Titanium Mike Saves the Day

by David D. Levine

• Word count: 5611

• Page count: 9

Titanium Mike Saves the Day is a science fiction short story by Hugo Award winning author David D. Levine. It is about a series of tall tales set in space that follow the adventures of the amazing Titanium Mike - a man bigger than life, whose exploits in the solar system range from incredible to absolutely unbelievable.

If you enjoy the tall tales about Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill or John Henry then you'll love mankind's latest addition: Titanium Mike - a man who walked on the Sun, spoke to the planets, and even cooked up one of the rings around Saturn. Author David D. Levine does a great job illustrating how stories are sometimes more effective getting the job done than any other form of motivation. A fun and enlightening look at a future frontiersman. Titanium Mike Saves the Day has been nominated for the 2007 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Be sure to tune back in around the end of April and see if it won or not.

"Sweetie, do you know about Titanium Mike?"
Sophie didn't reply, just shook her head slowly inside her helmet.
"Well then, looks like I need to fill in a few holes in your education." She drew Sophie to herself, chestplate against chestplate, so the girl could feel her voice in her bones, not just hear it filtered through radio. "Titanium Mike is... well, he's more a force of nature than a man, really. They say his father was Gravity and his mother was Vacuum."
"Is he going to come and help us?"
Helen considered the question for a moment. "Well, he might — you never can tell where old Mike might show up. When Cassandra Station was coming apart, he stuck the two halves back together with spit. And he's the one who stopped Ceres from spinning."

Where you can find Titanium Mike Saves the Day:

• Titanium Mike Saves the Day originally appeared in the April 2007 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

• You can find a nice, free, archived, HTML copy of this story at the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine.

The author of Titanium Mike Saves the Day, David D. Levine, is a science fiction and fantasy writer who's had over twenty short stories published. He has won several major writing awards, including the Hugo and the Writers of the Future contest. You can learn more about him by surfing over to the biography on his website.

If you like this story don't forget to check out Tk’tk’tk, the 2006 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story, also by David D. Levine.

(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on BestScienceFictionStories.com on Feb 1st, 2008.)