Author Topic: PC497: Six Jobs  (Read 3048 times)

Ocicat

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on: November 21, 2017, 06:26:31 PM
PodCastle 497: Six Jobs

by Tim Pratt
read by Stephanie Morris
hosted by Setsu Uzume

Rated PG.

I was eleven when a little man with watery eyes who blinked and sniffed all the time shuffled into my classroom, moving carefully, not brushing up against any desks or people. My teacher stood frozen with her hand pointed at a map of Africa, and the kids all around me were unnaturally still, too, stuck in whatever moment they’d been caught in when time stopped: note-passing, nose-picking, empty-space-gazing.

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Tim Pratt is the author of over twenty novels, including Heirs of Grace and forthcoming space opera The Wrong Stars. His short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, and other nice places. He’s a Hugo Award winner, and has been a finalist for World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Stoker, Mythopoeic, and Nebula Awards, among others. He lives in Berkeley CA and works as a senior editor at Locus, a trade magazine devoted to science fiction and fantasy publishing. For more than two years he’s been publishing a new story every month for supporters at patreon.com/timpratt. That’s where “Six Jobs” first appeared.



Stephanie Malia Morris works in a bookstore by day and a library by night. She has narrated for StarShipSofa, Far Fetched Fables, and all four of the Escape Artists podcasts, guest-blogged on subjects ranging from book recommendations to zombie turkeys, and performed Shakespeare in a handful of weird churches. She is a recent graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!



Moritz

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Reply #1 on: November 25, 2017, 02:11:59 PM
I generally liked this story and the protagonist's development was cool, I and only had two issues with it:
- I could see the plot twists from a hundred miles away
- 2000 year old authentic/certified Roman coins only cost about 40 bucks here in Germany. Unless they are made of gold, then the gold of course has an intrinsic value.



Alethean

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Reply #2 on: November 27, 2017, 05:31:57 PM
Really wowed by this story! I agree with the previous poster, the "twist" was visible a mile away, but it didn't bother me much because the story overall was well-told and enjoyable. I could definitely see this being reworked into a very marketable full-length novel. But it was really the narration that pushed this over the top--really top notch voice acting from Stephanie Morris. Great stuff. I hope we hear more from her soon! I liked it so much that it spurred me into finally registering for the forum just so I could make sure you all get the compliments. :D
Also, I notice her bio says she has narrated for all four EA podcasts, but the autolinker only finds two, including this one. Is something broken?



cwthree

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Reply #3 on: December 01, 2017, 07:58:20 PM
Oh, this was fun!



Jethro's belt

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Reply #4 on: December 05, 2017, 01:27:10 PM
Loads of fun, but I wanted to know more of the 4th job selling cupcakes from the food truck.



Katzentatzen

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Reply #5 on: December 12, 2017, 09:54:20 PM
I enjoyed the protagonist's journey on the periphery of this magical system. I really wish I could find lost things. I was suspicious of both "organization's" motives, and worried that they were using her with crumbs of information. I'm glad she became more than a catspaw in the end. Also magical assistant librarian is my dream job. I REALLY want to know more about the quest for the absent God.

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
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savanni

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Reply #6 on: January 30, 2018, 11:39:27 PM
Okay, so... wow. I had a lot of fun with this. And yeah, like most people, I saw the twist about the motivations of both organizations.

But for *me*, the big twist that really delighted me is one I did not see coming at all. The Table that Kayla now works for... is the same one that Tim wrote into Cup and Table in Podcastle so long ago. I loved that story, and I love this trip back into that world. There is so much to see and hear and do here and I am very happy to have gotten another peak past the veil again.



Fenrix

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Reply #7 on: March 10, 2018, 06:33:58 PM
I really had a lot of fun with this. A handful more stories like this and I might actually be pushed to attempt Mage: the Ascension again (or whatever it's current incarnation is). I think one of my fiction goals for this year might be tie-in fiction. I have a ton of it on my shelves that hasn't been cracked open in decades.


But for *me*, the big twist that really delighted me is one I did not see coming at all. The Table that Kayla now works for... is the same one that Tim wrote into Cup and Table in Podcastle so long ago. I loved that story, and I love this trip back into that world. There is so much to see and hear and do here and I am very happy to have gotten another peak past the veil again.


Great observation! I totally missed that.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”