Author Topic: PC693: Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart  (Read 663 times)

Ocicat

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on: September 09, 2021, 06:08:01 PM
PodCastle 693: Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart

Author: Louis Evans
Narrator: Dave Robison
Host: Summer Fletcher
Audio Producer: Peter Behravesh

Translunar Travelers Lounge

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Content Warning:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)



Show Notes
Rated R



Agent Heartbreak and the Misery Muse meet cute on a lonely-hearts cruise.

Their gazes lock above the brunch buffet.

She—let’s go with “she” for Agent Heartbreak, inaccurate though it is—she is a vision in a silk robe, bathing costume high to her neck and cut open just below her sternum, cheekbones like a jewel-thief’s kit. She is spooning a single deviled egg onto an undersized plate, objectively the most awkward food to serve at a buffet, but her muscular arms move it the way the hired dance virtuoso whirls an ingenue across the ballroom floor.




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Álex Souza

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Reply #1 on: September 21, 2021, 03:05:28 PM
The narrator seems to think this is a horror story. He narrates everything in such a way. The way he says, “He is buttering a BAGEL” is spectacular. And he even laughs at some parts. I liked it a lot!  ;D

I also liked the mini-twist in the first scene. It tells right off the bat that the story is going to challenge the meet-cute thing (although the author claims he’s in a relationship after one of those :P).

The whole femme-fatale, noir, Russian-spy-like thing is also quite interesting. I just didn’t get convinced by the fact that they’re in the future and that she was designed to do that job and that he is some kind of mythical being. It didn’t matter; she could’ve been trained like in Red Sparrow (2018) or Anna (2019). The magic system of this story is very soft. In these situations, I often say it’s as soft as marshmallow, but the magic here is like melted marshmallow dripping from your chin  ::)

The spicy humor is also something else, with the author always defying your expectations; and the prose is incredibly strong (Wow, so many things to say about this story! :o :o :o).

The ending felt a bit rushed and unbelievable, but I think that's easy to forgive.

In the host’s commentary, she talks about the term 86, and how that used to be slang to get rid of something. And that made me remember a light novel/anime called 86. It’s about a country that has 86 districts, and the 86th is the worst. People from looked-down races were sent to this district and now have to be soldiers for an empire. Makes a lot of sense now :D!

FWIW, is the Misery Muse somehow based on Stephen King’s Misery?
« Last Edit: September 21, 2021, 04:21:44 PM by Álex Souza »

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