Author Topic: PC511: The Fumblers Alley Risk Emporium  (Read 2345 times)

Ocicat

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on: February 28, 2018, 10:48:46 PM
PodCastle 511: The Fumblers Alley Risk Emporium



Rated PG

Previously published by Urban Fantasy Magazine (December 2014).



Julian Mortimer Smith is a writer of science fiction and fantasy based in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. His stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Terraform, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, and other venues. He is currently working on a fantasy novel for young adults.



Wilson Fowlie has been reading stories out loud since the age of 4 and credits any talent he has in this area to his parents, who are both excellent at reading aloud.

He started narrating stories for a wider audience than his wife and children in 2008, when he answered a call for readers on the PodCastle forum. Since then, he has gone on to become PodCastle’s most prolific narrator.

He’s also narrated for many other podcasts, including all of the Escape Artists casts, StarShipSofa, Tales to Terrify, Beam Me Up, Cast Macabre, Dunesteef Audio Fiction magazine, and the Journey Into… podcast. He fits in all this narrating between his day job as a web developer in Vancouver, Canada, and being the director of a community show chorus called The Maple Leaf Singers.

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!



harrietpodder

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Reply #1 on: March 07, 2018, 04:39:34 PM
help understanding? I don't see why taking the son's ability to laugh was a big deal. I mean, he could still find things funny; he just couldn't titter. I think taking away son's joy or enthusiasm would be worse. Did the ability to laugh symbolize the son's joy?



Katzentatzen

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Reply #2 on: March 09, 2018, 11:04:16 PM
God this was so moving. I love old things with stories and this hit all the buttons. The imagery was amazing. I was praying for the main character not to make the choice that he did. I read it as the boy no longer taking delight in anything, and that's a fate worse than death.

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


Onikaze

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Reply #3 on: March 24, 2018, 07:26:47 PM
help understanding? I don't see why taking the son's ability to laugh was a big deal. I mean, he could still find things funny; he just couldn't titter. I think taking away son's joy or enthusiasm would be worse. Did the ability to laugh symbolize the son's joy?

IMO, the laughter likely included impetus e.g. joy, humor, happiness.

This father sadly excels at making bad deals.

“You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.”
-Inigo Montoya

“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
-Humpty Dumpty \


Ichneumon

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Reply #4 on: April 27, 2018, 09:29:07 PM
This story is going on my list of favorites. Wagering against how well you know yourself is an interesting new concept. Not too hard to believe, but people must get it wrong fairly often for the shop to stay in business. There was a great balance between explaining how things worked in this world, while at the same time leaving everything totally mysterious. I also really enjoyed the imagery and emotions evoked. I wonder what the balance was when the ebony and silver were weighed? The wager made sense when we found out what it was for. At first I thought the father may have given the fox-man his own life to save his son, but how things actually went made for a better story.