Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on November 19, 2009, 01:23:36 PM
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Podcastle 78: The Tinyman And Caroline (http://podcastle.org/2009/11/19/podcastle-78-the-tinyman-and-caroline/)
By Sarah L. Edwards (http://snickelish.livejournal.com/)
Read by Bob Eccles
Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=35)
The sun had set while he’d been below—the stabbing light was the glow of a streetlamp. Pressing himself into the shadows of a carriage house, Jabey peered upstreet and down at the dark, massive forms of the istocrats’ castles.
The west hill, right. He’d never been this close before. From where he stood it was castles all the way up, or so the chatter said, castles built of diamond windows and brownstone flecked with gold, and livedolls hung from the doors instead of knockers.
Just one pretty was all he needed. One sparkling trinket to buy himself into the clubber chief’s service—and to buy his protection.
Rated PG: For Dark Deeds done in Dark Places
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The story was good, but I wasn't a fan of the outro that showed up around 36 minutes in...
-jalsk
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The story was good, but I wasn't a fan of the outro that showed up around 36 minutes in...
-jalsk
VERY sorry about that. We'll repost the file once it's been corrected. Thanks so much for letting us know about it!
- Dave
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The file has been corrected and reposted. Thanks for your patience!
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Yeah, the file error was my fault. I'm loaning my services to PC as producer until I can process the new trainees. You'd think I knew what I was doing by now, but as it turns out.. when you reuse a session in Audition, you have to watch it when you insert a longer narration than you had before since the software will bump whatever it runs into, moving bumpees down to new tracks in the multitracker, which may or may not be within the viewable area on your screen without you scrolling down to notice them. Maybe the real lesson is: don't stay up 'till 6am working on something like this. Then you might actually remember to do a headcount of all the clips and realize there's one missing at the end -- like sewing up your patient and then thinking, "Say, where'd my scalpel go?"
Anyway, sorry about that.
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I can't help thinking how much Jabey had in common with the protagonist of "Nine Sundays In A Row". They ended up making pretty much the same choice - staying with an abusive monster because it was their only option for helping someone they'd come to care about. And what haunts me is how wretchedly alone they both were - no friends, no allies, nobody on their side except themselves. No fun being Frodo if you don't even have a Sam. :(
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I can't help thinking how much Jabey had in common with the protagonist of "Nine Sundays In A Row". They ended up making pretty much the same choice - staying with an abusive monster because it was their only option for helping someone they'd come to care about. And what haunts me is how wretchedly alone they both were - no friends, no allies, nobody on their side except themselves. No fun being Frodo if you don't even have a Sam. :(
I thought their situations were rather different. This guy's situation is probably marginally better by taking the new employer. At least he's not being lashed and slave collared all the time. So the choice that's better for him is also better for the girl, but in the other story it was the opposite.
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Ooh, I'm in the comments! That's a first for me. ;D
Anyhoo, I really enjoyed this story. I thought it wasn't really fantasy for a while, since a tinyman could just be a natural genetic trait until they got to the part explaining the extraction of growth. The character was likable and I really felt for his dilemma--he had to choose between a crappy life and a REALLY crappy life, but in the end he at least was able to do what he could for the little girl, even though she won't remember him. The way he was convinced to bring her along was done very well--he was forced to kidnap her lest she turn him in. If he had just chosen to take her along on his own, it would've made him much harder to like. And that simple act made his change in character that much more profound--in the beginning he's willing to put the girl's life at risk to save his own skin but in the end he would do any number of things to protect her.
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Wow, never did I imagine that I might ever find myself yelling "STFU" at Ann Leckie. But that's precisely what I did this afternoon while listening to this story.
Ben, you owe Ann an apology. ;D
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So, I take it you were into the story?
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Kind of, but mainly it's that the outro was about 3x the volume of the narration, so it was impossible to hear the story during that bit.
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You know you can redownload the corrected version, right?
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This was AMAZING! I enjoyed this, and while it might be a bit complicated for the younger of my daughters, my elder kiddo will love it. Seeing why people would want to leave fairie.. goodgood.
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Reminded me somewhat of China Mieville's 'Un Lun Don' but I have to admit, I wasn't really that into it until about thirty minutes in when you start to think that surely the little girl isn't going to be let go so easily.
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I didn't really like this story because there wasn't anything new about it. It was, to my mind, a fractured fairy tale from the POV of the mythical creature, and it didn't cover any new ground, especially when Jabey suddenly decided he wanted to save Caroline from Sloan. I totally understand his motivations, but the story just didn't do anything new and, overall, it was too long for me to overlook that.
The reader was AWESOME... but not for this story. I think this would've been better for someone a little more tenor, or someone with a non-US/Canada accent. Or maybe use this guy as the narrator and have someone else play Jabey -- his voice just didn't work as Jabey's voice for me.
So, y'know, a good enough story, but not one that I liked.
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Gotta say, I grew a little bored listening to this. It was okay, I guess, but it didn't really stand out to me.
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I'm really suprised this story hasn't gotten more love; I thought it was wonderful, and it isn't even usuallly my kind of story. It was full of bright little gleams and did such a good job of expressing a child's-eye view of danger and wonder that I was really quite charmed.