I haven't read this whole long thread yet, so if I repeat something already said, please forgive me.
There were two things about this story that annoyed me:
1. The lack of character names. What kind of person refers to her family (her
family!!) as numbers? I can understand trying to distance oneself from sons/daughters-in-law that way, but from her own children and grandchildren? No, I'm sorry. That doesn't work and it prevented me from identifying with the protag.
<EDIT>
Once I got over the rather annoying way that no one had a name (though it was explained later in the story)...
When did that happen? Did I miss it?
</EDIT>
2. I need to re-listen to parts of the story to make sure, but I'm almost positive that there was a tense switch in the middle of the story. Most of the story was being told in the present-tense, and then suddenly it switched to past tense. That is an amateur mistake that should have ben drilled out of us in middle school. Aside from that, it made me question everything that had happened until now in the story and try to reconcile it. Flashbacks? Is
this part a flashback? Again, I need to re-listen to make sure, but at the time this stuck in my mind and bothered me.
Most of the above can be made up for with the ending (also, that got drawn out for too long). I particularly hate it when people revolt, have a single successful battle against overwhelming odds (whether militaristic or in their minds) and then think it's smooth sailing from then on. I am very glad that the heroes of this story knew that the real battle was still ahead of them, and that even if they won this one, the worst is still to come.
While I'm in a complaining mood....
There is a lot of dead space at the end of Podcastle episodes. Never less than 30 seconds, and often closer to a minute. While I appreciate that some padding is necessary, usually 2-5 seconds is enough. This vast desert of silence often leaves me wondering if my battery had died or if I had run into the end of my playlist. And not to mention the annoyance this can be. Posit: I'm jogging, happily listening to my favorite podcasts, and then it gets real silent. I don't want to hear the noises of the street/gym, but fiddling with little buttons on my device while jogging and trying to watch where I"m going can be tough. What do I do?