Oh, man! What we’ve seen so far! Those vicious alien squirrels! That crazy walking pool party! Sonic death wails?! Now that Harriet is in on Emma’s secret, what’s next? How about dream lord Mr. Knightly, cock fighting in space and laser panthers?—and all during an ill-fated shuttle flight from Bagshot Station orbiting Surrey-3!
Emma has started laying out her strategy for designing Harriet’s future in the last chapter and believes her cleverness will conceal her efforts—but Mr. Knightly is not so easily fooled, as we’ll now discover. So many fun passages from chapter 4, it’s hard to settle on one to highlight:
[Emma’s] questions increased in number and meaning; and she particularly led Harriet to talk more of Mr. Martin, and there was evidently no dislike to it. Harriet was very ready to speak of the share he had had in their late night space-walks and merry evening games of spin the neutron accelerator; and dwelt a good deal upon his being so very good-humoured, obliging and knowledgeable of hunting werewolves—who, infesting the moon, never revert to men. He had warped three light-year units round one day and returned with a bruised eye in order to bring her some wallop-nuts from the forest moon of Platt, orbiting the outer planet of Borough Green in the Kentus system. All because she had said how fond she was of them providing a bit of violence in her mouth.
Sandwiching a generous layer of sci-fi excitement beneath Jane Austen’s timeless humor isn’t easy but it is an absolute joy to work with. From the beginning, the preservation of Austen’s dignified prose contrasted against thick future-fantasy silliness really makes this a compelling endeavor for me—and believe you me, I’m enjoying this unfolding yarn as much as you are! Thanks for the comments and feedback so far. I think we’re going to have a lot more discuss with this latest chapter. Keep it coming.
Without further ado, I present the latest in the unfolding saga of EMMA3000, Chapter V.
What do you think?