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Hey James! I like this book quite a lot. As I said a while ago on this list, the thing that sticks with me most is the way Wat manipulates the villagers, dividing them into small…
23 Jun 2009, 05:25
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For me, one of the most important keys to enjoying Wolfe's work is to let him take you where he wants to go. He's constantly doing this bait-and-switch, leading you up to some exc…
13 Jan 2009, 17:38
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Well, I'll admit to being disappointed by Wolfe's recent short work. I don't think there's a single story in Starwater Strains, Innocents Aboard, or Strange Travelers that I like a…
03 Sep 2008, 18:21
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And Wolfe (and/or the King) is especially tricky because at first Tim is told "You'll serve for 100 years and then return" which makes it seem obvious that Tim would not age or wou…
28 May 2008, 21:32
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I'm in the middle of _Lady of Mazes_ right now and am very impressed so far. He reminds me of my choice for best hard SF writer: Ken MacLeod. I think his first two books, _Star F…
23 May 2008, 17:01
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To make it clear to our Czech friends, only seven of those words are commonly used in English. (Eight if you count the borderline "ursine"). And that's really about it. Urchin, …
25 Apr 2008, 20:36
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I don't know if it has anything to do with Wolfe's intent, but I can't look at the word "Urth" without thinking of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur. Also, there just aren't man…
24 Apr 2008, 20:05
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That'll teach me to reply before reading all the new messages! Welcome aboard, Dave. I've been wanting to re-read Free Live Free, maybe I'll get a chance and come back to some …
21 Apr 2008, 17:25
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That'll teach me to reply before reading all the new messages! Welcome aboard, Dave. I've been wanting to re-read Free Live Free, maybe I'll get a chance and come back to some of…
21 Apr 2008, 17:22
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The tiny joke, of course, is Wolfe noticing that Tang (which in real life was probably named because it supposedly tastes "tangy") was also the name of a Chinese imperial dynasty, …
21 Apr 2008, 17:14
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This is a like saying "I can't figure out how Severian's grandmother Dorcas is supposed to be related to him." - Rostrum…
21 Apr 2008, 16:21
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When I spoke to Wolfe at the Locus event in Seattle last year, he said he was making progress on a third novel (after Pirate Freedom and Evil Guest, and which Mantis later told me …
26 Mar 2008, 17:34
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I've always thought it would be interesting for Wolfe to do a story with shapeshifters in it. It will be interesting to see what he does with the concept. - Rostrum…
20 Mar 2008, 18:38
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Anyone else think that Pirate Freedom can be seen as an expanded version of the Wolfe short story "A Cabin on the Coast"? -- Rostrum…
16 Jan 2008, 19:15
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Don't you think that's a pretty tiny nitpick compared to the fact that white holes are not generally bonded to individual human beings? Severian bringing the New Sun is essentiall…
21 Dec 2007, 19:31
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I'd guess that LS & SS are translated from some future as-yet-unexisting language, and that "Latin" and "French" are analogues chosen by the translator, much the same way that we'r…
20 Dec 2007, 20:38
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Everything I know about Science I had to re-learn after having read Niven in my teens. :-) Fun stuff, though. And yeah, Memorare's plot and setting both have the flavor of a Nive…
07 Dec 2007, 23:18
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Paul, that's a great review. Thanks for sharing. And yet one of the commenters at your website offers one of best perspectives for reading Wolfe that I have yet seen: "I suppose…
05 Dec 2007, 19:56
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Welcome, Steve. Ask away. I've had more than one of Wolfe's short stories go from "What was that?" to "Wow, what a great story!" thanks to insight of people on the list. No prom…
07 Nov 2007, 19:49
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But doesn't Able meet Michael well before he becomes a Skai god? Rostrum…
28 Sep 2007, 19:33
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I don't think it is either. I was trying to explicate the inner logic of the fictional metaphysics within the story. And I agree with what you're saying here (although I might obj…
28 Sep 2007, 18:16
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OK. But what I was saying is that advising the Aelf to worship the higher beings need not have a moral component. A dog might be better off living in obedience to a kind farmer th…
28 Sep 2007, 18:07
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I don't know. It seems pretty ancient. The first few chapters of Genesis are basically third-person omniscient. And I can't help thinking that we'd have been spared a lot of hea…
28 Sep 2007, 17:29
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You seem to take the point of view that the purpose of worship is to flatter your way into a happy afterlife. I think the Neo-Platonic view is that the Aelf should worship humans …
27 Sep 2007, 17:42
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I can't think of a better way to summarize the key worthwhile insight of postmodernism. There is no such thing as a third person perspective. And I agree that Wolfe's embracing t…
27 Sep 2007, 16:03
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Yes and no. There's that whole bit of stuff that happens to Able before Knight begins, after which he is something of a tabla rasa. Able is from our world, but he seems to bring …
25 Sep 2007, 18:19
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Yes. Exactly. Wolfe is not writing adventure stories. He's using the trappings of adventure stories to do other things. Ever since Severian, Wolfe has almost rigorously skipped…
20 Sep 2007, 16:21
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See, I think this is one of the more interesting things that Wolfe does with his protagonists. In most fantasy, the protagonist is weaker than all his enemies and the drama comes f…
19 Sep 2007, 17:28
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Matt, You're not the only one who has seen connections between Wolfe and Lewis. One particular standout to me that I wrote about on the list a while back is this scene from Perel…
05 Sep 2007, 18:25
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It also helps that most of the Egyptians (for most of that trip up the Nile) were treating him with respect and not as a slave. I was going to make a similar comment myself. I'll…
16 Jul 2007, 20:52
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I know someone who would like to quote one Wolfe's suggestions (viz: "Almost any interesting work or art comes close to saying the opposite of what it really says.") in a scholarly…
22 Jun 2007, 04:40
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Michael Swanwick's essay about Wolfe in the F&SF special issue mentions an essay by Wolfe called "What I Know About Writing (in no particular order)." Here's Swanwick's essay: ht…
21 Jun 2007, 16:13
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Here's my picks for some of Wolfe's best and/or most accessible short work: "Trip, Trap," "Forlessen," "Westwind," "War Beneath the Tree," "The Other Dead Man," "A Cabin on The Co…
21 Jun 2007, 15:55
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Oh, and just a warning, in case you click that link at work, there is some nudity in some of the pictures at the site. Rostrum will be looking for a new job now...…
20 Jun 2007, 22:59
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Part the Second - chatting with Wolfe. Minor spoilers for future Wolfe books ahead (of the sort you might get from reading the back cover). I had brought a copy of Soldier of Sid…
20 Jun 2007, 22:48
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G.K. Chesterton liked to point out that the only modern tradition that could genuinely trace its roots back to Greek and Roman paganism was Christianity. Rostrum…
20 Jun 2007, 19:31
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Never fear, Roy. I was just busy comparing notes with Mantis. I'll start with the award banquet. Neil Stephenson was the MC. He was brief but very funny. Unfortunately, he didn…
20 Jun 2007, 19:19
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I'll support a BotNS movie when someone can give me a list of which scenes from the Book of the New Sun can be cut without doing grievous harm to the plot. Well, no. Not even the…
19 Jun 2007, 20:27
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You may have seen this in the archives, but one of the ideas in the book (I believe this is straight from Wolfe), is that the gene pool in Arthur's time was so small and there's be…
19 Jun 2007, 18:46
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Why, is he really hot?…
13 Jun 2007, 18:22
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I'm going to be attending the award ceremony at the SF Hall of Fame this Saturday. Anyone else going to be there? It might be more fun to sit with folks there to honor Wolfe than…
13 Jun 2007, 15:44
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Here's an interview where Wolfe talks about his conversion a bit: http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/gwjbj1.html Rostrum…
07 Jun 2007, 21:04
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That's why this kind of review kinda bothers me, because I feel somewhat at a loss myself to put my finger on why Wolfe is my favorite writer. I'll give it a try. I'd welcome any…
04 Jun 2007, 19:01
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Sheesh. Do we really have to pretend that liking Wolfe proves that we're super-smart and that people who don't are just lazy, not willing to do the "hard work" that we're willing …
04 Jun 2007, 18:03
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Over and over I read articles like this and I feel like the reviewers aren't reading the same books I'm reading. It almost makes me doubt my ability to read. I'm I deluded? Or i…
29 May 2007, 15:26
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I would definitely like to go. Is this a hard event to get tickets for?…
25 Apr 2007, 06:29
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I agree. And that's the only criteria I recognize. I'm fine with people coming up with interpretations that might be at odds with Wolfe's actual intent. But they've got to make …
12 Apr 2007, 16:44
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Oh, yes. Thanks. I think I must've been conflating it in my head with Three Fingers or something. Rostrum…
12 Apr 2007, 16:38
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I am so very happy that Tor has got David Grove illustrating Wolfe's books. I really like Grove's covers and the internal illustrations are also really nifty. I think he's a great…
12 Apr 2007, 16:28
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Yeah, I was talking about how it would be received. The thing is, it's not duplicating the feel of Blade Runner (in fact it might look more like Predator or one of the last two Ra…
12 Apr 2007, 16:18
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