The Ride

By: Aric Davis

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Thirty years hasn't changed Las Vegas - the desert just got dirtier. The biggest game in town centers on a massive, deadly roller coaster that winds its way through the Strip's most famous attractions. On the first Saturday of every month, twenty-four desperate passengers get strapped into the notorious ride and gamble with their lives in a twisted game of chance, to the thrill of webcast audiences worldwide. One of them will win, and one will die, but the other twenty-two will escape with nothing but their lives. Bets are placed as the ride begins, but in Vegas, the house always wins.

The Ride by acclaimed author Aric Davis is a terrifying near-future vision of bloodlust-as-entertainment taken to a horrific extreme.

©2013 Aric Davis (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Excellent Stuff…

Shirley Jackson meets "Black Mirror" with a sprinkle of Stephen King. Aric Davis is one of my favourite writers.

Chilling Allegory

This reminds me of the works of earlier masters such as Bradbury and Orwell; it's a bleak commentary on where society could be headed, as the voyeuristic tendencies that make reality TV successful allow us to simultaneously have windows into the lives of others, while also dehumanizing them as characters on a screen.

Some reviewers seem to be dissatisfied with the ending, but I think a satisfying ending would absolve the reader/listener of asking ourselves the hard questions the story is meant to provoke.