Backwards up the mossy glen
Turned and trooped the goblin men,
With their shrill repeated cry,
‘Come buy, come buy.‘
~ Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti
Podcast: Incomplete (up to Episode 14)
Format: Audio and Ebook
RSS Feed: http://jenniferhudock.com/goblin-market/
Genre: Fantasy
Christina Rosetti wrote her poem “Goblin Market,” regarding one sister who falls under the control of goblins after greedily devouring food from their market, and the other sister who has to rescue her, back in 1862. It addressed feminine sexuality and her revolutionary views of Victorian marriage; the hint of sexuality is clear in the description of the temptation of the goblins’ fruit. It was the first four verses of this decadent descriptive poem that inspired Jennifer Hudock’s podcast novel, Goblin Market.
Goblin Market is currently in production, but I’ve listened to enough to be well and truly hooked. At times (like during the description of the market itself), Hudock’s descriptive prose borders on poetry in that you want to eat the words themselves. I’ve listened to more than one of her descriptions over again; her storytelling is a delight to listen to.
A spinster older sister, Meredith, has to venture through the goblin market and into the land of fairy to rescue her sister, who succumbed to the folly of her own greed and ate the goblins’ fruit. After bravely withstanding a goblin attack, she is rescued by two of the fae who take her into the woods and introduce her to the other fae, many of whom are familiar to her. There she learns more about the man who holds her sister’s well-being hostage, and why.
Part adventure fairy tale, part romance, Goblin Market is one of the few podcasts I look forward to and despair when it is late. It has its flaws, but those are mostly in the audio quality. Hudock is re-recording the hiss-plagued early episodes, so their quality should soon match the much-improved later ones. Her narration is good, the voices and dialogue of the goblins are a lot of fun, but the noble British accents she takes on when voicing the male characters are distracting.
Frankly, my tolerance for bad podcasts is low, so I mean it when I saw that these issues are minor and have not made me even consider unsubscribing from this fun book. Hudock’s style and storytelling are quite engaging and I can’t wait to see where she takes this story.
Mur Lafferty is an author and podcaster. She is the host of I Should Be Writing and the author of Playing For Keeps, among other things. You can find all of her projects at Murverse.com.
