First of all, thanks for mentioning my Best of Podcastle list in the intro. 'Tis a thrill to hear it listed on there, as part of the Everybody Loves Tim collaborative effort. I'm honored to have done my part, even though I had no idea this effort was upcoming.
And in honor of the theme, I think it may be appropriate to also post a link to the interview I wrote of Mr. Pratt posted to Fantasy Magazine last month (I may have linked elsewhere, but it seems appropriate with the theme):
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2010/05/deviations-above-the-mean-tim-pratt/Like others, this reminded me of Small Gods, if only because of the title and the concept of gods of smaller things. That's not a bad association, since Small Gods is easily my favorite Pratchett book.
I liked this story (no surprise there) but it's not my favorite Pratt story. To put that in perspective, that's sort of like saying that peanut butter cookies are not my favorite cookie. Yes, given the choice of only one kind of cookie, I'd pick chocolate chip over PB any day, but that doesn't mean that the PB cookies aren't also delicious. And tastier than most other foods any day.
The emotions in this seemed very authentic, though I thankfully have not lost a spouse nor seen a violent death to compare it to. I liked the idea of the small gods of cinnamon and hot showers and all of that variety. The trickery of the God of Guilt was really good, had me fooled too, but I was relieved when the Goddess of Grief showed up--even though her underling was a creep I was glad that she herself was overall a force for healing.
I predict that, in the future, when he has guests over for dinner, they will exclaim time and time again: "Dude, do you have to put cinnamon in EVERYTHING?" 'Tis handy to be able to summon her any time he wishes by carrying a bag of cinnamon sticks wherever he goes.