Author Topic: PC509: A Non-Hero’s Guide to The Road of Monsters  (Read 2354 times)

Ocicat

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on: February 15, 2018, 04:22:12 AM
PodCastle 509: A Non-Hero’s Guide to The Road of Monsters



Rated PG-13 for Mild Language and Bold Monsters.



A. T. Greenblatt is a mechanical engineer by day and a writer by night. She lives in Philadelphia where she’s well acquainted with all four seasons and is known to frequently subject her friends to various cooking and home brewing experiments. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise XVI and Clarion West 2017. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Uncanny, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, as well as other fine places. You can find her online at atgreenblatt.com and on Twitter at @AtGreenblatt.



Mike Flinchum is new to book narration but has worked in the audio industry since 2010. He is a lover of books and low budget cinema. His podcast, Cinema Toast Crunchcast, has been fortunate enough to guest and interview some of horror’s best writers and directors. Being a poor reader as a child, audiobooks opened up the world of books to him where otherwise there would be none. Now he is both an avid reader as well as published author. His most recent publication is a short story titled, “My Dearest June” in the Zimbell House Publishing Anthology: Ghost Stories. He can be reached at freakforbooks@gmail.com.

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!



Katzentatzen

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Reply #1 on: February 15, 2018, 08:58:16 PM
So happy to listen to some urban fantasy!

"To understand a cat you must realize that he has his own gifts, his own viewpoint, even his own morality."
--LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN


jenni4096

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Reply #2 on: February 21, 2018, 04:11:22 PM
It's funny, you know?  This story's hero could almost have been the kind of person who is smarter than the jocks, solves everything with a slide-ruler and sarcasm,  and never bothers to examine his relationship to the "normal" world and why he feels rejected by it.  An internet meme might have him wearing a fedora.  Instead, we have someone who has basically traded all that in for sort of a modern path to enlightenment I guess.  Non-attachment to ego, and a self-knowledge and acceptance that allows him to bring compassion (albeit a charmingly world-weary version of compassion) to his interactions with the beings of the world.

I like this story.  The guy's a good role model.



Ichneumon

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Reply #3 on: April 26, 2018, 06:58:05 PM
I really enjoyed this one!
I disagreed with the way a few lines were read. For example, when the siren asked, "How do I look?" it was read as predatory or maybe beguiling, but the siren was having an open and vulnerable moment with the main character.

Is this considered urban fantasy because there are blogs and cell phones?



Moritz

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Reply #4 on: May 08, 2018, 09:41:09 AM
I loved the subversion of fantasy tropes. Probably one of my favourite stories among the last dozen or so (not counting the 10th anniversary reruns).