As to the gender issues. Silly. I am man. I loved the story. The sex of the protagonist is irrelevant. I love speculative fiction because of the imagination of the writers and worlds I am transported to. I wish more stories with male protagonists were this well told.

Cheers to Podcastle.

Thanks for bringing that to our attention. I’ll see what I can do about getting some ratings information into our podcasts.

I have an idea which I’m going to consult with our audio editor about. If it’s workable, it may take us a couple weeks to implement.

Although I see a rating here on the site, it might be helpful to put it at the beginning of the podcast. I loved the story, though a warning about the minor description of sexuality at the end might have been nice. I hate to sound like a prude, but I do tend to listen with my daughter, and it would be helpful to be able to screen episodes of Pod Castle in advance.

So very Asian. Reminiscent of many stories more familiar to those of us in the West, yet … not. More powerful than Faustian tales.

I’m dating a Fiery Horse. She fits much of what her horoscope suggests. It’s uncanny. I believe I should be thankful that she has no interest in marriage For other Metal Rats out there, I highly recommend finding yourself a Fiery Horse. Trust me, it’s sure to be exciting.

Podcastle was well worth waiting for!

Well said, The Blow Leprechaun. The fact that three amazing stories all have a similarity is not that big of a deal.

If these stories had been female-centric and BAD, maybe there should be criticism for it, but c’mon! These have been good stories! Who cares what the main characters’ naughty bits are?

There’s a fairly lengthy topic on that in the forums, I’d suggest you look at it: http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1519.0;all

And this is a criticism WHY?

Was Shi Hsa Morpheus’ pet?

One criticism — the three main selections so far have had a definite feminist fiction feel to them. I’m sure you have a full variety with wonderful balance planned for the future. May your Paypal Cup overfloweth.

Give me a story steeped in a time or far away place, and I will happily journey.

The intor is still a bit stiff. I am sure that will.

nice story, reminded me of nights on elm street series. except here Freddy wasn’t as creepy, and a bit of a connoisseur among soul eaters. the traditional feet mutilation resonated yet again with what seems to have become a common theme in escape artists releases in recent months (weeks?) not complaining, but hoping to hear something entirely different soon.

also: it would be funnier if your invitation to comment said “say your right words” instead of “say your words”….to reference labrynth.

I cannot remember coming across the work of Murphy before, but I hope her work, such as this great piece, is getting the respect it desevres.

And on top of all this, we actually got a proper heroic conclusion (with obligatory tragic undertones) not one of those milksop modern not-really-an-ending endings

As for the (alleged) female tendencies of this ‘cast … well my background as a reader is in old-fashioned male-dominated epic-fantasy. But even so, it has not entirely escaped my attention that modern fantasy has attracted a lot of talented women and I’m
glad to see podcastle reflecting that. I’m sure you’ve got some macho male monster-slaying lined up for us in the future, and I just hope it’s of the same high calibre as “Run of the Fiery Horse”.

Women have to suck it up that most things out there are by-men-for-men and listen to them anyway. This is a nice change.

(Which is not to say that I won’t listen to stories written by dudes on here, though.)

This cast has also started off with (IMO) an unfortunate “by-women-for-women” overtone. I have to wonder whether there are male listeners out there who notice/are put off by this?

It’s commonplace for podcasts to be organized by male editors, with stories by male writers, about male protagonists, and read by male readers. It’s not uncommon for there to be several such episodes in a row.

There’s nothing wrong with male writers, editors, readers, or protagonists, of course.

What is problematic is the double-standard. That the large majority of published stories are by men, published by men, and about men is something we’re used to; it’s invisible, like water for seahorses. But even one or two podcasts that involve multiple female creators will be objected to, as Debergop did. I think that’s unfair.

Sorry about that! ‘course now I’m imagining him as Arbok.

http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1513.msg24465#msg24465

Try clearing your browser cache. There must have been a hiccup somewhere that interrupted your download, and my guess is that your Web browser now thinks the incomplete file is the whole thing. You could also try right-clicking the download link and doing a “Save As…” somewhere else.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience. If you can’t get the file at all, send me an e-mail and I’ll do what I can.

- Steve