PODCAST · arts
Chetwin's Backroom
by Grace Chetwin
Bookreadings of my adult novels
Episodes
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The Orborgon Chapter 11 part i
Annhilde flees the Fend to save her newborn grandchild from ritual snapping of the neck. Pursued by vengeful Fendmen, she accepts the help of an innocent stranger and in so doing risks not only the child's life but his. Quote from the chapter: … Thanks to Brocan—tahin Brocan, she’d crossed the…
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The Orborgon Chapter 10
Above her head, the siffra wafted in the currents, like clouds. Heavenly veils. When she was small, she believed that if she stared long and hard enough, she would pierce those clouds and see the truth of all things. Sighing, she turned onto her side, her arm over the anuk now. “Laksra,” she...
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The Orborgon Chapter 9
“Not far now,” the handler said, in evident relief. “A score of forhar hides says we’re almost on her.” A score of forhar hides? Anka remounted grimly. In that moment he’d have given half his season’s cull to prove the little handler wrong.
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The Orborgon Chapter 8 part i
They moved off slowly at first, to get her used to the thar’s gait. She shut her eyes and clenched her jaw. How to endure this? And yet it was better than freezing to death back in that icy bolthole. And the farther they got from the Fend, the safer her grandchild would be.
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The Orborgon Chapter 8 part ii
“But if she has crossed the Rim?” Fahn persisted. “Then we follow.” Stugar swung into the saddle. “Follow!” Pahar looked horrified. Stugar laughed shortly. “You swore the oath.” Shrewd and promising to be as wise as Lahr, he also had a small, malicious wit. “We can’t go home without Annhilde and...
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The Orborgon Chapter 7
She slid into her bolthole, had it almost shut—and cried out. In the center of her narrowing line of vision, directly across the pool from where she was, a man stood stock-still under the flying snow, and he was staring straight at her.
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The Orborgon Chapter 6
They moved off, down towards the pens, where the adahi awaited them, past rows of twitching window covers, all the way up the street. Anka, bringing up the rear, spat over his shoulder and made his lucky sign that they not find the two alive, for if they did, his troubles, far from ending, could...
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The Orborgon Chapter 5
Anka Ragnar loomed large in his crofthouse doorway, his very bulk a challenge, nay, a threat to the timid woman barring his way. His throat was raw, his breath, short; his hide coat hung wet and heavy on his back. He looked angry at seeing the woman there, more even than usual. He was angry. The...
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The Orborgon Chapter 4
This, as mostly always, a quote from the chapter. Shira is falling into one of the Phrynis visions transmitted from Phrynis and shared with her grandfather: When her vision returned, the man was riding, and, she knew it just as clearly as he did himself, he would keep riding for full three days...
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The Orborgon Chapter 3
The Earth personnel are now split: some hiding out on in an Earth sub-polar base, the rest abducted up to Space Tektonics, Inc. (STI), Hengst’s massive orbiting complex near the moon. (Manfred Hengst is the heavy on Earth. He is a mining magnate, unscrupulous, and greedy. He and Pitar Ellisen are...
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The Orborgon Chapter 2
Here, a clip of Shira's thought during the chapter: Her mind and (Grandfather’s) were but sparks in the vastness of time and space. What if they were blown apart, away into that immense uncertainty, never to touch again? Only a heartbeat ago she’d been grumbling about the Bourg, and wishing for...
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The Orborgon
The tetralogy (The Last Legacy) connects in my mind with an aria from Benjamin Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes. Unhinged, Peter is raving. Deranged people often have insights not shared by the sane, especially when they are having attacks. But the rants can contain deep truth. Parts of the aria...
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The Atheling - Chapter 29
No spoiler quotes this time. The chapter, which marks end of The Atheling, sets up Book II of the quartet, The Orborgon, which marks drastic change in both worlds. On Earth, whose timeline is continuous, the players scatter, while the action on Phrynis begins 1000 years after Torc in a remote...
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The Atheling - Chapter 28
Torc dipped his head, feeling the unaccustomed weight of the crown, and as he did so, it slipped slightly on his bare scalp so that he had to snatch at it and push it back into place. Feric, still beside him, his back to the crowd, bowed. “I think, sire,” he murmured, “that the crown sits…
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The Atheling - Chapter 27
“Gar is an ever-present danger while he lives. For that reason he must die before the sun sets on your crowning—and there’ll be edicts tomorrow for you to sign to that effect. If not, I’ll not, nor would any man in the whole Known World vouchsafe your future as king.”
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The Atheling - Chapter 26 part ii
Even as Ramoni’s warning came, a slight sound came from the window. He crossed the room, felt his way along the thick harpile, slipped around into the bay. Reminder: While mindspeech is clearly indicated by italics in the book, here it cannot be so easily distinguished. All speech between Ramoni...
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The Atheling - Chapter 26- part1
Torc looked to the empty blackness where once the king’s tower had stood. He wanted above all to stand in the ashes where his father had lain. Later. He must see Feric first.
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The Atheling - Chapter 25-ii
It was a sombre vigil. His thoughts went again and again to the old visions: of tattered flame and blood and masses crowding the countryside, of his father’s last cry, of the tocsin, the screams of those dying in the fire. Of Ramoni toiling up the hill and the mentor falling in his own blood.…
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The Atheling - Chapter 25-i
“About Kabun—” “He’ll give you no more trouble, I promise.” Well, that’s good….I don’t mean to complain, but he’s crazy. If, as you said, he’s one I’d be safe with, I’d like to see one who wished me ill.”
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The Atheling - Chapter 24
– Poor Tanna. It were well if she ‘d died in the fire. Such hopes the girl had had of him. How long was it since he’d thought of her? His mind turned to Ramoni. Bridge of love. As if he were not heated enough already. He squirmed a little, then relaxed his body joint by joint and in the closeness...
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The Atheling - Chapter 23
– You’re a fool. I thought so and now I know it. Go, while you’re yet safe. - Fool you may think me, but when a man must choose between a raging fire and an uncertain ledge, surely the ledge is worth the risk… NOTE: Spoken words have some advantages over written ones. But there can be loss....
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The Atheling - Chapter 22
–The Iron Rose turned, looked blindly out into the darkness where Torc still stood. Look what you’ve done! she screeched at him, her face twisted. You hated thing. Now are you satisfied
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The Atheling - Chapter 21
– Smoke. She smelled smoke. She ran to the door. She took a deep breath to shout, choked. The passage was full of it. She ran back into her room, took up her washcloth, soaked it in water, put it over her face, and opened her mouth to shout again just as a strange light erupted through the…
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The Atheling - Chapter 20
– The trembling gave way to faint excitement. What if—what if Gar came home again before she returned the scrolls? What if she couldn’t get back into his bedchamber? Or someone saw her leaving the queen’s tower and followed her there?… The excitement faded. But after another minute, so did the...
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The Atheling - Chapter 19
–Out of the dark the old woman’s voice came. “I’m here. Pick her up, young man, gently, if you value your splendid outfit, and follow me.” “Harbeli!” Tanna was vaguely aware of being lifted, of the old woman’s face hovering somewhere upside down against the wheeling stars then in a flash of pain...
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The Atheling - Chapter 18
18 –Then tell me only one thing, if you can: shall I be king hereafter? The Athor regarded him long and solemnly, then slowly he nodded. Yes, he answered. You shall wear the crown. The Athor stood, and in that moment a shiver of cold air passed through the arbor, stippling the surface of the…
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The Atheling - Chapter 17
–If the scrot would make a likeness of the melk for him, and maybe give her some hair, that indeed would be a gift. But the mentor would never agree to ask Sheshu for the kind of likeness of her that Torc would want. But if he ever did, then, oh then would Torc test out the Gurnyac lore!
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The Atheling - Chapter 16
She … tried to sit up. But the night had been too much for her. The stables, the shock of seeing Feric’s treachery. The horrible moaning from next door. And now this that she’d tried so hard to avoid. With awful suddenness, hot caustic fluid welled from her gut, spilling out and down as though it...
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The Atheling - Chapter 15
He stood before a grassy courtyard walled in by white rush screens. In the centre of the grass was a raised blue mat marked off by a thick latik cord. In the centre of the mat sat a small golden man dressed only in a loin cloth…. “Behold the Harash D’ho, prince. Grand Master of the D’hogana.”
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The Atheling - Chapter 14
Here, where light and dark commingled, one stood to greet them. No Lothuri was he, for sure…. The features were blunt as the pitted Dryacs atop the Gurnyac keep. His scalp, furthermore, was shorn. His robe was dark brown, whatever that meant. “Behold D’huru Nor, your mentor. Look your last on the...
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The Atheling - Chapter 13
The Athor looked him up and down curiously. “Tell me, Torc, prince: in the chamber of mirrors—what did you see?” Torc considered. “I saw myself multiplied to the power of infinity, stretching in all directions, line upon line of me, going forever.” At last a fleeting flash in the golden eyes. Of...
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The Atheling - Chapter 12
12 - (Shira) walked slowly into the third stall from the door, stepped up onto the toilet seat and felt along the narrow rim of the left-hand partition. There! A bead of paint? Better not try to move it, in case. She jumped down, ran to fetch MacAllister. A moment later, he gingerly lifted down a...
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The Atheling - Chapter 11
The waters frothed and boiled, rising, filling the space of the lab floor, swirling and swelling to engulf them all. Ord closed his eyes and cried out but his cry went unheard. Just as the waters were surely closing over his head, the tumult faded, the raging river was gone, and the lights from…
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The Atheling - Chapter 10
What if things happened while she was away? Terrible things? And she was too late to do anything? Maybe she should make herself ill and stay behind. Maybe no one would notice if she did not go. Maybe....
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The Atheling - Chapter 9
As the daur turned ponderously and lumbered across the courtyard cobbles, Torc had one last glimpse of Gar heading Tanna’s way. Then he was passing under the inner courtyard arch and down towards the drawbridge gate.
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The Atheling - Chapter 8
Feric, massive and dark against the light, bowed his head. “I wish you safe journey and swift return, Highness.” He turned back to Brac. “I’ll catch you up, General,” he said, and strode back into the hutment.
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The Atheling - Chapter 7
“…Without his proving in the holy city the king is but a man like all the rest. Already the people line the streets to see their next king ride the route that will render him a demigod. What—shall you stand out there and tell them that you’ll not go? … Farce or no—and that’s not for you to say—of...
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The Atheling - Chapter 6
Ord couldn’t help a small tinge of excitement at the thought. All this time using a tri-di-corder and never being able to see its true results until now. The TS was still operating, of course, but whatever came through today would be there, in its full roundness, filling the lab. Ellisen waved…
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The Atheling - Chapter 5
The whole planet abounded with natural resources, as Earth had a century before. And there was Hengst, up there with his precious voyager ships, all rigged up and nowhere to go. Maybe there was a deal here. Perhaps, instead of going up to see Hengst, he could persuade the man to come down here. .…
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The Atheling - Chapter 4
The old man’s adrenaline had reached an impossible high. Ord watched Suk pan it down again. This wasn’t like ’25. That woman had only gone catatonic, for a spell. This was something much worse. The pulse rate was faster than a hummingbird’s and the respiration, shallow. The eyes opened, rolled up...
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The Atheling - Chapter 3
Nothing stood against the bare skyline: no tree, no roof, not even the stump of a shelter wall. High in the sky a dirty sun filtered down and lit the shiny floor. There came a soft sound from somewhere in the room. Startled, Ord looked away. Across the couch, among the clutter of I.V.’s and...
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The Atheling - Chapter 2
"Pitar—something bad is happening to us.” He pulled on his navy jumpsuit, clipped the belt shut. “Don’t be so melodramatic, Susann.” He turned to go. “Why,” she called after him, “are you going off like this?” “Later, Susann,” he said, and went downstairs.
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The Atheling - Book One of 'The Last Legacy'
Now the great Bear and Pleiades where earth moves Are drawing up the clouds of human grief Breathing solemnity in the deep night. From “Peter Grimes.” Benjamin Britten Torc, n. the turning moment of a tangential force - (Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary). atheling: Anglo-Saxon term for...
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Chetwin's Backroom currently has 44 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Bookreadings of my adult novels
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Chetwin's Backroom is created and hosted by Grace Chetwin.
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