Transcript
Speaker: We're in a Herzog.
Speaker: I was about to say the one that Graber taught about memes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I would like to see the baby.
Speaker: I would like to see the baby.
Speaker: Jesus, that man.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And on that note, hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It and a brand new series.
Speaker: It feels like we start a new series every month because we kind of do since we do four or so episodes for every book.
Speaker: But hey.
Speaker: We don't tear ass through these things, man.
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: And the current book that we are tearing ass through is Dead Space Martyr, which is not a book that you want to necessarily tear ass through if you know anything about Dead Space.
Speaker: It just brings up all the wrong visuals.
Speaker: Let's just put it that way.
Speaker: So, yeah, we're reading Dead Space Martyr by what's this guy's name?
Speaker: Brian.
Speaker: I have it right.
Speaker: Everson.
Speaker: Everson.
Speaker: Brian.
Speaker: In this in this book, he is credited as let me see.
Speaker: You'd think I would just have it in front of me, wouldn't you?
Speaker: BK Evanson is what he is, what he he went by for this particular book.
Speaker: But as time goes on, he starts going by his full first name.
Speaker: Yeah, it's based, it's a prequel, so to speak, of the very popular but currently dormant but soon to be resurrected Dead Space series.
Speaker: And it is interesting.
Speaker: Yeah, I am.
Speaker: I got to because I'll tell you what, Kevin, I you played all of these games.
Speaker: Yeah, I sure did.
Speaker: OK, now I am.
Speaker: I'm almost finished with my run of the first game.
Speaker: Got to tell you, loving it.
Speaker: Yeah, solid game.
Speaker: Solid, solid game.
Speaker: Just so much fun.
Speaker: And Kevin, what do you think of when you think of Dead Space?
Speaker: The first thing that comes to mind is the necromorphs.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Just, you know, ripping human flesh apart and repurposing it for, you know, their own sentient whatevers.
Speaker: Sure, sure.
Speaker: And the second thing is, I guess, the protagonist, Isaac.
Speaker: Isaac, Isaac, who's got a totally iconic kind of look by now.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: You know, even I, who had never played the game, you know, I could have I could have pointed him out by name just based on how good that look is and everything like that.
Speaker: Now, I got to ask you as a follow up question.
Speaker: What about the setting?
Speaker: What do you think of when you think of the setting of Dead Space Space?
Speaker: Space.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: The cold, dark, sweeping vacuum space.
Speaker: Do you think about Mexico?
Speaker: No, I don't believe I've ever thought of Mexico while playing.
Speaker: Not when you're playing dead space.
Speaker: That must have been that.
Speaker: I keep thinking that's probably going to be the epilogue.
Speaker: You know, he's just sitting there drinking a Mai Tai on the Yucatan Peninsula coast, you know, just enjoying himself.
Speaker: That's what I figure must be coming because so far.
Speaker: This all takes place in Mexico.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's some book entirely.
Speaker: It's a hundred pages in and it's all Mexico.
Speaker: It's all Mexico.
Speaker: And not that I, excuse me, not that I have a problem with Mexico.
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: But it's a lovely country.
Speaker: Oh, lovely, lovely spot.
Speaker: But I got to tell you.
Speaker: I love I love horror sci fi.
Speaker: I love the deep, dark void of space and everything like that.
Speaker: So when I came into this and that didn't happen, you can imagine my surprise.
Speaker: Surprise, perhaps disappointment.
Speaker: A little bit of, yes, yes, why not?
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: Let's just say what it is.
Speaker: A little bit of disappointment, indeed.
Speaker: And Isaac?
Speaker: Any spotting of him so far?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: No?
Speaker: No Isaac.
Speaker: No Isaac.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So we got a dead space book.
Speaker: We got no Isaac.
Speaker: We got no space.
Speaker: We got a little dead.
Speaker: We got some dead.
Speaker: We got some dead.
Speaker: We got some dead.
Speaker: We got the, uh, the, the, the, the necromorphs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All that good stuff.
Speaker: So there's, there's a little going on there.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: Let's be specific.
Speaker: Uh, necromorph.
Speaker: Uh, necromorph.
Speaker: A necromorph.
Speaker: Mostly we're dealing with the, uh, the side bits, the side plot that involves, you know,
Speaker: uh, uh, uh, um, you know, the, the, their heads getting played with, which was a neat little side effect.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's, that's, that's also a thing.
Speaker: That's also part of, that's also part of the horror in dead space is the event horizon esque psychological, which is basically that's, that's what it is.
Speaker: It's, it's very much a, a take on the, uh, event horizon style horror.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Which is basically ghosts.
Speaker: It's ghost stories, hauntings in space.
Speaker: It's poltergeist in space.
Speaker: It's a haunted... The ship is a haunted house.
Speaker: That's really what it comes down to.
Speaker: So, well, why don't we just...
Speaker: Let's just get into it then.
Speaker: We won't have to leave the people guessing at what the hell esoteric shit we're talking about here.
Speaker: The book starts with a little prologue dream sequence.
Speaker: It's only a page and a half or so.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's a person...
Speaker: unidentified person being facing off against a gigantic necromorph which yep given how long you've played the game i think you probably know which one this is referring to i finally do i finally do yeah so the big boy yeah the big boy
Speaker: So, yeah, and it's a really brief scene.
Speaker: There's some nice little action.
Speaker: He gets a slice in on it and then it kills him.
Speaker: Yes, and he's dead.
Speaker: Our character, Chava, wakes up and it was his dream of fighting this necromorph.
Speaker: Or at least he was having a very similar sort of dream.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: Yeah, they don't.
Speaker: They don't specify whether it's him, but they do.
Speaker: As the chapters go on, it seems like people are having similar dreams.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: It's not just him.
Speaker: And Chava is a young man.
Speaker: Do we get a specific age on him?
Speaker: I assume teenager, like a teen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just based on the actions that he takes, he seems teen-ish.
Speaker: Yeah, he seems pretty young.
Speaker: He doesn't seem like a child, but he seems young.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it doesn't go into a lot of the specifics with that.
Speaker: So, yeah, he wakes up and we are in Chicxulub, Puerto, which is, I guess this is, it's kind of, we were just talking about it, we were looking it up, it's kind of a resort town there.
Speaker: uh yeah from what i understand it's it's just it's got some hotels it's located on a barrier island on the yucatan peninsula um and those are that's that's an island if you've ever been to florida those are the islands that run down the coast of florida same situation it's it's on a little barrier island um
Speaker: But they don't want you to know that.
Speaker: It's like, that's the thing.
Speaker: When we look it up, it seems like a nice little resort town.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And in the book, it's like they're talking about crops and all that stuff.
Speaker: And you're like, well, this isn't really the place where you would worry about crops.
Speaker: The book kind of wants you to think of it as like man on fire Mexico.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And let's be let's be honest.
Speaker: This is this is supposed to be way in the future.
Speaker: Still.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There you I'm not sure it would be a it wouldn't be a farmland no matter what.
Speaker: How long into the future?
Speaker: No, I got to say it's not the sandy soil of the beach is not exactly conducive to growing a ton of corn.
Speaker: Let me put it that way.
Speaker: So I made a note here.
Speaker: He he heard his father talking angrily about it.
Speaker: Crops that even a few years back had been healthy and strong now came up stunted if they came up at all.
Speaker: The only supposedly safe food was the patented foods grown in controlled environments by mega corporations, food that few could afford.
Speaker: And the note, the note I wrote was capitalism message.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: We are in a hyper capitalist future where we're the, the evil corporations are controlling the foods.
Speaker: Yes, and no one but the super rich can afford the foods.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's our setting.
Speaker: That's where we are for the time being.
Speaker: That's our setting, and the chapter ends in these, let me tell you, folks, these chapters are blink and you miss them.
Speaker: Yes, they sure are.
Speaker: It's it's it's and the characters are, too, at first, at least, you know, and that's the thing.
Speaker: Do you know what this actually made me think of to begin with?
Speaker: I don't know if you've ever read Jurassic Park.
Speaker: Yeah, I've read the Jurassic Park.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's one of my favorite books.
Speaker: I find myself reading it like once every few years.
Speaker: I read it when I was a kid, probably way too young to be reading it.
Speaker: But it was there's a great the way Michael Crichton writes Jurassic Park is terrific because he knows that there's going to be
Speaker: A lot of spooky stuff and scary stuff and action packed stuff coming along.
Speaker: But he's got a lot of exposition to set down first.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, and so he gives us an opening chapter with a bunch of people that we will never hear or see.
Speaker: Again, right.
Speaker: That is a scary, spooky, mysterious chapter that really sets the tone and basically says to the reader, hey, I know you're here for thrills and chills and spills.
Speaker: We're going to get to them.
Speaker: Let me give you a taste just so you don't immediately lose focus.
Speaker: And that's kind of what Evanson ends up doing here.
Speaker: But I think he does it a little.
Speaker: It's just a little it's a little shotgun.
Speaker: There are a lot of really disposable characters that come up in the first few chapters.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, yeah, because that first chapter ends with Chava, who.
Speaker: is our current protagonist he is not he is not the once and future protagonist i mean later in the book he might he might come back but he might come back but my guess is blinkity's gone he sure we remember we remember the the great halo embarrassment of 2021 yeah so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna put money on that or anything but
Speaker: And then chapter two, we dive and we got Michael Altman.
Speaker: Now, Michael Altman is a huge character in the the dead space of Earth's.
Speaker: OK, Altman is the guy who eventually he founded the Church of Unitology.
Speaker: And we're getting a little brief glimpse into him in the second chapter.
Speaker: It basically tells you what he's doing in Jik'zalub, that he's been there for about a year.
Speaker: He moved there with his girlfriend, who is an anthropologist, you know, and he's he's he's what is it exactly that he does?
Speaker: He's a geophysic, James Field, geophysicist.
Speaker: He shares a lab with him.
Speaker: He's a scientist.
Speaker: Let's just go with that.
Speaker: Altman is like a rogue geologist or something like that.
Speaker: Oh gosh.
Speaker: That's the worst kind.
Speaker: That's the worst kind.
Speaker: He's just like, he's just like, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to figure this shit out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You think that's a rock?
Speaker: That's not a rock.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Gotcha, punk.
Speaker: He's he's he's he's rogue geologist.
Speaker: He seems very arrogant.
Speaker: He at one point there's internal monologue where it's he it says the work was slow, not very rewarding, but he tried to tell himself it wasn't quite as pointless as what Field was doing.
Speaker: The guy that Field, this guy he shares an office with.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, he's it's it's kind of funny because you would think that a person with that level of delusions of grandeur would have chosen a more exciting or or or otherwise like important, if you will, field in geology.
Speaker: I'm not trying to shit on geologists.
Speaker: I'm just saying they don't generally sway the events of the world on the level that that that kind of.
Speaker: that kind of like egomania requires yeah yeah exactly and then it's like it's like another boom we move we're moving on they they detected something in in the crater in a crater in a crater yes yes in the chick salub crater which is a massive uh it's like one of the it it could be like killed the dinosaurs type yeah exactly greater field later is like oh i'm clocking out that's not in this chapter
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They happen.
Speaker: Well, that's that's how quick they are.
Speaker: That's how fast it all goes by.
Speaker: That's later his field is like, this is interesting.
Speaker: And then he's like, I'm late.
Speaker: Yeah, they find an anomaly.
Speaker: Meanwhile, Chava, our forever hero.
Speaker: Forever.
Speaker: He's not going anywhere.
Speaker: We cut back to Chava and he's getting closer to the thing that he saw on the beach.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: This horrible.
Speaker: He thinks it's, you know, it's not a sea turtle or a dog or a jaguar.
Speaker: He says he thought maybe it was a monkey, but it's too big to be a monkey.
Speaker: And as he gets closer, he realizes that it's very similar to the creature that was in his dream.
Speaker: And this is actually a pretty terrific story.
Speaker: Description here.
Speaker: And it just it's it goes on.
Speaker: And the huffing noise that a huffing noise came from the opening his mouth, along with a bitter, acrid smell that made Chava cough.
Speaker: And I'm pleased to say that I've at least made it far enough along in dead space to know exactly what they're describing here.
Speaker: It's those puffer dudes that are that change the environment.
Speaker: Yeah, we get a really awful moment where the creature makes a terrible sound and these lumps on its back are pulsing and you hear bones cracking and it's coughing up liquid and the horrible gray sacks on its back are filling and deflating over and over again, just leaning there on the sands of the beach and just coughing up shit and making horrible sounds.
Speaker: You know, I gotta be honest, at this point I was like...
Speaker: This is pretty cool.
Speaker: I'm into it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker: I was like, uh, by in chapter, by chapter three, I was like, Oh, this could be the, the line I really liked was its muscles tightened and the gaping hole pulled back into a poor imitation of a smile.
Speaker: And that's what causes him to run.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No one here is mad at you over that action.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then we're back with Field and Altman.
Speaker: And Field basically checks himself out of the adventure and just says, I'm just going to follow protocol.
Speaker: Which, you know what, might have been the smartest thing he's ever done when you think about it.
Speaker: He just goes, you know, I know they don't pay me more for I don't get overtime, motherfucker.
Speaker: I'm a salaryman.
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: It's five o'clock.
Speaker: I'm going to get my margaritas on.
Speaker: And yeah, you live on the beach in Mexico, Altman.
Speaker: But Altman says, you know, he accuses him of basically, he doesn't say this, but to me it was kind of like a...
Speaker: a scientist insult when he was like, he was like, you're not even curious.
Speaker: It was like, Oh, science insult.
Speaker: That's a science insult.
Speaker: And then it's the whole point.
Speaker: And then field pointed one shaky finger at him, which by the way, uh, Evanston uses shaky finger, um, way too often in the first hundred pages.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, he sure does.
Speaker: He sure does.
Speaker: Like, I know it was like I registered it like at least three times.
Speaker: They're like, all right, not everybody's finger is shaky when they point.
Speaker: No, it's like, no, everyone's finger.
Speaker: She's just shaking for different reasons.
Speaker: That's all.
Speaker: It's like, look, we don't.
Speaker: We don't need a description for every finger in the book.
Speaker: One or two at most, at most.
Speaker: And then we got a quavering voice, which I believe there might be another quavering voice later.
Speaker: But but Field says, go ahead, be a maverick and see where it gets you.
Speaker: Oh, you're a maverick Altman.
Speaker: You rogue geologist, you.
Speaker: You rogue geologist.
Speaker: My God.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So he gets and then like he's he decides he's going to settle into this himself and he stays on.
Speaker: He's going over all this data and and trying to look for any any similar situations that happen with the anomaly.
Speaker: Like they're thinking of volcanic eruption, stuff like that underneath the crater.
Speaker: And and he gets this
Speaker: He gets this.
Speaker: This is where this is to me where the book starts like slowly rolling down the asshole hill.
Speaker: He's just he's just hanging out and he looks and he looks and he doesn't find anything.
Speaker: He just he basically has a late day.
Speaker: Yeah, that's all.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a late day.
Speaker: And then he gets a phone call from some shadowy figure.
Speaker: I couldn't help but think of Trent from Resident Evil.
Speaker: Where he's like, he's like, weird has it you've been asking around about the crater.
Speaker: And I wanted him to go, yeah, that's literally my job.
Speaker: I literally ask questions about the crater.
Speaker: Wait, hold on, hold on.
Speaker: I'm getting a, I'm getting a call from Jill Valentine.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm back.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: God.
Speaker: You've been asking about the crater.
Speaker: And all it does actually answer the way I kind of explain.
Speaker: He goes, that's correct.
Speaker: There's this odd anomaly.
Speaker: He's like, he's explaining.
Speaker: It's not a big secret.
Speaker: And the guy goes, not over the phone.
Speaker: You've already said too much as it is.
Speaker: Eight o'clock, the bar near the Quay.
Speaker: You know where that is?
Speaker: Yeah?
Speaker: Who is this?
Speaker: But the caller had already hung up.
Speaker: Dun-dun-dun.
Speaker: Dun-dun-dun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just like, just a completely out of nowhere conspiracy theorist.
Speaker: Like, he literally took a couple of extra hours on his workday, and QAnon called him up and be like, I hear that you want to learn the truth about the crater.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: Come to our QAnon meeting at the bar.
Speaker: Right, you're gonna learn all about the crater, my friend.
Speaker: It's the lizard people.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, by that, don't say Jews.
Speaker: I mean lizard people.
Speaker: That's what I meant.
Speaker: My god.
Speaker: So, now this, and like I said, rolling down the asshole hill, it also continues, we go back to Shava, and this is where...
Speaker: We got a Bruja now.
Speaker: We got a Bruja.
Speaker: This is where we roll happily into 1995's impression of Mexico everywhere, which everywhere in Mexico looks like Mexico City, which is simultaneously dirty and modern and old and primitive at the same time.
Speaker: Oh, wait, hold on.
Speaker: In my mind's eye, I have to slap an orange filter on the lens.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: No, it's man on fire.
Speaker: Like, just that's where that's what Mexico is.
Speaker: And so he basically like Chava has gone and he's gone to get his mom and a bunch of other people from the nearby shantytown.
Speaker: And at this point, those wet gray sacks on the back or like the size of a man, like they're balloons now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're all checking him out.
Speaker: And it's like.
Speaker: They're all checking him out, and there's the drunk, the old town drunk.
Speaker: One man, a small but dignified-looking old drunk.
Speaker: What the fuck does that mean?
Speaker: Anyway, there's a cloud.
Speaker: The air is just this horrible yellow, and he walks into it and collapses, and everyone pulls him out of it, slaps him, smacks him around, and he...
Speaker: The first thing he does, this almost slipped past me, but the the the drunk eventually wakes up.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it says Shava watched until the drunk was conscious again and groping for his bottle because.
Speaker: Come on, man.
Speaker: I thought he was dignified.
Speaker: He's like, yeah, which is he, man?
Speaker: He sounds like a Looney Tunes drunk, for God's sake.
Speaker: He sounds like he's like he would be played by the guy from Back to the Future.
Speaker: Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker: It's just a mess.
Speaker: So they're all looking at him, and eventually Shava's mother says, go fetch the old brouhaha.
Speaker: She'll know what to do.
Speaker: So the old town witch, and they bring her in, and she looks like the Mexican version of a German fairy tale witch.
Speaker: She's moving slowly.
Speaker: She's leaning on a staff.
Speaker: She's covered in wrinkles.
Speaker: It's rumored that she's been alive for a thousand years.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And I love this.
Speaker: She's like a lost book, his mother had said another time.
Speaker: She knows everything that everyone else has forgotten.
Speaker: And I'm like, I don't think your mom said that.
Speaker: I think you made that up.
Speaker: I think you're making that up, Shava.
Speaker: What is the...
Speaker: what is the equivalent of this?
Speaker: This is where I started to get a little like, uh, because this is almost like the equivalent of what like Orientalism, but for Mexico for, for Hispanic culture.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That kind of that, uh, the, the fear and allure of the exotic.
Speaker: Um, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I don't know what you would call that for for folks in Central and South America.
Speaker: I'm sure there's a word for it.
Speaker: I'm sure there is a word for it.
Speaker: But that's it.
Speaker: But that's a great point.
Speaker: That's basically where we end up here.
Speaker: There's there's this level of of kind of, you know, it's like, oh, well, we want to make this really spooky.
Speaker: Let's put it in a in a terribly exotic and frightening place.
Speaker: Yeah, let's let's then let's take some of the cultural mysticism and shoehorn it in there to you to explain.
Speaker: some of the plot.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: And yeah, and basically the Bruja explains that this thing on the beach has something to do with Ixtab, which is presumably the old Mayan goddess of suicide.
Speaker: Yes, and that is true.
Speaker: I looked that up.
Speaker: That's a thing.
Speaker: You know, and I've got you got to give it to the Mayans.
Speaker: If you're going to have a God for everything, a God for suicide.
Speaker: That totally seems fair.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where's that explanation in our sixth grade Greek Greco Roman mythology class?
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Bring me the South American fucking suicide goddesses.
Speaker: I want more of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's fucking cool.
Speaker: Some cool shit.
Speaker: So yeah, it's he's explained.
Speaker: He explains his dream to the bro.
Speaker: This is all.
Speaker: By the way, this horrible thing is like writhing and pulsating in the background.
Speaker: And he like mentions he has a dream and she's like, tell me about the dream.
Speaker: They're like they're like dream journaling while there's like there's a literal monster behind them on the beach.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And it's just and all this is happening.
Speaker: It's like pages.
Speaker: It's the longest chapter in the book.
Speaker: It's only like five pages long, but still longest chapter in the book so far.
Speaker: And it's and then she says something about.
Speaker: She says, do you know what this word means?
Speaker: Of course, the name of the town, he says he doesn't.
Speaker: And so she draws.
Speaker: With the tip of her stick in the sand, she draws these two lines that are twisting together, which they call the tail of the devil.
Speaker: It's this symbol.
Speaker: And at this point, I thought to myself, do we have time for this?
Speaker: Like, you don't have to.
Speaker: You can just you can be like, hey, listen.
Speaker: So listen, Chixxalub, it's about it means the tail of the devil.
Speaker: I don't need to take, you know, a minute out of our time right now to draw that in the sand for you because we have a literal fucking noxious pox demon.
Speaker: We have a herald of Nurgle on our goddamn shores, and I don't have time to draw pictures for you because this is kind of important.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's so weird.
Speaker: Like, if you read this book, guys, if you read this book, all of chapter five, never forget that as all of this is happening, not 15 feet away from them is this horrible gasping with giant lung bladders on its back that it said literally when fully inflated was the size of the man itself.
Speaker: It's like a bad fucking carnival ride in the background, gasping and making horrible sounds.
Speaker: And if you've played the game, it really does make terrible, horrible sounds.
Speaker: This is all happening while they're having this little conversation about dreams are powerful, ain't they?
Speaker: Ah, of course she has a toothless smile.
Speaker: Of course she does.
Speaker: We're in the future and the Bruja can't get some dentures.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But, you know, when you think about it, we're in the future.
Speaker: That means that the Bruja might be someone from our generation.
Speaker: And leave it to our generation to like she probably had like that girl like blew her boyfriend while they were watching Knocked Up translated to Spanish.
Speaker: Like she's she's she was a regular chick at a certain point.
Speaker: She started getting old.
Speaker: She's like, I think I'm going to be this town's old witch.
Speaker: And she just like went whole hog into that.
Speaker: And what they don't know is she has a full TikTok account where she recounts all of her weird shit.
Speaker: She's Bruja 2099.
Speaker: On TikTok, check her out.
Speaker: Jesus.
Speaker: I don't have a lot of faith in our generation, you see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Millennials in the future, when they're old, not going to.
Speaker: We're not going to be very helpful.
Speaker: We're not very helpful now.
Speaker: Not going to be super helpful.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Why would we be helpful when our backs start giving out?
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: Stupid.
Speaker: Stupid.
Speaker: So Altman goes home to his girlfriend Ada Wong from Resident Evil 2.
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: And yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker: And he does the most sensible thing in the book since his co-worker said, I'm going home.
Speaker: He thinks about the phone call that was like, hey, meet me at the bar.
Speaker: And he goes, pass.
Speaker: And he just goes home.
Speaker: And they're sitting there chatting.
Speaker: His girlfriend is an anthropologist.
Speaker: And this was another really, again, these are just the stupidest moments.
Speaker: He mentions that things are off with that.
Speaker: And she's like, that's funny.
Speaker: Things are off at my job, too.
Speaker: And he says, what the?
Speaker: So you guys discovered a gravitational anomaly?
Speaker: She says, kind of, or at least the anthropological equivalent.
Speaker: The stories are changing.
Speaker: And he says, what story?
Speaker: She says, the folk tales, they're starting to change and quickly, too.
Speaker: That doesn't happen, Michael.
Speaker: It never happens.
Speaker: To which I respond, you're right.
Speaker: That doesn't happen.
Speaker: That's not a thing.
Speaker: it's like where do you go and check with people day after day all right are you still telling that one folk tale the same way okay great okay so hansel and gretel did yeah yeah recount all the details for me beginning to end right now i'm timing you and i'm gonna compare it to yesterday's time and details go and i hope you're ready because tomorrow we're doing this again
Speaker: We're doing this till the day you die.
Speaker: That is my job as an anthropologist is I come by and I check the folktales.
Speaker: I have a journal.
Speaker: I have a journal back at home.
Speaker: It's got every folktale.
Speaker: Listen, the guy who pays for our grants does not look at my work.
Speaker: He just checks the word count.
Speaker: I need to fill these folders.
Speaker: Go.
Speaker: So so all the folktales have the devil's tale.
Speaker: That is like they this whole conversation could have been a few pages longer.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: To explain what the fuck she means.
Speaker: What is I don't there's it's just the stories are changing.
Speaker: The what story is this?
Speaker: What do you mean they're changing?
Speaker: She doesn't explain.
Speaker: No, that's that's a really vague thing to say.
Speaker: It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker: And my guess is either.
Speaker: And we're going to get a little bit into the author himself here in a minute.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But my guess is either.
Speaker: Either he just didn't want to.
Speaker: It's just that week of writing.
Speaker: Or he did explain it.
Speaker: And the editor who works for the book company that wanted him to make a video game book came in and just like sliced out entire pages because no one's going to read a 600 page Dead Space book.
Speaker: And there are a lot of moments like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That make me go, this feels like a shitty edit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know for sure.
Speaker: But we're going to get to a lot of moments like that.
Speaker: You think you think it was like an editor saying just like select and delete.
Speaker: I think at times, yes.
Speaker: And I'll tell you why.
Speaker: I did a little research on our dear friend, Evanson, and he is better known as Brian Evanson these days.
Speaker: And if you're a horror or sci-fi geek and you recognize that name, it's because he's a really well-respected and lauded writer these days.
Speaker: He released last year or the year before a book called Song for the Unraveling of the World.
Speaker: It's a collection of short stories that won like the Shirley Jackson Award.
Speaker: And like he has won.
Speaker: He's won an O'Henry Award.
Speaker: The dude has won like some serious awards.
Speaker: He's got some clout behind him.
Speaker: He's a good writer, at least based on I say that, but at least based on the track record of the stuff that he's written and the level of respect that others seem to give him.
Speaker: He is a respected writer and he's been a respected writer for a while.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I can't help but wonder there are all these abrupt jarring cuts like that one that where it's like you said something that makes very little sense and offered no explanation.
Speaker: And I can't help but feel like they were like, hey, you want a paycheck?
Speaker: We will pay you to write this video game prequel.
Speaker: And he was like, cool.
Speaker: I could probably hammer that out in a couple of months.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Gimme, gimme.
Speaker: And he sent them back, you know, a literary manuscript that was like five or 600 pages long.
Speaker: And they were like, oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: This will never do.
Speaker: Yeah, no.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And what's weird is he wrote several other Dead Space, or at least one other Dead Space novel.
Speaker: He wrote... He at least wrote the next one.
Speaker: Catalyst, yeah.
Speaker: And just looking up his Wikipedia, he has PhDs in literature and critical theory.
Speaker: He's often... He's translated several books from French into English.
Speaker: He is a well-studied, well-respected author with a ton of awards.
Speaker: He had a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017.
Speaker: Yeah, he sure did.
Speaker: Now, does that mean that author, with all of that badass clout behind him, does that mean that he couldn't possibly have written a single book?
Speaker: shitty novel.
Speaker: Let's not be silly.
Speaker: Of course he could have.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: There's a total chit, but I can't as a writer and an editor, frankly, there are moments like this that I can't help but go.
Speaker: I don't know if this was his fault or not.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's hard to say.
Speaker: It's hard to say.
Speaker: And that's and that's that's part of the thing.
Speaker: The unseen thing about books is that.
Speaker: There's only one name on the cover usually.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: There's what there's either the author or co-authors or what have you.
Speaker: The editor is never on there, but the editor has a huge amount of weight on what happens in that book.
Speaker: And sometimes I can imagine you get stuck with an editor who makes some some bad calls or even somebody higher up the the person who is the licensor takes a look at it and says, hey, lose this, lose this.
Speaker: It's got to keep it's got to keep moving.
Speaker: You know, exactly.
Speaker: Especially as.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Especially when you're working on commission for, you know, something that's based on a video game.
Speaker: I can totally see where that would happen.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But for those of you, I mean, like next time you guys crack open a book, you know, sometimes it's the front.
Speaker: Usually it's in the back.
Speaker: Check the back page where they do the acknowledgement page after it's all over.
Speaker: And there will be like 30 names that the person's acknowledging.
Speaker: This author is not acknowledging those people out of the goodness of his heart because they like gave him some inspirational words one afternoon, or at least that's not the majority of them.
Speaker: A lot of people have...
Speaker: You know, like Kevin said, there's only one name on the book, but a lot of people stick their fingers in these pies.
Speaker: So who the hell knows?
Speaker: Who really knows?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But all we can really judge is the final product.
Speaker: And and so we're we're.
Speaker: We're moving along and the Bruja is doing some witchcraft or something like that.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: They burn it.
Speaker: They just burn the thing.
Speaker: They're like, well, they could have done that like an hour ago.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I'm not sure how much the magic spell needed to be involved, but they just they get everyone grabs a piece of driftwood.
Speaker: Yeah, they light it up and and then they light him up.
Speaker: And it basically just kind of collapses in on itself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, it's just a smoldering skeleton by the end of it.
Speaker: The whole thing is just improvised.
Speaker: I have to believe.
Speaker: Like, I just imagine her going, how do I get them to blow this thing up and still keep my mystique going?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, then you do it now.
Speaker: You do it.
Speaker: Just like,
Speaker: Yeah, it's really weird.
Speaker: It feels very weird.
Speaker: It feels very forced.
Speaker: And the only thing that I'd say at this point is that we aren't we aren't developing really any character in these in these non Altman chapters.
Speaker: Like, no, not really.
Speaker: Like Chava is just there.
Speaker: And he had he had a dream once.
Speaker: And we're back with Altman.
Speaker: Now, the thing has been burned.
Speaker: And Altman is meeting with his with his mysterious friend who is not named Trent.
Speaker: His name is Hammond.
Speaker: Charles Hammond.
Speaker: Not right.
Speaker: Not the Hammond from Jurassic Park.
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: It's really weird, the introduction, too.
Speaker: Altman says, and you are?
Speaker: The guy says, I only give my name out to friends.
Speaker: Are you a friend?
Speaker: Altman stared at him.
Speaker: All right, said the man.
Speaker: Maybe you don't make friends right off the bat.
Speaker: Okay, whatever you think of what I tell you.
Speaker: If anyone asks, you didn't hear from me.
Speaker: It's like, he just kind of goes, are you my friend?
Speaker: And the guy goes,
Speaker: What almonds like all right fine.
Speaker: Here's my name almonds like I don't know how to answer that Allman acts the most normal of any it just like I don't know what you want from me like who I don't know who you are you we're in a bar you wanted to talk to me really fair
Speaker: He's completely fair about it.
Speaker: You know, he's like, I don't know.
Speaker: No, man.
Speaker: And so Hammond, you know, they both they they basically both been noticing stuff.
Speaker: And Hammond points out that he says there's a pulse slow and irregular, very weak, but strong enough to fuzz up other signals.
Speaker: So he's been noticing these strange anomalies the same way that he has.
Speaker: So I.
Speaker: So my eyes started to glaze over a little bit during this conversation.
Speaker: And there's a note that I highlighted this.
Speaker: So there's this chat, this paragraph where Hammond says, I did some investigating.
Speaker: I set up a few receivers, triangulate the pulse.
Speaker: It's like it goes on and on.
Speaker: And my note that I wrote down was Hammond.
Speaker: I did science.
Speaker: That's exactly what he says, basically.
Speaker: And then he gets in it like he just it's like, I don't know.
Speaker: It's such a weird moment.
Speaker: It just he's just like he's keeping the conspiracy coming on thick, really.
Speaker: And he's got a moment.
Speaker: Hammond leaned even further in, putting his arm around Altman's shoulders and bringing his lips close to Altman's ear.
Speaker: Remember, he whispered, you didn't hear this for me.
Speaker: It's just like, and then they kiss.
Speaker: Like, what the fuck is going to happen next?
Speaker: And now kith.
Speaker: And now they kith.
Speaker: It's a really awkward and uncomfortable scene.
Speaker: It just is.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's like, so it all centers around, basically the main takeaway is that there's this
Speaker: Other corp called Dredger Corp that is they basically do things without asking permission.
Speaker: And they're the ones that are kind of like circling in on it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So that's pretty much it.
Speaker: And Hammond is Hammond's dude.
Speaker: And I will say, I can't believe it's a coincidence, but he has the same last name as a pretty important character in the game.
Speaker: And so I wonder...
Speaker: Yeah, is there supposed to be a relation, or is it just, like, coincidence?
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: And as we go on, you'll see why I'm as confused as I totally am.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: I'm just looking...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're talking about.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He is.
Speaker: He also has a he also has a moment at the very end, though, where he basically at the very end, it's the first time you realize how the hell did Hammond find Altman in the first place?
Speaker: Yeah, well, that's the thing is like, Altman was not being quiet about it.
Speaker: I don't understand what the, I don't understand what the relation is.
Speaker: Like, Altman's just literally calling everybody else who works in the area.
Speaker: You're like, hey, have you heard anything about this?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Have you heard anything about this?
Speaker: Nah, I can't talk about it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker: And meanwhile, this guy is like, is, I guess he just heard from somebody else that Altman is curious about it, but I don't understand necessarily the...
Speaker: I mean, I guess there's a reason for him to be quiet if it's this Dredgercore thing is as shady as they are, but I don't know.
Speaker: It's a weird scene.
Speaker: It's kind of a weird... It's a weird conceit, you know, to make it sound more mysterious than it is.
Speaker: And rather than just give Altman some, like...
Speaker: i don't know character motivation to just find it or figure it out himself you know right right yeah it's it's just it's just odd uh so it it it ends kind of it's just in a weird ambiguous place um and we get to chapter nine and the boy shava is uh
Speaker: He's walked the brew hub back to her shanty.
Speaker: And it says one moment she was there walking beside him, talking softly to him, and the next she was gone.
Speaker: Not only was she gone, but as he looked back, the only tracks in the sand were his own, which, of course, means Jesus.
Speaker: Jesus.
Speaker: The Bruja was carrying him when he most needed her.
Speaker: That is a fact.
Speaker: Yeah, my note is Bruja Jesus.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Bruja Jesus.
Speaker: So he basically, he's gone to check on her at her shanty, and it's dark inside.
Speaker: He calls out to her.
Speaker: He doesn't even, like, have a name for her.
Speaker: He just calls her Bruja.
Speaker: He, like, calls out Bruja.
Speaker: He's like, hey, old lady, it's me, Chava, the kid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You just helped kill a giant monster that I'm surprised we're not more traumatized about.
Speaker: But anyway, I'm surprised we haven't all just been sitting around going, holy fucking shit.
Speaker: Can you believe that happened?
Speaker: Anyway, it's Chava.
Speaker: I'm just checking in on you and you're like, holy shit, you're dead.
Speaker: And she's dead.
Speaker: She's dead.
Speaker: She's she's she's she appears to have cut her own throat.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the way it's written, it seems like she's been dead for a while.
Speaker: So the Bruja, she was a ghost or something.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Everybody just hallucinated the Bruja.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's yeah, between the the the steps in the sand and all it just feels.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a little weird.
Speaker: It's a little weird.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So meanwhile, we get a Hammond POV chapter.
Speaker: Yeah, I didn't think you were going to get that.
Speaker: Didn't think you were going to get that.
Speaker: Well, it's don't worry.
Speaker: You're not going to get many more of them because you really won't.
Speaker: You really won't because you're going to Hammond is being tracked by three large men.
Speaker: They're like, come with us.
Speaker: Someone would like to have a word with you.
Speaker: And now Hammond's on the, oh, side.
Speaker: He tried to be the mysterious one, and now he's, the situation's how the turntables have turned.
Speaker: Yeah, he kind of sounds like a sad, you know, has been conspiracy theorist.
Speaker: Like when he's actually faced with these guys, he's kind of he's kind of pitiful in this moment.
Speaker: Yeah, he's very pitiful.
Speaker: He runs from the three the three gorillas that were sent to to bring him in where we don't know.
Speaker: But yeah, they're named from him and he runs from them.
Speaker: And a dog that was never introduced, by the way.
Speaker: Suddenly he's also just being chased by a dog, which I guess is their dog.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess they have a dog.
Speaker: I guess they have a dog.
Speaker: Why wouldn't they?
Speaker: Why wouldn't they?
Speaker: Hammond only sees one way out and he slits his own throat.
Speaker: Yeah, and the chapter ends kind of hilariously.
Speaker: Like, these three toughs that have been, like, intimidating him, and all they said, I mean, don't get me wrong, that's not... They've been, like...
Speaker: You know, you're going to, our boss wants to talk to you.
Speaker: Someone wants to talk to you.
Speaker: Like that is intimidating, but he cuts his own throat.
Speaker: And one of them goes, I didn't expect that.
Speaker: The other one goes, I didn't either.
Speaker: What'd they want him for?
Speaker: Just a few questions.
Speaker: A few questions.
Speaker: The guy says, nothing serious, just a few questions.
Speaker: I've never seen anything like that.
Speaker: It was like so hilarious when he gets... It's hilarious.
Speaker: It's just like, well, son of a bitch, can you believe he did that?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, fuck.
Speaker: Alrighty.
Speaker: And their names, by the way, are Tim, Tom, and Terry.
Speaker: Tim, Tom, and Terry.
Speaker: Why wouldn't they be?
Speaker: And I saw that, and I was just...
Speaker: I wrote the name.
Speaker: The note I wrote next to that was one was unbelievably lame.
Speaker: Who were the guys in the X-Files who, they had a spinoff show, the weird conspiracy geeks that worked for- The lone gunman.
Speaker: The lone gunman, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, like, that's what it made me think of.
Speaker: Like, suddenly these, like, tall, dark hooded figures suddenly become these geeky, overweight, long-haired, Brian Posehn-looking motherfuckers.
Speaker: Like, so, and that's how part one ends.
Speaker: That's the end of part one.
Speaker: It's so ridiculous.
Speaker: By the way, I love the line that ends part one.
Speaker: And I just imagine it as like a huckster.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Step lively, lads.
Speaker: Been one of those nights.
Speaker: Step lively, lads.
Speaker: Let's get out of here before the law arrives.
Speaker: Gotta move these fake trombones.
Speaker: I gotta go before the gumshoes show up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I gotta get to the haberdashery.
Speaker: That's, that is, that is the perfect way for part one to end.
Speaker: It's so absurd.
Speaker: It's like a bump it up and up.
Speaker: I mean, God, this is my Tommy gun.
Speaker: Like just good Lord.
Speaker: I was like, what is this book?
Speaker: It's so weird.
Speaker: It's so weird.
Speaker: Alright, so forget all those other characters.
Speaker: We're not gonna see him for a little while.
Speaker: Yeah, at least.
Speaker: Yeah, at least for another part.
Speaker: Yeah, but but but hilariously enough, part two does open with somebody explaining to someone at DredgerCore.
Speaker: Yeah, he just cut his throat like he basically the hilarity never stops.
Speaker: Like they're just you can just imagine every staff member going, what?
Speaker: We just wanted to talk to him.
Speaker: We just want to talk to him and they cut his throat.
Speaker: So we're introduced to William Tanner, who is the newly established Dredger Corps, the head of Dredger Corps in Chick-fil-A.
Speaker: And they kind of talk more about like the Dredger Corps and Tanner's military background.
Speaker: And it's it's literally nothing that makes him an interesting character.
Speaker: No, it's a lot of it's it really is just a lot of tell and no show instead of showing us his military poise or whatever.
Speaker: We're just told that he was military and has military poise.
Speaker: And it's it's it's Bushley.
Speaker: It's it's lousy.
Speaker: It's yeah.
Speaker: And the best part is when they're trying to remember the name of the guy who cut his throat.
Speaker: Bacon was his name or no, not quite that.
Speaker: Another kind of meat ham.
Speaker: Hammond.
Speaker: Hammond.
Speaker: I have, I literally have that part highlighted.
Speaker: Because, my God.
Speaker: Or no, not quite that.
Speaker: Another kind of meat.
Speaker: Ham.
Speaker: Hammond.
Speaker: Kevin, Jesus Christ.
Speaker: I think this book is supposed to be a comedy.
Speaker: It has to be, man.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: My God, that's absolutely absurd.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So we're talking more about the body in the next couple pages.
Speaker: I've seen the body myself.
Speaker: He's dead.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: They were just trying to bring him in talking to him and he flipped and slid his own throat.
Speaker: This is like four more pages of the
Speaker: almost sawed his head off and they just keep going on about the way they just keep going on about it he cut his throat he cut his throat he cut his throat and then they go and they're like and they're talking about this guy and then they're like okay well should we worry about the guy he went in to see this Altman guy and they're like we wanted to know if it was worth it
Speaker: checking him out when we talked to him and that was one of the questions we were going to ask and they basically go yeah you know probably nothing to worry about with altman he's a run-of-the-mill scientist uh they say no no einstein not really the sort that stands out from the pack and now that i know what you just told me about altman that's the that's the dramatic irony dramatic irony yeah yeah the uh the price is right you lose sound
Speaker: Sad trombone.
Speaker: Their dredger core is dropping off the kernel.
Speaker: Metal gear.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: They just have been apparently they're just following harmless idiots around as they weren't impressed with Hammond and they just kind of decide out of him.
Speaker: They're the worst secret service organization in the world.
Speaker: They're just like this is like, he'll be fine.
Speaker: Don't don't worry about tidying up that loose end.
Speaker: Now onward to.
Speaker: Drilling to the center of the earth.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's, let's go drill for this thing.
Speaker: Here's a prototype submersible.
Speaker: And, and we do get, we do get our first, like actually full on futuristic moment that I noticed in here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, we get, we get a moment where we're basically assembling the troops.
Speaker: We get a bunch of like professionals kind of ne'er do well mercenary types that were introduced to.
Speaker: And one of them, Dan tech,
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: What the fuck is that name?
Speaker: Dantech.
Speaker: That is it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, Dantech is a name.
Speaker: Dantech is a company.
Speaker: No, it is a name, which I don't know.
Speaker: I guess.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And yeah, it's so strange.
Speaker: I highlighted.
Speaker: I highlighted the word man again, because guess what?
Speaker: Outside of Shava's mother and the Bruja, there has not been another man.
Speaker: female character.
Speaker: No, we've had about 15 characters.
Speaker: I guess, no, I guess Altman's girlfriend, the anthropologist.
Speaker: Oh, Ada, Ada, yeah.
Speaker: Who explains.
Speaker: Ada Wong, who explains.
Speaker: How the stories are changing.
Speaker: How the stories are changing.
Speaker: The stories are changing.
Speaker: They're mutating.
Speaker: It makes sense.
Speaker: It makes sense, though, when you think about it.
Speaker: Science and war we can leave and drilling holes in the earth are men's jobs.
Speaker: Spells and witchcraft and stories.
Speaker: That's women's work.
Speaker: That's the women's work.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it holds up.
Speaker: But we do get one of the characters that describes that he had been part of the shock troops for the moon skirmishes, part of the deadly fight over which nation had the right to the resources of the moon.
Speaker: And they just kind of leave that hanging.
Speaker: Just bedded.
Speaker: And I'm like, dangling.
Speaker: Where's that story?
Speaker: Can we tag Urban Weight in to write about the moon skirmishes?
Speaker: Can we get like a Cormac McCarthy style Far Cry 6 on the moon?
Speaker: Dude, I'd read the fuck out of that.
Speaker: The soldiers came over the crest of the crater, holding their guns.
Speaker: It had been a long time since they had been on Earth.
Speaker: And this darky, inky black skies sprayed with white.
Speaker: He loaded his anti-gravity shotgun.
Speaker: God was dead.
Speaker: And so were they.
Speaker: They were already dead.
Speaker: They just didn't know it yet.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, yeah, in chapter 12, we get into like space marine style assembly time.
Speaker: Like, yeah.
Speaker: So Dan Tech, he hires the doom guy who is named Dan Tech and right.
Speaker: Who's like clearly unstable.
Speaker: And he even admits he's like, he's probably he's pretty unstable, but he does a good job.
Speaker: He's probably unstable.
Speaker: Let's put him into a tiny pressurized cylinder and send him under the water.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, they're going to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: By the way, they're doing a submersible.
Speaker: They're they're they're they're loading up a team into the submersible to go down to check out the signals that are at the crater.
Speaker: Everyone is making horror movie choices at every opportunity.
Speaker: Every opportunity that they can.
Speaker: It's just standard issue.
Speaker: If they were in a cabin being chased by a man with a skin mask, they would be running up the stairs.
Speaker: Yeah, that is what we are dealing with right now.
Speaker: So the so my favorite part of this chapter, other than, you know, talking about how Dan Tech is a bit weird, is.
Speaker: Is Tanner looking at the Colonel, the Colonel's smile?
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I know exactly.
Speaker: You should be careful what you say around anybody said the Colonel and then showed his teeth in a way that Tanner guessed might be a smile.
Speaker: Definitely a carnivore Tanner thought.
Speaker: And then the Colonel's lips slid over his teeth again.
Speaker: And he said, don't say more than you have to.
Speaker: And at this point, the Colonel is in my head is played by, you know, the dude from the Wishmaster.
Speaker: From what now?
Speaker: You know, the guy from the Wishmaster, the actor who played who is the genie in the Wishmaster.
Speaker: No, but I have to look it up now.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: I got to see.
Speaker: Wishmaster.
Speaker: I remember that.
Speaker: I never saw those movies.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: One hundred percent.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Andrew Dye and Andrew Dive off, not in his like demon form, but in his human form.
Speaker: That is right.
Speaker: I totally say that.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: It's like if that dude hasn't played like if that dude hasn't played like high level ranking officers who can't be trusted, then I don't know what I don't I don't know what kind of a wasted career he's had.
Speaker: Andrew Diveoff is playing the Colonel in this as much as I would like the Colonel to be the guy from Metal Gear Solid.
Speaker: As all Colonels are in my head.
Speaker: Snake, this is a sneaking mission.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Snake, this is a drilling into the center of the Earth mission.
Speaker: And that's what they're doing now.
Speaker: Basically, we get kind of, this would be a montage moment, wouldn't it?
Speaker: Like, they're all training on this bathysphere.
Speaker: This submersible bathysphere that's got like a, that's basically almost all drill.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And they're just going to drill and collect samples and see what the hell is going on down there.
Speaker: Uh, and, uh, like just, and you get these little quips back and forth.
Speaker: Dantic is clearly a psycho.
Speaker: Uh, but who wouldn't be when your mother named you a Dantic?
Speaker: Uh, yeah.
Speaker: All Dantic's of the world, please don't kill me.
Speaker: They do a, they do a montage and then it's, um, the next chapter, 13, we get, uh, Hennessy.
Speaker: He's, uh, he's woken up by, by Timmy and Tommy and Terry.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He was having a dream.
Speaker: You're twins.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He was having a dream before that, but then he was, he was woken up by the triplets and,
Speaker: Yeah, surprise, it's time to do the thing.
Speaker: We've been activated.
Speaker: He's having this terrible nightmare because everyone's having nightmares.
Speaker: And he punches one of them in the face and basically breaks his nose, talks about blood dripping through his fingers onto the floor, and to which the guy only responds with, what did you do that for?
Speaker: Which is like, Christ, okay.
Speaker: And one of them's like...
Speaker: You want us to rough him up a little bit?
Speaker: Soften him up a little?
Speaker: Smacking his fist into his palm.
Speaker: Hey, boss, you want me to rough him up a little?
Speaker: Like, kiss me Kate up in this bitch.
Speaker: Like, what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker: These are cartoon character criminals.
Speaker: Waiting for him to sing, brush up your, your Shakespeare.
Speaker: Like this is, this is, I think you're right, Kevin.
Speaker: This is a comedy.
Speaker: This is turned into pure comedy.
Speaker: So, so basically Tanner throws, gets Tennessee and Dantec.
Speaker: into the bathysphere.
Speaker: Um, and it's, there's just a lot of, there's like a lot of back and forth between the characters.
Speaker: Like, should I be worried?
Speaker: The F seven.
Speaker: Like I, it's like, I, I don't care.
Speaker: We get a lot of the, we get a lot of, a lot of, should I be worried?
Speaker: And a lot of, we're not paying, you know, worry, Mr. Captain, Mr. Like it's, it doesn't mean anything.
Speaker: Mr. J.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Long story short, they stuff Hennessy into a bath sphere with Dantec, the psychopath, and they send them into the ocean at night.
Speaker: Chapter ends with off you go, then both of you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Off you go, then.
Speaker: Another great end to the chapter.
Speaker: Off you go, then.
Speaker: Both of you.
Speaker: Be sure to be back before five.
Speaker: The little lady's making us baked Alaska.
Speaker: But before that, we're going to have a lobster Thermidor.
Speaker: It's just it's yeah, it's a lot of stilted dialogue.
Speaker: And basically they get them in.
Speaker: They get them into the bathysphere and they start making their way down.
Speaker: And Dante's whole job is to basically steer them, you know, towards the crater.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's his whole thing.
Speaker: And Hennessy doesn't have anything to do.
Speaker: They make a point at that.
Speaker: He's basically supposed to run the drill.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: He'll take over for the drill whenever they get there.
Speaker: But he's just kind of left with his thoughts.
Speaker: And his thoughts turn really bad.
Speaker: You know, something's wrong where he starts like thinking about like, oh, I got to file a formal complaint.
Speaker: I go to town at Tana and tell about Dantec's behavior and demand this fellow's dismissal.
Speaker: And if Tanner wasn't willing to do anything, he'd go over his head.
Speaker: He'd keep filing complaints and complaints until he'd gone to the very top to Letty Small himself.
Speaker: Surely President Small was a reasonable man, and even if a Mr. Small wouldn't listen, then he'd show them all, he'd take a gun, and he'd...
Speaker: Like, yeah, he's literally he's literally having this insane fantasy of like he's going to complain.
Speaker: And if the boss doesn't care, he'll go to the president.
Speaker: And the president doesn't care.
Speaker: He's going to grab a rifle and take it into the White House and shoot him some presidents like he's and then they he's he's he's losing it.
Speaker: They both reach for the gun.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's starting to snap and he's like giggling and kind of shrieking and making a lot of weird noises.
Speaker: And Dantec, rightfully so, tells him to get a hold of his damn self.
Speaker: Keep your men from jazz and liquor.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: I'm...
Speaker: How many musicals are we going to run through this thing?
Speaker: He's just losing it.
Speaker: And Dantec, like, basically, and here's the thing.
Speaker: This is kind of a psycho move on Dantec's part, but I also support it at this point.
Speaker: Dantec unstraps himself, gets over there, and, like, just chokes.
Speaker: Hennessy.
Speaker: And he says, listen, we can do this two ways.
Speaker: We can do it with you alive or we can do it with you dead.
Speaker: It doesn't matter to me which way we do it.
Speaker: And it's like, what the fuck is going on?
Speaker: What's going on?
Speaker: B, I get it at the same time.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: It's like the guy's losing his mind, clearly.
Speaker: It's the scene for Back to the Future Part 2 where the guy goes, we could do this the easy way or the hard way.
Speaker: And then he knocks him out and says, the easy way.
Speaker: The easy way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's and that's when and that's when Hennessy just starts to crack and they start fantasizing about murder, murder, murder.
Speaker: And the president always two things that should not go together.
Speaker: I think it's I think that's I think that's the president of Dredger Corps, though, not the not the president president.
Speaker: I hope so.
Speaker: Like, but, but that's the thing, how loony he's going.
Speaker: The fantasy only has one way to go.
Speaker: He eventually does get to the actual president of the United States.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's president.
Speaker: And t hen he would attack and dethrone God.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And if the president of the United States doesn't take it, then I'll take it up with Jesus.
Speaker: I've been waiting for some revenge against him anyway.
Speaker: So they basically they get all the way down there and it's like Hennessy is now like, hey, like, hey, let's go.
Speaker: It's time for me to run the drill.
Speaker: And Dan Tech's like, fuck off.
Speaker: Yeah, rightfully so, I would argue.
Speaker: Again, Dan's like, I am not switching spots with you.
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: I'm just going to do it.
Speaker: You chill out.
Speaker: You chill out over there.
Speaker: You clear your head.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The radio isn't really working at this point because they're too far down.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: And they're just and Hennessy's complaining about headaches and Dantic, you know, says, yeah, I got a headache too.
Speaker: I've had a headache all day.
Speaker: And so it's getting there.
Speaker: They're basically as they dig deeper and deeper into the crater, into the earth.
Speaker: Hennessy is just losing it more and more.
Speaker: Yeah, there's voices in his head and he's starting to answer the voices out loud.
Speaker: Okay, and is this a point where he starts seeing his brother?
Speaker: Yeah, he does start seeing his brother.
Speaker: His brother basically appears... So Hennessy's brother, Shane, appears outside of the ship.
Speaker: And they basically start... So Hennessy starts talking to his brother out loud, and Dantek's like, what do you shut...
Speaker: close your mouth.
Speaker: What the fuck are you doing?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Hennessey puts his face up to the glass and starts whispering.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Again, again.
Speaker: Now this isn't as overtly funny as some of the other moments we've seen, but because that door is open, I admit I laugh.
Speaker: Like this is absurd.
Speaker: It gets really silly.
Speaker: Oh, so.
Speaker: Oh God.
Speaker: He's like, invite me in.
Speaker: I guess, you know, vampire rules.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, totally.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: You know, yeah.
Speaker: The night flyer rules and he's got a he's he's they're arguing back and forth and they get really close.
Speaker: They're getting really close.
Speaker: And I will I will say I will say at this point, the author is terrific at claustrophobia.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In this moment, because you realize you get a real feel for how small and and kind of just tight in there.
Speaker: They both are.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Which is probably not going to help matters in terms of Tantic.
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: Want to kill him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that is something.
Speaker: It's getting really, really creepy.
Speaker: Hennessy's over there talking to his brother outside.
Speaker: His brother's telling him, like, he's like, you know, he's telling his brother, like, hey, I'm not allowed to let you in because Dantex says it's not a good idea.
Speaker: His brother says Dantex's not the boss of you.
Speaker: You're the boss.
Speaker: Dantex's just a big bully.
Speaker: He needs someone to put him in his place.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: And Hennessy's like, you're right.
Speaker: He's just a bully.
Speaker: He's just, you know what?
Speaker: Come on in.
Speaker: And when he invites him in, all the lights flicker and go out and then back on again in full force.
Speaker: It's one of those it's one of those clear jump scare moments.
Speaker: If you're playing this in a video game or watching it on a movie.
Speaker: And at this point, they've gotten through and Shane is just sitting next to Hennessy.
Speaker: He's just sitting next to him.
Speaker: It's really weird.
Speaker: And it ends with, now that Shane was here, everything would work out.
Speaker: And indeed it does.
Speaker: not for dantech though no not for dantech it's definitely not gonna work out for dantech um so they continue they continue um uh drilling um like his the clock their watches oh chronometers but yeah their watches have stopped why do they do that why real quick why do why do sci-fi things do that like just it's like caught a watch or a clock jesus
Speaker: Just call it a watch.
Speaker: It's this is not this.
Speaker: This book is not a thousand years into the future.
Speaker: No, it's like 200 years in the future or something.
Speaker: You can still call it a watch, man.
Speaker: It's cool.
Speaker: Relax, man.
Speaker: So anyway, yeah, they're digging.
Speaker: And Shane is like, Shane's like, hey, hey, I don't think we should be doing this, man.
Speaker: So it's weird.
Speaker: The ghost is saying maybe you guys should just leave this thing.
Speaker: Yeah, the ghost is actually the voice of reason.
Speaker: It's kind of a I don't know if I've ever read an example of that.
Speaker: So the ghost, which I assume is like is summoned by the black marker, which is what they found, which is what they find is is basically like, just don't touch it.
Speaker: Just leave it.
Speaker: Let's let's get out of here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's just let's turn around and go back home.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which what what is that book going to be like?
Speaker: I have to wonder because he's already hallucinating and seeing things.
Speaker: This doesn't end well.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: But yeah, they have found.
Speaker: This strange monolith made out of some sort of obsidian, as it describes, it narrowed to a point at the top, the whole of it twisting slightly as it rose.
Speaker: It was horizontally striated and covered with thousands of symbols, symbols unlike anything he had seen before.
Speaker: Were they glowing or did it only look like they were because of the way the light was catching them?
Speaker: And that's the black marker, which, if you've played the first game, is basically what starts the whole damn mess.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the it's the MacGuffin, so to speak.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: That you that you discover.
Speaker: We get a quick Dantech chapter, which gives us a little bit of a backstory.
Speaker: That's going to become kind of like pointless in a bad chapter.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a good thing that they tell us about Dantech in Chapter 17, because about five seconds into Chapter 18.
Speaker: Oops, he's dead.
Speaker: I'm glad.
Speaker: I'm glad we got to learn about Dantech.
Speaker: aren't you i'm so well so so it doesn't happen in chapter 18 by the way which is only a page chapter 18 is only a page long that's right that's right so so shane is like in dantech i don't know um the way he's sitting is in dantech and dantech moves and
Speaker: Oh, that's right.
Speaker: And Hennessy loses his shit.
Speaker: Hennessy loses his shit because by moving, he rips apart the ghost of Shane and there's blood everywhere.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: the fuck are we reading?
Speaker: Basically, and this is it.
Speaker: This is Dan Tech.
Speaker: Dan Tech's dead because Hennessy beats him to death with the strut from the oxygen recirculator.
Speaker: He just grabs this thing off the wall and beats Dan Tech to death.
Speaker: This hardcore Marine gets beaten by basically Professor Frink to death.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: It's absolutely insane.
Speaker: And then following this, we get I actually thought this was kind of interesting.
Speaker: In the next two chapters, Hennessy is talking with Shane.
Speaker: And Shane basically tells him a little bit about the marker.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's telling him, like, you know, and he says, you know, let them know, said Shane, the marker is the past and the past must remain undisturbed.
Speaker: If we are to continue as we are, you have already awakened it.
Speaker: It calls out for you even now, but you must not obey.
Speaker: You must not listen.
Speaker: Tell them that.
Speaker: So, again, the ghost is kind of giving him good advice.
Speaker: like tell everybody to leave it alone yeah tell them to leave it alone and kevin how what how does uh how does hennessy choose to tell the story of leave the black marker alone uh well i gotta understand it if i'm going to okay we don't have time for that uh there's not enough time in the world for that
Speaker: So he basically like decides to he he like decides to touch it or something with the ship or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He he just.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: The way he decides to tell the story is to write it down on the walls of the ship with his with the blood of Dantec.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the marker has it's covered in all these symbols and stuff like that.
Speaker: I'll write the symbols down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So he's going to write all these symbols down.
Speaker: And he realizes that he's the marker now.
Speaker: He feels the power of the black marker flowing through him.
Speaker: And so he's got to show everyone all these badass symbols.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the way he does it is he.
Speaker: He just gets the blood that Dantic has spilled all over the floor of the thing.
Speaker: When he runs out of blood, he kicks Dantic's head.
Speaker: He stomps on him.
Speaker: He cuts pieces open and just squishes blood out for him.
Speaker: It's grotesque.
Speaker: It's grotesque.
Speaker: And until until he and the entire interior.
Speaker: This is my favorite moment of like the entire book is it's just how gruesome and grotesque it is.
Speaker: And you're like, this is kind of neat.
Speaker: This is very dead space.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you don't.
Speaker: And it's actually really neat to watch, because normally in a game or a movie or a book or something like that, when it comes, we've seen plenty of movies and media in general with a guy who gets found dead, covered in symbols, usually written in blood.
Speaker: That is a that is a trope at this point.
Speaker: But we very rarely watch.
Speaker: see the person doing it and hear their inner monologue and why they're doing it right uh so it's a neat touch i will have to say it's a neat touch yeah and the the best line is he used all of dan tech up he hadn't saved enough to write the ending yeah yeah yeah he still doesn't have enough he still doesn't which i guess there's just like
Speaker: I'm just trying to visualize he used them all up.
Speaker: Is there just like skin and bone?
Speaker: Yeah, I just I want to know what that looks like, but I don't.
Speaker: I don't at the same time.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's horrible.
Speaker: And as he starts to realize that he's getting really tired, he's getting exhausted and he realizes he's getting exhausted because the oxygen is running out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's been down there for so long.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he he's run out of blood to write things.
Speaker: And he says he's run out of blood.
Speaker: He's run out of oxygen.
Speaker: And he looks down at his his arm and he says, ah, that's where you're hiding.
Speaker: That's where the blood is hiding in his arm.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So he keeps using more of him.
Speaker: He starts using himself and he, he writes it on, he writes it on himself and he records a little message.
Speaker: And he, he talks about like, he's drawn a map.
Speaker: He doesn't know if it's what Shane wants, but which is, it's not what Shane wanted.
Speaker: This isn't what Shane wanted.
Speaker: wanted.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: He totally seems to be going fully against what Shane wanted.
Speaker: The ghost was trying to tell you, dude.
Speaker: Just leave.
Speaker: Very confusing.
Speaker: You'd think he would trust his own dead ghost brother who was exploded by his co-worker.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I guess nothing's sacred anymore.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So he's just, he's losing it.
Speaker: And, and also I, this is a part I realized as well.
Speaker: This is the creation of a video slash audio log in a video game.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That you, that once again, we're getting to see it from the other side, which you never do.
Speaker: You never really get to see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pretty cool.
Speaker: It is cool.
Speaker: Pretty cool stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that, so as, as silly as it is, it's fun.
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They talk about, uh, he talks about convergence, um,
Speaker: We need to learn from it.
Speaker: We need to understand it, not destroy it.
Speaker: It's the way.
Speaker: Like, God, you really misread what your brother wanted.
Speaker: Yeah, your brother was pretty clear.
Speaker: He was pretty clear about this.
Speaker: And then Hennessy lays down and he says, I'll get up in a moment.
Speaker: But he doesn't.
Speaker: He dies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's the end of part two.
Speaker: That's the end of part two.
Speaker: My God in heaven, Kevin.
Speaker: When you texted me, you texted me earlier, what is this book?
Speaker: And I agree.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know what it is.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: There are so many.
Speaker: They're just the tone shifts.
Speaker: The tone is so fluid.
Speaker: And I don't know if he's doing it on purpose.
Speaker: Certain things are so...
Speaker: I just blatantly absurd.
Speaker: They just, yeah, they hit hilariously.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And yet I can't help, but feel like they were meant to be taken seriously on some level.
Speaker: It's kind of like, uh, me and me and my fiance.
Speaker: I just got done watching malignant.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Have you seen that?
Speaker: No, I haven't.
Speaker: I've heard people talking about it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's garbage.
Speaker: It was terrible.
Speaker: Um, but I also felt like, uh, the, the, the filmmakers are trying to, uh,
Speaker: They were trying to make a campy, silly, funny horror film, but there were too many moments where you also just kind of imagined them giving each other a high five over how cool they were being.
Speaker: And it's like, no, guys, we need to pick a lane here.
Speaker: And that's what I think about with this book so far.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's like...
Speaker: And there is no room for silly in the Dead Space games so far.
Speaker: No, it isn't.
Speaker: They're pretty grimdark.
Speaker: They are exceedingly grimdark.
Speaker: There is not really a light moment to be had.
Speaker: It's varying shades of gray and dark.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: So I can't shake the feeling that the stuff that's making us laugh isn't meant to make us laugh.
Speaker: So shit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think we might have a not so good book on our hands here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I always feel bad about having the not so good books, but at the same time, what, what, what, what the fuck can I do?
Speaker: It's, it was, it was 2010 when this came out.
Speaker: We were all different people.
Speaker: We were different people.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We were, we were definitely different people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was 12 years ago.
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I don't want to think about it either.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So anyway, we'll be back.
Speaker: We're going to continue plowing our way through because guess what?
Speaker: We don't give up on a book.
Speaker: No, we not.
Speaker: Not since the first one.
Speaker: Not yet that we gave up on, which will which which you know what?
Speaker: That's an Easter egg.
Speaker: I'm placing for future.
Speaker: You will you will in a year or so.
Speaker: Because we are going to come back around to it and we're going to conquer that one.
Speaker: absolutely we will i i'm sure we will boy howdy but all right ladies and gentlemen go to twitter and check us out and vote tell us what book you think or franchise it was that caused us to to quit just take a wild guess take a wild guess take a wild guess a crazy wild guess i dare you i dare you
Speaker: Anyway, this has been Pixel It.
Speaker: Yeah, go follow us on Twitter.
Speaker: Give us a five-star rating.
Speaker: Follow us on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker: All those good call to actions that you hear other podcasters talk about all the time.
Speaker: They say them because they're helpful.
Speaker: And I'm saying it.
Speaker: Yeah, please review us.
Speaker: It means, first off, we love it.
Speaker: We love reading any nice or mediocre thing you have to say about us.
Speaker: We like being validated.
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: But it also helps get us in front of other people who you can join in on talking trash about us as we talk trash about books and video games.
Speaker: Yep, yep, yep, exactly.
Speaker: So anyway, that'll do it for today's episode.
Speaker: Have a good night, everybody.
Speaker: Bye.
