Re: Eugene

I do love me some talking dog stories. They’re such fun! And you don’t even have to take them for walksies. Just listen to a reading of “Eugene,” by Jacob Sager Weinstein. Eugene is a dogman serving as a police officer. There’s such an immense amount of charm in his narration. The story itself is […]

Re: A Programmatic Approach to Perfect Happiness

You have to wonder what’s the point of making android robots, if not to, um date them. In “Eros, Philia, Agape” a robot suffers emotional abuse from a woman he’s designed to love, but he questions that. In Tim Pratt’s “A Programmatic Approach to Perfect Happiness,” a robot suffers sexualized abuse, but he’s programmed himself […]

Re: Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs

Is Readercon more fun than a barrel of dinosaurs? Don’t answer that. Read or listen to “Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs,” by Leonard Richardson first and enjoy the episodic adventures of two dinosaurs from Mars.

Re: On A Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy

Ever since I stumbled on “Wikihistory” I’ve had my eye open for more stories by Desmond Warzel. This time, I’m in the middle of reading the Hugo nominees, and I’m feeling the same sense of relief just getting a good laugh out of stumbling on “On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way […]

Re: The Blueberry Pie

Be vewy quiet. We’re hunting pie on the Drabblecast, and we found a pair of tasty pies by Mur Lafferty.

Re: Out Of His League

When Neil DeGrasse Tyson turned up on the Daily Show and Rachel Maddow last night, you just knew he was going to talk about Pluto. I certainly did, maybe because recently enjoyed “Out Of His League,” by Bruce Golden on the Drabblecast. It’s about baseball, painting amusing portraits of the characters who play it. It’s […]

Re: ISO

“ISO,” by Derek Zumsteg makes “Faith“‘s jaunt through the personals look even more nostalgic. The narrator is as spam-writer, who takes a commission to ghost-write an ISO ad in the W4M section. And those are the easy acronyms.

Re: The Chinese Room

I admit it. I need some help with “The Chinese Room,” by Alec Deason. From the first line, it paints a curious scene, full of wonderful details: It held out its palm for Jason to see. There was a single grain of sand on the worn plastic surface. “I have many thoughts,” the thing elaborated.

Re: How High the Moon

“How High the Moon,” by Patrick Lundrigan is a charming story in which a couple argue over who is a robot and who programmed whom. It sounds almost like a game they’re playing with each other. But if one of them really is a robot, maybe they’re programmed to say that. Shades of Blade Runner.

Re: Entropy in 606 Words

When I spotted “Entropy in 606 Words,” by Derek Zumsteg, my first thought was, It’s the toothbrush guy! Despite the complicated subtitle (“A Fictional Exploration of Current Thinking on Localized Entropic Models and Possible Associated Unexpected Phenomena”), the first line is simple enough: Tom wake up more dumb. Bonk head on bed.