Posted from 3 addresses as Kevin J. Maroney, Kevin Maroney
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I was just discussing this with a friend on Friday. One might posit that there is a genre of "puzzling fiction"--fiction where much or all of the meaning is hidden behind misdirect…
12 Mar 2001, 14:44
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I don't like any of the answers, frankly. A. We don't know that there are. There's no evidence whatsoever to judge what criteria Typhon used to select the target for the _Whorl_.…
12 Mar 2001, 14:33
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Why would we believe that Pas is a Neighbor? I agree that Horn's reluctance to consider or explicate the reasons that he can Travel without the Inhumi present is a reflection of …
11 Mar 2001, 16:24
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Yes, and (reading between the lines) with a damaged visual cortex, so that he *can't* see. Yes. I'm not sure why anyone assumed that the godlings are fleshy--did I miss something…
21 Feb 2001, 16:37
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Yes. Mucor told him so. I think he doesn't, not for a very long time. The conversation between Pig and the shopkeeper underscores that. (Assuming it's a reliable reconstruction, …
15 Feb 2001, 17:02
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Of course he could. But if he doesn't know he's been transported into Elvis's body, why would he lapse into acting like Elvis for an extended time during a period when he's convinc…
15 Feb 2001, 11:12
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I think it's amazing that Wolfe put the emotional climax of the entire series into the hands of Remora, who up to that point had basically been comic relief. And pulled it off.…
14 Feb 2001, 22:41
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To me, the giveaway that there's a huge amount of Silk in "the protagonist" from the moment that Horn moves into his body is the amount of minutiae that he displays about the relig…
13 Feb 2001, 15:05
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I think Michael Andre-Driussi has made a good argument for the time of Typhon being only about 1000 years before the time of Severian. But it's clear that there is some time dilati…
31 Jan 2001, 16:15
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My judgment is that Clute casually reveals the resolution of the primary mystery of the novel, but it is not instantly clear that he is doing so. More correctly, I think that if I …
30 Jan 2001, 17:20
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Once more: it is not a character who has been named in any previous novel, as far as I can tell. Quadrifons does feature in _Return_, though.…
01 Jan 2001, 19:38
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It isn't. As I said, the character on the cover of _Whorl_ did not appear in _Blue_ or _Green_, or in any other Wolfe work that I'm aware of. (I believe. There might have been a me…
14 Dec 2000, 17:11
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While I could believe that the marketing (and design) departments at a major publisher are utter ninnies, I don't believe that the ones at Tor are. I rather like the covers of both…
05 Dec 2000, 12:41
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Well, yeah. :-) As to the first: I think it completes the trilogy very well. I really don't want to comment further, for a complex of reasons. As to the second: I don't think th…
28 Nov 2000, 13:06
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I currently have a cold, possibly with a minor fever, and my troubled dreams kept trying to convince me that there are coded messages in _The Book of the Short Sun_ which will reve…
27 Nov 2000, 19:49
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There's a lot of metafictive content in _Return to the Whorl_, but it's very much in keeping with the metafictive content of the first two volumes--that is, an awareness by the aut…
27 Nov 2000, 14:06
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The current Tor schedule <http://www.tor.com/scheduletor.html> lists it as a February 2001 release. According to a conversation I recently had with Patrick Nielsen Hayden on rec.ar…
03 Nov 2000, 18:39
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Agreed. I've been assuming that they don't fall from that distance. There are three basic possibilities, as I see it: The inhumi move from planet to planet via traditional ballis…
06 Sep 2000, 12:18
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We know the inhumi can fly on Blue. If the inhumi can spread themselves thin enough to drift down in the atmosphere of Blue, then they don't need heat shielding. Our space vehicles…
05 Sep 2000, 14:25
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Me? No, never. <whistles quietly and looks the other way> That's not precisely true: copying is perfectly allowed for *personal* use--i.e., if you own a work, you can make copies …
26 Aug 2000, 14:23
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This gives more support for my belief that the inhumi have some sort of telepathy to enhance their predation, but it's weak support. We know that they camouflage themselves as thei…
25 Aug 2000, 14:48
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I read it, but I didn't come away with the same understanding that Robert and mantis did. I need to re-read it in light of their discussion. Oh, you wicked woman.…
24 Aug 2000, 18:33
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Industrial facilities. Before he retired to become a full-time writer in the 1980s, Wolfe was a "food engineer" for Proctor and Gamble and then a staff writer for PE. One of Wolfe'…
24 Aug 2000, 11:26
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You may be over-reading. Merriam-Webster gives this for "mask": 4 a : the head or face of an animal (as a fox or dog) b : an area (as the one around the eyes) of an animal's face…
23 Aug 2000, 15:56
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I found a page listing documentaries funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities with the following films credited to John Crowley: America and Lewis Hine (Daniel V. Alle…
19 Aug 2000, 13:55
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"The Gate of Heavenly Peace" was a _Frontline_ documentary for PBS. If you find out the names of any of his other films, let us know. Ah. That clarifies matters. Thankee, alg…
18 Aug 2000, 13:46
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I thought that the common wisdom was that the Whorl left Urth about 1000 years before _Book of the New Sun_ (during the time of Typhon) and had spent 1000 years in transit (though …
17 Aug 2000, 18:31
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Is Crowley still doing this? I had gotten the impression from some conversation that he wasn't writing films, but had retired to spend time with his daughters (one of whom, I also …
17 Aug 2000, 13:50
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<AOL>Me too.</AOL> It is consummately possible that Clute has noticed something I have missed--in fact, I would bet money that he has, many times, in IGJ alone--but this just feel…
16 Aug 2000, 10:48
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Also, Weir could have killed multiple people without being a "multiple murderer". The young boy and the man who was locked in the freezer could both easily have been accidents, and…
10 Aug 2000, 14:53
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Oreb projects right along with Incanto and Jahlee, but Oreb isn't "human". If I recall correctly, there is some discussion of human sacrifice in _Long Sun_--it's condemned as an …
09 Aug 2000, 12:32
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Post! Post! Post! What I tell you three times...…
07 Aug 2000, 17:32
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Casting back, I seem to remember something in _Blue_ about the inhumi changing shape to travel between the worlds. So they probably do *really* shapeshift mildly. But I think the p…
01 Aug 2000, 11:49
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I don't think this point has been made here: The inhumi seem specifically to be telepathic reptiles tht developed their telepathy to enhance their predation. It seems likely that t…
30 Jul 2000, 14:05
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Minor spoiler for _In Green's Jungles_: Remember that Silk was genetically programmed to be an exceptional leader. Once Horn took over Silk's body, he apparently gained that abil…
24 Jul 2000, 11:08
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I have that directly from David Hartwell, who read the manuscript for _Whorl_ about five months ago. He even quoted me a very short scene.…
07 Jun 2000, 09:25
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Google turns up one significant "Severiano"--Severiano Ballesteros is a professional golfer, "the most successful player in the history of Spanish golf", according to one site.…
26 Apr 2000, 13:58
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The Orb covers are cropped versions of the original Simon and Schuster/Pocket editions by Don Maitz. I have always disliked Maitz's cover for _Citadel_ and regret seeing it return …
26 Mar 2000, 17:50
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Dennis Weir. And it's not revealed at the end; it's revealed, very obliquely, midway through. _Peace_ does have a science-fictional element: The factory built by Dennis's "uncle"…
31 Jan 2000, 11:49
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The cover for _In Green's Jungles_ shows a Neighbor, many legs and all. That, of course, proves nothing. Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com Kitchen Staff Supervi…
11 Jan 2000, 16:29
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That's correct. _Return to the Whorl_ should be early 2001--Tor is definitely not waiting a year between volumes. Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com Kitchen Staff…
21 Dec 1999, 13:14
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I like the later observation (I'm pretty sure it was made here) to the effect that: If the inhumi only gain sentience from feeding on sentient prey, the humans could defeat them by…
16 Nov 1999, 20:27
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Or that Severian slips up. Remember that his memory is not perfectly organized; he describes in some detail the difficult process by which he reconstructs his memories. Even if his…
08 Nov 1999, 18:16
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Possibly. I like Clute's writing, and I like his thoughts a great deal. But he sometimes writes really bad sentences. Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com Kitchen …
08 Nov 1999, 10:45
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I would say that Clute sometimes lets his joy of language get in the way of his communication. Fortunately, this is only an occasional lapse. It is almost always possible to expl…
07 Nov 1999, 14:48
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I asked David Hartwell about this a few months ago, and meant to report here. Here's his version: David, John Douglas (then Hartwell's assistant editor at Timescape) and Wolfe wer…
07 Nov 1999, 14:13
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From the galley: Blueberry Jam One-Two-Three for Me Counting Cats in Zanzibar The Death of Koshchei the Deathless No Planets Strike Bed and Breakfast To the Seventh Queen of the …
06 Nov 1999, 13:03
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He has, but I think that alga was correct in pointing out that his convolutions sometimes serve the work poorly. The diction and content which are appropriate when one is writing a…
06 Nov 1999, 13:01
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Barth is alive and kicking, with a new novel every couple of years. He's not the bestseller he was in the 1960s, but he endures. Coover also publishes every couple of years, and he…
26 Oct 1999, 17:26
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While I think that _On Blue's Waters_ is Wolfe's best novel in 20 years, and that's saying *quite* a lot, thank you, I don't think it's a good place to start. It is the fifth volum…
20 Oct 1999, 15:51
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