This was an audiobook called The Egg and Other Stories by Andy Weir. I was already familiar with The Egg — there’s a very well-known YouTube retelling of it, which my husband showed me not long before I started listening to this short collection. It’s a great listen, particularly in this moment in human history, and I’d recommend everyone look it up.
The collection of stories here is extremely high quality overall. I really, really enjoyed them. They tend to be short stories with little twists in them, and I found that twist-model a very effective storytelling hook that kept me highly engaged. Once I realized that that structural pattern was how they all would run, I quickly listened to all of them with absolutely no difficulty.
I think my favourite one was about the cat — which I won’t spoil or even say which story it is, because that’s part of the joy of listening, right? But it really, truly was a head-scratcher. It was an incredibly interesting experience. I’m chuckling now remembering it.
Here is the order of stories included in the collection (all authored by Andy Weir):
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Access
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Antihypoxiant
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Annie’s Day
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The Real Deal
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Bored World
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The Midtown Butcher
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Meeting Sarah
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The Chef
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The Egg
It’s really hard to review a collection of sci fi short stories without revealing too much about the twists. I’ve already mentioned a small detail with the cat story, which was my favourite, but I’ll also add that within this list there is a very effective zombie story, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There’s something for everyone in this list: superpowers, murders, existential dread.
I was able to access The Egg and Other Stories on Audible, and I believe it was free. I’m not sure how that works, but if you’re looking for a short and highly stimulating sci-fi romp, I highly recommend The Egg. It’s definitely worth your listening time. In fact, I’ve only ever consumed Andy Weir’s books by audiobook, and I intend to stick with that in future. His work translates very well to the spoken word.
Overall, I give this one five languid stretches out of five.