Escape POD, Episode

Episode 690. Flashback Friday The Things by Peter Watts I'm goingistair. Welcome to Flashback Friday for July. Our story this week first

appeared as episode 298 back in 2011. The Things by Peter Watts is not just one of my all-time favorites. It's one of the smartest,

darkest weirdest stories I think we've ever run, and it has a delightful meta-textual element too,

which gets my postmodern heart pumping every time.

Peter is one of Canada's finest authors. His work is intimately concerned

with identity, the mind and the occasional catharsis of things exploding.

Start literally anywhere. It's all great.

Although if you liked this story, his two anthologies, 10 monkeys, 10 minutes, and

beyond the rift are a very good on-ramp.

Your narrator this week is one of the pillars of the Western speculative fiction scene.

Kate Baker's years of work with the SF-W-A, over 400 narrations for Clark's world, editorial experience, and astonishing talent as an author.

Mark Rowd is both a vital part of what makes this industry as positive as it is, and an unfairly

overlooked talent. Listen to any of her work at Clarksville to discover just

how good she is or, closer to home, the astounding teacups and kitchen which is over at Cast of Winders.

The link will be in the show-nuts.

But first, get ready and get closer to the fire, but not too close to McCready, because it's story time.

I am being Blair.

I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front. I am being copper.

I am rising from the dead. I am being childs. I am guarding the main entrance.

The names don't matter. They are placeholders, nothing more. All biomass is interchangeable.

What matters is that these are all that is left of me. The world has burned everything else.

...