Tales to Terrify 764 Arthur H. Manners
Summary
In this episode of Tales to Terrify, host Drew Sebastiani presents "Song of Marzana," a sci-fi horror story by Arthur H. Manners. The tale follows Dr. Ben Cohen, an exoarchaeologist deciphering alien glyphs on a doomed planet, who begins suffering from hallucinations and isolation. As his colleagues exhibit strange physical symptoms and sabotage his work, Ben realizes the temple’s inscriptions are not a disease but a cognitive countermeasure against a parasitic entity. The story culminates in a desperate attempt to transmit the protective songs to Earth before the infection spreads.
Topics discussed
Intro and support the show
Get Real podcast promotion
Whole Foods Market September stock up ad
Tales to Terrify intro and Folded Space promo
Author bio and story introduction
Dr. Cohen's exhaustion and AI assistant Kenny
The Marzana temple and its history
Biohazard scare and first hallucinations
Team conflict and Farul's hostility
Cohen's obsession and Kenny's glitches
Whole Foods and Bombas socks ads
Borton's temple reconstruction and rash
Dinner scene and mass hallucination
Cohen's isolation and Kenny's default mode
Breakthrough in translation and Kenny's return
Helli's warning and the vine incident
Cohen's delusion and Farul's destruction of temple
Revelation of the true threat and escape
Space pod escape and the vine-covered planet
Singing the cure and Kenny's infection
Outro, credits, and final ads
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