This was a beautiful, incredibly moving story. To me, it's an excellent example of the way spec-fic elements can be used to address real-world issues: in this case, the process of maturation generally, and the issue of sexuality specifically. I hurt for Toby during the bad times, when the fire came raining down, because we got such an inside view of what that felt like, and Duncan's choice of how to represent that pain felt so persuasive.
To weigh in briefly on a few things other people have said:
No, I don't think having a fairy caused homosexuality, just that this was a story a homosexual guy with a fairy -- which, yes, was obviously a deliberate play on the stereotype.
Ditto the people who said chapter headers don't work well in audio. I would have liked a bit more of a pause between sections, too, whenever there was a break between time-periods of action, because sometimes it took me a moment to realize the scene had changed.
Length . . . a bit long, yeah, but not in a way that bothered me at all. I think that's because this was about Toby maturing from infancy to adulthood, and a quicker story would feel like it short-changed that process. I enjoyed the prose, and Flashjack's experiences inside the behold, enough that once he got inside, I never felt like the story was moving too slowly. If there was one part I could have seen reduced without much disappointment, it was the parts preceding Toby's arrival on the scene.
