Many people have asked for the edit of on of our Christmas stories, Solitary as an Oyster, and with all the editorial changeover this spring, it ended up sadly on the back burner. But now, six months from Christmas, we give you a treat in the heat of summer (norther hemisphere, anyway): Solitary as an Oyster by Mur Lafferty.

<strong>By <a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/farmer/2/" target="_blank">Mike Resnick</a></strong>
<br>Read by: Julie Davis</br>
<br>Originally published in: <a href="http://www.asimovs.com/201007/index.shtml" target="_blank">Asimov's</a> -- <a href="http://www.asimovs.com/201006/images/brideoffrankenstein.pdf">Download and read the text</a></br>
<br>Guest Host: Alasdair Stuart of <a href="http://www.pseudopod.org" target="_blank">Pseudopod</a></br>

<em>Victor can be so annoying.He constantly whistles this tuneless song,and when I
complain he apologizes and then starts humming it instead.He never stands up to
that ill-mannered little hunchback that he’s always sending out on errands.And he’s
a coward.He can never just come to me and say “I need money again.”Oh,no,not
Victor.Instead he sends that ugly little toady who’s rude to me and always smells
like he hasn’t washed.

And when I ask what the money’s for this time,he tells me to ask Victor,and Vic-
tor just mumbles and stammers and never gets around to answering. </em>

<strong>Rated PG:</strong> for spousal annoyances

<strong>Show Notes:</strong>
<ul>
    <li>The <a href="http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=3429.0">Escape Pod Flash Contest</a> ends soon! It runs June 1- July 4, stories must be under 500 words. More information at the link.</li>
    <li><strong>Editor's note: </strong>Thanks so much to Dave Thompson and Peter Wood for taking on this project of securing all five Hugo stories during the hiatus of Escape Pod. Most of the work was done before I joined, and this wouldn't have happened without them stepping up.</li>
</ul>
<strong>Next week…</strong> Another Hugo-nominated story!

by Lawrence M. Schoen 
Read by Graeme Dunlop 
Originally Published in the Footprints anthology 
Introduced by Norm Sherman of the Drabblecast

None of the first generation of Krenn had lived long enough to reach the site, though none had expected to. The very first Krenn had conceived of this journey in the distant past, dedicating his life and his posterity to the pilgrimage with an ever recycling population of clones. Like their clone-father, each was an optimized collection of smart matter no bigger than a speck. Hundreds of generations of Krenn had lived and died during the voyage, their remains enshrined into niches in the very walls of the vessel that now lay shattered at its destination.

The survivors flooded out upon the steppes of the heel, rejoicing despite the crushing weight that gravity forced upon them. They settled in, constructing mansions of haze and shadow, and waited for enlightenment to come. The mission and purpose of the first Krenn remained with each of them. This place had been the site of the greatest triumph of the greatest archaeocaster in all of history. Before the beginning of the quest, Krenn—the original Krenn—had felt drawn to it. He had cultivated the tales, sifted myth from coincidence, mastered the lost language of the interview-eschewing, spatial curmudgeons of the ancient dark times, and recreated the route through dimensional puzzles to this theoretical location. The odds of success had been so absurd not a single entelechy of Krenn's crèche dared invest time or expense in the project. And yet, here they were, nearly three hundred unique individuals sharing the template of Krenn.

Rated PG for Space Exploration and Looking into the Abyss

<strong>By <a href="http://nkjemisin.com/" target="_blank">N.K. Jemisin</a></strong>
Originally recorded by Kate Baker for <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/" target="_blank">Clarkesworld Magazine</a>, and is used here with their expressed permission
Guest Host: Dave Thompson of <a href="http://www.podcastle.org" target="_blank">Podcastle</a>

<em>Her neighbor — the other one, across the hall — helped her figure it out, long before the math geeks finished crunching their numbers.

"Watch," he'd said, and laid a deck of cards facedown on her coffee table. (There was coffee in the cups, with a generous dollop of Bailey's. He was a nice-enough guy that Adele felt comfortable offering this.) He shuffled it with the blurring speed of an expert, cut the deck, shuffled again, then picked up the whole deck and spread it, still facedown. "Pick a card."

Adele picked. The Joker.

"Only two of those in the deck," he said, then shuffled and spread again. "Pick another."

She did, and got the other Joker.

"Coincidence," she said. (This had been months ago, when she was still skeptical.)</em>

<strong>Rated R:</strong> for Lucky Streaks and Getting Lucky.

<strong>Show Notes:</strong>
<ul>
    <li>Enter the Escape Pod Flash Contest! It runs June 1- July 4, stories must be under 500 words. More information at the link.</li>
    <li><strong>Editor's note: </strong>Thanks so much to Dave Thompson and Peter Wood for taking on this project of securing all five Hugo stories during the hiatus of Escape Pod. Most of the work was done before I joined, and this wouldn't have happened without them stepping up.</li>
</ul>
<strong>Next week…</strong> Another Hugo-nominated story!