When one member of a group of travelers gets stranded in an arroyo, and surrounded by the metal-eating mechanical bugs that have taken over the desert, it's up to the protagonist of this story to save her. This was a very cool story, mostly because of how effectively it handled its worldbuilding, and how interesting that world was. The idea of bugs that eat metal - including the iron in human blood, if they're really hungry - gave me the shivers. Apparently post-apocalyptic killer robots don't have to be sentient to be scary. ( )

The southwest has been overrun by 'bugs', little machines that feed on metal to create copies of themselves. They can’t stand water, which is why they haven’t spread past the southwest. They are swarming things, and if they get excited they’ll go after the iron in a person’s blood. The scene is a girl stuck on a rock in the desert surrounded by bugs. Makes me think of the scene in Tremors, except with these bugs. A bunch of people a distance away have to figure out how to save her. Pretty cool story, and I’ll look for the novel when it comes out.

More at: http://reading.kingrat.biz/story-reviews/tor-com-story-podcast-january-2010 ( )