EP157: A Small Room in Koboldtown

[Russell Nash]

EP157: A Small Room in Koboldtown

2008 Hugo Nominee!

By Michael Swanwick.
Read by Cheyenne Wright (of Arcane Times and Girl Genius).
First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2007.

That Winter, Will le Fey held down a job working for a haint politician named Salem Toussaint. Chiefly, his function was to run errands while looking conspicuously solid. He fetched tax forms for the alderman’s constituents, delivered stacks of documents to trollish functionaries, fixed L&I violations, presented boxes of candied John-the-Conqueror root to retiring secretaries, absent-mindedly dropped slim envelopes containing twenty-dollar bills on desks. When somebody important died, he brought a white goat to the back door of the Fane of Darkness to be sacrificed to the Nameless One. When somebody else’s son was drafted or went to prison, he hammered a nail in the nkisi nkonde that Toussaint kept in the office to ensure his safe return.

He canvassed voters in haint neighborhoods like Ginny Gall, Beluthahatchie, and Diddy-Wah-Diddy, where the bars were smoky, the music was good, and it was dangerous to smile at the whores. He negotiated the labyrinthine bureaucracies of City Hall. Not everything he did was strictly legal, but none of it was actually criminal. Salem Toussaint didn’t trust him enough for that.

Rated PG. Contains dark, seedy places and dark, seedy characters, only a few of them alive.


Today's Sponsor:

Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams



Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!

[eytanz]

I'll write proper feedback later (short version - liked it a lot, though more for the setting than the mystery itself), but I have a quick question - I must have missed something, because I didn't understand the line at the end about Will not having a driving license. Can anyone please explain?

[Listener]

I'll write proper feedback later (short version - liked it a lot, though more for the setting than the mystery itself), but I have a quick question - I must have missed something, because I didn't understand the line at the end about Will not having a driving license. Can anyone please explain?

A reference to the cops saying if Toussaint wanted to drive, Will would bend over and take it, I believe.

[Listener]

I hate to say this, but I think the story would've been a lot better if there had been fewer accents, or they hadn't been as authentic.  I've never been to New Orleans, and I started to get lost between Will and Ghostface.  For the first few minutes of Ghostface's figuring out how the crime happened, I thought that was Will.  Also, for a short while, the narrator used an accent to narrate, but the rest of the time he didn't.  I found myself getting continuously lost in the telling.  And finally, the narrator sped up (or the producer sped him up/cut him oddly) in at times, and I noticed that more than the story.

As for the story... I thought the ending was too easy, like Will just put all this stuff together and Encyclopedia Brown'd the entire mystery for us.  The denouement -- Touissant driving the limo and knowing everything already, that was great -- but the stuff before that felt too much like "I didn't feel like writing anymore, so I ended the story here."

A great world was built.  I feel bad that I missed most of it because of the reading.

But the idea of a supernatural New Orleans was pretty cool.

[Darwinist]

I originaly read this in Asimov's and thought the story was OK.  I liked the accents but towards the end had to think about who was talking.   Looking forward to a return to science fiction.   

[DKT]

I really enjoyed this one.  I haven't read much of Swanwick's stuff before, but I'm really tempted to hunt down some more of it now.  I loved the world that was built and I thought the characters were interesting. 

I'm always mildly fascinated by procedural-type TV shows -- I'm not a huge fan of them, but if the story's good I can very easily get sucked in.  This episode could've been one of those types of shows, but I found it a lot more intriguing than most of what's actually on TV.

A couple of other things I find interesting:

1) That this piece, as much dark fantasy/horror as anything else, was not only nominated for a Hugo, but first appeared in Asimov's.  I didn't realize Asimov's published anything remotely like this.  Is it just because Swanwick is the author?  Either way, I might have to check out Asimov's again soon.

2) Are supernatural procedurals the new trend?  I haven't actually read Shadow Unit (although I did start to read the first episode) but I did listen to Memories of the Knacker's Yard on Pseudopod (which I actually enjoyed a lot more than this one.  Given that I really liked this one, that's saying something).  If they are the new trend, I really hope some TV network picks up a show, sometime. 

Anyway, really cool story.  I thought some of the dialogue was great, especially the way Cheyenne Wright delivered it.  It's not the kind of story we usually get here anymore, now with Pseudopod and Podcastle, so I'm very happy it got picked up for a Hugo. 

[eytanz]

I'll write proper feedback later (short version - liked it a lot, though more for the setting than the mystery itself), but I have a quick question - I must have missed something, because I didn't understand the line at the end about Will not having a driving license. Can anyone please explain?

A reference to the cops saying if Toussaint wanted to drive, Will would bend over and take it, I believe.

Oh, you mean that the line meant that Toussaint won't be able to drive. I interpreted the line as meaning that Will will not be allowed to drive because he somehow lost his license, which was the source of my confusion.

Thanks!

[qwints]

I liked it, but agree that the accents were distracting.

[wintermute]

I did enjoy the story. It was a nicely written mystery, and I managed to keep up with the plot well enough, but I continually felt like I was a step or two behind on the setting. I continually found myself asking questions like "Wait, what's a haint?" "Huh? Toussaint is a ghost, too?" "A Bogart? Like Humphrey? Or do they mean a boggan?"

To be fair, more exposition would have probably ruined the flow, but I too often found myself too confused to concentrate on the story properly.

Story: 4/5.

As others have said, the narrator seems to have been more concerned with getting the accents authentic than making it easy to distinguish between the speakers. It got confusing in places, but other than that, it was well read.

Narration: 2/5.

[eytanz]

My opinion is much like the general consensus so far -  I loved the world building, and I found the level of detail wonderful. I think it did an excellent job of making a fantasy world alive and exciting in my mind.

The story itself was a pretty pedestrian mystery. I figured it out as soon as the hand-washing was first mentioned, and just needed some of the details fleshed in. The characters were also pretty humdrum. But the setting more than made up for that.

I can't decide whether I liked the narration or not. It added a lot to the story, but it added a barrier to comprehension early on. If it was consistent, then I would have easily forgiven that, but because the accents weren't attached to characters but rather shifted semi-randomly, I feel that it was just a bit too much.

[DaveUnique]

I must have missed something, because I didn't understand the line at the end about Will not having a driving license

I thought it was emphasis that Toussaint already knew everything.  Toussaint offered to drive because he already knew Will could not even though Will never mentioned his inability to drive.

It was an interesting story and I found it enjoyable for many of the reasons already mentioned.  I had to listen twice to understand what was going on.  I am not sure I would have bothered listening a second time without the rich narration.

[cuddlebug]

This one left me absolutely cold and I have to wonder how it ended up being a Hugo nominee, or did I miss something?

I was straining to pay attention form the very beginning, I listened to it twice now and still feel nothing but regret at having waisted all this time on it. Sorry, but it is a matter of taste and this storry just did not taste good at all, had to spit it back out unfortunately.

Maybe I was just not in the right frame of mind, and did not concentrate properly on it (the fact that my reaction to the new PP episode is not very positive either, might be used as evidence for that). The reading did not help either, instead of drawing me in and helping me identify characters ..., it seemed to alienate me and I have to say, there were so many 'slurred' (for lack of a better word) passages, on purpose obviously, but it made actually understanding what was said very difficult at times.

Sorry, but this is a big *meh* from me today. (Think I have to work on my frame of mind, if so many other listeners liked the story.)

[goatkeeper]

I think I've personally overdone enough story narrations  by now to be able to occasionally recognize one here and there.  At least for me, I  had a very hard time focusing on the story because of the narration here.

[Nobilis]

The story was marvelous.  It left me hoping that there are other stories with these characters.

The narration could have been better.  I, too, had trouble keeping the characters straight.

[williamjamesw]

I think there have been others set in the same apparent universe over the last couple of years in the same magazine.  Or else Haints are some old mythological creature that has suddenly started appearing lately in fiction by multiple authors.

I usually get half way through a story before I realize that it's a continuation/sequel to a story from months ago (unless it's spelled out in an intro).

[deflective]

i did have trouble figuring out who was speaking near the beginning but, to be fair, that was a tough section of story to narrate. there were long blocks of back and forth dialog with few if any flags to indicate who was speaking. reads ok on the page but tough to listen to. if it had come later i may have had time to connect characters and their accents.

as previously mentioned, sacrificing authenticity for distinction would have cleared up confusion.

my take on the story follows general opinion, setting was the best part.

[Chivalrybean]

I was pretty much lost until they started talking about the heart getting torn out in the apartment. Before that point I had had a really hard time tracking the narrator and what he was saying. I caught on eventually though, even if I wasn't sure who was who for most of the story, voice wise and part wise.

I think what confused me the most in addition to the narration at the beginning was getting so many new ideas at once in a short time and not being able to see the words, I wasn't sure what was going on. I thought a haint was a person's name for a while, I knew they put fennel on the doors as a ward, but I wasn't able to catch why at first. Not until they started talking about the crime, about the heart and who could or could not have removed it, did I start piecing things together. At this point, the narration seemed to get better as well.

Once the story was over and done, I found that the idea of the story was great, reminded me a bit of Pseudopod 067: Memories of the Knacker’s Yard, a cop story in a world where ghosts walk the streets. Er, well, float, or something. If you aren't a regular Pseudopod listener not only should you check out that story if you liked the idea of this one, you might get more sleep than me {;0p If the narration was clearer, I might have had less trouble with the story, but I liked it anyways when it was over and I had at least enough of the picture to see what it was.

[birdless]

Although I thought audio quality was a little lacking, I really enjoyed this episode. Like most others have said, I found the world building to be the richest part of the story. The story itself was okay, but the setting and characters more than made up for what it lacked in plot quality.

Being from the South, I had no trouble understanding the dialect and accent, but the audio quality was pretty poor. I wished I knew the terminology in that field better to be able to describe precisely what was wrong with it, but all I can say is I know bad audio when i hear it. I submit that those who had a difficult time understanding the narrator was more due to that than the accent. At any rate, he did a great job of it, which is saying a lot, as getting it to sound authentic isn't easy. I admit that I listened to it twice, too, though. The first time I was half asleep, but I think I retained enough that making the differentiation between character voices wasn't too difficult, even though they did sound too similar (or at least Will and Ghostface's did). But I loved the narrator's voice for Toussaint.

Was New Orleans mentioned specifically? Because i felt this took place there, too, though I don't remember any specific reference to that fact. If it is, then therein would lie my one complaint: it doesn't get very cold in New Orleans in the winter. It's relative, I suppose, but until the story mentioned that it was winter, I had it pictured in the summer, so that took me out of the story for a few seconds.

And for those of you confused by the term "haint," it's an old Southern word for ghost (originating from "haunt"). You don't hear it used much nowadays. But the term is not original to any fictional universe.

[milo]

I found the narration of this story to be both frustrating to understand and delightful to listen to, if such is possible. I enjoyed the use of accents very much, and the different voices really helped to bring the various characters to life. That said, the narrator spoke far to quickly for me to catch everything. I found myself rewinding frequently, and sometimes I still could not understand the dialog or descriptions. This was also due in part to some jargon used by the author that I found unfamiliar. I would appeal to future narrators to take this into account, and to slow down when they are using heavy accents or reading jargon-laced text.

As far as the story itself goes, I found it enjoyable enough, although not really my cup of tea. I prefer stories more on the “science” side of science fiction, rather than the fantastic or the macabre. Of the three Hugo-nominated stories presented so far, Elizabeth Bear’s story is by far the best, in my opinion.

[deflective]

I interpreted the line as meaning that Will will not be allowed to drive because he somehow lost his license, which was the source of my confusion.

you had it right the first time.

relevant parts from the text:

They waited for the elevator, though the stairs were handy and it would have been faster to walk. Salem Toussaint would no more have climbed those stairs than he would have driven his own car. He made sure you understood what a big mahoff he was before he slapped you on the back and gave your nice horse a sugar cube.

...

Will carried the cardboard tray out to where the police stood stamping their feet to keep warm. They accepted the gift with small nods. The oldest of the lot said, “Working for the spook, are you?”

“Oh, Salem’s okay.”

The cop grinned on one side of his oak-brown face. “You’re what the micks would call his Hound of Hoolan. You know what that is?”

“No, sir.”

“It means that if he says he wants to drive, you bend over and bark.”

...

Will and the alderman strolled back to the limousine, parked two blocks away. As they walked, Will worried how he was going to explain to his boss that he couldn’t chauffeur because he didn’t have a license.
...
“You done good, boy,” Salem Toussaint said. “I’m proud of you.”
...
“You knew,” Will said. “You knew all the time.”
...
“The police liked hearing the story from a solid boy better than they would from me. I’m not quite a buffoon in their eyes, but I’m something close to it. My power has to be respected, and my office too. It would make folks nervous if they had to take me seriously as well.”

“Alderman, I…”

“Hush up, boy. I know everything you’re about to say.” The alderman opened a door for Will. “Climb in the back. I’ll drive.”

so the pompous image of Toussaint's is consciously created. he is capable and willing to drive for himself but it puts people at ease to be able to put him into the 'pampered politician' box.

similarly, Will is publicly seen as a Toussaint's lackey but he's actually a valued agent (or is becoming a valued agent).

[eytanz]

Yeah, I realize all that. And thanks for posting the text. I finally realized the source of my confusion - I had somehow decided that Will drove them to the crime scene, which would have meant he had a license when the story started. Looking at the text, I see it was ghostface that was the chauffer, which makes it all clear.

[CGFxColONeill]

This one left me absolutely cold and I have to wonder how it ended up being a Hugo nominee, or did I miss something?

I was straining to pay attention form the very beginning, I listened to it twice now and still feel nothing but regret at having waisted all this time on it. Sorry, but it is a matter of taste and this storry just did not taste good at all, had to spit it back out unfortunately.

Maybe I was just not in the right frame of mind, and did not concentrate properly on it (the fact that my reaction to the new PP episode is not very positive either, might be used as evidence for that). The reading did not help either, instead of drawing me in and helping me identify characters ..., it seemed to alienate me and I have to say, there were so many 'slurred' (for lack of a better word) passages, on purpose obviously, but it made actually understanding what was said very difficult at times.

Sorry, but this is a big *meh* from me today. (Think I have to work on my frame of mind, if so many other listeners liked the story.)

I dont think that you said much of anything here that I dont agree with.  I also listened to it again just to make sure that I had not missed the good part.  Unfortunately I was right on in my first assessment... that it sucked.

overall I am getting the impression that the Hugo short story section must have been really hard up for nominees this year b/c 2 out of the 3 so far have sucked.  oh well at least I was not planing to do anything important with the time

[Void Munashii]

  I enjoy a good locked room mystery, and while this was not a hard one to figure out (the why of it was interesting though), it was still enjoyable.

  The only real criticism I have is that the reader's voice (while impressive, I wish I could do that voice) was a little difficult. I had to keep adjusting my car's radio until I found a level that was audible without actually hurting my ears.

  I had a little trouble following some of the story, but that is probably due to my lack of knowlegde of the supernatural types used in the story. If I had doen a little reaearch prior to the story (I have done some after), I would have enjoyed the first listening even more.

[vanya]

I agree this this story did not strike me as worthy of a Hugo nomination. It's a nice little gothic murder mystery though, entertaining enough. 

I liked the narration actually. For the first 2 minutes or so I was lost, but then I realized what the narrator was trying to do, rewound the story to the beginning and actually enjoyed the accents. Sadly, had this been on the radio and not a podcast I probably wouldn't have bothered.

I think Steve is getting a little loose with the ratings lately. PG? Really? What do you have to do to get an R these days?    My 10 year old was excited about another PG installment - I had to tell him I didn't think he was going to like this one.

[Void Munashii]

I think Steve is getting a little loose with the ratings lately. PG? Really? What do you have to do to get an R these days?    My 10 year old was excited about another PG installment - I had to tell him I didn't think he was going to like this one.

  Well, there wasn't any cursing, and no one died and stayed that way. The racism themes were a bit beyond the understanding of the average child, but I do not know that I would give it an R rating... maybe a PG-13 though.

[DKT]

I think Steve is getting a little loose with the ratings lately. PG? Really? What do you have to do to get an R these days?    My 10 year old was excited about another PG installment - I had to tell him I didn't think he was going to like this one.

  Well, there wasn't any cursing, and no one died and stayed that way. The racism themes were a bit beyond the understanding of the average child, but I do not know that I would give it an R rating... maybe a PG-13 though.

Actually, there was cursing.  I remember someone saying "fuck" at least twice.  Both times I thought it was funny.  But I can understand why a parent might not want their 10 year-old to listen. 

[Biscuit]

I found the narration of this story to be both frustrating to understand and delightful to listen to, if such is possible.

In agreement. I know I'm going to sound like an awful hypocrite, but I had to bug out at about the 5 minute mark. The narrator has a lovely voice, and he did the accents well, but TOO well. I got completely lost between the different characters.

I also remember trying to read this story when it was in Asimovs, and found the world building didn't suit me. The politics/legal exposition in a voodoo setting just didn't do it for me, and it's one of the few Asimovs stories in years that I've put down.

[Void Munashii]

I think Steve is getting a little loose with the ratings lately. PG? Really? What do you have to do to get an R these days?    My 10 year old was excited about another PG installment - I had to tell him I didn't think he was going to like this one.

  Well, there wasn't any cursing, and no one died and stayed that way. The racism themes were a bit beyond the understanding of the average child, but I do not know that I would give it an R rating... maybe a PG-13 though.

Actually, there was cursing.  I remember someone saying "fuck" at least twice.  Both times I thought it was funny.  But I can understand why a parent might not want their 10 year-old to listen. 

  Okay, I don't remember hearing that, but then my memory is not-so-great. In that case, it definitely should have been PG-13, if not R.

[contra]

Ok. 

This story didn't catch me.  I don't know wny.  I could say I've never been a massive fan of mystery or detective stories... but then I'd be a liar; I love them.  I don't know.  I listen to this story twice just to see if there was something I was missing. 
Maybe there is.  I can't pull on any single 9or multiple) factors I didn't like. 

I just didnt pull me into it.  Maybe next time *shrug*

[JoeFitz]

Don't take this as a criticism, but I think the reader here is almost too good for certain texts. The variety of voices occasionally became confusing. I think that was the fault of the text, not the reader.

The story was okay (a little too much "Murder She Wrote") but the setting was quite well done. It reminded of a few other stories on the PodCasts and they were all positive echoes.

[Windup]

Like others, I struggled a great deal with the narration on this one.  I'm not sure if the filtering on the councilman's voice got better toward the end, or I just got better at understanding it.  Either way, the voices and accents were more of a struggle for me than a help.

I liked the world-building aspect of the story, and probably would have enjoyed the mystery aspect more if I'd found it easier to follow.

[ajames]

I don't have much to add about the story that others haven't already said - I liked it well enough.

The narrator of this story has my respect. Yes, I struggled with understanding what was being said, especially in the beginning of the story. But then I went back and read the blurb of text on the website. No easy task to read that professionally. Words and phrases like "haint politician" and "Fane of Darkness" are going to throw some people when read out loud, whereas reading them on the page let's you know immediately that you didn't mishear or misread, it's just an unfamiliar word or phrase. "Nkisi nkonde" rolled off the narrator's tongue, and when he spoke of the neighborhoods of "Beluthahatchie" and "Diddy-Wah-Diddy" I was right there in the story. So put me in with the "both frustrated and enamored with the reading" group.

I did think the production quality was off.

As for the rating - I definitely noticed the cursing, and in my opinion this should have been included in the rating blurb. Or is the blurb just meant to be clever and fun and not informative as to the rating chosen?

"Rated PG. Contains dark, seedy places and dark, seedy characters, only a few of them alive."

"Rated PG. Contains cursing, some gore, and implied drug use and violence."

The second choice is boring, but at least I'm better prepared to determine if my child should listen to the story with me the first time, and I'll know what questions my child might have upon listening to the story. Isn't that one of the two main reasons for having a rating system in the first place?

 

[Planish]

I liked the setting, characters, and the accents.
I had to rewind at about a minute or so after they got to the crime scene because I lost track of who was who (or what), eg. totally missing the first time around that Toussaint was a haint himself. Then I enjoyed it much better.

What I don't forgive the author for is not revealing from the get-go that a boggart (or at least his boggarts) were capable of ripping out their own hearts and coming to life again when it is replaced. ... Which would give away the ending ... which makes the premise a doomed one.
Having the hero figure out the business with the missing fennel was fair (to the audience), but the heart thing was not, in spite of the hint about how tough boggarts were even after sustaining mortal injuries.

[mudguts]

I wasn't a big fan of the story.  I liked the premise of a Sci-Fi / Fantasy mixed in with a mystery but this had a predictable plot and not enough twists or background on the characters.  Perhaps if there were more stories exploring this universe like there are with the 'superhero' stories then I could get into it.

There wasn't enough explanation of all the characters powers / abilities.  I found myself losing track of who was talking to who and I was focusing on the story fairly intently.

I enjoy mysteries but if I wanted to hear one, I'd buy an Ellery Queen magazine.

Overall, I'd rate it a 4.5 / 10

[FNH]

Two word review : "Totally engaging"

[corporatewhore]

The narrator did a great job with the story. The only problem I had was getting his deep voice to be audible over the humming that fills the bus on my morning commute.

The mystery aspect of the story really didn't grab me. The characters, setting, theme, style and prose had me hooked.

[tpi]

I had to give up on this story. There was some kind of small audio problem, a slight echo or something like that, the reading was fast, and there were those accents. As non-english speaker I usually can handle one or two of that kind of "defects" when I am listening, but all three... maybe if I wouldn't be driving my car at the same time, and if I could concentrate totally for the listening I might have been able to follow the strory. But in that case it is so much easier and faster just to read the story.   

[Rain]

This is probably the first Escape Pod where i had trouble understanding what was being said, i will give it a another shot but there is clearly a big problem with the reading

[Myst]

I think there have been others set in the same apparent universe over the last couple of years in the same magazine.  Or else Haints are some old mythological creature that has suddenly started appearing lately in fiction by multiple authors.

I usually get half way through a story before I realize that it's a continuation/sequel to a story from months ago (unless it's spelled out in an intro).

Haint is a corruption of the word haunt. Used in the southern USA and some Caribbean islands.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/haint

As for the story itself I liked it. The setting sucked me in. I could feel the cools mists as the swamp fogs licked against my arms, and smell the organic scent of a decaying city plopped down in a ancient bog. I put the clues together about as fast as our hero did. So the explanation of whodunit was a happy vindication.   

[Listener]

I think Steve is getting a little loose with the ratings lately. PG? Really? What do you have to do to get an R these days?    My 10 year old was excited about another PG installment - I had to tell him I didn't think he was going to like this one.

  Well, there wasn't any cursing, and no one died and stayed that way. The racism themes were a bit beyond the understanding of the average child, but I do not know that I would give it an R rating... maybe a PG-13 though.

Actually, there was cursing.  I remember someone saying "fuck" at least twice.  Both times I thought it was funny.  But I can understand why a parent might not want their 10 year-old to listen. 

Interesting side note: the only reason "Garden State" was rated R, according to Zach Braff, is that the word "fuck" was used twice.  The MPAA allows one "fuck" if you want a PG-13.

I'm not Roseanne, your guide to the world of facts.

[DKT]

I think Steve is getting a little loose with the ratings lately. PG? Really? What do you have to do to get an R these days?    My 10 year old was excited about another PG installment - I had to tell him I didn't think he was going to like this one.

  Well, there wasn't any cursing, and no one died and stayed that way. The racism themes were a bit beyond the understanding of the average child, but I do not know that I would give it an R rating... maybe a PG-13 though.

Actually, there was cursing.  I remember someone saying "fuck" at least twice.  Both times I thought it was funny.  But I can understand why a parent might not want their 10 year-old to listen. 

Interesting side note: the only reason "Garden State" was rated R, according to Zach Braff, is that the word "fuck" was used twice.  The MPAA allows one "fuck" if you want a PG-13.

I'm not Roseanne, your guide to the world of facts.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out the excellent documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated."  It will really frustrate you about the MPAA (if you aren't already).

Now I'm waiting for Russell to split the thread...

[mt house]

I LOVED this story. The narrator challenged me a little at first (I hadn't even been to the south until in my 20's), but that just got me to listen to it twice (which I rarely do) and it was better the second time around. More from the author AND narrator please!

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Put me down in the "really enjoyed it" column.

I am *not* putting anyone else down, but I do feel I have a bit of an edge understanding outlandish accents, and this reader consistently does a great job with the accents.  I didn't experience any of the audio problems cited by other listeners, and I sympathize with non-native-English speakers, but there has only been one Escape Pod episode that suffered from my inability to decipher what was being said, and that was the Cory Doctorow econ-punk thingy read by Biscuit.  (To be perfectly clear, I liked Biscuit's voice, but could parse that lingo to save my life.  The Pseudopod story she read about the Aussie fish-people was *much* more enjoyable.)

I was surprised that this crowd was thrown by the supernatural terms; but then, I remember seeing the word as "ha'ants" in one old ghost story book, and I've frequently perused Myths, Gods and Fantasy looking for inspiration.  Seeing the title primed me to expect the citizenry to consist of ha'ants, boggarts, frights, spooks, spirits, pixies, afancs, afrits, incubi, hobs, etc.

Y'all need to git yo fright on, y'dig? 

(Oh, moderator... moderate in moderation, please?)

[ChiliFan]

I was also really confused by the accents! Not only that, but the boxing statistics and the various fantasy or voodoo terms used. I actually had to listen to the story a total of three times before I fully understood it. I hope Steve learns from this not to make the same mistakes in future Escapepod stories.

 

[Void Munashii]

I was also really confused by the accents! Not only that, but the boxing statistics 

  I liked the part in the gym. The fact that he had a 3 and 2 record in fights to the death actually made me laugh out loud.

[DKT]

I was also really confused by the accents! Not only that, but the boxing statistics 

  I liked the part in the gym. The fact that he had a 3 and 2 record in fights to the death actually made me laugh out loud.

Yeah, I thought some of the humor in this really weird world was great.

[tawnyleona]

I've been listening to Escape Pod for a long time, and this is the first time I've really felt the urge to come post on the forums about a story...and also the first time I've actually read what people had to say, besides hearing Steve recap comments.

First, what I came to say was simply that I LOVED this story.  Not so much the mystery itself, because there wasn't really much of one, but the characters were absolutely engaging.  I also wanted to say that this was a case of a story wasting no time with exposition, and it still WORKED.  No words were wasted explaining what things were, because they were explained in the context of the story.

This is something I've worked on extensively in my own writing, and the style here made me stop and really think about how much time I've wasted in my stories explaining things when explanations could be made in the following passages and actions so neatly and efficiently.  Why turn to your audience and tell them what you mean when you can have your characters so conveniently work it in?

Then I came here to read that many people were confused about the very things I thought were so brilliant.  And then I read that many were confused by the accents, which made me giggle a bit because I didn't realize there WERE any accents. 

As for the rating thing, ratings are so off anyway to individual tastes.  When I worked in a movie theater, I showed "Erin Brockovich" and "Cider House Rules" at the same time.  Erin was rated R, Cider was rated PG-13.  The R-rating for Erin was the extensive use of cursing; Cider house rules had no cursing, but dealt with themes such as abortion, rape, and incest.  And that got me a little riled up.  My theoretical children (I have none yet) are going to hear foul language waiting in line at the grocery store, but I hope that the concepts of abortion, rape, and incest won't be introduced to them until they are much older. 

But this is coming from the person who didn't even notice cursing in the story.  I had to actually read a print version to verify it was in there:P  Guess my neighborhood grocery store needs an R rating as well.

Edit:  On second listen, while reading along, the accents were pretty inconsistent.  Just didn't notice it the first time...was too wrapped up in the story, I guess.  Will starts out the story with an accent, but towards the middle it disappears, comes back again.  I can understand how that can be frustrating to someone who is trying to keep character voices apart.

[Anarkey]

Oh huzzah, giving up Pseudopod doesn't mean I'll never hear Cheyenne Wright narrate a story again!  Life is good.

I liked this story.  As others have said, it's a fairly straightforward mystery, but the setting really sold it for me.   The only thing I didn't need was the 'here's what happened' recap.  The story had already played out, we could have skipped the stunted recap dialog and gone straight for Toussaint already knowing it, which was the emotional guts of the story anyway.

Also a fan, like tawnyleona, of the implied rather than explained world setting. 

Also would read/listen to other things in this setting.

Want to start a Toussaint for prez campaign.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Oh huzzah, giving up Pseudopod doesn't mean I'll never hear Cheyenne Wright narrate a story again!  Life is good.

I liked this story.  As others have said, it's a fairly straightforward mystery, but the setting really sold it for me.   The only thing I didn't need was the 'here's what happened' recap.  The story had already played out, we could have skipped the stunted recap dialog and gone straight for Toussaint already knowing it, which was the emotional guts of the story anyway.

Also a fan, like tawnyleona, of the implied rather than explained world setting. 

Also would read/listen to other things in this setting.

Want to start a Toussaint for prez campaign.

Would "He Haint - Gonna be President!" be too ambiguous a slogan?

[Anarkey]

Would "He Haint - Gonna be President!" be too ambiguous a slogan?

I would wear that on a t-shirt!

[sayeth]

I loved the similarities to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe - the locked room, the window, the neighbors hearing the arguments - all great stuff, but done in a way that flips Poe's story on its head. Here, the seemingly supernatural mystery actually is supernatural. If you haven't read "Rue Morgue", it's available at Gutenberg and Librivox.

[Roney]

I thought the atmosphere of this story was great, and it deserved the full-strength reading.  It wasn't always easy to follow but I felt that a little confusion was unavoidable: some stories that push the written word hard are going to be even harder work in audio.  This story's world made it worth the effort.

[jonathanhowell]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

As I listen to more podcasts, I find that the quality of the voice acting is very important to me. It's one of the main reasons I like hearing Steve's readings. He manages to be able to emote the story more than read it. This has also turned me away from other well-written stories (EP137 and almost EP154) where I just couldn't stand the dry monotonous delivery being given.
In this podcast I very much enjoyed Cheyenne Wright's acting. I found the accents to be inconsistent, but somehow the characterizations remained strong. The accents used gave a feel of being in New Orleans and lent the story characters an extra bit of depth. Coupled with a nice juicy supernatural murder mystery, it left me with a nice little tale to chew on. No, I'm not about to brag about how I knew 'whodunit' from the start -- I don't work that way. I enjoyed the ride for the sake of the ride.

Jonathan

[lieffeil]

This was the first story I heard on Escape Pod. The reader made me laugh, he had such a voice for characters. I don't actually remember much of the story itself, but it got me hooked, so that has to mean there was something I enjoyed about it. Right?

[eytanz]

In case anyone is interested, this weekend this story won the 2008 Locus Award (short story category).

[DKT]

In case anyone is interested, this weekend this story won the 2008 Locus Award (short story category).

Cool. 

Is there a complete list up on the Locus site?

[eytanz]

Yup.

http://www.locusmag.com/2008/Locus_Awards_Winners.html

[csrster]

This is one of those rare Escape Artists 'casts that sent me scurrying off to rustle up some printed words by the
same author. I loved the world-building and characterisation although I wasn't terribly blown away by the plot - it's
a great piece of fantasy writing but a so-so mystery story.

[Unblinking]

I liked a lot of things about the story.  It presented an odd world very efficiently with action not in big info-dump sections.  That was done very well.  I hate police procedural TV shows as I just find them terribly dull, but throw some supernatural elements in there and I like it very much better.  I'd definitely be interested in more from this setting.

The thing that I had trouble with is that I felt like I was always playing catchup on what each race's abilities were.  To me, I didn't get that a boggart could have its heart ripped out and survive until after the explanation was revealed.  It's hard to strike just the right balance in a mystery, not too easy so that everyone figures it out before the detective, or too hard so that the solution just comes out of nowhereville.  Ideally, I either figure it out right at the same moment as the detective, or at least when the solution is revealed, I realize that all the clues were there but I just didn't put them together.  In this case, I thought the resolution came out of nowhere.  "Oh, he's still alive, he survived the heart removal." To me it was sort of like if the Poe's Rue Morgue story had ended with "Oh, he had a time machine in the room, and he's waiting for us in the future." without any prior clues of existence of said machine.

[Unblinking]

As for the story... I thought the ending was too easy, like Will just put all this stuff together and Encyclopedia Brown'd the entire mystery for us. 

Ha!  I love the use of "Encyclopedia Brown" as a verb.  I remember those stories fondly.  My poor wife has never heard of him!