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Adam Stephanides wrote:
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (iirc) said there had been speculation that PANDORA was actually written early in Wolfe's career. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
I wouldn't be too surprised. We have Larry Leif the returned Vietnam veteran, who's nonetheless young enough to have a sister in high school, so that makes me suspect the story is late-1970's. Nonetheless, Holly listens to tapes instead of records (unless Wolfe changed that when he submitted the story to Tor), so it could be early to mid-1980's.
I always thought that Wolfe's turn-of-the-90's trilogy of fantastical works (DOORS, CASTLEVIEW, PANDORA) were written quickly by a writer trying to get a little rest from complicated drawn-out sagas like the BotNS and the Soldier series. So, people disappointed in Pandora because of their lightweight nature shouldn't just try to automatically conclude that it was written earlier in Wolfe's career. Nonetheless, having a young Vietnam veteran in the book does complicate things...
Christopher Culver