Nimby and the D-Hoppers, Part 01

Here’s part one of my podcast of Nimby and the D-Hoppers, a story that was originally published in Asimov’s in 2003 and reprinted in a Year’s Best, then translated into Russian, Chinese and French. Nimby is the story of a deep-green alternate future that is being invaded by gun-totin’ yahoos from alternate planes of reality:

Don’t get me wrong — I _like_ unspoiled wilderness. I _like_ my sky clear and blue and my city free of the thunder of cars and jackhammers. I’m no technocrat. But goddamit, who wouldn’t want a fully automatic, laser-guided, armor-piercing, self-replenishing personal sidearm?

Nice turn of phrase, huh? I finally memorized it one night, from one of the hoppers, as he stood in my bedroom, pointing his hand-cannon at another hopper, enumerating its many charms: “This is a laser-guided blah blah blah. Throw down your arms and lace your fingers behind your head, blah blah blah.” I’d heard the same dialog nearly every day that month, whenever the dimension-hoppers catapaulted into my home, shot it up, smashed my window, dived into the street, and chased one another through my poor little shtetl, wreaking havoc, maiming bystanders, and then gateing out to another poor dimension to carry on there.

Part One MP3