Archive for September, 2010

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EP260: The Speed of Dreams

EP260 [ 21:08 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Will Ludwigsen
Read by: Mur Lafferty
Host: Norm Sherman
First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction
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All stories by Will Ludwigsen
All stories read by Mur Lafferty

Brought to you by Audible.com – Get The Alchemist and The Executioness (or any book you like) for FREE today when you sign up for a free trial!

Paige Sumner

8th Grade Science Fair Paper Draft

#

Introduction

It happens all the time: you’re sitting in class, listening the best you can while Mister Waters goes on and on about atoms or sound waves or whatever, when suddenly you fall asleep. Your head lolls against your shoulder and some drool oozes from the side of your mouth. Luckily, Missy Woo kicks you in the knee to wake you up before someone notices, like Mister Waters or–worse–Austin.

What’s weird is that in those few minutes of sleeping, you dream like hours of stuff. You’re all hanging out or playing basketball or walking the mall while everybody else is slowly raising their hands and taking notes. They all get twenty four hours that day, but you get a little extra.

But how much extra?

Rated PG: For mild drug use.

Show Notes:

  • Sponsored by Audible – get a free book today when you sign up for your free trial!
  • Feedback for Episode 252: Billion-Dollar View.

Next week… Love, the viral kind.

Sep 30, 2010 | 0 comments View Post
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EP259: The Lady or the Tiger

EP259 [ 29:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By J M McDermott
Read by: Grant Baciocco of Throwing Toasters and The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
Host: Norm Sherman
First appeared in Apex Magazine
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All stories by J M McDermott
All stories read by Grant Baciocco

Brought to you by Audible.com – Get The Alchemist and The Executioness (or any book you like) for FREE today when you sign up for a free trial!

The only thing I could think of to take my mind off of Sheila, and the crash, was asking my brother about Guj Sarwar, the tiger on the back of the great and mighty lizard, Samarkand. When I was a boy, I didn’t understand why it was the only other thing I could think about, like something was on the tip of my tongue.

And, Jiri knew everything there was to know about the wastes of the far west, the lizards, and the tigers. He was fifteen years old. Next year, he’d be driving cattle up the highway to Io Town in a flyer all by himself. I was only ten. I didn’t even have my own computer terminal yet. I had to share his when he wasn’t using it. Everything I knew about the wastes had been from the computer, and from Jiri.

“On the wastes, Simsa,” said my brother, “you can’t walk on the ground. The sand is all quicksand. It sucks you up and swallows you. You have to ride on the back of giant lizards as big as walking mountains. There’re only twenty-five lizards. They have names.”

Rated PG-13: For blood and revolution and missing fingers.

Show Notes:

  • Sponsored by Audible – get a free book today when you sign up for your free trial!
  • Feedback for Episode 251: Unexpected Outcomes.

Next week… How fast can dreams run?

Sep 23, 2010 | 0 comments View Post
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EP258: Raising Jenny

EP258 [ 50:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Janni Lee Simner.
Read by: Mur Lafferty
First appeared in the anthology Not Of Woman Born
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All stories by Janni Lee Simner
All stories read by Mur Lafferty

“I know I can’t do anything about this–” she gestured toward the tangled blankets, the hospital bed, the pale walls. “But I’ve asked the doctors to take some cells–I still have a few healthy ones left, you know, and they’ll keep for some time–”

I could guess the rest. But Susan, ever the biologist, had her lecture after all. “It doesn’t work like that.” Her voice was gentle, as if she were speaking to one of her two sons, not to Mom. “A clone isn’t the same as the original. Your clone would be no more like you than–than one identical twin is like another. It wouldn’t be–” Susan’s voice caught. “It wouldn’t be you.”

“You don’t _know,_” Mom said. “None of the clones are old enough to ask yet. They’re just babies.”

Rated G: Not for kids, but nothing to worry about if you listen around the kids.

Show Notes:

  • Congrats on the Hugo winners and the Parsec winners!
  • We announce the winners of the flash contest.
  • Feedback for Episode 250: Eros, Philia, Agape.

Next week… Difficult decisions, ladies, and tigers.

Sep 16, 2010 | 0 comments View Post
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EP257: Union Dues: The Sum of Its Parts

EP257 [ 46:33 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Jeffrey R. DeRego.
Read by: PG Holyfield of Murder at Avedon Hill
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All stories read by PG Holyfield

Langton has been under lock-and-key observation since two weeks ago when he sucker punched Paul right in the middle of a publicity shoot for Stars and Stripes at a USO hall in Phoenix. The five of us almost couldn’t bring him down. The melee wrecked most of our stage props — Van De Graff Generators, Tesla Coils, a whole bunch of blinking and flashing, stuff bought from a bankrupt low-budget film studio. Frida recovered the 30 seconds, or so, of 16mm footage shot that morning. Police found the reporter a few hours later unharmed but minus any memory of the previous two days.

The DC3 taxis to the hangar. Paul joins me at the base of the control tower then the four of us walk down towards the plane.

“Hi gang,” The Corporal says and waves as he lumbers down from the fuselage to the sand. He walks right to Paul. “How’s the chin? Sorry about popping you one. I don’t remember any of it, but Frida says I was a real dope.”

Paul laughs a little. “It’s okay. No broken teeth or nothing.” He rubs his anvil-like jaw with a boxing glove-sized fist. “Next time I won’t go easy on you.”

Rated PG

Show Notes:

  • Show your love for Union Dues at the new website!

Sep 09, 2010 | 0 comments View Post
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EP256: The Mermaids Singing Each to Each

EP256 [ 56:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Cat Rambo
Read by: Christiana Ellis of Nina Kimberly the Merciless and Space Casey
First appeared in Clarkesworld
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All stories read by Christiana Ellis

“Laura,” a speaker said, as though I hadn’t been gone for six years, as though she’d seen me every day in between. “Laura, where is your uncle?”

I used to imagine her disintegrated, torn apart into silent atoms.

“It’s not Laura anymore,” I said. “It’s Lolo. I’m gender neutral.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“You’ve got a Net connection,” I said. “Search around on “gender neutral” and “biomod operation.”

I wasn’t sure if the pause that came after that was for dramatic effect or whether she really was having trouble understanding the search parameters. Then she said, “Ah, I see. When did you do that?”

“Six years ago.”

“Where is your uncle?”

“Dead,” I said flatly. I hoped that machine intelligences could hurt and so I twisted the knife as far as I could. “Stabbed in a bar fight.”

Rated R for violence, language, and memory of sexual violence. And Spar feedback.

Show Notes:

  • Feedback for Episode 248, Spar

Next week… Union Dues!

Sep 02, 2010 | 0 comments View Post