CoW Ep. 188: Staff Pick 2015 – Above Decks

[danooli]

Episode 188: Staff Pick 2015 – Above Decks by Terry Ibele

Narrated by Phil Lunt
Audio production by Rikki LaCoste
A Cast of Wonders original!

Every year in January, Cast of Wonders takes the month off to recharge our batteries, plan the year ahead, and highlight some of our favourite episodes. As part of joining the Escape Artists family, this year we’re pulling out all the stops. We’re running 10 staff pick episodes over the month, each one hosted by a different member of the Cast of Wonders crew.

We hope you enjoy slush reader and community manager Dani Daly’s favorite story from 2015, Above Decks by Terry Ibele and narrated by Phil Lunt. The story originally aired August 23, 2015 as Episode 175.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. It felt like I had been here forever. A punishment for a crime I didn't commit. Still, it was necessary just to save a few coins to buy a measly meal. Every day was grueling and today was worse. The muscles in my arms felt like they were going to snap. My shovel dropped to the floor with a clang. Sweat dripped into my eyes as I dared a quick break. The other boys kept shovelling. The huge furnace bulged as it was fed. Hot red steam billowed out of its pipes and clouded the air.  Pulling off my shoes, I sat in a lump of coal and rubbed my aching feet.

Click here to listen to Episode 188
Click here to read the text of Above Decks by Tery Ibele

Original Episode 175 notes:
Terry Ibele is from Ontario, Canada where he lives off a steady diet of frolicking in the woods, being stuck in transit, and pizza. He loves writing brisk, quirky stories and is currently working on a fantasy novel.
Hailing from the rain-sodden, North Western wastelands of England, Phil Lunt has dabbled in many an arcane vocation. From rock-star to conveyor-belt scraper at a bread factory, milkman to world’s worst waiter. He’s currently a freelance designer, actor and sometime writer/editor. For his sins he’s a supporter of Bolton Wanderers and Chair of the British Fantasy Society. He’s still considering becoming an astronaut when he grows up, and you can follow him on Twitter.

Tags: Airship, Cast of Wonders, coal, Dani Daly, freedom, mechanical monkey, Phil Lunt, Rikki LaCoste, sky, Staff Pick, Steampunk, Terry Ibele, Young Adult fiction

[Unblinking]

I enjoyed it, especially that final image.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

I recently watched the Pixar short where Mickey and company break the fourth wall and go from 1920s B&W to 3D color, and I kept picturing the Big Bad from that cartoon as the engine master, here.

But the cartoon didn't have a steampunk monkey. ...to their detriment.

[Devoted135]

I really liked this one, especially since he does finally get to see the sky and it's everything he always dreamed and hoped it would be. The line that really struck me on this re-listen was the one about how the rich people think that everything runs on robots and mechanisms, but it's really just dirty little boys shoveling tons of coal. I wonder, could we say the same of our own world?