Author Topic: PC338: Burying The Coin  (Read 4227 times)

Ocicat

  • Castle Watchcat
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3722
  • Anything for a Weird Life
on: November 20, 2014, 08:27:35 AM
PodCastle 338: Burying The Coin

by Setsu Uzume

Read by Amanda Fitzwater

A PodCastle Original!

I pour him a drink and place it on his desk, then return to the sideboard to bring over the light supper the steward prepared. I barely have my hands on the silver tray when he speaks again.

“Karelia… this paper is nearly three weeks old. Why is it on my desk?”

I set the tray with his supper down just to the side of the paper. “My apologies, Captain; I’ll remove it right away.”

I reach for the paper and his hand slaps mine onto the wood. My index finger presses to one of the smaller front-page articles, just a few lines of text under the title: Colonial Auction.

The very auction where I’ve asked Detailmen to meet me and deliver Grel to the law once and for all.

With his other hand, he picks up the paper and looks at it. He releases me and I step back from him and clasp my hands behind my back, wiping his touch from my skin.

“Treasures of the south to be returned to civilization,” he reads.


Rated R. Contains violence, sometimes hauntingly so.

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!



albionmoonlight

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 213
Reply #1 on: November 21, 2014, 01:59:25 PM
I liked it.  I liked the sense that there still seemed to be a lot of story left in her life.  This really read more like Karelia's origin story.  Like the kind of story that an author would write after we have read lots of Karelia's adventures with her own ship.  And I have the strong sense that one of those future adventures will involve The Return of Grel.



Zieborn

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 11
Reply #2 on: November 25, 2014, 03:51:57 PM
And I have the strong sense that one of those future adventures will involve The Return of Grel.
I really want to read that one. 

Grel was as interesting a character as the protagonist.  He was a creep, but to be fair, we don't know how much of a creep.  We only have an outline of their world.  Maybe in his world slowly training up your slave? (kidnap victim? I seem to have missed that part) to be a partner of sorts is not the norm at all.  Perhaps the world there is so cruel generally that it makes sense for her to have mixed feelings about Grel and what he has done.  Maybe he's only a minor level creep there, and the law he resists is the much greater evil.

I really liked the strange mix of emotions here.  I look forward to more from this author and this universe. 



Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8729
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #3 on: December 01, 2014, 03:32:53 PM
I generally liked it.  Lots of gray area with good and bad in all--and how the all-powerful government ends up being her savior even though she has extremely mixed feelings about the whole thing.



Fenrix

  • Curmudgeonly Co-Editor of PseudoPod
  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 3996
  • I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Reply #4 on: December 03, 2014, 10:03:39 PM
My favorite variant of your closing quote:

"The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face."

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


DKT

  • Friendly Neighborhood
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4980
  • PodCastle is my Co-Pilot
    • Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Noir
Reply #5 on: December 03, 2014, 11:08:06 PM
My favorite variant of your closing quote:

"The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face."

Ha. Where is that from? I feel like I've read it/seen it somewhere.


Fenrix

  • Curmudgeonly Co-Editor of PseudoPod
  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 3996
  • I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Reply #6 on: December 04, 2014, 02:19:27 PM
My favorite variant of your closing quote:

"The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face."

Ha. Where is that from? I feel like I've read it/seen it somewhere.

Firefly. Captain Mal.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Devoted135

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1252
Reply #7 on: December 05, 2014, 06:32:13 PM
I enjoyed this one, and thought the narration was great as well. I liked how both her situation and her escape plot slowly unfolded, rather than being revealed in one infodump at the beginning. Karelia's relationship with her captor was wonderfully interesting and complex. The moment where she realized that Grel cared enough to save her life was a punch to the gut, since she's been planning on double crossing him the whole time.



albionmoonlight

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 213
Reply #8 on: December 05, 2014, 07:24:36 PM
I liked how both her situation and her escape plot slowly unfolded, rather than being revealed in one infodump at the beginning.

Good point.  The temptation to tell-not-show in a story like this would be pretty high.  Good restraint by the author made for a much more engaging tale.