Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on March 20, 2009, 04:06:00 PM
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PodCastle Miniature 27: Faery Cats: The Cutest Killers (http://podcastle.org/2009/03/20/podcastle-miniature-27-faery-cats-the-cutest-killers/)
by Lucy A. Snyder (http://www.sff.net/people/lucy-snyder/)
read by Rachel Swirsky
San Francisco, CA—From country homes to urban server farms, faery cats are taking America by storm as the hottest trend in pets.
16-year-old Melissa Eager’s bedroom is decorated entirely with paintings and statuettes of winged cats, which she has acquired at science fiction conventions around the country.
“I love love love faery cats,” says Eager. “And I had no idea they were for real until I saw one at a shop in Mill Valley. It was all black, and it had long, shiny wings like a raven. So pretty! I was all like, ‘Mom, I will totally die if you don’t get me that!’”
Rated G. Contains… well, faery cats. Which are killers, but you know. Cute.
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Cute story. Not earth-shattering, but a fun little diversion. Clearly written by someone who understands cats. And it's good to know that Miskatonic University is still going strong. Miskatonic U! Go Squids!
And I dug Rachel Swirsky's valley girl accent.
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cute! I'd totally want one- but the idea of my new kitty not just dive bombing my feet, but now my updo.. no thanks
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I liked the story, but didn't care for Rachel's reading. All the characters seemed too similar.
I would welcome a faery cat into my home. One does not own a faery cat. One may own a hell hound, though.
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Yeah, but good luck finding those asbestos pooper scoopers.
;)
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DO NOT WANT!
Ha, just kidding. The story was okay; didn't do much for me, but it make me wonder what faeryLOLcats would look like...
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DO NOT WANT!
Ha, just kidding. The story was okay; didn't do much for me, but it make me wonder what faeryLOLcats would look like...
wen u wizz upp on astarr
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3607/3382156512_8203a62aca_o.jpg)
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Cool! A PC mini that doesn't suck! Those are few and far between. ;D
I didn't think Rachel made all the characters sound the same. Even if she did, it was done in the style of an article in a periodical, so it would make sense to have it all in the same voice.
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Cool! A PC mini that doesn't suck! Those are few and far between. ;D
I didn't think Rachel made all the characters sound the same. Even if she did, it was done in the style of an article in a periodical, so it would make sense to have it all in the same voice.
I'm not arguing here, just trying to explain. All the voices felt the same to me. Looking at it as if it was in a periodical, that makes sense. I still didn't like the reading. It wasn't anywhere near bad enough for me to stop listening, but I'd prefer this story in print over audio.
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I liked this and I'm so pleased to be able to say that. A lovely premise, and I'd go along with the periodical idea for the reading, it worked for me :)
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I liked this and I'm so pleased to be able to say that. A lovely premise, and I'd go along with the periodical idea for the reading, it worked for me :)
Since you're in the "More like this!" camp, I think you'll like the collection mentioned in the outro: Installing Linux on a Dead Badger (http://www.amazon.com/Installing-Linux-Dead-Badger-Snyder/dp/1894953479/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237942582&sr=8-1/escapepod-20). It's a short, fun little book I got it as a subscription premium from Strange Horizons, and I thought it was a complete hoot. Most (but not all) stories in the collection are magazine-style features on the brave new magical world. (f'rinstance, if you think competing with people who draw Third-World wages is tough, imagine the economic impact of zombie labor.)
I loved Rachel's reading, BTW.
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I liked this and I'm so pleased to be able to say that. A lovely premise, and I'd go along with the periodical idea for the reading, it worked for me :)
Ignoring everything about the reading, I think the text made it clear that this was meant to be a news or magazine article.
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Boring. And that's really all I have to say about it.
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I'm reserving my comment on the reading for a PM.
The story was interesting, I guess, but Dunesteef did it better with Kevin Anderson's Framing and Mounting Fairies (http://dunesteef.com/2008/12/10/page-60-framing-and-mounting-fairies-by-kevin-anderson/). As a news person, this struck me as either a poorly-edited article in a periodical or a poorly-edited piece on 60 Minutes/Dateline. NO newsmagazine would've kept the comments about the drinking, or the Harvard business school... or they would at least have broken them up with other information.
I give it a meh for content.
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8 out of 10 for cool factor, cats with wings.
While the idea was good, the execution fell flat. I thought for a while that it was incomplete because, by the end of the story I had forgotten this was supposed to be a news story. I agree with listener that no editor worth his salt would let this article pass. The vignets were interesting in of themselves. But because it is a news article there should have been a summation at the end, recapping or stressing the point of the story.
On a side, if editors would let this pass no wonder newspapers are on their last breath.
Thank god fairy month is finally over.
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On a side, if editors would let this pass no wonder newspapers are on their last breath.
I've seen the most doG-awful non-news articles gracing the pages of the once-esteemed New York Times; print journalism has been coughing up blood for years.
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On a side, if editors would let this pass no wonder newspapers are on their last breath.
I've seen the most doG-awful non-news articles gracing the pages of the once-esteemed New York Times; print journalism has been coughing up blood for years.
The red is on their ledgers, not their pages. And yes there are fluff pieces in the paper, but heaven forfend we compare their fluff pieces to TV — Worse, creeping ideological slant, "Is something in your house going to kill your child tonight?" teasers — Radio — save NPR, see TV — and the internet/blogs, which is still living off of the print media and hasn't made a lot of progress into filling some of their shoes save in aggregation. The Times is still a paragon, and print journalism in general is attempting to do what they did ten years ago with a lot fewer resources.
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I gotta disagree on the radio issue. There are quality shows out there, you just have to find them. I listen to a lot of satellite radio, so I do have more choices.
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Cats with wings? We're all doomed. DOOMED I SAY.
Anyway, good story--it did feel like an article one might read on Newsweek and the like. :)
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This one didn't grab me. A plot arc or some characters would've been nice.
It could be partly because I don't really like cats, and the thought of cats with wings isn't particularly intriguing to me. And that was all the story had that made it different, the winged cats, so if that falls flat, it all does. If it had been a story that took place in a world of cats, and the story involved a character and things happening to that character, I might've liked it more.