Audiobook - The Ray-Gun

"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" is a science fiction novelette published in 2008 by James Alan Gardner. It was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award, as well as the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. The story is about a teenage boy who finds an alien ray gun in the forest.

James Alan Gardner has a Master's degrees in Applied Mathematics: you can learn more about this science fiction author by reading the Wikipedia page about him.

As fourteen year old Jack is walking home from school one day he sees the ray gun in the bottom of a small crater. Once he learns what it is he decides to keep knowledge of it a secret and begin a rigorous training program in case the original owners ever come looking for it. That proves to be a pivotal idea as Jack works out not only his body but his brain as well. Well, there seems to be some positive side effects to working out – like getting a girl friend and doing well in school – that is until the secret begins controlling his life!
(From BestScienceFictionStories.com)

The gun seized Jack's attention, but he didn't know what it was. Its design was too alien to be recognized as a weapon. Its metal was blackened but not black, as if it had once been another color but had finished that phase of its existence. Its pistol-butt was bulbous, the size of a tennis ball. Its barrel, as long as Jack's hand, was straight but its surface had dozens of nubs like a briarwood cane. The gun's trigger was a protruding blister you squeezed till it popped. A hard metal cap could slide over the blister to prevent the gun from firing accidentally, but the safety was off; it had been off for centuries, ever since the fight on the starship.

The alien captain who once owned the weapon might have considered it beautiful, but to human eyes, the gun resembled a dirty wet stick with a lump on one end. Jack might have walked by without giving it a second look if it hadn't been lying in a scorched crater. But it was.

With a nifty ending.

If you liked this story be sure to check out James Alan Gardner's collection of stories entitled Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories.

You can also read a free online version of “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” at the thinkage.ca web site.

• Download the audio version of "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" from the StarShipSofa podcast, for free, now! :
Aural Delights No 132 James Alan Gardner »

Author: Regular Expression, for AZ10.com ~ 8 May 2010

Newsletter :  Tweet