Our first piece of audio fiction for September is "Pack" written by Robert Reed and read by Kate Baker.
Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 60 - Pack by Robert Reed [35:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7975)
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Robert has had eleven novels published, starting with The Leeshore in 1987 and most recently with The Well of Stars in 2004. Since winning the first annual L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest in 1986 (under the pen name Robert Touzalin) and being a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1987, he has had over 200 shorter works published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Eleven of those stories were published in his critically-acclaimed first collection, The Dragons of Springplace, in 1999. Twelve more stories appear in his second collection, The Cuckoo's Boys [2005]. In addition to his success in the U.S., Reed has also been published in the U.K., Russia, Japan, Spain and in France, where a second (French-language) collection of nine of his shorter works, Chrysalide, was released in 2002. Bob has had stories appear in at least one of the annual "Year's Best" anthologies in every year since 1992. Bob has received nominations for both the Nebula Award (nominated and voted upon by genre authors) and the Hugo Award (nominated and voted upon by fans), as well as numerous other literary awards (see Awards). He won his first Hugo Award for the 2006 novella "A Billion Eves". He is currently working on a Great Ship trilogy for Prime Books, and of course, more short pieces.
Website:
www.robertreedwriter.com
I don't think the protagonist is an AI ... he eats, and he refers to the woman wearing boots and being sunburnt. He might be posthuman.
The story reminds me very much of Clifford Simak's City tales of intelligent postdogs in a future era of human isolation and decline. I'd think Pack is a deliberate homage.
At first I though it was a game- mainly I think because of the way the main character refered to using up his reserves of courage...
Later I thought, like Steve [above], that the main character and his kind were the people who did/could combine with technology (mostly because he had scraps of food left over from his own supply), and then the boots, sunburn & smile of the invader at the end clinched it for me...
Great story though, and I enjoy the ambiguousness. It makes it feel less familiar, like I should understand and it should be obvious, but things are so different I just don't get it... and as ever, beautifully read
I took it to be looking at just how far can humanity go before they are in effect another species? If you are closeted away from the environment, there is no 'local' anymore, and your brain is overclocked to the nth degree, then will humans as we are now, and have been for centuries, creatured who live under the sun and live (in effect) as pack animals, seem an altogether less developed species.
1. Congrats on the Hugo. Well done and well deserved.
2. Enjoyable story; good reading. Kate is one of my top three favorite regular podcast readers, along with Norm Sherman and Frank Key.
3. I've subscribed to the magazine on Kindle...so hurry up and get me that second podcast!
Simpler than that. I read it as merely the haves and the have-nots, an insulated upper culture with armor and AI assists, but still just people. The Dogs are the have-nots, still just people, but people without the elaborate castle and armor &c. The neighbor seems pretty happy to be collared by the dogs.
It's a small revolution.
Possibly I missed something, but I didn't get AI from this...I thought the protagonist was human and the dogs were actually dogs, albeit mutated and possibly evolved, a la Planet of the Apes. That made the ending scene, with the dog at the door, much more powerful for me. Am I being too literal?