Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v028.n174

From: Nil_Ultra <nil_ultra at email.msn.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:13:28 +0000

Ok, that deserves crucifiction, though I will agree that Urth of the new sun
is certainly the best part of the book of the new sun,  it is heresy to say
that the book of the new sun is inferior to the long sun.  The long sun
series does have more value in the traditional sf/fantasy plotline of being
really clear about what the plot is and the good guys vs bad guys theme,
but the lack of that was what I think really made Book of The New Sun
unique;  it is not a fantasy story,  it is like reality merged with the text
of some lost holy book.  I will be the first to agree that the Book of the
New Sun is not for everyone,  but do not call it inferior until you
understand it.

-Rob
-----Original Message-----

>From: Redhaven1 at aol.com
>Subject: Long Sun vs. New Sun
>Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 21:53:23 EST
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>Please don't crucify me. . .
>
>    I got started on Wolfe when I was sick in the hospital.  My parents
>offered to pick up some books to help pass the time and I suggested a book
I
>had heard of called The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.  The only Wolfe
>books Border's had were the last two books of the Long Sun series.
Frankly,
>I'm glad it was these two or I wouldn't be posting on this list today.  I
>loved Calde and Exodus and immediately began to try to read all the Wolfe
>books I could find.  I ordered the Book of the New Sun as a single volumn
>from the book club I was in.  Upon reading it I was extremely
dissappointed.
>I didn't think it was near as good as the Long Sun.  To me, it seemed like
a
>strange, disjointed fairy-tale that kinda wanted to be sci-fi.  I admit,
the
>mood of the entire work was beautifully haunting, and when I get arround to
>reading it a second time I'll probably find a hundered things I missed, but
>in my view New Sun was the worst, Urth of the New Sun was little better,
and
>Long Sun was best.  Short Sun is shaping up to be the best yet.  Well,
that's
>my two bits.  I just felt I had to defend the Long Sun, because it's what
got
>me hooked.  If I had started on New Sun, I don't think I'd be a Wolfe fan.
>
>-Steve
>
>
>--------------- MESSAGE urth.v028.n174.3 ---------------
>
>From: Inire <inire at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe does Star Trek
>Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 23:42:22 -0800 (PST)
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
>
>--- Nicholas Gevers <vermoulian at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> For news of GW's next series--a New Sun/Star Trek
>> crossover starting with HE'S DEAD, SEVERIAN
>
> <Sound of falling onto floor, gasping, choking,
>giggling>
>
>--see
>> today's "Locus Online Buys Simon & Schuster" entry
>> on
>> LOCUS ONLINE (www.locusmag.com).
>>
> <more snorting, complete breaths being taken now> Oh
>lord, THAT was a rich one! ;-D  And the sad thing is,
>nobody in RL that I know would know What The HELL I
>was talking about if I said that! A great joke,
>wasted.
>
>Kudos to Locus!
>
>=====
>Jeff "My dice hate me!" Miller      ICQ# 57242517
>
>"The idea of verifying facts about the world through controlled repetition
seems alien to just about everyone with the _possible_ exception of Fr
Inire, and he's a bug-eyed space monster. . ."-Jim Henley, on the URTH list
>
>Gaming to keep War out of RealTime!        '82 GS650G
>Specify Type Of Goat
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
>http://im.yahoo.com
>
>
>--------------- END urth.v028.n174 ---------------
>
>
works
>*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/
ranjit at best.com
whorl at lists.best.com

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Jack and Melissa Holcomb <jackandmel at socket.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2000 02:38:13 +0000

Whoa, cowboy.  Look, Rob, you're absolutely entitled to your opinion, but
then, so is Jeff.  What's more, Jeff was pretty careful about framing every
criticism he made of New Sun as his own reaction -- "for me" and so forth,
ya see? -- and not as gospel truth (or gospel truth's inverse, heresy).
Don't jump all over him, tell him to shut up, and imply that he doesn't
understand the book, just because he expressed his opinion about it.  That's
just damn rude.  And so far I've been so impressed with the congeniality of
this list.

And for the record, I dig BotNS best, although Urth is optional.  And I
would agree that the Soldier books are the second-best thing Wolfe's
written.

Jack

works
ranjit at best.com
whorl at lists.best.com

---

From: Alice Turner <akt at attglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2000 20:48:16 +0000

Welcome (and a peacepipe) to Steve, who wrote:
 
> offered to pick up some books to help pass the time and I suggested a book I 
> books Border's had were the last two books of the Long Sun series.  Frankly, 
> from the book club I was in.  Upon reading it I was extremely dissappointed.  
> I didn't think it was near as good as the Long Sun.  To me, it seemed like a 
> strange, disjointed fairy-tale that kinda wanted to be sci-fi.  I admit, the 
> in my view New Sun was the worst, Urth of the New Sun was little better, and 
> Long Sun was best.  Short Sun is shaping up to be the best yet.  Well, that's 
> my two bits.  I just felt I had to defend the Long Sun, because it's what got 

You're certainly entitled to think this way--and it's nice for LS to have a defender! What absolutely floors me, though, is that you were able to come in on the middle of the series and enjoy it thoroughly. So much for my defense of elegant plotting!

-alga