I'm pretty regular over at EscapePod, but this is my first branch out into PodCastle.
Overall I enjoyed this story. When the boy was turned into a bird, I was pissed. It seemed so unfair to take away the life that he would have had. However, I loved the way the people used him, the brown bird with the red marks, as an emblem for the nation after that. Awesome.
Unlike others though, I had a really hard time with the reading of this story. Stephanie has a beautiful, soothing voice that I really enjoyed. However, every time she ended a word with a hard G, kinG, wronG, amonG, it yanked me right out of the story. Maybe I'm just being nit-picky, but I found it very distracting. As I said, I really liked Stephanie's voice, and I don't want this to sound like a harsh criticism. At the beginning of the episode it was stated that Stephanie is taking voice training. I think this is an area for her to focus on.