Another tale from the ever-enterprising team at flashpulp.com, who manage
to produce a short story three times a week in podcast form, and have now acquired a back-catalogue of nearly three hundred
episodes. Truly a herculean effort.
This story concerned a little girl, Madeline, living in a fictional city (Capital
City), who witnesses a suicide happening in her local area. She clambers aboard her bicycle - suggestively named Galahad -
and immediately travels there, in the belief that she can save the person concerned. After all, she had managed to save someone
else in the past, and could therefore consider herself a superhero.
As things turn out, she is powerless to intervene; likewise the police who, although
claiming to do everything they can, are nonetheless bound by protocol. It is left to the real superheroes - The Achievers
- to restore order and save the victim.
J. R. D. Skinner's short story ponders the future of the superhero in the contemporary
world; whether their influence is confined to comics, blockbusting movies, computer games or online sites. The writing style
is slick, with multiple adjectives before nouns creating repeated verbal climaxes. I enjoyed what I heard.
