Author Topic: PC483: Thirteen Bullets  (Read 4005 times)

Ocicat

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on: August 17, 2017, 08:16:54 PM
PodCastle 483: Thirteen Bullets

by Laurence Raphael Brothers
read by Austin Malone
A PodCastle Original!

Rated R for adult themes.

The stagecoach lurches to a halt in a clearing beside the road. Four wild-eyed black geldings rear up and whinny as the top-hatted stage driver cracks a whip over their heads.

“Nous sommes ici,” says the driver. “Cimetière. La fin de la ligne!” The coach door slams open and the No-Good Kid clambers out, bleary-eyed, cursing, unsteady on his feet. His blond hair is tousled and mussed. He had to leave Albuquerque without his hat but it’s obvious what color it was because all the rest of his gear is white. Or it used to be white. Now it’s dingy with the dust of the journey. Not the best choice for hard travelling, but then he didn’t have much time to pack. His luggage consists mainly of card decks and empty whiskey bottles.


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Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and technologist. He has published short fiction at such venues as Nature magazine, the New Haven Review, and the Sockdolager, and he is nearing completion of a new novel, Evolutionary Intelligence Enkidu, a near-future military-aviation, alien-invasion, AI romance. You can follow Laurence on Twitter at @lbrothers, and at his website.



Austin Malone is an author of short-fiction, an associate editor for PseudoPod, and the facilitator for the Crescent City Critters writer’s group. He resides in New Orleans with two other full-sized humans, a slightly smaller human-in-progress, and one tiny dog. If folks would like to learn more about him, they can check out his website at sippinghemlocktea.com

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!



GreySkies

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Reply #1 on: August 19, 2017, 10:51:18 PM
I'll be honest: this was almost too slow for me at the beginning. I almost skipped it because of the sheer amount of buildup. But I'm glad I stuck with it! Total payoff even before the end. This could have been an episode of the original "Twilight Zone," and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.



Katzentatzen

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Reply #2 on: August 30, 2017, 02:26:31 PM
"Out West we call aces 'bullets'" OH SNAP. Definite Twilight Zone vibes with this one. Loved the Doc Holliday cameo.

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
--LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN


shawnproctor

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Reply #3 on: September 07, 2017, 11:35:26 AM
Very fun and would have made a fantastic Halloween story to listen to before Stranger Things returns.



Aidan

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Reply #4 on: September 09, 2017, 11:09:17 PM
Really enjoyed this one. Always love a good magical card game story. :)



Ichneumon

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Reply #5 on: December 22, 2017, 09:22:11 PM
Cool story! I don't think I've heard a story before with cowboy and voodoo type characters together. I liked the struggle of the Kid to figure out what was going on at first, but he just gave in in the end. Like all of us listeners must to enjoy good a fantasy.