{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2820",
    "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": 2820,
    "subject": "An Exchange of Hostages",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2001-09-04T13:22:04+00:00",
    "last": "2001-09-09T01:29:20+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0689@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Nigel Price",
        "address": "nigel.a.price at virgin.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-09-04T13:22:04+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) An Exchange of Hostages",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Going through some back copies of Locus, I found a review in the July 1997\nissue for a book entitled \"An Exchange of Hostages\", by Susan R Matthews.\nAccording to the review, the book follows the career of a sympathetic\ntorturer in a decadent future galactic empire where judicial torture is the\nnorm. Similarities with \"Dune\" are mentioned, as well as a stylistic\nsimilarity to C J Cherryh, but there is no reference to Wolfe or Severian.\nHas anyone on the list read this book? Is it any good, and does it show any\nevidence of Lupine influence? On the face of it, \"An Exchange of Hostages\"\nsounds perfectly horrid, but then, that's what I thought \"The Shadow of the\nTorturer\" was going to be like - before I read it.\n\nNigel, mildly curious in Minety"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0691@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Inire",
        "address": "inire at yahoo.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-09-09T01:29:20+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) An Exchange of Hostages",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0030-0689@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "--- Nigel Price <nigel.a.price at virgin.net> wrote:\nGoing through some back copies of Locus, I found a\nreview in the July 1997\nissue for a book entitled \"An Exchange of Hostages\",\nby Susan R Matthews.\nAccording to the review, the book follows the career\nof a sympathetic\ntorturer in a decadent future galactic empire where\njudicial torture is the\nnorm. Similarities with \"Dune\" are mentioned, as\nwell as a stylistic\nsimilarity to C J Cherryh, but there is no reference\nto Wolfe or Severian.\nHas anyone on the list read this book? Is it any\ngood, and does it show any\nevidence of Lupine influence? On the face of it, \"An\nExchange of Hostages\"\nsounds perfectly horrid, but then, that's what I\nthought \"The Shadow of the\nTorturer\" was going to be like - before I read it.\n\nNigel, mildly curious in Minety"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I read it, and was intrigued enough to buy (and not\nyet read) the second in the series. The story has\nlittle if any Lupine influence, IMO, especially since\nMatthews seems to get off on horrid descriptions of\ntorture, a touch that Wolfe leaves out IIRC. \n\nan okay read, but not crucial.\n\n-j\n\n=====\nJeff \"My dice hate me!\" Miller      \n\t\t\t\tICQ# 57242517\n\"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\n\n      Gaming to keep War out of RealTime!                     \n           85 VF500F 'Contraceptor'\n           **Specify Type Of Goat**"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}