Audiobook - Inside the Machine
Susan Omand listens to a short science fiction story about a young woman who finds herself inexplicably inside a giant machine...
Read By: Nicola Bryant
Written By: Neil Gardner
Music By: Purple Planet
She was inside the machine, She knew
not how, nor how to get out. As far as She knew She was the first to
ever be in this situation. Panic rises as She realises this. The
Machine, however, seems initially nonplussed over her presence. She
slowly realises that her actions affect the workings of the Machine,
as She asks questions of it, and the Machine responds to her,
until.....
We do not ever find out who "She" is
or indeed what "the Machine" does, only that it has a
"presence", is a bedrock of society. As the story
progresses we learn of the societal acceptance of the presence of the
machine - it just "is". The description of the internal
workings of the machine add to the analogy to society - lots of
different ages and types of technology having to work together by
sort sort of magic for the Machine to continue functioning. Like a
previous story of Neil Gardner's, The Sound Within, that I listened
to and enjoyed greatly, this is very much an existential work. More
about being rather than doing - an examination of one's place in the
world - "why am I here"?
Although quite short, at only eleven
and a half minutes, I really enjoyed the descriptive quality of the
writing, the use of monologue as She talks, and the good use of
onomatopoeia throughout. It helped too that the story was very
expressively read by Nicola Bryant, best known as Peri from Doctor
Who. I don't often listen to a female voice reading but hers held my
attention. Sound effects were very well used to add tension towards
climax of the story and the theme music by Purple Planet gives just
the right edge of mechanical menace.
This is definitely my kind of story but
I can see it would not be to everyone's taste. It is not high action
or high drama, but a tale, simple on the surface, that creeps into
your brain, getting bigger and more complex the more you think about
it and read into it. Whether or not this was the author's intention,
I like it.
Image - Spokenworld
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