{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/58",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "sflovers",
  "thread": {
    "id": 58,
    "subject": "_Free Live Free_ free recommend",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1986-11-05T20:27:00+00:00",
    "last": "1986-11-06T16:34:16+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<sflovers-v11-373-10@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Randy Murray",
        "address": "rtm at cbosgd.att.com"
      },
      "date": "1986-11-05T20:27:00+00:00",
      "subject": "_Free Live Free_ free recommend",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I just finished Gene Wolfe's _Free Live Free_.  I tried for months\nto get a copy and the paperback just came out.\n\nNow for my partially weird recommendation:\n\nI liked it.\nHell, I enjoyed it.\n\nBut you (yes you) probably won't like it.\n\nThis is a book for those you love reading.  I didn't say people who\nlove science fiction, fantasy, etc . . .  This is a book much like\n(although not at all like) _Peace_.  If you can take a book and put\nit aside until you have the time, sit and relax, listen to the story\n(yes I mean listen), think, and most of all, not read to much at a\ntime you might try _Free Live Free_.  However, if you are the type\nthat has to read something once it's in your hands and stay up till\nyou drop, you may not care for this or any other of Wolfe's books.\n\nWolfe's writing is, for me, thought provoking and, well for lack of\nbetter words, soothing.  I'm not a big enough snob about literature\nto read things just because someone says I should.  I read what I\nwant.  Fortunately, the more I read, the more I want to know, so I\nend up wanting to read most things that people say I should.  There\nare very few things I regret having wasted my time on.\n\nOn the other hand, while hungry for science fiction I find that I\nread a lot and sometimes go for long periods unsatisfied.  I've\nheard some complain that Wolfe is to much work, but I really believe\nthat this comes form that headlong rush to absorb plot and\nadventure.  If you can sit by the fireside and dream away as the\nstoryteller weaves his convoluted story, you may get something out\nof Wolfe's work.\n\nI have his newest _Soldier of the Mist_, but I'm tempted just to\nhold it (though I doubt that I will) until the remainder is\npublished.\n\nHere's one final test: If you can read _Godel, Esher, and Bach_ and\nI mean read it with enjoyment and understanding, then you MAY enjoy\nWolfe.\n\nNo comments about intellect or taste, because frankly I don't put\nmuch stock in what some people will label them.  Just don't bother\nwith this book unless you are really inclined, not because someone\ntold you that if you were smart and had good taste you would.\n\nIf you want to give Wolfe a short term and interesting trial read\n_The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories_.\n\nRandal T. Murray\ncbosgd!rtm\nAT&T Bell Laboratories\n6200 E. Broad, Columbus, OH 43213\nPH(614)860-5895"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<sflovers-v11-376-10@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Bruce Holloway",
        "address": "drivax!holloway at rutgers.rutgers.edu"
      },
      "date": "1986-11-06T16:34:16+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: _Free Live Free_ free recommend",
      "in_reply_to": "<sflovers-v11-373-10@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "rtm at cbosgd.ATT.COM (Randy Murray) writes:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "If you want to give Wolfe a short term and interesting trial read\n_The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories_."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Or try \"The Fourth Head of Cerberus\"."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}