# Best of Gene Wolfe and another thing *The Urth list — 4 messages, 4 voices, 09 Oct 2008* > 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. --- ### don doggett *09 Oct 2008, 04:50* 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 --- ### brunians at brunians.org *09 Oct 2008, 07:26 · in reply to don doggett* 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. . --- ### Nigel Price *09 Oct 2008, 11:01 · follows brunians at brunians.org* 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 --- ### Mr Thalassocrat *09 Oct 2008, 11:04 · in reply to brunians at brunians.org* > On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 5:56 PM, wrote: > Don writes: > > 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. 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. ---