Author Topic: Marrying the Sun: A Brief Review  (Read 4487 times)

Swamp

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on: July 10, 2008, 06:37:00 AM
I continue to run into stories by members of this forum.  I was looking into Jeremiah Tolbert on his website, which led me to his story, The Yeti Behind You (the latest PC story), as featured in Fantasy Magazine.  Then as I looked at a list of stories on the left-hand column, I noticed the story Marrying the Sun by Rachel Swirsky.  So I had to read it…and I found it very intriguing and excellently written.

The first line—“The wedding went well until the bride caught fire.” (which I found out was actually given to her by a friend as inspiration)—pulled me right in, but the characters and their plight continued to keep me engaged to the perfect ending.

The story explores relationships between gods and mortals and poses insightful and, in my opinion, appropriate conclusions.  Classic mythology comes face to face with “real world” issues.  Marrying the Sun contains comedy and well-crafted emotional elements.  I felt the dialogue and reactions of the characters were quite realistic given the fantasy backdrop.  Very well done and worth the read.

Notice: this story isn’t for children.  Escape Artists would probably give this an R rating for sexual situations.

I also learned that Rachel’s second place winner from the 2007 Escape Pod Flash Fiction Contest, Skyscrapers, was published by Flashquake last year.  Many of you probably already knew that.  That does my heart good, and I look forward to hearing Skyscrapers when it comes to EP (soon I hope).

If you are interested in other works by Rachel go to her website.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2008, 06:39:51 AM by Swamp »

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stePH

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Reply #1 on: July 10, 2008, 01:08:51 PM
I wonder if we'll hear any works by Rachel Swirsky in Podcastle.  We've heard a couple of Steve Eley stories on Escape Pod, so I don't see why not.

How about it, Swirsky?


The first line—“The wedding went well until the bride caught fire.” (which I found out was actually given to her by a friend as inspiration)—pulled me right in, but the characters and their plight continued to keep me engaged to the perfect ending.

Did it ring true to you?  ;)
« Last Edit: July 10, 2008, 01:11:04 PM by stePH »

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Swamp

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Reply #2 on: July 10, 2008, 03:12:28 PM
I wonder if we'll hear any works by Rachel Swirsky in Podcastle. 

That, of course, is up to Rachel, but I don't think so.  Last I heard, she did not feel comfortable including her own work on PodCastle.  While I wouldn't mind if she did, I respect her feelings on that.  Maybe after a year or so, she might feel differently.

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Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #3 on: July 11, 2008, 07:27:01 PM
Yeah, I probably won't air my own stuff on PodCastle.

What I'm thinking I might do, though, is go ahead and get readings of my stuff and put them up as podcasts on my own website. Then I could link to them from PodCastle at some point.

Also, I've got a science fiction piece coming up in Escape Pod. It originally appeared in Electric Velocipede, and is being reprinted in Best American Fantasy 2, eds Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. It's fairly strange. ;)