Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

In every episode I hand-pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

One brief thing before I get started.

These are the last few days of the Lovar Burton Reads writing contest and I will read the

top entry on the Lovar Burton Reads podcast and the top three submissions will be published

at Tor.com.

But the submission portal will close on August 31st at 11.59 pm Eastern time.

This is Lovar Burton podcast.com slash contest to get the details and submit your work.

I've said it here before and I'll say it one final time.

I can't wait to read your work.

Okay.

Now that we have that out of the way, shall we?

You know y'all, sometimes I'm doing my reading for the podcast and you know I read something

that gives me the little shiver of my spine.

You know what I mean?

It's that feeling of enjoying a great story.

Yeah, but even more than that, it's the feeling that I can't wait to read it aloud to you.

This is one of those stories.

Y'all, it's entitled Shock of Birth, originally published in Asimov science fiction and it's

one of those stories where you cannot help but put yourself in the character's shoes

and question whether you would respond the same way.

...