Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Swamp on October 16, 2009, 07:21:07 AM
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EP059: Anyone Can Whistle (http://escapepod.org/2006/06/23/ep059-anyone-can-whistle-2/)
By David Walton (http://www.davidwaltonfiction.com/).
Read by J.R. Blackwell (of 365 Tomorrows (http://www.365tomorrows.com/) and Voices of Tomorrow (http://voicesoftomorrow.libsyn.com/)).
In the center of the room, on a platform, was our Dokja–not the humanoid body she took in VR, but a blue mass of flesh with dry fish-like skin that pulsated as she breathed. She had no definitive shape, no arms or legs or tentacles, or even a face. Her only prominent feature was a taut membrane stretched tightly over an opening at the top of her body. One section of that membrane was covered over with an elaborate breathing apparatus, and the familiar array of VR electrodes were attached to what must have been her central nervous system.
I felt ill just looking at her. But I knew therapy would readjust my feelings.
Rated PG. Contains innuendo and some violence.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://cdn3.libsyn.com/escapepod/EP059_AnyoneCanWhistle.mp3?nvb=20091013211157&nva=20091014212157&t=0ad37fd12a66b61866b89)
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Great story! Mind-controlling aliens, VR rebellions, autistic heroes. I'd love to see a sequel!
This one carries on in the theme oft-used by Stephen King where those characters who have different mental conditions always have some extra power above the rest of us (see Dreamcatcher, Rose Red, Kingdom Hospital, The Regulators, etc...).
The POV of a mind-controlled human was very interesting, and I loved that the humans are just virtual grunt-labor. Imagine how much damage that guy could've done if he had collaborated with someone else, someone who could've barricaded the door, or able to disable attackers!