I enjoyed this. Lots of fun, pulpy ideas.
There was a little too much pop-culture name-checking (the very INVISIBLES-esque "forcing out the attempted possession" bit would have worked a bit better if we hadn't have had Grant Morrison name-checked for no really discernible reason except, hey, he's cool - which he is, and so is WSB, but come on) and I generally find that stories in which mankind has any hope at all in defeating Lovecraftian entities miss the point of Lovecraft entirely. But then, this is pulp and so we have to have a protagonist to root for, I guess.
And I can't help but find it funny that the story gets praised for having a non-stereotypical "Muslim in hijacked airplane scenario" with nary a peep about a twinkling Dr. Smith (another name check, that) stereotype breezing through. Less prickly subject, I guess.
But it was all meant in good fun and good fun it was. Looking forward to more from this writer.
Also, as I never tire of this interesting subject, this was a another good example of a story that "read" well - I mean that not as a comment on whether it was good or bad story (I'm sure much Tom Clancy technospyfetishcrap "reads" well to whatever poor sods buy those audiobooks) or a well or poorly written story, but that the style lent itself to being read aloud. An example in the other direction was "The Teacher" which seemed like a story I probably would have enjoyed more on the printed page, but found a bit muddy and unfocused when read aloud (and, again to clarify, that's no comment on the reader's abilties either, which is another factor in the mix). There's no quantifiable approach to my theory-in-progress yet (other than the obvious "first person narratives work better"), but I'm beginning to feel that something more than personal subjectivity might be at work.
No comments on the preceding few stories as they didn't impress ("Pattern Masters" had promise, even with the un-engaging slacker artist characters, but for the monumentally underwhelming yet over-considered ending. "Dear Killer" - what can I say except that I saw this on an Alfred Hitchcock Presents repeat from the 1960's when I was 8 and then read it in an issue of "House Of Secrets" when I was 10 and then...).
Thanks For Listening
“One must be cold if one wishes to savor chaos.”
Ferdinand Hardekopf, “The Mental Link” (1912)