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Yes, very much so.…
13 May 2008, 18:38
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For those who like steampunk, I'd recommend the first novel by ALan Campbell, "Scar Night." It reminds me more than a little of China Mieville without being excessively derivative.…
13 May 2008, 16:15
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Pedro, You clearly have more of a "hard science" orientation than I do in SF. Given that, have you tried Stephen Baxter?…
12 May 2008, 20:34
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Equally good, but about as far from Wolfe as you can get artistically or philosophically, is Samuel R. Delany. Some of his work, incidentally, is <i>not</i> for the easily offended…
12 May 2008, 20:11
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Not as much of a contributor as I used to be but ... SF fan, definitely, but I also read a lot out of genre. Where I'm from: Originally, New York, but I've lived in Northern Cali…
12 May 2008, 16:35
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Pavel, There's a fair amount packed into the name. Urth or Urdr or Urd is the name of the eldest of the three Norns, the Norse equivalent of the Fates. The names of the other two,…
24 Apr 2008, 18:25
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We have always been at war with East Ascia.…
08 Mar 2008, 00:26
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There is no list. I did not receive your note and you are not reading this reply.…
07 Mar 2008, 20:37
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Very cool!…
25 Jan 2008, 19:14
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All true ... But ... Do we know of what metal "Terminus Est" is actually made? Even if Severian calls it steel (which I don't recall offhand), that could be a "translation factor,"…
17 Jan 2008, 18:37
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Thank you. I also just finished the book (got it for Christmas). Possibly because it isn't very important. It's pretty clearly the mid 1670s though. Or daughter? He's blond? I'…
01 Jan 2008, 07:57
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Doesn't mean that they'd been stockpiled originally for that purpose -- only that Hammerstone thinks so.…
18 Dec 2007, 20:35
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People, The Blue-Green system is NOT the Urth system. Wolfe has stated this as unequivocally as he ever states anything.…
17 Dec 2007, 04:04
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Pedro, Forgive me, but do we have any clear evidence that the continent where the Commonwealth lies is actually "the same" as modern-day South America? We have plenty of evidence …
14 Dec 2007, 22:51
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We are told explictly that there is a black hole in the heart of the Sun, and it is at least implied that the HieroFoos put it there. But I think 100K to 1M years is too short a t…
14 Dec 2007, 20:00
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Yes, and "the liege of the leaves." (He said, making the Theoantrhopos cry.)…
30 Nov 2007, 20:16
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But we are given to understand that people of Sev's time don't even distinguish between riverine craft, pelagic craft, and cosmic craft - they are all "ships" to these people, and …
28 Nov 2007, 22:24
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Actually, that wasn't me, but I agree with what was said. "Volant" in heraldry most definitely *does* mean "flying," and is not to be taken figuratively - indeed, none of the descr…
28 Nov 2007, 21:51
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Eric, These are great questions for examples of how to unpack the layers of meaning Wolfe stuffs into his texts. 1) What is the larger significance of the story Sev reads to Jona…
27 Nov 2007, 17:34
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Eric, Welcome. I can't answer all your quesitons, and for those I can, my answers may be "debateable." But here goes. 1) When Severian enters the shop of Agilus and Agia, Agilus …
14 Nov 2007, 21:49
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Certainly an interesting theory, though I think you're wrong about the "stimulating Gene" part -- doesn't he say that he has seen Ben in Mythgarthr? At any rate, it being an after…
25 Sep 2007, 17:29
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Stephen, And, of course, I did not believe you were appealing to authority. Hemingway does, indeed, represent a kind of sea-change in attitude and values, which we might as well …
19 Sep 2007, 01:11
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Stephen, I am not a scholar, nor do I portray one on this list. I'm this guy who writes stuff. As such I take responsibility for what I write, and hope others will do likewise. W…
18 Sep 2007, 22:13
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Stephen, First, thank you for posting this. It is a fascinating read. Second, I would concur, though with a different spin, with Chris's response. My emphasis would be to remembe…
18 Sep 2007, 20:24
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Reminder: This is a phishing bot.…
12 Sep 2007, 03:18
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I've never seen Lewis in "Dr Death," but have always seen it as a paean to Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs.…
06 Sep 2007, 16:52
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Lucky you! I read them in jr. high school, and missed a lot. While that gave me much to catch on rereads, I never had the experience of a reasonably-informed first reading. H'mmm.…
04 Sep 2007, 21:45
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Paul, Go to the bottom of the Contents page, and click the link for "Discussion of edits, structure, etc." We're working on that. I've created bogey templates for story and novel …
24 Jul 2007, 19:48
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Why would I mind being singled out for compliments? I'm trying to systematically *start* pages. But a lot of what I am doing is *just* a start. This is a wiki, and the whole point…
24 Jul 2007, 16:30
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i'm going to go against the herd here and recommend Lafferty's book _Apocalypses_, two short novels. The first, "The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeney," is about why the Twe…
22 Jul 2007, 00:34
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Assuming that William agreed, I'd be delighted to put it into some kind of usable form. Does anyone have a current eddress for him?…
21 Jul 2007, 02:37
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Yes. The old man is ... I'm forgetting his name, but Dorcas' husband, and Sev's own grandfather, whom he meets again in the Gardens.…
19 Jul 2007, 17:37
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I have always assumed that it was pollution (or perhaps an algae blossom like a red tide) caused by American industry.…
15 Jul 2007, 16:26
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Adam, I don't see there anything about murder. Clute does say that Sev is concealing (something important about) how he came to be the Autarch, but, really, what he does do -- cut…
12 Jul 2007, 02:35
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OK, and there's also this family tree in there, in which it appears that Severian is his own grampaw. WTF???…
10 Jul 2007, 23:30
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Thanks for posting it ... I cried when he died. I'd only met him once, under very unfavorable conditions, but that wasn't even the point; he was as much a father-figure to me as my…
09 Jul 2007, 17:59
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Ah. For the moment, one writes to Mo.…
06 Jul 2007, 19:11
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It's evolving as we go. Mo can say more than me, he's the captain of this ship. I'm just trying to stoke the boilers a bit. Right now, we seem to be just getting in the basic fact…
04 Jul 2007, 16:38
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I have always assumed that he was just a river-spirit (daimon) like Peneus and Achelous, a son of Tethys and Oceanus -- thus technically an Oceanad (or maybe a Potamad but I don't …
28 Jun 2007, 19:41
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Lessee ... this would be during the period of the return from Babylon. Nehemiah would be exhorting the people to rebuild the Temple and reinstate the priestly class. Not *too* long…
28 Jun 2007, 19:20
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Don, Some personal thinks on "Soldier of Sidon." 1. I find the "Soldier" books the hardest to read of all Wolfe's work. I don't know why this should be. Part of it, I suspect, is…
27 Jun 2007, 18:49
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Yeah ... that sounds like it could come right out of Silk's mouth, doesn't it? What we have here appears at first glance to be a variation on the Pinocchio/Astro Boy problem: the …
26 Jun 2007, 22:01
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One bit-and-piece that got left out: Roberta and Robber both have "Rob" names. So do the Robinsons. Are they actually flesh&blood themselves?…
26 Jun 2007, 21:03
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Just read it. It looks like one of those stories Wolfe does occasionally that seem kind of pointless at first and come back to whack you later. This one hasn't come back to whack m…
26 Jun 2007, 17:49
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For introductory Wolfe shorts (both "good" and "accessible"), I would suggest, in roughly this order: "With the Lafayette Escadrille" "War Beneath the Tree" "Detective of Dreams" …
21 Jun 2007, 17:47
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Well, there is "A Shoggoth on the Roof..." http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=74…
21 Jun 2007, 03:18
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The guard of a sword is often shaped like that, and knights (at least in legends) would often stab the sword into the ground to get a cross to pray by. I don't know much about the…
19 Jun 2007, 19:28
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I would not favor a BotNS film, for I suspect it would get all the images right but miss the point of the book.…
19 Jun 2007, 15:34
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FWIW, I read it (as I do a number of Wolfe's pieces) as a darkening of the Bible story. Yes, it replays Cain and Abel with humans in the role of God -- but that's the point; humans…
18 Jun 2007, 00:14
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Heh. I almost wrote "a Wolfe," and decided it would be kinda twee of me. (It isn't twee as a misreading, just doing it on purpose.) And I'll second it.…
07 Jun 2007, 21:50
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