PC013: Spell of the Sparrow

[BubbleDragon]

I disliked this story quite a bit.  The tone was out of whack with what was actually going on in the plot to the point that I sometimes felt the characters turn and look at the camera to wink along with a cheesy rimshot.  The characters were exaggerated and quite frankly, sounded like something out of high school fan-fiction.

The whole sub plot of the parents not wanting the daughter to practice magic just seemed stretched and tedious.

All of this is disappointing, of course, because a few elements were really captivating, particularly the cloudlings and their magic.

[Hatton]

You guys are HARSH 

Not every story can be perfect, not every reading can be enthralling... After the selection of readings that have come across this show's playlist I can say that the PC team has worked hard to show the diversity of the "Fantasy" genre as a whole.  Not every listener likes every setting, but one episode does not a podcast make.

My take on this story fell in line with most.  It was a fun, light tale that had a lot of re-used elements and some interesting ideas.  The concept of a "family life" for a married thief couple with their magic-user daughter was an interesting spin... and the idea of the "ghost cat" just had me rolling when it came to the chase scene.

[Dwango]

The moral of the story is not to just eat anything left in the kitchen at work, especially the leftover Easter candy.

As for the story, it could not seem to decide if it was high fantasy or a fairy tale.  The whole bird magic and cloudlings could really work, throw away the wife is a thief, rebel daughter wanting to learn magic, D&D fantasy staples.  They felt out of place and forced.  I think this would have worked better as a pure fairy tale in the vien of the Run of the Fiery Horse tale.

As for the reading, I thought it was fine, except for the voicing of the Cloudling.  Pure scratchings on a chalk board as the speaker probably intended.

(EDIT: Got the correct story name for Run of the Fiery Horse )

[Dwango]

... and the idea of the "ghost cat" just had me rolling when it came to the chase scene.

Oh yeah, I forgot.  I loved the ghost cat.  Bird's worst nightmare :-)  There should be a whole tale about the cat alone.

[Roney]

I suppose I look for different things from Fantasy than I do from SF and (for better or worse) I don't mind a bit less originality in my Fantasy.  I'm much more inclined to accept a simple story for the way that it's told.  In this case I thought there were several cute touches that made it a rewarding listen -- and not just the ghost cat.  I liked the husband's sketched presence around the edges of the story, the wife's determination to endure the cloudling's tightening trap until she could figure out a way out of it, and the tension when all four characters were in the same room.  Most of all, I loved the creation of a sympathetic heroine who finds the very idea of nobility revolting -- you don't get much less conventionally heroic than that.

[Cerebrilith]

This story felt a lot like the sort of cheesy D&D games I was into during my junior high days.  The idea that a lot of those trapping could be removed and make this story more of a fairy tale seems like a good one to me.

[mudguts]

I really enjoyed the story as well.  The reader did a great job.   There were a few plotline flaws (like following the cat through the forest) but then again, this isn't the cure for cancer, it's a fun story to pass time while I walk my dog.

Overall, I really enjoyed the ebb and flow of the writing and would like to hear more about the characters in other adventures.

[the_true_morg]

0ne thing that i did not read once in anyones comments was about the good use of magic that was mentioned in a very different way. it was subtle i might go so far to say it was in the background in a way that made it more believable. The way it was not just explained in a gross amount of detail like more and more High fantasy seems to do. I think Fantasy does this so they seem more original where instead you get bogged down in details and miss the story while you are looking it up on wiki pedia.

The story was ok other than that.

[JoeFitz]

Many things didn't work for me with this story, but overall it was an okay episode.

I didn't like the rebellious daughter character, her role or the parent's reaction to her. It made no sense to me that Bossy would have an antidote egg on hand when it seemed so easy to procure eggs on demand.

And I could not get the image of the Chicken Lady from Kids in the Hall out of my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkhENWjCI20

[Unblinking]

Fun with a cool premise, the cloudling was sufficiently annoying and arrogant for me to really hate her, and I liked both the writing and the reading which portrayed the protagonist very well.

My only niggle was that in many SF/fantasy stories there's always a convenient antidote just lying around for the taking, so that comes off as a plot device than anything more real.