Archive for June, 2007

Escape Pod 112: The Giving Plague

First appeared in Interzone #23, 1988.

Rated PG. Contains intended violence, epidemics, and deep technical dialogue.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:30 — 36.1MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Sites:
Geek Fu Action Grip
Heinlein Society Blood Drives

The Giving Plague

by David Brin

Yeah, you viruses need vectors, don’t you. I mean, if you kill a guy, you’ve got to have a life raft, so you can desert the ship you’ve sunk, so you can cross over to some new hapless victim. Same applies if the host proves tough, and fights you off — gotta move on. Always movin’ on.

Hell, even if you’ve made peace with a human body, like Les suggested, you still want to spread, don’t you? Big-time colonizers, you tiny beasties.

Oh, I know. It’s just natural selection. Those bugs that accidentally find a good vector spread. Those that don’t, don’t. But it’s so eerie. Sometimes it sure feels purposeful…

Escape Pod 111: Mayfly

First appeared in Strange Horizons, September 2006.

Rated R. Contains sexual scenes and other deep biological imperatives.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:25 — 19.5MB)

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Mayfly

by Heather Lindsley

The reflection of what appears to be a girl of eleven looks back at me from the full-length mirror in the bedroom that was my mother’s. Together we spit out yet another baby tooth, which reminds me I need to drink another calcium-enriched protein shake. Either that, or eat what remains of my mother.

She’s the pile of coarse dust scattered across the bedsheets. Some of my kind swear by mother dust, the way certain factions among the rest of the population swear by breast feeding. And there are benefits, whether you’re still a kid with growing bones or an adult woman facing osteoporosis by the end of the week.

But my mother is not strawberry-flavored, so I opt for the shake.

Escape Pod 110: Frankie the Spook

First appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1990.

Rated PG. Contains some coarse language and imagery, and potentially offensive literary theories.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:40 — 23.8MB)

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Frankie the Spook

by Mike Resnick

Marvin leaned forward and squinted at Bacon’s image on his computer screen. “Will you do it?”

“Will the greatest writer in the history of the human race ghostwrite your pitiful little novel?” sneered Bacon. “Absolutely not.”

“But you ghosted for Shakespeare!” protested Marvin. “That’s why I had my computer assemble you.”

“Marvin, go write limpware and leave me alone.”

“It’s called software.”

Escape Pod 109: Squonk the Apprentice

Escape Pod 109: Squonk the Apprentice is an Escape Pod original.

Rated G. It’s a children’s story about a dragon raised by a bluebird. Set content expectations accordingly.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:00 — 28.9MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Sites:
EP070: Squonk the Dragon
“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” by Neil Gaiman
2007 Hugo Nominees

Squonk the Apprentice

by P. M. Butler

“What’s a ‘prentice?”

Without thinking, Wendel answered. “An apprentice is young person who wants to be a wizard, so they find an older wizard to teach them.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Wendel’s heart stopped and his eyes went wide. If he’d known a spell that could grab those words and stuff them back down his throat, he would have cast it.

Instead, those words scampered all the way across his bedroom, as words are inclined to do, and rushed into the ears of the dragon in the window. Wendel watched in horror as the words sunk into Squonk’s brain. Squonk’s eyes grew wide, his mouth dropped open, and before Wendel could think of anything to say–

“You can learn to be a wizard?! That’s awesome! I wanna be a wizard! Lemme be your ‘prentice!”

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