The Fastest Draw by Larry Eisenberg Episode #522
Larry Eisenberg | March 31, 2026-
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The Fastest Draw by Larry Eisenberg Episode #522
Larry Eisenberg
THE FASTEST DRAW
Episode #522 · Written by Larry Eisenberg · Narrated by Scott Miller
Amos Handworthy has spent a lifetime mastering problems that can be solved. He builds, refines, and perfects until nothing is left to chance. Yet the victories leave him restless, because they lack something he can’t manufacture—an outcome that isn’t already decided before it begins.
When a gifted engineer steps in to improve one of Handworthy’s prized machines, the project quickly becomes more than a technical exercise. Each modification brings new precision, tighter control, and greater realism. But with every step forward, the boundary between demonstration and danger begins to blur, until the question is no longer how well the machine works, but what it means to use it.
Handworthy isn’t satisfied with a safe contest. He wants something that demands everything from him, something that can’t be reduced to a predictable result. As the system evolves to respond to his own reactions, the balance shifts in a way that can’t be ignored. And once he decides to push it further, there’s no way to separate the test from the consequences that follow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Larry Eisenberg wrote stories that were published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, where his work often paired technical ingenuity with a sharp sense of irony. His stories frequently begin with a straightforward idea, then follow it to an outcome that exposes the hidden cost of getting exactly what was asked for.
“The Fastest Draw” stands as a clear example of that approach. What starts as a challenge in design becomes a personal trial, where the engineer’s success enables something far less controllable. Eisenberg builds the tension through careful escalation, allowing each improvement to tighten the situation until the final step feels both inevitable and impossible to take back.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The Fastest Draw by Larry Eisenberg. A driven inventor pushes a perfect duel into dangerous territory in this classic science fiction short story.
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