Subject: (urth) Best of Gene Wolfe and another thing

From: don doggett <kingwukong at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:50:41 +0000

Sometimes, probably most times, God, or fate, or whomever or whatever, throws an unworthy dog(gett) a bone. I was perusing a box of ARCs at work today and what did I pull up from the churning depths of the Wordage Sea but an advance copy of The Best of Gene Wolfe. There are thirty-one stories total, and I'm willing to list them if there is interest and if none of the members with more editorial savy than I have find it objectionable. 

On An Evil Guest related note, I've just finished The Shark God, by Charles Montgomery, about his experiences in Melanesia, which is the obvious analog for the islands of the Takanga Group. I have no idea if Wolfe has read this book but it is a fascinating travel memoir, and at the end, sublimely moving. I can't recommend it enough.

Don

The Evangelists: a Lesser Apocrypha                                                                        http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=178109961

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From: brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:26:08 +0000

Don writes:

> On An Evil Guest related note, I've just finished The Shark God, by
> Charles Montgomery, about his experiences in Melanesia, which is the
> obvious analog for the islands of the Takanga Group.

Beg to differ, Takanga sounded a lot more like Tonga than it does like
anyplace else. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonga

In any case it is obviously a Polynesian and not a Melanesian country:
Polynesians are the brown giants, Melanesians are smaller and look like
Africans, more or less.

On an aside, Nan Madol (http://www.pohnpeiheaven.com/nanmadol.htm) seems
to have been Lovecraft's model for lost R'lyeh.

.

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From: Nigel Price <nigelaprice at talktalk.net>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:01:06 +0000

Don Doggett wrote about "The Best of Gene Wolfe"...

>>There are thirty-one stories total, and I'm willing
>>to list them if there is interest and if none of the
>>members with more editorial savy than I have find it
>>objectionable.

I don't know what the terms are under which advance copies of books are
distributed, but the prime concern of most publishers is generating interest
and publicity for their books. Advance copies are geberally sent out so that
they can be reviewed, so in that spirit I can't see there being any
objection to your giving us a list of the stories contained in this volume.
I'm certainly interested, and I'm sure others are too. Indeed, collectively,
I would have thought that we constituted a prime market for this book!

So...

Which stories have they chosen to include, Don?

Nigel

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From: Mr Thalassocrat <thalassocrat08 at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:04:23 +0000

> Polynesians are the brown giants, Melanesians are smaller and look like
Yep, I agree - Tonga is the closest real place; Polynesian, it's a monarchy
& the people are big!

Wherever, it's almost certainly a Commonwealth country, judging by King
Woossisname, so it should be "New Zealand High Commission", not "Consulate".
Not that it matters.
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