I am so far behind in listening to podcasts. Sadly, with the fiction podcasts, this is involving a lot of skipping ahead until I finally reach one that I enjoy listening to, like the pleasant reading on Podcastle of “Love Among the Talus,” Elizabeth Bear.
We begin with a princess in a tower, except she’s the warlike daughter of a warlord, and the tower will be hers to rule someday. And the “talus” does not mean the scree of rocks that make for difficult climbing up a steep slope, but really cool rock creatures that can digest titanium ore. Since the plot revolves around the question of succession to power, it’s a palace politics story, which I find easy to tune out on. What I enjoy is the attention to detail, the beautiful prose, and the sense of dwelling in a strange world for a little while.
A story for your everyday aspiring bow-wielding warrior queen.
Writing Every Day 