John sez, “At Balticon this past May, Charlie Stross was the guest of honor. As a special treat, the first ever live full cast recording of the excellent Escape Pod podcast was performed of Stross’s story Rogue Farm – his tale of future tech, biological hacking, and human nature is well-presented.”
I’ve been listening to this all morning while brushing my teeth, cooking breakfast, etc. Convulsively funny, in a way that does justice to Charlie’s wonderful story!
“Buggerit, I don’t have time for this,” Joe muttered. The stable waiting for the small herd of cloned spidercows cluttering up the north paddock was still knee-deep in manure, and the tractor seat wasn’t getting any warmer while he shivered out here waiting for Maddie to come and sort this thing out. It wasn’t a big herd, but it was as big as his land and his labour could manage – the big biofabricator in the shed could assemble mammalian livestock faster than he could feed them up and sell them with an honest HAND-RAISED NOT VAT-GROWN label.
“What do you want with us?” he yelled up at the gently buzzing farm.
“Brains, fresh brains for baby Jesus,” crooned the farm in a warm contralto, startling Joe half out of his skin. “Buy my brains!” Half a dozen disturbing cauliflower shapes poked suggestively out of the farms’ back then retracted again, coyly.
“Don’t want no brains around here,” Joe said stubbornly, his fingers whitening on the stock of the shotgun. “Don’t want your kind round here, neither. Go away.”
(Thanks, John!)