The best-written recent speculative fiction: Audition by Pip Adam
Read the opening pages below
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in the spacecraft Audition
‘I’m in the basketball court,’ Alba says. ‘Wedged between the floor and the ceiling.’
‘I’m in a hallway,’ Drew says. ‘Unable to move. Pushed into a corner bent over and it’s hard to breathe.’
‘I’m stuck in the last room I could fit in,’ Stanley says.
‘We all are,’ Alba and Drew say.
‘We all are,’ Stanley agrees.
‘I feel like there used to be more room,’ says Stanley. ‘Like before this. I feel like I want to say, This is a beautiful ship.’
‘I want to say,’ Alba says. ‘They have done a really nice job of building this . . . I want to say, spacecraft.’
‘I want to say Audition,’ Drew says. ‘I feel like I want to say, They have done a good job of building this beautiful spacecraft called Audition and we are all lucky to be inside her.’
‘And we only need to whisper to say it,’ Alba whispers. ‘Whisper it into the walls because Audition hears us and turns our noise into speed and steering . . .’
‘. . . and air and gravity.’
‘You can hear me and I’m only whispering,’ Stanley whispers.
‘We all are,’ Drew whispers.
‘We all are,’ whispers Alba. ‘And it is perfect. They did a good job of building the beautiful spacecraft Audition.’
‘I think we all think we are going to die,’ Stanley says.
‘But really,’ Alba says. ‘What would we know?’
‘It would be better if we took a moment to be really grateful for this beautiful spacecraft which used to be so perfect for us. Which was built especially for us. When we got too big for Earth.’
‘We were big on Earth,’ Drew says.
‘Too big,’ Alba says.
‘And now we’re too big for the spacecraft Audition,’ Stanley says.
‘I think we’re just not looking at it right,’ Drew says.
‘I think really, we’re stupid and probably, there’s nothing wrong with the ship and the circumstances we find ourselves in.’
‘Bent over.’
‘Painfully trapped.’
‘A bird in an egg,’ Stanley says.
‘A foetus in a uterus,’ Alba says.
‘Waiting for something magnificent,’ Stanley says.
More on the book»
Speculative fiction titles considered this month
Audition by Pip Adam
Angel Eye by Madeleine Nakamura
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
Engines of War by R.S. Ford
Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
The Quiet by Barnaby Martin
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