Orne braked to a creaking stop that shifted the load behind him, found himself staring through the windshield at a native of Gienah III. The native crouched on the hood, a Mark XX exploding-pellet rifle in his right hand directed at Orne’s head. In the abrupt shock of meeting, Orne recognized the weapon: standard issue to the marine guards on all R&R survey ships.

The native appeared the twin of the one Orne had seen on the translite screen. The four-fingered hand looked extremely capable around the stock of the Mark XX.

Slowly, Orne put a hand to his throat, pressed the contact button. He moved his speaking muscles: “Just made contact with the mob. One on the hood now has one of our Mark XX rifles aimed at my head.”

The surf-hissing of Stetson’s voice came through the hidden speaker - but it wasn't Stetson's voice, instead a podcast, talking all about Frank Herbert's 1959 short story, "Missing Link."

"Missing Link" was originally published in the February 1959 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. We read the text as it appeared at Project Gutenberg, here: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/23210/pg23210-images.html

Cover art is from the same issue and credited to Van Dongen.

"History hath triumphed over time, which besideth ith nothing but podcasteth hath triumphed overeth."

- Sir Walteth Raleighth

"Fire Watch" originally published in the February 1982 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Cover art from the 1984 book of the same name, by John Jude Palencar.

You can read it in a "Best of" collection here: https://archive.org/details/bestofisaacasimo0000unse/page/51/mode/1up?view=theater

Or if you prefer one long html: https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/firewatch.htm

View interior details and 3D model of St. Paul's here:

https://www.myleszhang.org/2020/04/16/st-pauls-cathedral/

Harker slept. Presently he began to moan and twitch, and then cry out. People around him woke up. They watched with interest. Harker was a lone wolf awake, ill-tempered and violent. When, at long intervals, he would have one of his spells, no one was anxious to help him out of it. They liked peeping inside of Harker when he wasn't looking.

Harker didn't care. He was playing in the snow again. He was seven years old, and he was listening to a podcast.

Before you vanish, perhaps you will take it upon yourself to listen to this episode of Reply by Ansible, in which we discuss the 1945 short story "The Vanishing Venusians" by sci-fi superstar Leigh Brackett, originally published in Planet Stories. Cover art from the illustrations accompanying the story, credited to the mononymous CRANK.

Read the scanned version of the original issue on archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/Planet_Stories_v02n10_1945-Sp_sas/page/n25/mode/2up?view=theater , or read the clean-text version as it appeared on Project Gutenberg here: https://archive.org/details/Planet_Stories_v02n10_1945-Sp_sas/page/n25/mode/2up?view=theater

The podcast discussion broadcast from the Martian pleasurecity of Pulambar, was one of the cynical tragi-comedies that the men of Mars love so well. As it unfolded certain gasses were released in the auditorium. They seemed pungent, even acrid, to Neil, who was not used to Martian luxuries,but perhaps you will sniff the fumes with every evidence of pleasure. In this episode we read “The Invading Asteroid” (1932) by Wanly Wade Wellman. We also have a discussion about Perdido Street Station.

(I incorrectly gave the year 1929 for when “The InvadingAsteroid” was first published, but this was incorrect – it did in fact appear for the first time in Monograph No. 15 of Gernsback’s The Science Fiction Series)

Read or download “The Invading Asteroid” here: https://archive.org/details/wellman-manly-wade-science-fiction-series-15-the-invading-asteroid_202110/mode/2up

Cover art an author's profile line-drawing of Wellman from a 1931 issue of Wonder Stories

On the 29th of January 2025, a podcast was delivered to our houses. This happens all the time - since becoming professional podcasters the amount of mail we get has increased enormously. The flap of the envelope had been torn open a strip, allowing someone to look inside. We mention this to explain why it was that we opened something not addressed to us, Reply by Ansible. This podcast was addressed to Respond by Subspace. Seeing a large packet torn half-open, we simply assumed it was ours and listened to it. It took us a good few minutes to realize our mistake.

There are some brief audio issues at around 42:00 which only last a minute or so - this is during our plot summary, so if you've already read this awesome story, it won't be an issue! If you haven't, check it out here: Looking for Jake and other stories : Miéville, China : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

"Reports of Certain Events in London" was originally published in the 2004 anthology McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, edited by Michael Chabon. We read the version as it appeared in the 2005 collection Looking for Jake. Cover art by Les Edwards.

Our last night of childhood began with a visit home. Luke's bearded dragon had given us two sterile eggs. They insisted that we each eat one. We did, and it had us feeling so good we recorded this episode of Octavia E. Butler's 1984 short story, "Bloodchild."

Read Bloodchild and Other Stories on archive.org, or on your friendly neighborhood search engine.

Link to Hannah Jo King's article "A Deeper Look at Octavia E. Butler's 'Bloodchild': A Black Feminist Futures Essay."

Cover art by Nick Jainschigg from June 1984 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.

(while editing this episode I double-checked when Santaroga Barrier came out, and indeed it was published between Dune (1965) and Dune Messiah (1969), an important bit of context I ought to have googled before dunking on it so hard - I'd better start laying off the Jaspers!)

It was cold, the night they recorded "Burning Chrome." Out in the malls and plazas, moths were batting themselves to death against the neon, but in Gareth and Luke's loft the only light came from their monitor screens and the red light on the face of their webcams. Jack in with us and listen to our discussion of the 1982 short story "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson, originally published in the July 1982 issue of Omni Magazine. Cover art by Alan Magee from same issue.

Read the 1986 collection Burning Chrome on archive.org here, or the original Omni issue here

Listen to Billy Idol's 1993 album Cyberpunk here

With a clamor of bells that set the bats soaring, the spooky season is upon us! For our third annual Halloween episode, we read Ursula Le Guin's classic "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," N. K. Jemisin's response, "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," and other stories/media in dialogue with the Omelas parable. Happy Halloween!

Cover art from Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 6, "Lift Us where Suffering Cannot Reach."

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" originally published in Volume 3 of New Dimensions.

"The Ones Who Stay and Fight" originally published in the 2018 collection How Long Til Black Future Month. We read the version as it appeared in the January 2020 issue of Lightspeed Magazine and can be found here: ⁠The Ones Who Stay and Fight - Lightspeed Magazine⁠

Thanks to the YouTube Channel FANAC Fan History for the audio from Le Guin's 1977 speech at Aussicon, you can watch the full video here: Aussiecon (1975) Worldcon - Ursula K. Le Guin Guest of Honor Speech - YouTube You can also learn more about her creative process from this interview here, by The Video Access Project/Creative Outlet, Inc.: Exploring Creativity with Ursula K. Le Guin - YouTube Lastly, listen to Le Guin read one of her own stories, from the good people at From Beyond Press, who have lots of other audiobooks to listen to: Ursula K. Le Guin reads her story "Intracom" - YouTube