Listening to "Terrible Ones"

I want to take the opportunity to give an appreciative shout out (disguised as a critical response) to Tim Pratt's short story "The Terrible Ones," which I just listened to via Podcastle, a fantasy fiction podcast website (check it out).  As with many new platforms for receiving entertainment, I am running just behind the podcast bandwagon, having failed to jump on it and trying to to inhale any dust.  This was actually my first short story download (moment of embarrassment here).  I can, however, fully recommend the experience with the enthusiasm of the newly-converted.  Partly, I had the advantage of having an introduction to the medium via a story that was awesome.

"The Terrible Ones," is a fantasy story that brings elements of Greek mythology--specifically those preserved in the fragments of Greek drama that are left to us--into a modern-day setting.  It takes the ancient ideas of betrayal and retribution, divine intervention and punishment, and transposes them, creating a story that is original and entertaining--satisfying in its use of mythic tropes, yet fresh and surprising in its outcome.

Speaking as someone who is rather painfully familiar with many of the story's elements, both its prosaic (I lived several years in the day-to-day world of the performance artist, which is the setting for much of the narrative action) and its mythic ones (some children are raised by wolves, others by tiger mothers, me, I was raised by Classicists and had experiences like being read the Homeric Hymn to Demeter at age six)--I can say that Pratt really knows his stuff, and gets the details right.  Add to that a fresh narrative voice and a well-plotted story line, and you have a great listening experience.  If the other stories on Podcastle are up to this level, I am definitely going to keep downloading.

Full Disclosure: Tim Pratt is also a personal acquaintance and former coworker, so I'm not a totally impartial critic.  That doesn't mean I'm wrong, though.