In celebration of the release of Jo Walton’s STARLINGS, Tachyon presents glimpses from some of the volume’s magnificent tales.

Remember
the Allosaur

by Jo Walton

No.
No way. Just put it out of your mind. Cedric, I know, all right.

You
don’t have to tell me. I’ve been here all along. Yes, you were
born in Hollywood. Well, all right, cloned, what’s the difference?
I was right there when you were hatched. You’ve got greasepaint in
your blood, kiddo.

It
wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know you were intelligent. Nobody knew
allosaurs were intelligent. They all thought they had the ultimate
monster for monster movies. If you hadn’t started talking there
would be a lot more dinos in Hollywood today, but the Ethics people
came and bit them all on the metaphorical tail.

You’re
a star, yes. I understand. But this is just impossible. Wasn’t I
there when you wanted to get out of the monster genre? Didn’t I
believe in you when they said you were washed up after all the
monster movies?

Didn’t
I give you your start at real acting? Didn’t I give you dialogue?

Dialogue,
Cedric, don’t lash your tail at me, you didn’t have any dialogue
before I started directing. Didn’t I start you off in comedy?
Remember that rubber fin in Stegosaur?
“Cedric the Allosaur stars in Stegosaur.”
You were such a hit, you wowed them, remember? What a movie. What a
series of movies! Kids loved them, seniors loved them, and Hollywood
Times voted Pterosaur the
date movie of the year. We could make Pterosaur
2 tomorrow.

Yes,
maybe, but I’m not sure about this. I know you’re an actor not a
special effect, dammit. I know it’s supposed to be every actor’s
dream. I don’t know how to put this. It’s classic drama, Cedric.

No,
I don’t mean that you can’t play a human. Honestly, didn’t you
play a human in Humans?
And Humans
2? And you were wonderful, honestly, Ced, you know
I’m not just saying that, I think Humans
2 was a triumph. You deserved that Oscar.
Didn’t I say at the time, didn’t I say that Portman stole that
Oscar from you?

And
you did it again in Othello.
I admit I was wrong about Othello.

You
wanted to do it, and I dragged my feet. I made you play Caliban
first, to get the feel for Shakespeare. You were an awesome Caliban.
And you made Othello work, you really got that sense of alienation
in, that sense that you were different and having trouble with
knowing if people loved you for yourself because of that. Moor,
allosaur, same difference really. Even the New
York Times loved you.

For more info on STARLINGS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story