Archive for 17 and Up

Escape Pod 71: The Capo of Darkness

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains religious satire, gangster satire, and profanity. Not for those who take their hellfire too seriously.

Referenced sites:
Destructomundo


The Capo of Darkness

by Laura Resnick

Eve looked startled. “You used to be in Heaven? And now you’re working for the Lord of Flies?”

“He don’t go by that title no more. He didn’t like the novel, thought it showed him in a bad light. And don’t call him ‘Beelzebub,’ neither,” I advised, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to give these underdressed kids a little help. “He’s gotten real sensitive about it. He thinks it makes him sound like a character in an English comedy.”

Escape Pod 69: Her

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains explicit anatomical imagery. On a very large scale.

Referenced sites:
Podrunner Podcast
Daily Dragon Podcast
Dragon*Con: Atlanta, GA, September 1–4


Her

by Tobias S. Buckell

“It’s fascinating,” Jo said, now that she had what she wanted out of me, “that the inhabitants here are the only race we know of that has their mythology dead on.”

“Huh?” I looked down at the table. I needed more beer.

“They believe they live on the corpse of a giant.”

“Maybe it’s because they do,” I said, sneaking another look back down the inner thigh that dominated the western hemisphere.

Escape Pod 68: Depth of Field

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains profanity, brief scenes of graphic violence, and questionable filmmaking.

Referenced sites:
Worldcon 2006: Anaheim, CA, August 23–27
Dragon*Con: Atlanta, GA, September 1–4


Depth of Field

by Stephen Dedman

One of the governor’s advisers had recommended appointing a committee of science fiction writers to investigate the saucer sightings as a way of diverting the public, and the governor had agreed. However, as none of the selection committee were SF readers, Project Birdwatch was dominated by screenwriters, writer-directors, writer-director-producers, and the occasional typecast actor. Few of them were brilliant, but they knew one side of a television camera from the other, and at least none of them had been blacklisted. The novelists and short story writers who had joined Birdwatch had soon given up in disgust. Ed had signed up for the same reasons as most of the others; the possibility of publicity, and the badly-needed fifty dollars a month. Besides, seven pretty blonde women had been abducted, and someone was responsible!

Escape Pod 67: Life in Stone


Life in Stone

by Tim Pratt

After ascending 72 flights of iron stairs, creeping past tentacled sentinels lurking in pools filled with black water, and silently dispatching wizened old warriors armed with glaives and morningstars that proved a close match for his pistols and poisoned glass knives, Mr. Zealand at last stumbled into the uppermost room of Archibald Grace’s invisible tower. All Zealand’s earlier murders were mere journeyman work compared to this final assassination, the murder of a man who’d lived for untold centuries, who’d come to America and enslaved Buffalo spirits, who’d built this tower of ice and iron on the far side of the Rockies as a sanctuary and stronghold for his own precious life.

Genres:

Escape Pod 63: Observations From the City of Angels

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains profanity and sexual themes.

Referenced sites:
Guild Wars
The ShunnCast
EP BitTorrent Archive


Observations From the City of Angels

By William Shunn

“It’s not just that, Brian. Think about this technology. The experiment’s been successful beyond anyone’s expectations. Spyware fittings for registered offenders will no doubt go into effect next year. But why stop there? Can you imagine having a therapist, a financial counselor, a social secretary, a nutritionist and personal trainer at your beck and call twenty-four hours a day? You’d like to get rid of that spare tire, right? We could help you. Really.”

Hayes shivers, though the climate inside the car is perfectly controlled. “Sure,” he says. “And I could have the whole world watching everything I do, for the rest of my life.”

Escape Pod 62: Union Dues: The Baby and the Bathwater

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains profanity and… Well, profanity.

Referenced sites:
Union Dues – Iron Bars and the Glass Jaw
Union Dues – Off White Lies
Pseudopod Submission Guidelines


Union Dues: The Baby and the Bathwater

By Jeffrey R. DeRego

It’s never really dawned on me that the brochures manage to beautifully portray events and activities I’ve never seen as long as I’ve worn the tights and mask. The brochures don’t show the InterCity cops taking pot-shots at our Jump Jets, they don’t show the protesters outside a school when Landaar makes and appearance, or the new recruits worked to the physical breaking point for a year before they are even allowed third string uniform status, they don’t show how we didn’t put out the fire or didn’t rescue the family.

But since when has a marketing campaign ever focused on truth and reality?

Genres:

Escape Pod 61: I Look Forward To Remembering You

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains profanity, sexual content, and nonlinear temporal prostitution.

Referenced sites:
David Drake: Obituary of Jim Baen
John Ringo: Letter to Jim Baen
Baen Free Library
Baen Webscriptions
The World Turned Upside Down
Not Done Living


I Look Forward To Remembering You

by Mur Lafferty

She smiled at last and gave a satisfied little sigh. He was just as she’d ordered. Without raising her eyes to his face, she asked, “So when do we begin?”

“We just have some paperwork to go over,” he said. He bent over to pick up his bathrobe and Susan stared as his muscles flexed. Kevin slipped the robe on with the slow grace of someone who was unashamed of his nakedness. “Once we take care of that, I’ll go back to headquarters and take my trip back to 1992, find your younger self, and seduce her.”

Escape Pod 58: Shadowboxer

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains violence, some sexual content, and disturbing themes.

Referenced sites:
Podsafe Music Network

Musical guest: Andy Guthrie.

(Technical Note: To everyone who caught the incomplete file this morning — my deep apologies. The upload got cut off and I failed to test properly. Here’s the full version.)


Shadowboxer

by Paul Di Filippo

Generally speaking, I need only three minutes of concentrated attention to kill someone by staring at them. If I’m feeling under the weather, or my mind is preoccupied with other matters–you know how your mind can obsess about trivial things sometimes–it might take five minutes for my power to have its effect. On the other hand, if I focus intensely on my victim I can get the job done in as little as ninety seconds.

…Now the nation is at war. Or so we’re told. I guess that changes everything. A person like me becomes much more important.

Escape Pod 57: Chuckles Mulrooney, Attorney for the Damned

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains profanity, violence, clowns, and violence against profane clowns.

Referenced sites:
Infection – A Podcast Novel
2006 Hugo Ballot


Chuckles Mulrooney, Attorney for the Damned

By Scott Sigler

After a decade of ceaseless writing struggle, Satan had come to him in — of all places — the soup aisle at Meijer’s grocery store. There was no fire and brimstone, no tail, no horns, not even that cool hipster pointy goatee the devil always sported in the movies. He was actually kind of fat, and wore a three-piece suit with Gucci shoes. He didn’t look at all like Satan — he looked more like Dom Delouise posing as a lawyer.

Escape Pod 56: The Clockwork Atom Bomb

Show Notes

Rated R. Contains profanity and some violence.

Referenced sites:
2006 Hugo Nominees
The Balticon Podcast
Michael & Evo’s Slice of SciFi
Rock & Roll Monster Bash


The Clockwork Atom Bomb

by Dominic Green

The wind in here was deafening. The girl had to shout. “THERE IS MORE THAN ONE IN HERE. THEY LIVE IN THE MACHINES. THE GOVERNMENT MADE THE MACHINES, BUT NOT WITH TECHNICIANS AND ELECTRICIANS. WITH SORCERY.”

The machines did not look made by sorcery. They were entirely silent, looking like rows of gigantic, rusted steel chess pawns twice the height of a man, with no pipes or wires entering or leaving them, apparently sitting here unused for any purpose. Mativi felt an urgent, entirely rational need to be in an another line of employment.

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