In DALTHAREE, Author Jeffrey Ford has created not just one world, but rather a world that contains worlds, that contain worlds, and as the story goes on, these worlds grow and mulitply and change until as a reader your mind is sufficiently blown. In a good way of course. And did we mention that most of these worlds are under glass?
“Our research suggested that Daltharee had many multi-storied buildings carved right into its hillsides. Surrounding the city there was a forest with lakes and streams. And all of it was contained within a dome, like a dinner beneath the lid of a serving dish. When the inhabitants of Daltharee looked up, they were prepared to not see the heavens. They knew that the light above, their Day, was generated by a machine, which they oiled and cared for. The stars that shone every sixteen hours when Day left darkness behind were simple bulbs regularly changed by a man in a hot air balloon.”
Narrator Christian Rummel brings a perfect matter-of-fact excitement to this insanely inventive story. You trust his telling immediately. You can’t help but float right into this world of icebergs, glass bottles, and dreams. Listen to Christian’s rendition below, then take a moment to read Lightspeed’s Author Spotlight on Jeffrey Ford to learn more about how “Daltharee” came about.
Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels, The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are, The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, and The Drowned Life. Crackpot Palace, a new collection of 20 stories, was published in 2012. Ford writes somewhere in Ohio.
Jeffrey Ford
Christian Rummel is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in productions with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Theatre for a New Audience, Peccadillo Theatre, and Clubbed Thumb, to name a few. He has narrated over a hundred audiobooks in a variety of genres. He is a two-time Earphones Award recipient, for his work on Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh, and Nelson Demille’s The Gold Coast. He is also the narrator of Jack Campbell’s best-selling sci-fi series The Lost Fleet, for which he was a 2013 Audie finalist.
Correction: On the podcast, the narrator for this story is credited incorrectly as Christian Beeman. Of course, our narrator here is the talented Christian Rummel, and he recorded this terrific story at our Beeman Studio. Oops! With so many fantastic stories flying around, we suppose we’re bound to make a little mistake every now and again. We apologize for any confusion!
