Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Ocicat on November 29, 2016, 07:47:51 PM
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PodCastle 444: The Giant’s Lady (Aurealis Month) (http://podcastle.org/2016/11/29/podcastle-444-the-giants-lady-aurealis-month/)
by Rowena Cory Daniells
read by Barry Haworth
First published in the Legends 2 anthology, Stories In Honor of David Gemmell.
Part of our Aurealis Month, celebrating the Australian Aurealis Awards (https://aurealisawards.org/about/).
Hosted by Graeme Dunlop.
As we entered the white-walled courtyard, the music stopped and every islander turned. Wyrd, they whispered.
Wyrd, they whispered. My lady stood tall, her pale hair glinting in the hot noonday sun. A full-blood T’En throwback, she
My lady stood tall, her pale hair glinting in the hot noonday sun. A full-blood T’En throwback, she did not try to hide her hair or her six-fingered hands, and her distinctive wine-dark eyes held quiet defiance. As for me, I was not a Wyrd, not even a half-blood, just a freakishly big True-man, and an ugly
one at that.
My lady headed for two seats at the end of a trestle table. By the time we reached it, the table was empty. She sat, turning her long legs to the side. Dropping our travelling bags, I took the opposite seat, where I could watch the courtyard gate.
Rated PG-13.
(http://podcastle.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Author_Rowena_Corey_Daniells-150x150.jpg)
Rowena Cory Daniells is a fan of the genre who has been going to Conventions since she was eighteen. Over the years she has been involved in Indy Press, run a bookshop, then a graphic art studio. She reared a family of six kids, served on numerous arts committees at a state and national level and went back to study where she did a Masters then taught at University. In her spare time she studied Tae Kwon Do, Aikido and Iaido, the art of the Samurai Sword.
And she’s written a pile of books. On the Internet, you can find her website at www.rowena-cory-daniells.com (http://www.rowena-cory-daniells.com), or find her on Twitter @rcdaniells (https://twitter.com/rcdaniells).
Rowena Cory Daniells’s series King Rolen’s Kin has just been released (with stunning new covers) in the US by Solaris Classics (http://www.solarisbooks.com/post/1334). Head on over to amazon to pick up the series now (https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00CKCWXVA/ref=dp_st_1781085323)!
(http://podcastle.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/KRK_SolarisClassicCollection72dpi-2.jpg)
(http://podcastle.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Narrator_Barry_Haworth-150x150.jpg)
Barry Haworth works as a statistician for the Australian Taxation Office, which is more interesting than you might think. He holds a Masters degree in Statistics. Outside of work he is a keen reader of science fiction, and enjoys choral singing and taking part in amateur theatricals, having performed such roles as Prospero in The Tempest and Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance.
Barry has narrated episodes of Escape Pod and also the Cheap Astronomy podcast (http://www.cheapastro.com/). He lives in Brisbane, Australia with his wife Sylvia, those of his children who haven’t left home yet, and whatever the current quota of pets is. He also says, “I am a Statistician. One false move and you’re a Statistic.”
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif) Listen to this week’s PodCastle! (http://media.rawvoice.com/podcastle/media.libsyn.com/media/podcastle/PC444_TheGiantsLady.mp3)
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I'm really impressed with how developed the world and the story were given its length. This felt like the author had crammed (in a good way) a full novel's worth of world building, character and detail into a short story. More like this one please. (and that goes for all the shows in the Aurealis Month cycle; I've found each of these stories to be excellent. I'd love to hear more from any of the authors featured)
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At timestamp 42:50, the penny dropped, bounced, and then hovered in midair (that's how I felt with the story's unreliable narrator [who was telling the truth]).
??? The plot became a little too uneven-keeled for me, flipping back and forth between a treacherous (and vengeful healer) and a clueless (and somewhat naive) deformed giant. I wasn't convinced of the healer's intentions by the story's end.
::) I think the man-boy (of the unfortunate sister) will be trouble as he grows into his powers (do I also detect a love-triangle forming between the giant-healer-full blood?). A nastier (but a little more satisfying) ending would be for the giant to black out, not knowing whether or not his lady was on the up-and-up, or not.
;D Was I glad I listened to the podcast? Hell yeah!
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I enjoyed this. Cool worldbuilding. The bit about the healer planting the characteristic mark of the plague to save his life was a particularly clever one (though I was surprised at how quickly he decided that she had planned all this to wipe out the city instead of just guessing it was a fake mark like I had figured).
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I had assumed she had given him the plague to wipe out the city, but planned to return to heal him before it was too late.
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Good stuff. Phenomenal world building and an emotional roller coaster. Also nice craftsmanship of erasing the Unfortunate Sister's name.
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This was weird (heh) and enchanting. The author did a masterful job at giving us just enough information to flesh out the world without bogging the story down. I'm still don't quite trust the young Wyrd; I guess we'll just have to hear more of the group's adventures so he can prove himself true! :D