{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2532",
    "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": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2532,
    "subject": "The Devil in a Forest",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-01-06T23:15:07+00:00",
    "last": "2001-01-06T23:15:07+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0231@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Straight",
        "address": "straight at email.unc.edu"
      },
      "date": "2001-01-06T23:15:07+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Devil in a Forest",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I just finished reading this book a second time and really enjoyed it.  I\nthought of it at Christmas when I heard \"Good King Wenceslas\" (I'll never\nhear that carol the same way again!).\n\nA hard book to label: The cover calls it Fantasy, but I can't think of any\nfantastical elements unless you count Mark's slightly prescient dream\nabout the Barrow Man (which could be entirely accounted for by having\nlistened to Mother Cloot) and possibly the Epilogue (although some of us\nmight not consider that fantasy either).  \n\nI've also heard it refered to as a Young Adult novel, but it seems awfully\nbrutal for kids with all the death, torture and hints/threats of rape\n(Cloot makes vague references to Joselle having been molested in some way\nby the soldiers, but not raped).  I hesitate to recommend this book to my\nwife, much less a teenager, but maybe I'm out of step with what kids are\nreading these days.  The book is much more straightforward than many of\nWolfe's books, so it may be easier for young folks in that sense, but it\ndefinitely has a lot of Wolfe's twists and turns; just when you think you\nknow what story he's going to tell, he veers off in some unexpected\ndirection.  And, of course, reading it a second time, you see a few hints\nthat he was going that way all along.\n\nI think one of the most interestesting parts of the novel is how Wat\nmanipulates the villagers, dividing them into smaller and smaller\nfactions, promising them less and less for deeds that are more and more\nevil.  The Devil indeed.  Interesting too how different the title \"The\nDevil in a Forest\" is from \"A Devil in the Forest\" (which scans more\neasily and is what I kept calling the book when I first picked it up), as\nif the forest is the novelty here.\n\nDoes anyone think Wolfe was unfair to the pagans in this story?  There's\nplenty of evil deeds among Christians and pagans both, and a lot of it is\nunrelated to religion (e.g. Wat's greed), but the Christians are better\nthe more faithful they are to their religion while the pagans are the most\nhorrifying when they are trying to revive theirs. \n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}