Daily Short Stories - Science Fiction · Public Domain Books

Prison of a Billion Years - Stephen Marlowe

·24 min·2 clips

Adam Slade escapes execution by killing a guard and taking reporter Marsha Lawrence hostage.

This episode presents the science fiction short story "Prison of a Billion Years" by C. H. Thames. The narrative follows condemned prisoner Adam Slade and his hostage, reporter Marsha Lawrence. The story is delivered in a classic audio drama format without additional host commentary. Adam Slade escapes execution by killing a guard with an iron pipe of unknown origin. He takes Marsha Lawrence, a 22-year-old reporter for Interplanetary Video, as his hostage during her scheduled pre-execution interview. The escape proceeds from the cell block, through a dome-enclosed prison city, and out into a primordial rocky landscape. The external environment is described as featuring twisted, gigantic rock monoliths under a gray sky. Terrestrial waters trapped deep within the rock create steam, and a distant sea slowly erodes rocky headlands. The setting shifts dramatically from a confined prison to a vast, ancient-seeming natural world. The prose emphasizes the immense, slow geological processes at work in this landscape. The escape creates a stark contrast between human constructs like the prison dome and the raw, powerful planet outside. Marsha Lawrence's perspective as a terrified, unwilling participant grounds the extraordinary escape in human emotion. The story is told in a vivid, descriptive, and third-person narrative style. The tone is tense and atmospheric, blending action with heavy visual imagery. Listeners who enjoy classic, descriptive sci-fi tales of escape and alien landscapes will appreciate this episode. Those preferring modern, dialogue-driven stories or explicit author analysis might find it less engaging.

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