Audiolibro - The Ray-Gun

Un bel racconto breve di Fantascienza pubblicato nel 2008 da James Alan Gardner: "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story". E' stato nominato per il 2009 Hugo Award, e anche per il 2009 Nebula Award nella categoria Best Novelette. La storia narra di un ragazzino che trova un fucile a raggi di provenienza aliena nel bel mezzo di un bosco.
James Alan Gardner ha una Laurea in Matematica Applicata: potete scoprire di più su questo autore di Fantascienza nella pagina di Wikipedia su di lui.

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!
(Da 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.

Con un finale davvero sfizioso.

Se vi è piaciuta questa storia, vi piacerà sicuramente la collezione di storie di James Alan Gardner dal titolo Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories.

E' anche possibile leggere una versione online gratuita di “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” sul sito thinkage.ca.

• Scarica ora la versione audio di "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" dal podcast StarShipSofa, è gratis! :
Aural Delights No 132 James Alan Gardner »

Autore: Espressione Regolare, per Kappero.com ~ 8 Mag 2010

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