Once There Were Others
Description
Two reptilian archaeologists hunt for an ancient alien technology that can reignite the stars. With all but one planet searched in their sector, their attentions turn to a previously explored jungle world. All reports say the place is feral, never touched by the Ancient Ones. But T'Kxa and Aelak refuse to give up hope for their dying cosmos. Here, in the fertile soil of a doomed fledgling world, they might not find pyramids or starships or star-savers, but they will find something stranger, something which rewrites the story of the Ancient Ones.
- Originally published in Who Built The Humans?, this short story about the end of the universe is a glimpse into Carter's strange imagination that deserves to be appreciated as a standalone piece. It is stories like Once There Were Others which form the philosophical backbone of his larger and interconnected works.
More details
Person
Comedian, Author, Poet, Artist, and Bigfoot lookalike, Phillip Carter is a multifaceted storyteller whose stories breathe new life into everything from time travel and alien encounters, to nights out and crystal shopping.
His writing is multidisciplinary, bringing a poetic voice to Science Fiction, a comedic edge to poetry, and a bit of everything to his best stories. This multifaceted approach makes his stories accessible and unique, providing many layers of storytelling for you to glide over or explore, depending on how you are feeling.
Bragging
Phillip won the Rhiannon Evans scholarship in 2015 for excellence in Creative Writing - for a darkly comedic sci-fi poem about mosquitoes which was actually about relationship woes.
Since then he has appeared briefly in Channel 4s Lego Masters, judged a short story competition at the Edinburgh Literature Festival, told jokes about time travel at Bright Club, told jokes about marriage and religion at Wise Guys in Utah, set up his own comedy shirt company, and befriended the local pigeons. At the time of writing, he can fit 42 Lego figures in his beard.
Phillip's meandering path to world domination
Phillip's goal as a comedian is to get on various television panel shows and say clever, silly things. His goal as an author is to give people new universes to explore. His goal as a human being is to go back in time to upsell new types of fire to cave people. "Fire 2.0" will replace regular fire simply because it offers a sleeker design and alternating flame colours. The cave people do not need to know about the dangerous, hallucinogenic gases which make those colours possible. It's fine if they hallucinate a little bit, they'll only dream of harmless things like reading author bios.
Other books / Gigs
Phillip has not just written this book. He has written more of the things. Some of them are bigger. Some of them are smaller. All of them are weird. Go now, seek them out, they are waiting to be discovered.
( if you want some help finding more stuff by Phillip, try searching up Linktr.ee/phillipcarter)
