Series 2, Episode 04: One Big Crunch

Literary Reading

"One Big Crunch" [Read]
   —Publication in OPi8: New Dark Culture, July 2005

Dashed yellow lines strobe past in my headlights, rolling to the left under the car, dividing the asphalt into neat little lanes. The trees flash by in the darkness, blurred purgatory grey. I pull the Mustang out of my lane, line up those pulsing yellow dashes dead center in my grille. I edge the wheel to the left, back to the right, taunting, teasing. The beltline around Raleigh, North Carolina is desolate at 3 a.m., free of witnesses. White Zombie roars out of the speakers: ". . . eye for an eye and a tooth for the truth . . ." I nose the Mustang past sixty, past seventy, past eighty. I’m all over the road now.

Flashing blue lights appear behind me and I smile.

Caution: contains some adult material and potentially disturbing imagery

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Series 2, Episode 03: Crystal Rain (review)

Book Review



Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell [Read extract]
   —Publication by Tor Books, February 2006

Cautious, they followed the destruction inward. To walk over the hot ground, they bound their feet with aloe and arm-sized leaves. They choked from the smoke. When they could walk into the destruction no longer, they turned around and found a weary-looking man sitting on a steaming metal boulder.

He wore a top hat, a long trench coat, and black boots. His eyes were gray, his dreadlocks black, and his face ashen. It was as if this man had not seen sun in all his life, but was born brown once.

He spoke gibberish to them, then touched his throat several times until the hunters understood his words.

"Where am I?"

(Full text review here.)

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