Archives for 25 January 2007
EP090: How Lonesome a Life Without Nerve Gas
Published on 25 Jan 2007 at 2:50 pm.
32 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
Read ‘EP090: How Lonesome a Life Without Nerve Gas’
-->By James Trimarco.
Read by Frank Key (of Hooting Yard and Hooting Yard on the Air).
First appeared in Afterburn SF.
After the first week of practice, I knew how to anticipate Mickey’s every move. I knew how to sense weariness in the jogging of his spine and would inject increased levels of oxygen into his airflow when I did. I knew that his heartbeat grew irregular when the platoon crossed a rope bridge high over the practice-room floor, and for that exercise I would work a calming agent into his stream. I liked to chant patriotic slogans in his ear as we practiced. “Oh the children of empire are marching,” I sang, “to crush the rebel threat.”
Although my programmers intended these songs to stimulate high levels of patriotism, Mickey didn’t like them. Perhaps that’s when the first droplets of doubt moistened the soil where the pendulous flowers of my confusion would one day bud. . . .
I’m sorry, your honor, if my poetry offends you. That’s when I first questioned his loyalty, I should have said.
Rated PG. Contains battle scenes, Imperial propaganda, overenthusiastic chemistry, and bad poetry.
Referenced Sites:
Befuddled by Cormorants by Frank Key
EP Flash Fiction Contest
EP Review: Pan’s Labyrinth
Published on 25 Jan 2007 at 11:33 am.
8 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated G, Reviews.
Read ‘EP Review: Pan’s Labyrinth’
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Reviewed by Steve Eley.
