EP157: A Small Room in Koboldtown
Published by SFEley on 8 May 2008 at 11:58 pm.
13 Comments.
Filed under Hugo Awards, Podcasts, Rated PG.
2008 Hugo Nominee!
By Michael Swanwick.
Read by Cheyenne Wright (of Arcane Times and Girl Genius).
First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2007.
That Winter, Will le Fey held down a job working for a haint politician named Salem Toussaint. Chiefly, his function was to run errands while looking conspicuously solid. He fetched tax forms for the alderman’s constituents, delivered stacks of documents to trollish functionaries, fixed L&I violations, presented boxes of candied John-the-Conqueror root to retiring secretaries, absent-mindedly dropped slim envelopes containing twenty-dollar bills on desks. When somebody important died, he brought a white goat to the back door of the Fane of Darkness to be sacrificed to the Nameless One. When somebody else’s son was drafted or went to prison, he hammered a nail in the nkisi nkonde that Toussaint kept in the office to ensure his safe return.
He canvassed voters in haint neighborhoods like Ginny Gall, Beluthahatchie, and Diddy-Wah-Diddy, where the bars were smoky, the music was good, and it was dangerous to smile at the whores. He negotiated the labyrinthine bureaucracies of City Hall. Not everything he did was strictly legal, but none of it was actually criminal. Salem Toussaint didn’t trust him enough for that.
Rated PG. Contains dark, seedy places and dark, seedy characters, only a few of them alive.
Today’s Sponsor:
Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
LG on 9 May 2008 at 12:17 pm: 1
I’m having trouble enjoying the story through the poor audio quality. There’s a sort of over-compression/warbly effect going on. Any chance of a re-master on this one?
Jeremy Tolbert on 9 May 2008 at 5:38 pm: 2
I thought the audio wasn’t up to the usual quality of Escape Pod as well. However, I did finish the story and absolutely loved it. Anyone know if Swanwick has written more in the same setting?
Sci-Fi Podcast Roundup #5 | Solar Flare: Science Fiction News on 9 May 2008 at 9:11 pm: 3
[...] Escape Pod #157 - A Small Room In Koboldtown, written by Michael Swanwick and read by Cheyenne Wright. Image via Wikipedia [...]
DaveNJ on 10 May 2008 at 12:39 am: 4
Same problem with the sound, although it might simply be the reading. The accents seem off, and the reading just isn’t up to snuff. The story itself is good, but it’s very difficult to listen to.
Blaine Boy on 10 May 2008 at 1:26 am: 5
I guess I had the same problem with sound: I couldn’t quite distinguish the voices very well and I kind of got mixed up with the characters (the accents made the characters more real, Cheyenne Wright is a very good reader). It’s a cool story, not as great as some of the others, still it is Hugo worthy (again just not as worthy as the other nominees). Reminds me of the Mur Lafferty story City Talkers where Toussant has the ability to get information from the city itself. All in all, a good story: simple, short, pleasant, understandable sci-fi. I just wish it could inspire some deeper thoughts. Please, sir, I want some more.
Cheyenne Wright on 10 May 2008 at 4:43 am: 6
sorry about the audio — I must have pulled the jiggery-poke when I should have just pushed the widget-kabob. My bad.
Sushma on 10 May 2008 at 5:46 am: 7
I really enjoyed this one. Had a great atmosphere, good characters, and what’s not to like about sci-fi noir, especially when it’s got to do with city politics. I could see the Philadelphia or Baltimore of the future in the story. I liked the reading too, though the accents were a tad off, and the audio quality got some getting used to.
Howie Feltersnatch on 10 May 2008 at 10:49 am: 8
Bad audio quality, a bad reading with poor enunciation and bad accents, and a bad plot that tries way to hard. Here’s a hint: Taking a fairly banal hard-boiled detective story, and then throwing every possible N’awlins/voodoo/occult reference possible into it does not give you a cool, edgy, award-worthy story. It gives you a trite, overwrought, forced mess.
If you haven’t listened to this yet, it basically follows this form:
“Toussant d’la’Bourghainhe and his ogre assistant stepped out of the taxi driven by a dwarf. They entered dark gym, after paying the zombie at the door, and bought a drink from the fairy bartender.” Then 500 similar sentences just like this. And then some stuff happens, only we hear about it second hand, and then wraps up with a naive discussion of dirty politics.
The best part of the story was the end. Because it was over.
TurboFool on 10 May 2008 at 1:37 pm: 9
I actually really enjoyed this one. Contrary to others, I found the reading very enjoyable, although the audio quality at the beginning made me question whether I’d be able to understand it all.
It quickly grew on me, and I enjoyed the overall environment. It was a relatively typical detective story, but with twists that could only occur in this setting, with these unusual characters and phenomena. This made it just unique enough for me not to complain that the plot was unoriginal.
Honestly, I was left wanting to hear more stories set in this world. Maybe/maybe not with these specific characters, but the overall setting was just detailed enough to make me feel like there are more stories to be told and more of the world to explore. In particular, the politics. I liked this angle, but there wasn’t enough. Supernatural, voodoo-inspired worlds are nothing new, but I liked the idea of getting a view of such a world’s political system. What are the major campaign issues? What sorts of favors are being passed when black magic’s all around? What’s the average lifespan of a politician when your enemies have so much access to dark arts?
Overall, a solid B+ for me.
Jake Grey on 10 May 2008 at 4:09 pm: 10
Mixed feelings about this one. The setting felt a little forced, but the story was pretty okay and the characters were well-drawn. Not Swanwick’s best, but not the worst thing I’ve ever listened to either. The audio sounded fine to me, by the way; either there was some technical issue at our host’s end that’s been resolved in the last few hours or my sound setup is well above average.
Pete on 10 May 2008 at 4:44 pm: 11
This story got me thinking. Not about the story itself, but about interpretations of stories when presented in audio format. I kept thinking “If I was reading this story, would these characters have these accents in my imagination?”
And I think the answer is no. I’m not saying the narrator was at fault or anything, it was just that for me personally, the accents felt somehow ‘wrong’. I personally didn’t pick up on anything that placed it in whatever southern area those accents are from (I’m from the NE personally). I’m not saying it wasn’t there; I may have missed it.
As to the story itself, my reaction was “Meh”. But then I’m a PodCastle listener too and had just finished Hotel Astarte which was also a fantasy-mixed-with-real-world story. I might have been more receptive to this tale if I’d heard it at a different time.
Lucianno on 10 May 2008 at 10:02 pm: 12
I liked the narrator (and the accents). Thought it was a pretty good story, too.
Sushma on 10 May 2008 at 11:22 pm: 13
In response to Howie, I kind of get what you are saying. I felt this was short genre fiction, so you dispense with the requirements of the genre- murder, cops, detectives. What was good was the evocation of the grimy city and its layers of compromised relationships.