Main Fiction: “The Verdant Gene” by Marcelle Dube
Originally published in Fiction River: Moonscapes
Marcelle Dubé writes science fiction, fantasy, and mystery fiction. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and award-winning anthologies, and her novels include the Mendenhall Mystery series and Backli’s Ford, an A’lle Chronicles novel. She grew up near Montreal and after trying out a number of different provinces (not to mention Belgium) she settled in the Yukon, where people outnumber carnivores, but not by much.
Narrated by: Christiana Ellis
Christiana Ellis is an award-winning writer and podcaster, currently living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her podcast novel, Nina Kimberly the Merciless was both an inaugural nominee for the 2006 Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction: Long Form, as well as a finalist for a 2006 Podcast Peer Award. Christiana is also the writer, producer and star of Space Casey, a 10-part audiodrama miniseries. In between major projects, Christiana is also the creator and talent of many other podcast productions including Talking About Survivor; Hey, Want to Watch a Movie? and Christiana’s Shallow Thoughts.
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Wow! I really enjoyed that story. As the plot moved forward toward its climax, I found myself filled with suspense, tensing up, and feeling anxious for the main character to overcome her own inner conflict and the external conflict in the story. As an English teacher, I taught the main types of conflict found in short stories, character against character, struggles within the character, and struggles against a natural force, which is my favorite. I suppose that is one reason why I liked this story and enjoyed it so much, but what made it really enjoyable was the excellent writing and superb narration. It was a story of inner struggle and a struggle against the destructive forces of a planet colonized by descendants of people from earth. If you like stories of survival against great odds, then you will love this story. In some way it is fitting considering the type of hurricane season that we have been experiencing and the desire of some people to face the fury of the story and ride it out in spite of life threatening conditions.
The multiple layers of conflicts – all nicely interwoven with each other – was part of the reason why I bought this story. I look for it in every story we potentially play, but this was done so nicely and tightly I knew I had to have it. Enjoyed your analysis, and keeping our listeners on the edge of their seat is exactly what I’m after. Very pleased you enjoyed it.
The show notes don’t credit Mr. Campanella.
Great narration on this one. I love the narrator’s voice.