Subject: (urth) Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup

From: Matthew Keeley <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:30:24 +0000

Alas, Wolfe didn't get his own review column this time, though of
course the Post is generally pretty good to him - our own Nick Gevers
had a Wolfe piece there some time ago, and Post critic Michael Dirda
is something of a Wolfe fan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100902537.html

-Matt

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From: Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:34:10 +0000

Speaking of EG reviews, there's one up on the Strange Horizons website, as well:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2008/10/an_evil_guest_b.shtml

----- Original Message ----
From: Matthew Keeley <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 2:30:24 PM
Subject: (urth) Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup

-Matt
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From: James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:04:02 +0000

The Strange Horizons review captures a great deal of what I think about
Wolfe, especially recent works such as "Memorare," _Pirate Freedom_ and now
_Evil Guest_.  All have hidden depths that make them well worth exploring
and reward rereading, but am I the only one who feels that Wolfe is on the
verge (if not past it) of making the initial reading experience off-putting?

James

---

From: aaron <aaronsingleton at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:58:00 +0000

For me, _An Evil Guest_ started out as a real page turner and kept my
interest all the way through.  And I usually become bored with books in a
very short time.  Wolfe and Jack Vance are two writers who almost always
keep me reading.  So for me, I do not agree with the latter review.

On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 6:04 PM, James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com> wrote:

> > Speaking of EG reviews, there's one up on the Strange Horizons website,
> as
> > well:
> >
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From: Fernando Q. Gouvea <fqgouvea at colby.edu>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:02:16 +0000

I don't find the initial experience of reading Wolfe off-putting, no. 
Orson Scott Card once wrote a review (of, I think, Free Live Free, but I 
may be misremembering) saying that for him Wolfe had reached or passed 
that point. So folks can disagree on that.

I'm a little amazed at the Strange Horizons review. I find An Evil Guest 
perfectly accessible on a first reading, and a great deal of fun. It 
certainly doesn't clarify the moral status of Reis and Chase, but hey, 
when does life ever do that? (My tendency is to think that both of them 
are trying to be as moral as they can, though they approach this with 
very different premises.) There are certainly mysteries all over the 
place, but not all mysteries need to be explained.

Someone mentioned that there is some sort of connection between Finney's 
"The Circus of Dr. Lao" and "An Evil Guest" (at the very least because 
of the name "Woldercan"). But one of the remarkable features of "Dr Lao" 
is exactly Finney's refusal to come up with any explanations at all. The 
circus is there and it is what it is, and the novel is concerned with 
other things. Similarly, "Guest" doesn't explain a lot of its mysteries; 
perhaps it's just that Wolfe is interested in other things.

It seems to me that "An Evil Guest" is something of a romp, and it can 
and should be enjoyed as such. Yes, Wolfe's conservative take on a lot 
of things is evident in it, and yes, there are a lot of mysteries left 
over after my first reading. So what?

Fernando

-- 
==================================================================
Fernando Q. Gouvea
Carter Professor of Mathematics
Colby College                     Editor, FOCUS
Mayflower Hill 5836               Editor, MAA Reviews
Waterville, ME 04901		
fqgouvea at colby.edu

Usually mathematicians have to shoot somebody to get this much publicity.
   -- Thomas R. Nicely, on the attention he received after
      finding the flaw in Intel's Pentium chip in 1994

---

From: James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:49:31 +0000

I may have overstated my case by using the word "off-putting," I suppose.  I
found _Evil Guest_ fairly enjoyable to read, after all, even without
considering what subtleties might be present in the text.  But for someone
who's not on the lookout for such subtleties, I'm not sure that the book
offers anything that any number of (for lack of a better word) generic
potboilers do, and it provides a fair share of obstacles to the casual
reader, too, including clunky dialogue and obscure motivation.

Being an admirer of Wolfe, I realize that many of these apparent flaws are
probably calculated and may actually offer inroads to deeper understanding,
but it seems to me that once upon a time, Wolfe also offered more
superficial pleasures in his prose.  Not every book can be written with as
rich a vocabulary as the New Sun series, of course, but there's certainly a
middle ground between that and the frankly pedestrian writing in this latest
novel.

I just get the feeling that Wolfe is taking pleasure in disguising
glittering sophistication with the blandest exteriors he can possibly
create, almost as if he's smuggling his ideas.  "Pirates popular these days?
I'll give you a pirate novel that traffics in all the swashbuckling cliches
imaginable, and I'll include a straight-shooting narrator/protagonist who
explains everything that's happening.  Wouldn't want anyone to think I was
one of those smarty-pants authors who's trying to make my readers feel dumb.
Nope, I'm just a safe, simple yarn-spinner.  Buy my book instead of that
Star Wars tie-in novel . . ."

James

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From: Stuart Hamm <hammstu at sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:00:22 +0000

I can feel his pain...AEG wasn't my favorite...but as an artist/entertainer/musician (?) 
I have fans who complain if I don't play my "hits" from my first albums (remember "albums"?) and those who rip me? a new one for playing the same old stuff over and over....

Garden Party anyone???....

???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624
???? Skype? stuart.hamm
myspace.com/stuhamm
? ??? stuarthamm.net

--- On Mon, 10/13/08, James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com> wrote:
From: James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Monday, October 13, 2008, 3:04 PM

Wolfe, especially recent works such as "Memorare," _Pirate Freedom_
and now

James

On 10/13/08 12:34 PM, "Craig Brewer" <cnbrewer at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Speaking of EG reviews, there's one up on the Strange Horizons
website, as
> is something of a Wolfe fan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR200810090253
> 7.html

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