Author Topic: EP714: Marley and Marley  (Read 1286 times)

divs

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on: January 13, 2020, 12:35:43 AM
Escape Pod 714: Marley and Marley

Author: J. R. Dawson
Narrator: S. Kay Nash
Host: Mur Lafferty
Audio Producer: Summer Brooks

This story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2017.

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Show Notes
Thank you, Charlie Finlay, for believing in this story.



I never wanted to turn out like her.

When I met her, I was twelve. There was no one else to take care of me. Before she showed up, she was preceded by this man in a pinstriped suit. A harbinger. He sat me down in his sterile office and he said, “Time Law is not a joking matter.” He told me all the horrible things that would happen if I broke any Time Laws. Worlds would collapse. I would turn inside out. Important people would die and important things wouldn’t happen. And that’s when I first felt that clutching sensation in my chest. Like he had his fingers inside my rib cage and he was squeezing my lungs. Do not fuck this up.

“So are you the one I’m going with?” I asked. Because I was a newly coined orphan and I needed someone.

The pinstriped-suit man shook his head. “No,” he said. “The system is hard on children so we’ve come up with a better option. But you can’t go live with her. She must come to you.”

Because she lived in the future.




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acpracht

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Reply #1 on: January 15, 2020, 08:01:40 PM
I really enjoyed this one. Feared it was going to be that Calvanist predestination stuff where fate is unchangeable. (Big part of why 12 Monkeys was "meh" to me).
Pleasantly surprised to see a more hopeful message about change and transformation, instead.
I think there's a message somewhere in here about the benefits of self-care, too...
-Adam



CryptoMe

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Reply #2 on: May 26, 2020, 04:07:49 PM
Yes, I enjoyed the overcoming the "inevitable" theme, too.