Thursday, September 30, 2010

New story: "Henry Jumps a Shark" by Colin P. Davies

I just finished reading “Henry Jumps a Shark” (2010), a new science fiction short story by British writer Colin P. Davies that is posted on the website BewilderingStories.com. It's a satirical near-future piece that revolves around the Red Planet, the Robson family and a troubled reality tv show called Mars, One Day at a Time. Like sands through the hourglass, here are the opening lines:
Ratings were in free fall. Mars, One Day at a Time had lost its edge, its excitement, and was about to lose its audience.

It had all started well, back in 2099, with the United Nations’ base established in Marineris and the subsequent expansion of the frontiers. Wherever the Rovers went, the Robsons went too. They had adventures and family fall-outs, tense dramas and high comedy; and, far away, the Earth watched. There was an excitement in the air in those days, a rust-tinted, dusty excitement. This world was new and anything could happen.

But it didn’t...
Colin P. Davies is a Building Surveyor from Liverpool, England, and is the author of several other short stories about Mars: “A Touch of Earth” (1995) and “The Girl with the Four-Dimensional Head” (2004) published in his collection Tall Tales on the Iron Horse (2008); “The Certainty Principle" published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (February 2009); and “The Booby-Trapped Boy” published in M-Brane SF #20 ( September 2010).

No comments:

Post a Comment