OLD RAMBLING HOUSE

Episode #218 · Written by FRank Herbert · Narrated by Scott Miller

A young couple chasing stability stumbles into an opportunity that feels impossibly generous. The promise of a perfect home and a settled future arrives wrapped in mystery, urging them to trade uncertainty for comfort before doubt can take root.

But beneath the polished surfaces lies a system that does not understand hesitation or sentiment. Every room they enter, every marvel they witness, deepens the sense that this bargain was designed long before they arrived. What looks like good fortune slowly reveals the shape of an obligation that may never end.

This is a tale of ordinary people confronting an extraordinary order where lives are tallied like figures on a page. Love, fear, and responsibility collide as the couple realizes that security can become a cage when someone else controls the locks.

Spare, tense, and quietly devastating, the story builds dread not through spectacle but through inevitability. It asks what freedom means in a universe that values function over feeling, and whether a single choice can bind generations to a fate they never chose.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank Herbert was a master of speculative ideas that examined how environments and institutions shape human lives. His work often explored power, obligation, and the hidden costs of grand systems imposed on individuals.

In this compact but potent story, Herbert distills those themes into a personal nightmare. The result is a haunting vision of cosmic bureaucracy, where the most terrifying force is not violence but an unbreakable contract written among the stars.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Old Rambling House by Frank Herbert — a classic science fiction short story where a dream home hides a cosmic bargain that could bind a family across the stars.

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Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

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