I really liked the reading as well.

And the phrase “a swarm of frozen fairies flocking to form…”, I loved that. :)

I also liked the imagery, as DKT said. The dog fetuses? Creepy… and kinda cool.

Not good. In a way, worse than “Wild Y” because that, at least, was attempting to be vaguely OTT and comedy-pulpish (although it failed miserably). But this story is direly serious about… nothing at all.

First of all, SF, not horror, because of it’s overall fascination with the genetically engineered child and his amazing powers and the future they live in, etc etc. Occasional disturbing images do not a horror story make.

Second, not even SF but comic book, which, as a life-long comic fan, I use in the derogatory sense here. Corners cut, assumptions about basic personality made (he’s a snowboarding superkid in the future that’s just like you, pretty much, except for the weather control powers and the genetically engineered pet), fetishization of “marvelous elements” over character and content.

It just struck me as something written by someone who watched too many episodes of DRAGONBALL Z and read too many X-MEN comic books and took them seriously as source material, instead of the fun, disposable junk they are. The “mean old mentor” character talks like he’s from a fantasy novel even though this takes place in the future.

And, of course, the central character is a “golden boy”. In an attempt to make the “golden boy” character more interesting (since it’/s been around forever), the cliched directions are A - make him reluctant (”I never asked to be your savior” - the emo kids just love that!), B - make him inept (good for comedy), C - make him a mistake (They read the prophecy wrong!!! one of those “last minute twists” that everyone thinks they thought of first) or D - make him far worse than the evil guys controlling him or the good guys trying to save/stop him ever realized (the trick is to make him seem blank and uninteresting at first, then you can use him to solve the problem of “how do I get rid of the bad guys?” problem when he goes all Caligula).

Well, “Golden Boy” here just strikes back at his surrogate dad and goes off on his own. He’s kinda A. but even then, who knows, or cares? Because he’s not interesting or believable as a character. Everything happens [i]to[/i] him until he decides to walk. The best line in the whole thing was his realizing that his powers, when finally tapped into, were far too easy to use when they should have been large and ominous. Good moment - but still too comic bookish.

I don’t read much/any sci-fi and this type of story is the reason why. Is this the sub genre of SF that’s replaced “space opera” as it’s nadir?

It also just seemed like a set-up for a novel I don’t want to read that can then be pitched as a movie for teenagers I wouldn’t want to see. Y’know, the mentions of Matt Wallace’s “Failed City” thing had me kinda interested, the editors said it was good and the title was promisingly loaded with potential. But is Matt Wallace considers a story like this a passable submission, I’ll probably pass.

Thanks For Listening.

“A serious adult story must be true to something in life. Since marvel tales cannot be true to the events of life, they must shift their emphasis towards something to which they can be true; namely, certain wistful or restless moods of the human spirit, wherein it seeks to weave gossamer ladders of escape from the galling tyranny of time, space, and natural law.” H.P. Lovecraft

Just don’t anyone mention Anakin Skywalker :-)

Outstanding witting!

That said, I agree that there was a lot of SF in this one, but I’m good with that. The horror was mostly more subtle which is fine by me — but it was there. Dog fetuses growing in blood? Candy-striped (read: blood-striped) arms? Fantastic imagery.

I don’t need to be in the gore splash zone every week and pieces like this are very welcome.

I feel this more Sci-fi than horror. That aside, it was a great tale.

I write this as I sit in Mojave, Ca. It is a lovely spring day but it won’t last.

So listened to each and every pod here. All of them.

Feeding the Pod snowcones