By Peter S. Beagle.
Read by Stephen Eley (of Escape Pod).
Introduction by Summer Brooks.
First appeared in Wizards Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy, 2007.
Carcharos. One tends to think of wizards either as bearded and severe, bearded and bumblingly kindly, or bearded and dark and vaguely sinister. Carcharos was none of these things. There were broad blond planes to his friendly face, and if his blue eyes were a bit small, they were yet as candid as they could have been. His hair was red-gold in any light, as though the sun were always behind him. When he spoke, there was a deep thrum to his voice, like the singing of a giant cicada. There was no one living in the Barrens who was not afraid of Carcharos.
Yes, there was. One person. But that comes later in the story.
Rated G. Contains strange animals and high magic.
Richard said,
June 17, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
Hmmmmm…..I think I’m going to have to listen to it again.
George said,
June 18, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
Now _this_ is more like it! The story unfolds at just the right pace, with enough exposition to build the world convincingly. This is excellent Podcastle material.
The delivery could have been a bit more measured at times, but that’s Steve’s natural pace.
Good show! Now stay on track Podcastle.
Giermo the Wise said,
June 18, 2008 @ 3:50 pm
I truly enjoyed this story. The twist on magic with the dancing was superbly executed. Character development, for a short story, was great. This was perfectly fantasy and well done. These are the types of stories I come to podcastle for!
R.Z.I said,
June 19, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
Quality Fantasy at it’s best. Great story.
Keep it up podcastle.
LittleLotus said,
June 19, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Although it took a while to get into the story the ending made me cry for more! The little tid bits of facts of the many characters that we recieve throughout the story make this as much of a mystery as a fantacy, which is fine by me. As always, great reading and wonderful writing. This is fantacy at its best!
Janice in GA said,
June 20, 2008 @ 9:08 pm
You can’t go wrong with Peter S. Beagle.
Loved it.
Ryan B said,
June 22, 2008 @ 12:18 am
Good one. I wish I had a Mr. Saturn font with which to write:
Appreciate!
Chas said,
June 23, 2008 @ 10:09 am
Although I liked the story, I was disturbed by the idea of the wizard having so much power without consequences. I don’t like the idea of wizards being “above the law” and being able to simply take what they want without anyone being able to do anything about it.
guess that’s probably the point isn’t it?
de said,
June 23, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
i’m about half way through, it’s not really keeping my interest, but after reading the comments it looks like it’ll get better
Storman_Norman said,
June 24, 2008 @ 2:48 pm
AWESOME!
V said,
June 24, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
Although it was hard for me to picture a dance being menacing…the rest of this story, and Steve Eley’s wonderful reading resonated deeply with me.
In fact, I think this tied is up there with a story he read on Escape Pod, Friction, as my #1 favorite reading I’ve ever heard him do.
Barry said,
June 25, 2008 @ 1:02 am
As others have said, this is much more like the kind of fantasy story I would like to hear on PodCastle. What a truly fascinating tale it was, a really good example of how a rich fantasy world can be hinted at in a few short words.
I think there is an over-reliance on previous stories to be rooted in the real world with fantastic or pseudo-fantastic elements. “Barrens Dance” shows it is entirely possible to build worlds for a single short story.
This kind of story will keep me coming back for more. For me, there have been too many stories based in real-world America (past and present) recently, which as a Brit I just haven’t connected with.
Sound quality and reading great. I really like Steve Eley’s voice, more of him please!
Spork said,
July 1, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
I hate this crap.
What the heck is a shecknath, and why couldn’t it have been something mundane like a sheep or a cow?
Steve’s reading was truly irritating with his hissing inflections and the way he pronounces the letter ‘T’ like a slap in the face is really distracting. I got too bored and annoyed with this story to finish it. I don’t care if there are winning lottery numbers at the end of it, I just can’t tolerate it.
FrankJ said,
July 4, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
This story moved me - nay compelled me - to actually register and write in to comment.
Yes, it was that bad.
I began as a listener to Psuedopod (from the 1st ep), liked it well enough to find out more about Escape Pod, and naturally jumped into Podcastle when it began. Never before was I moved to write in, for good or bad reason.
This story took me half the month to get through, because I just couldn’t keep my interest up. The names were difficult to follow and associate with characters. There was too much description, and not enough dialogue, for this type of story. The characters didn’t seem to really be who they were supposed to be - in the sense that we were told they were certain things or behaved in certain ways, but never really seemed to act that way in the moment of the story (kind of like the guy in high school that was regarded as a badass, but no one could think of how he proved to be such a badass). And Steve’s reading just didn’t do it for me this time.
But I finally perservered, getting through to the end.
I knew I could - I’d read the 1st Thomas Covenant series.
The Fix | From the Podosphere: June 2008 said,
July 16, 2008 @ 7:35 am
[...] “Barrens Dance” by Peter S. Beagle is a beautifully written story of a wizard who wants something and is not used to having his wants denied, even when what he wants is another man’s wife. The plot, setting, viewpoint, and characterization are masterly, and Stephen Eley’s narration does all those aspects ample justice. (Given my lukewarm feelings towards the fantasy genre, I’m surprised to find “Barrens Dance” my favorite of this month’s Escape Artists offerings.) [...]
scatterbrain said,
July 22, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
Excellent, but what the hell is a shukri?!