Satire Science

Dr. Edith Vane, scholar of English literature, is contentedly ensconced at the University of Inivea. Her dissertation on pioneer housewife memoirist Beulah Crump-Withers is about to be published, and her job's finally safe, if she only can fill out her AAO properly. She's a little anxious, but a new floral blouse and her therapist's repeated assurance that she is the architect of her own life should fix that. All should be well, really. Except for her broken washing machine, her fickle new girlfriend, her missing friend Coral.

In 2043, Pamela just wants to stop feeling like shit. Enter U++, a new black-market gene therapy, that fills her with promises of a genetically enhanced 'best self.' The horrifying discovery? Pam's biology has very different ideas about what constitutes self improvement... As the grotesque transformation accelerates, her desperate husband Mark sees opportunity: why not document his wife's metamorphosis as an unscripted show? With their finances crashing, a new baby to support, and the future-Texas heat literally killing people, exploiting Pam's condition might be their only path to survival.

God's just been in a deep-freeze coma in the Arctic. Strapped for cash, the Vatican has sold the body (a bargain at $1.3 billion!) to Baptists in Florida. Enterprising souls that they are, they’ve turned the Corpus Dei into a popular two-mile-long theme-park attraction at Orlando’s Celestial City USA - hooked up to the largest life-support system on earth. Then things get weird....

From the wicked imagination of award-winning writer Warren Ellis comes DEAD PIG COLLECTOR, a love story with a classic Ellis twist. So while it might be a love story, it's also about killing people and disposing of their bodies in the most efficient manner possible. DEAD PIG COLLECTOR introduces...

Alvitania is a dazzling collection of satirical short stories and surreal tales that blend dark humor, magical realism, and sharp social commentary. From absurd business trips to vanished countries, dystopian futures to bizarre political revolutions, each story in Tim Wexler’s anthology invites listeners into a world that is both uncannily familiar and thrillingly strange.

To the devil a daughter! Parenthood can come as a shock to some. It’s especially shocking if you are Satan, the Prince of Hell, and are trying to live a quiet life of semi-retirement in suburban England under the name of Jeremy Clovenhoof. Clovenhoof quickly finds that being a single parent involves more than lullabies and nappies and has to contend with social disapproval, paternity tests and, possibly, the end of the world.

For Mort, a scythe is about to become one of the tools of his trade. Henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the end, merely the means to an end. He has received an offer he can't refuse. As Death's apprentice, he'll have free board and use of the company horse. And being dead isn't compulsory. It's a dream job - until he discovers that it can be a love-life killer.

In Flatland, originally published in 1884, a humble square describes his two-dimensional world to benefit the inhabitants of Spaceland, the three-dimensional realm he discovers when he is visited by a being from beyond his plane. With dry wit and wild imagination, author Edwin Abbott Abbott builds a meticulous fantasy world rooted in an astute apprehension of psychology, politics, and social structures, as well as basic geometry. The story of Flatland, at once ridiculous and profound, delivers an incisive satire of social discourse that remains remarkably relevant today.

"The Empathizer" is a provocative dystopian political satire that transports listeners to a fractured America after a second civil war. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," this limited audio series follows one man's harrowing journey when he returns to the progressive West Coast and becomes trapped as the deadly pandemic sweeps through the region.

Beverly Cryer (Vurl) has to choose a dystopian faction to live with for the rest of her life. If she doesn't make it through initiation, she'll be factionless and declared a Detergent. But, Vurl is determined not to spend the rest of her life doing everyone else's laundry. She is an independent young woman with skills she doesn't even know about and with the help of handsome number Two she'll not only make it through initiation, she'll save the city from disaster.

When sociologist Nalini Jackson joins the SS Delany for the first manned mission to Jupiter, all she wants is a career opportunity: the chance to conduct the first field study of group dynamics on long-haul cryoships. But what she discovers instead is an entire city encased in a bubble on Europa, Jupiter’s largest moon.

The First Robot President combines science fiction with political satire, making fun of Democrats and Republicans in equal measure. The novel centers around Thomas Jenkins, a lobbyist, and his robot wife whose political ambitions land her on the Green Party's 2520 Presidential ticket.

Libryll’s encounter with Elves and Unicorns when she was a child growing up in the Woodman village of the Eldermark, far to the east, inspired her with a love for adventure, magic, and ancient mysteries. But now, 20 years after the events described in Two Flew at Midnight, New Sylestia and her allies are at war against Orks, Dragons, and the forces of evil. The young Deputy Waldgrave’s family is dead, her village destroyed, and Libryll is on the front lines with her Elven heroines, now not so larger than life, and learning about cost and what heroism is truly about.

Let us have a fair hearing at last for the Twelfth Fairy who has for so long been unjustly accused of sending the Sleeping Beauty to oblivion on her 16th birthday. The Lady Melicia never denied that she played a key part in this unhappy affair but, in her defense, has a question for her accusers: Do you really believe in fairies? In this retelling of a classic fairy tale 12 fairies confer miraculous gifts as proof of God’s existence. Things go wrong when one of the 12 turns unbeliever and declares that fairy gifts are nonsense.

Eight people escape zombie-infested New York. They have only one thing in common: the addict gene. The same genetic quirk that makes alcoholics and addicts susceptible to booze and drugs gives them a mysterious ability to evade the undead. But that's not enough to unite them. They're an unlikely crew: A Botoxed Upper East Sider; a drug dealer; a resentful daughter of addicts; a recovering AA guy; a Japanese ex-dope fiend; an addicted Ivy Leaguer; and a Mexican immigrant.

A pollute-addicted therapist named Meme battles his way through his mind and LA at the seat of his pants alongside a beautiful android escort with a surprising secret. With the Federal Corporate Government hunting him, will he make it to safety in time? The hunt is on. Harmon Cooper, author of The Feedback Loop, Fantasy Online, and The Last Warrior of Unigaea, turns it up a notch with this futuristic, psychological thriller steeped in cyberpunk and designer intoxicants.

Like many immigrants before him, Torres Medina sets out to do the job American-born citizens won’t: make the US immigration process accessible, relatable, and, hey, a little bit funny. With an outsider’s eye, an insider’s affection, and a biting, humorous flair, Torres Medina invites listeners from all passport lines to explore the multiple paths and potholes of moving to America, and experience just how many choices it takes to choose a new home.

There's nothing that 17-year-old Kallie Grande-White hungers for more than to be a famous model like her mother - except maybe actually food. But that's a small inconvenience, especially with the Model Middle America reality show holding auditions for the Next Top Heartland Teen Heartthrob Model right in Kallie's hometown. Nothing's going to stand in Kallie's way as she claws her way to the top. But when Kallie downs half a dozen of her PhD-in-nuclear-nanotechnology grandmother's radioactive doughnuts in a momentary fit of rage, everything changes - starting with her own body!

When the mysterious zookeeper of Clarendon Zoo grants his animals freedom to govern themselves, the creatures create a new land founded upon life, liberty, and happiness for all animals. Though the land seems to function well, each species soon realizes they have differing visions for how the land should be governed. With the help of Eagle and Owl’s propaganda, the traditional wolves and the progressive sheep quickly emerge as leaders. The two species fight to spread their contradictory visions, pitting the animals against one another, and inadvertently throw the zoo into chaos.

Flatland, first published in 1884, is classic work of satire. The full title, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, reveals the story's most compelling characteristic, its discussion of multiple dimensions. It is this fascinating examination which has contributed to Flatland's enduring popularity.