Archives for February 2008
EP147: Pressure
Published on 28 Feb 2008 at 2:43 pm.
40 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
By Jeff Carlson.
Read by Graydancer (of The Ropecast).
First appeared in Strange Horizons, August 2003.
Closing music: “I Crush Everything” by Jonathan Coulton.
I spent the longest five weeks of my life in that tank and in a deeper pool, healing, testing, practicing. My feet and toes had been augmented much like my hands, my thighs shortened to maximize the available muscle. I was damned quick. Relearning construction techniques with my new fingers was sometimes frustrating, yet my progress was real and those periods of solitary labor became important to me.
At the surface, in the shallows, doctors poked and prodded and put me through redundant tortures. I had been warned that the study of my new body would be extensive and did my best not to fear or hate them, but I’d never imagined such intense scrutiny. During my years as a SEAL, I had been like a bug under a microscope, constantly evaluated and scored. Here I was the microscope, my body the only lens through which they could measure their work. Stenstrom tried to be my buddy, as he had always tried, joking and asking what I’d do with the money, yet his possessiveness was obvious. “We’ll be famous,” he said. “We’ll change the world.”
I wasn’t a slave or a pet, exactly, but I was anxious to get started. To get away from them.
Rated PG. Contains moderate violence.
Audible.com Promotion!
Receive your free audiobook at: http://audiblepodcast.com/escapepod
Referenced Sites:
PodCastle
EP146: Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk
Published on 21 Feb 2008 at 9:41 pm.
74 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
Read ‘EP146: Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk’
-->By Ken Scholes.
Read by Stephen Eley.
First appeared in Talebones, Spring 2001.
“Do you know what’s happened to the children?”
Edward swallowed. Suddenly, he wanted to cry. “Yes. They’re…sleeping?”
He hoped and hoped and hoped and hoped, grimacing as he did. He looked around.
Makeshift beds lined the room. Small hands gripped blankets, small eyes stared at the ceiling.
“No.” The boy frowned. “They’ve died.”
“Because of Something Very Bad?”
“Yes. And I need you to be a Very Brave Bear. Can you do that?”
Rated PG. Contains strong images of death and violence. Almost certainly not appropriate for small children.
EP145: Instead of a Loving Heart
Published on 14 Feb 2008 at 6:32 am.
23 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
Read ‘EP145: Instead of a Loving Heart’
-->By Jeremiah Tolbert.
Read by Jared Axelrod (of The Voice of Free Planet X).
First appeared in All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories (ed. David Moles & Jay Lake).
We are somewhere among the tallest mountains of the world. When we arrived, I was locked away in a cargo hold, so I don’t know exactly where. Our home is a small, drafty castle and a separate laboratory. Dr. Octavio had the locals construct the lab before he tested the new death ray on their village. There’s very little left there. In my little bit of spare time, I try to bury the bodies and collect anything useful to the doctor’s experiment.
My primary duties consist of keeping the castle’s furnace running and clearing the never-ending snow from the path between the two buildings. Sometimes, it falls too fast for my slow treads and shovel attachment to keep up with and I find myself half-buried in the snow. It is horrible on my gears when this happens, but I use heavyweight oil now and it helps.
It is one of the few benefits of my metal frame that I appreciate. Life in this contraption is like being wrapped in swaddling clothes. I wonder if I would feel anything if my casing caught on fire? I need to ask the doctor when he isn’t in one of his moods.
Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested for violence and ennui.
Audible.com Promotion!
Receive your free audiobook at: http://audiblepodcast.com/escapepod
Referenced Sites:
Jared Axelrod’s Commissions
EP144: Friction
Published on 8 Feb 2008 at 12:08 am.
53 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
By Will McIntosh.
Read by Stephen Eley.
First appeared in Albedo One #30.
Closing music: “Blue Genes” by George Hrab.
Gruen was on the sixty-first master, and while his wisdom had grown steadily, he had worn very little. He was incredibly well-preserved–the palms of his three-fingered hands still sported the deep, swirling ridges that had worn to nothing in most people before they’d lived thirty years. Indeed, all of the myriad folds and ridges in his thick maroon skin were for the most part intact. His eyes were still housed in tight sockets, surrounded by thickly-ridged cheeks. Besides the feet, the eyes were the greatest point of weakness for those who aspired to read the works of the masters. Ceaseless up-and-down eye movement caused the sockets to wear out, and eventually the reader’s eyes fell out. At that point they were forced to trace the carved words with their fingers. Friction quickly took its toll on the hands; readers rarely made it through one master’s teachings this way before their hands were ground to the wrist, and they were finished.
Rated PG.
Referenced Sites:
Nawashi, a podcast novel by Graydancer
EP143: Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths
Published on 1 Feb 2008 at 4:07 am.
29 Comments.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated PG.
Read ‘EP143: Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths’
-->By Camille Alexa.
Read by Dani Cutler (of Truth Seekers and The Audio Addicts).
Will appear in Machine of Death (TBA).
I look at the calendar hanging on the wall above my bed. I reach up, lift it off its nail with one hand and snuggle back under the covers, taking the calendar with me and running a finger over all the red Xs marked over all the days leading up to this one. It’s a little cold out, and the last thing in the universe I want to do is catch an effing cold the week of my birthday, so I snuggle down into the warmth of my flannel sheets even more. I know there’s going to be parties this weekend, and I’m going to want to go.
This is what I’ve been waiting for all these months. All these years, I guess, though before my friends started getting theirs, it didn’t seem like such a big deal. We were all No-Knows then.
Tomorrow, I’m finally going to feel like I belong.
Tomorrow, I’m going to find out how I die.
Rated PG. Contains allusions to profanity and some sexual implication.
Referenced Sites:
Metamor City Podcast
