Escape Pod 167: Love and Death in the Time of Monsters

First appeared in Abyss & Apex, 4th Quarter 2007.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:14 — 21.5MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains violence on a grand scale and illness on a human scale.

Referenced Sites:
GUIDOLON The Giant Space Chicken
Well-Told Tales

Special closing music: “Showdown in Shinjuku” and “Incognito” by Daikaiju.

Love and Death in the Time of Monsters

By Frank Wu

They try everything. Cellular toxins. DNA replication inhibitors. Anti-sense nucleic acids. Artillery. Great bolts of lightning. Nothing stops him, it only makes the monster angrier. They try mutagens, teratogens, carcinogens, neurotoxins, hemotoxins, genotoxins — they think that toxins in the environment created the monster, and maybe toxins can kill it. Maybe two wrongs can make a right.

They don’t, apparently. I worry about the residues left in the ground after the monster’s moved on. He’s going up and down the eastern seaboard. Janie talks about flying out there to help, but she doesn’t want to get stomped on. Who would? A team of guys from work drive across the country to do whatever they can. They figure that patent annuities can still get paid in their absence. I want to go, but I have to stay to help my mom. That’s my fight.

Escape Pod 166: The Something-Dreaming Game

First appeared in Fast Forward 1, ed. Lou Anders

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:03 — 26.8MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R. Contains children engaging in extremely dangerous practices. Parental guidance STRONGLY recommended.

Referenced Sites:
Brave Men Run: A Novel of the Sovereign Era

The Something-Dreaming Game

By Elizabeth Bear

First, there’s the pressure.

A special kind of pressure, high under Tara’s chin, that makes her feel heavy and light all at once. She kneels by the chair and leans across the edge, because if she faints, the chair will roll away and she won’t choke. She’s always careful.

After the pressure she gets dizzy, and her vision gets kind of… narrow, dark around the edges. It’s hard to breathe, and it feels like there’s something stuck in her throat. Prickles run up and down her back, down her arms where the pain used to be, and a warm fluid kind of feeling sloshes around inside her. She slides down, as things get dark, and then she starts to dream.

But not like night time dreams. These are special.

Genres:

Escape Pod 165: Those Eyes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:25 — 26.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains some sexual situations and scattered profanity in both English and Spanish.

Those Eyes

By David Brin

“…So you want to talk about flying saucers? I was afraid of that.

“This happens every damn time I’m blackmailed into babysitting you insomniacs, while Talkback Larry escapes to Bimini for a badly needed rest. I’m supposed to field call-in questions about astronomy and outer space for two weeks. You know, black holes and comets? But it seems we always have to spend the first night wrangling over puta UFOs.

“…Now, don’t get excited, sir…. Yeah, I’m just a typical ivory tower scientist, out to repress any trace of unconventional thought. Whatever you say, buddy.”

Escape Pod 164: The Right Kind of Town

Escape Pod 164: The Right Kind of Town is an Escape Pod original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:52 — 15.7MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R. Contains sex, violence, profanity, the quick, and the dead.

Referenced Sites:
The Nautilus Engine
Geek Dad T-shirt
Geek Mom T-shirt

The Right Kind of Town

By Christian Klaver

In the civilized places closer to Hegemony space, you don’t see many bodies in the street in the first place. When you do, they’re always swarmed with sheriffs, marshals, constables, morticians and the like. Then the body gets moved fast, so as to not ruffle the civilized folk. The rest happens behind closed doors.

Some towns don’t ever get bodies in the street. The only deaths are from sickness or accidents or old age. But I don’t tend to get to those towns so much, since they frown on my whoring profession. The towns I work in, everyone carries a gun. Being a pretty woman in
my line of work, I carry two.

Escape Pod 163: Revolution Time

First appeared in Flurb #2, ed. Rudy Rucker

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:04 — 24.8MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R. Contains some profanity, some violence, and communist propaganda. May be illegal in Louisiana.

Referenced Sites:
ClonePod

Special closing music: “Think For Yourself” by George Hrab.

Revolution Time

By Lavie Tidhar

“I don’t see why you necessarily think it leads to the Chrono area,” Monty said, playing devil’s advocate. It was a month earlier, at the usual place: The Trotsky, a damp, dark watering hole in a run-down part of town which, rumour had it, was once visited by the man himself, in his own dark, yet colourful, past.

“Where else would it lead, man?” Morgan sparked up a joint and stared at him across the table. The smoke framed her face like the shape of a heart. “I wouldn’t be here –” she waved her finger at him, “and you wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t something both of our respective organisations thought was worth pursuing.”

I smiled, admiring her strength and her energy. Monty scowled. “Take that puppy-dog-in-love look off your face. It’s embarrassing. And you,” he said, addressing Morgan, “should know better than to get your hopes up. After all, as the saying goes, they only ever bring back Shakespeare.”

Escape Pod 162: God Juice

First appeared in Polyphony 6, ed. Deborah Layne and Jay Lake

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:28 — 42.2MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R. Contains strong language and sexual tomfoolery.

God Juice

By M. K. Hobson

“I wish to give you the opportunity to purchase a very valuable artifact from the great age of Ja’ardi civilization,” he said. “We stole it from a rival tribe, who revered it as possessing divine powers. I am prepared to offer it to you at a very reasonable price.”

I rolled my eyes. If I had a nickel for every time someone tried to sell me an artifact with divine powers … Zhee must have seen the eyeroll, for he hastened to add:

“It is reputed to bestow upon its owner the ability to create flowing rivers of God Juice.”

I tilted my head slightly to see if some sense might roll downhill from his words. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” I said, sucking on the wedge of flesh-colored fruit, “But isn’t God Juice the stuff that caused your civilization to collapse?”

Zhee shifted, scratching the back of his head. “Well … yes.”

Genres:

Escape Pod 161: Alien Promises

First appeared in Bruce Coville’s Book of Aliens II, ed. Bruce Coville

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:42 — 20.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated G. This is a young adult SF story.

Referenced Sites:
Secret of the Three Treasures by Janni Lee Simner
Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
Tale Chasing – Urban Fantasy podcast

Alien Promises

By Janni Lee Simner

Jenny was silent for a while. “Promise me something?” she finally asked. “If they ever come for you, promise you’ll let me know?”

“Why?” I had trouble believing Jenny really wanted to leave. Maybe this was all some sort of joke.

“Just promise,” Jenny said.

“No.” Even if she was serious, Jenny was the last person I wanted following me into space.

Jenny took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you, too. If they ever come for me.”

Escape Pod 160: Kallakak’s Cousins

First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, March 2008

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:00 — 25.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated G. Contains shady commerce and dim relations.

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Referenced Sites:
Wiscon 2008
The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories by Cat Rambo & Jeff Vandermeer

Kallakak’s Cousins

By Cat Rambo

“Sometimes we don’t realize that what we want isn’t good for us,” the man said, speaking for the first time. He stared intently at Kallakak.

“Dominance rituals do not work well on me,” Kallakak said, roughening his voice to rudeness. “I will see you in five days in the court.” He decided not to burn his bridges too far. “I will tally up the cost of my goods by then and will have a definite figure.” Let them think him acquiescent while he tried to find another way to save his shop. He stepped into the lift, but they did not follow him, simply watched as the doors slid closed and he was carried away.

Making his way back to his quarters, he saw three figures standing before it. He paused, wondering if the Jellidoos had decided to lean on him further. The trio turned in unison to face him, and he recognized them with a sinking heart. The cousins.

Escape Pod 159: Elites

First appeared in Women of War, ed. Tanya Huff & Alexander Potter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:10 — 33.8MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R. Contains violence, profanity, and strong themes of war and psychological trauma.

Referenced Sites:
“Recovering Apollo 8” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
7th Son: OBSIDIAN, ed. J.C. Hutchins

Elites

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I could’ve followed the sounds. The closer I get, the louder voices grow—yelling obscenities, cheering, clapping in approval.

These women love fights.

I used to let them do it too, without interference, until the repair bills got too much. Then the House shrink told me about the added toll of repeated trauma—the fights would often replicate something that happened Out There—and I realized that no matter how much steam got blown off, the fights weren’t worth the expense.

Still, I wished for those old days sometimes.

EP BONUS: J.C. Hutchins OBSIDIAN Poster

Read

E-Book PDF: Open in New Window | Download (1.1MB)

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If you’re as much a fan as I am of J.C. Hutchins’s SF thriller trilogy 7th Son, you’ll be jazzed to hear about 7th Son: OBSIDIAN, the new short fiction audio anthology set in the 7th Son universe. The anthology has stories from some of the top names in podcasting, including Mur Lafferty, Scott Sigler, Matt Wallace, Christiana Ellis and Evo Terra.

J.C. has an innovative promotional strategy to spread the word: he’s distributing a series of collectible posters across some of the top podcasts in the ‘verse. These are high-quality printable 8″x10″ images suitable for your cubicle, campus bulletin board, or fallout shelter. I was honored to be approached to host one of those posters. You can download ours here, or get it on our feed:

7th Son: OBSIDIAN Poster #5

If you want to collect the entire set of posters, you’ll have to visit each of these fine podcasts and Web sites. They’re all worth taking at least a couple of minutes to check out:

Good hunting!