the grace to blush, turning him into a woman, having a lot of fun with this book, books by him that people love, The High Crusade, wrapped up in a sci-fi space story, killing ladies, courtly old fashioned, not exactly a letch, I just need to help them out, let’s go ravish a planet full of women, a comedy, a funny situation, all the excitement of this silly world, moons and eclipses, a good sense of it, seas and the mountains, the plot once it gets going, a tour of the place, a tour of the society, the highlights, this isn’t a utopia, what would a society of all women really look like?, nowadays, how do women do things differently, different in some noticeable way, war-like, peaceful, how are women’s prisons different than men’s prisons, women in mobs, talks his way through the mob, function differently, council kinda stuff, a thesis there, very interesting, tribes and defenses, conflict being the control over reproduction, gender flip everthing, a gender flipped Conan movie, She Is Conann (2023), he didn’t like it, no fixes needed, she wasn’t sure if she should stab him, gender relations between males and females, they’re all mothers, we never see them mothering, young and pretty, a crone, there are children around, for a sexy adventure story, a brief 70 pages, like a lot of other utopian novels, a sequel novel, ova fusion, they’re not using a machine, ultimately if we were to overlay a thesis on this book, not trying to make a big gender politics point, reactionary, what’s a man, a male human, a controversial point, him being a monster, unpleasantly narrow hips, men have beards, if this book has a thesis, they’re better off together, full of men, one woman comes to a planet full of men, how did that happen, it’s not going to work, in our society, the dialogue around issues related, those poor men, those poor women, baby formula, they’re fucking mammals, hundreds of thousands of years, scenarios where it helps, on a planetary scale, the babies shouldn’t be breastfed by their mothers, wetnurses, probably just as good, probably just as good, cow milk, goat milk, infants can’t, how mammals work, no other mammals, you don’t know how mammals works, cloaca, lay eggs, they feed their babies through regurgitation, copy their parents, the premise makes it fun, perfectly good execution, natural production, fun surprising, good scene, expand this very differently, drug store, if you don’t have a date on a saturday night, the Galaxy cover, Barbara, she’s in the cage with him, naked on the cover, women looking in, defiant, is that’s a brass bra?, not it is an iron currias, moons high in the sky, made the geography match the metaphor, a Yavin 4 situation, looks cool, Endor is the same way, in the Bible, most print stuff is more sophisticated, moons are female, oceans are female, suns are male, not a popular position, men are scientists and engieers, women reflect the light of the man, sounding like Jesse Lee Peterson, destroys them by asking “what is a man”?, are men smarter?, in some ways about some things, engender certain behaviors by men, on a moon, named it Atlantis, sunken in the sea, objects in the sky, giant jupiter like planet, Jupiter is male, 4 big moons, Io, Ganymede, the 4 Galilean moons, who’s the biggest of all the gods, 3 are female, 1 male, freaky for us, in the sky there’s a big looming object they can’t get to, Atlantis bound, not exactly mermaids, a society developed apart, the Little Mermaid, the Baen Books one from the 1980s, polished up, wearing pants, a lot more like Joust, shiny jewels that reflect light, Clyde Caldwell, the first 60s one, she’s leading him away, he’s got a smile on his face, a better cover than either of these, how suggestive it is, a scene that happens, nobody’s smiling, the Venture cover, defiance and stare, the copper top, a chance to describe something that doesn’t play into the fun, not a polemic, not a reaction, Heinlein could have written this book, political ideas, a perfectly Heinelian, very heterosexual, wants to transition himself, not a political tract, within that 1950s tradition, Cosmos Science Fiction, crashed spaceship, women standing militantly, long gloves, cover their hair, carrying a whip, all the men are smiling, they kinda liked it, July 1954, Bernard Safraan, a Poul Anderson story Teucan, is it on the PDF Page? [it is now], a lady in the background with a whip, jailer’s keys, a swimsuit, epaulets, what is this about?, a similar story, part of the same universe, psychotechnic league, other stuff, The High Crusade, a famous fantasy novel, Aztecs in space, Ensign Flandry series, wrote some Conan, all the Conan pastiches, an evil reptile god reigns over Stygia, Conan and Belit, a gatefold?, the publishing industry, with regards to the fantasy novel, not Jesse’s top tier, other guys, Alex is a science fiction guy, art wise, all the Asmiov books, a mistake, Nightfall, way not good, expansions are a mistake, the idea is amazing, annoying and drawn out, what I read science fiction for, take a scenario and build a story around it, Rendezvous With Rama, a planet where they’re never night, The Golden Slave, historical sword and sandal, turns out to be Thor, late Roman, the yellow one, ladies flanking, lipstick on, the only thing that makes it science fiction is the word planet, Paul [Weimer] loves it, Three Hearts And Three Lions, fairies, the wild hunt, one man, what he’s doing, norse mythology, a modern 20th century light, everybody thinks its awesome, the thing we’ve been experiencing is cast in a new light, isn’t that what we want, kinda interesting, pulp grinding out author: Ray Cummings, Sargasso Of Lost Starships, Sargasso sea idea, Brain Wave, Vernor Vinge, zones of space, what if elephants are human level intelligence, turn the retardation beam off, Flowers For Algernon, make it planetary, not-species specific, a balancing act, aliens but they make a huge mistake, reverse crusade, stay the fuck out of England, [The High Crusade (1994)] Egyptian assistant, John Rhys Davies, pretty funny, very ambitiously, I’ll do anything for a dollar, pulp covers and paperback covers as the gateway, the door into, interest in these books, endlessly scrolling, a Blockbuster or video rental place, new releases, new Tom Hanks movie, the knock off movies, a mix of sex and mystery/thriller, erotic thrillers, they tell you what genre it is, a lady standing behind some blinds holding a gun, more cleavage, Joe Mantegna and Mimi Rogers, a 90 minute thriller with a twist, the key to appreciation, seei...