Comments on: PC021: Hallah Iron-Thighs and the Change of Life https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/ The Fantasy Fiction Podcast Mon, 09 Apr 2018 08:05:46 +0000 hourly 1 By: Sabre Runner https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-2135 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:01:36 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-2135 The story is entertaining and an interesting take on the chicks in chainmail idea but it wasn’t overly hilarious or overly… anything else. It’s a nugget not a cake.

]]> By: Recent Links Tagged With "chainmail" - JabberTags https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1434 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:04:31 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1434 […] public links >> chainmail PC021: Hallah Iron-Thighs and the Change of Life Saved by RandomFlicks on Wed 08-10-2008 6 ways to beat the ban, chillax & have some fun […]

]]> By: Spork https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1293 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:48:26 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1293 I felt like I was listening to a bad episode of a mediocre show like Xena, as written by the hacks at SNL.

]]> By: scatterbrain https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1155 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:07:27 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1155 This somewhere between meh and average: barely original, vaguely enthralling, but I’m getting sick of ‘middle-aged wimmin’ stories anyway.

]]> By: D.Junker https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1127 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:02:37 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1127 So many of the short stories available seem to fall somehow into the model of the Oddessy: heros overcoming great obstacles. It may be chain mail. It might be laser swords. But still it is Overcoming. Or perhaps, falling off the cliff due to a tragic flaw. But still the Hero.

This Hero thing. I didn’t have high hopes for Podcastle. If it is going to be a Hero story, I prefer spaceships to unicorns. But this bold direction that the Podcast is taking is extremely refreshing. Science fiction themes deals mostly with Human relationship with Technology. Somehow the Hero driven plot line seems to go well with such themes. The nice thing I see evolving about Podcastle is the remarkable turn it has taken away from the Hero model.

I suppose if you surf over to the selections from the New York Times short story archive, you’ll find plenty of stories that are not just echos an shadows of Odisseus.

Podcastle is evolving into another such place.

Pc019: Galatea, Pc016: Magnificent Pigs, Pc014: The Grand Cheat, Pc011: Fourteen Experiments In Postal Delivery, and one of my favorites Pc010: Magic In A Certain Slant Of Light all are cut from a different cloth. What makes them successful isn’t the customary Hero model. The plot devices and the themes that drive the characters is more about Human relationship with emotion and Human relationship with society.

A jiggling jaunt into chicks in chain mail however suits me just fine though. (Just what *was* she wearing *underneath* that came bursting forth when she freed herself from the shrinking mail?).

As long as you can laugh.

]]> By: V https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1123 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:09:05 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1123 That’s funny, I thought change of life meant hot flashes.

]]> By: aaron https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1113 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:12:43 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1113 Not sure why but I just couldn’t get interested in this story and gave up about 10 min in.

]]> By: Ragtime https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1111 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:46:43 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1111 I think your “First Appeared” link above in wrong. It links to the similarly-titled anthology: “Chicks ‘N Chained-Males,” which appears to contain a different “Hallah Iron-Thighs” story.

Good for the Hallah completist, I guess.

]]> By: Dave https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1110 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:17:20 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1110 This was a pleasant change of pace. The story was amusing though admittedly far more of an Anthony or Asprin style farce than a Voltaire or Swift style satire. That it was “low” humor doesn’t matter; the story entertained and that is the highest criteria. (Though the puns on song names were as tiresome as Anthony’s Xanth puns).

I agree with those who don’t care about the gender of the protagonist. As long as the character is active and not a passive victim of the story, I’m content.

]]> By: Benjamin https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1105 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:43:56 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1105 “In deference to the chromosomal makeup of approximately half the population, approximately half these stories feature female protagonists. I’m not going to get into a huge debate here; I’m just stating the editorial position, which I’m afraid is not going to change.”

Right on, Rachel! While I wasn’t a fan of the story I have no beef what-so-ever with the fact that its protagonists were women. Quite the opposite. Fantasy and Sci-fi have been male dominated realms for so long and why should that be?

Skewering the chain-mail bikini is a nice start (although the caveman section of my brain doesn’t mind the image). So is featuring women who are dealing with the indignities society places on aging (albeit only humorously so far).

And I have faith that when the editors of PodCastle have to choose between a good story featuring a male protagonist and a so-so story featuring a female protagonist, the better story will always win out, regardless of gender. I’ve no reason to complain so far anyway!

]]> By: Rachel https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1103 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:16:53 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1103 “Another estrogen fest?”

In deference to the chromosomal makeup of approximately half the population, approximately half these stories feature female protagonists. I’m not going to get into a huge debate here; I’m just stating the editorial position, which I’m afraid is not going to change.

]]> By: thomasowenm https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1102 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:43:41 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1102 Another estrogen fest? With that being said I sort of liked the story. No depth or any socially redeeming value, just a quick tongue-in-cheek story. I could have done without all the various religions showing up at center stage; oh my isis, nearer my druid, or any other such nonsense. It was jarring everytime I heard a standard hymn title with a reference to a different religion each time. Just pick a religion and go with it.

]]> By: JT Shea https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1101 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:15:05 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1101 Hmmm.. Ever shrinking Chain-mail bikini…. I’ll be in my Bunk.

JT

]]> By: Hyperion https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1100 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:14:36 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1100 I refuse to believe than anyone with mammalian DNA would not laugh at this story. It was hysterical!

As a boy I read every sword and sorcery tome I could lay my hands on, and K.D. Wentworth has perfectly captured that Hyperborean oversincerity. The real genius, however, is mating the Conaneque tone to the droll post-modern wink of Sunday School kitsch and menopause. I laughed so hard when I heard “Nearer My Isis to Thee” that I spit purple drink all over the laptop screen. What more can you ask from a story than that?

Normally I’m not a big fan of stories that flog you with the metaphor. Let me figure it out myself, I grumble. Hallah Iron-Thighs outflanks that position, though, by jumping head first into the “message.” Making the modernity obvious was a master (or mistress) stroke, and allowed me to relax and just enjoy what I heard. I sure hope Hallah and Lomo and the band show up again soon.

Well done.

]]> By: SFFaudio » Blog Archive » PodCastle - Hallah Iron-Thighs And The Change Of Life by K. D. Wentworth https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1099 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:54:17 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1099 […] the fantasy fiction podcast, has a new old/story out that has drawn my eyes, and ears… it’s a story first published in the highly arousing […]

]]> By: Max Sol (writing as Grogg) https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1096 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:45:39 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1096 Grogg, as a caveman, emerge from cave only few times, mostly to hunt wooly mammoths. But, one day, Grogg find bright shiny object. Grogg knows not what this could be, so Grogg brings round soft circles to his ears, and presses down on the bright shiny object.

Suddenly, Grogg, hear talking, but Grogg know not where it come from. Wherever it come from Grogg likes what he hears. It is story about fighting ladies, and bandits who like confessings. Funny fighting ladies trick bandits, and Grogg is shocked, Grogg could not have seen that plot development coming a mile away, because Grogg is a caveman.

The story makes Grogg laugh many times, but Grogg wonders if anyone who is not a caveman could like it. Grogg thinks and thinks, and ’cause thinking’s hard, it takes him a long time. Finally Grogg realizes that no, no one who has IQ above 24 could possibly like story, because it is very predictable, with thinly defined characters that no one could identify with. But Grogg is still happy, because he is a caveman, and as such, just stupid enough to like this story.

]]> By: Benjamin https://podcastle.org/2008/08/19/pc021-hallah-iron-thighs-and-the-change-of-life/#comment-1094 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:47:46 +0000 https://podcastle.org/?p=42#comment-1094 While the story did towards the end provoke my lips to form a slight smile – once – I can’t say that I found this story very amusing.
It seemed too preoccupied with convincing the reader/listener that it was funny to ever just relax and be genuinely funny. It reminded me a bit of Terry Pratchett’s kind of humor and I’ve always found him to be trying to hard to be funny, too.

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