{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5565", "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": 5565, "subject": "_The Sorcerer's House_ reviews", "messages": 3, "voices": 2, "first": "2010-03-21T14:55:26+00:00", "last": "2010-03-29T23:08:22+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Gwern Branwen", "address": "gwern0 at gmail.com" }, "date": "2010-03-21T14:55:26+00:00", "subject": "(urth) _The Sorcerer's House_ reviews", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "A list of online reviews I've seen thus far:\n\n- http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/121553-the-sorcerers-house-by-gene-wolfe/\n- http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58638\n- http://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=941\n- http://www.fantasyliterature.com/wolfegene.html#house\n(This one, incidentally, agrees with us that Bax kills George at the\nend. I'm coming to think that Bax's talk of cheating is supposed to\nhint that he boobytrapped or disabled one of the 2 dueling pistols,\nand that's how he won.)\n\nA few things I notice in the middle of my second reading:\n\n* Winker is bothering me ever more. I could understand the geisha\nstuff, but did she really have to speak so stereotypically? 'Ah so! Ah\nso!'\n* Is Bax really that honest? His reply to Millie vaunts her as his\nonly friend, though he has to know that she's a bubble-brained blonde,\nand that he has at least 3 friends besides Millie (Winker, Doris, and\nhis mother; his mother's friendliness and focus on food makes much\nmore sense this time around - she's trying to get in mothering that\nshe missed)\n* I don't think Old Nick/Black killed a hobo or his dog; the\nnewspapers were at least a year old, Bax says. That hobo, if it wasn't\nOld Nick to begin with, was long gone.\n* The book does seem in general less of a puzzle-box than AEG, leading\nme to think that maybe there isn't any esoteric story besides that\nexplained by the end. In tougher Wolfe books like _New Sun_, Wolfe\nwouldn't've bothered to explain what 'Skotos' means in Greek, or\n'Zwart' in German." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "gwern" } ] }, { "message_id": "<37bfbeb61003232141r6ed54a73w6050b3bc5819b7c8@mail.gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Jonathan Goodwin", "address": "joncgoodwin at gmail.com" }, "date": "2010-03-24T04:41:32+00:00", "subject": "(urth) _The Sorcerer's House_ reviews", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Another review (that I wrote): http://www.jgoodwin.net/?pu5" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Gwern Branwen wrote:\nA list of online reviews I've seen thus far:\n\n- http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/121553-the-sorcerers-house-by-gene-wolfe/\n- http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&idX638\n- http://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p”1\n- http://www.fantasyliterature.com/wolfegene.html#house\n(This one, incidentally, agrees with us that Bax kills George at the\nend. I'm coming to think that Bax's talk of cheating is supposed to\nhint that he boobytrapped or disabled one of the 2 dueling pistols,\nand that's how he won.)\n\nA few things I notice in the middle of my second reading:\n\n* Winker is bothering me ever more. I could understand the geisha\nstuff, but did she really have to speak so stereotypically? 'Ah so! Ah\nso!'\n* Is Bax really that honest? His reply to Millie vaunts her as his\nonly friend, though he has to know that she's a bubble-brained blonde,\nand that he has at least 3 friends besides Millie (Winker, Doris, and\nhis mother; his mother's friendliness and focus on food makes much\nmore sense this time around - she's trying to get in mothering that\nshe missed)\n* I don't think Old Nick/Black killed a hobo or his dog; the\nnewspapers were at least a year old, Bax says. That hobo, if it wasn't\nOld Nick to begin with, was long gone.\n* The book does seem in general less of a puzzle-box than AEG, leading\nme to think that maybe there isn't any esoteric story besides that\nexplained by the end. In tougher Wolfe books like _New Sun_, Wolfe\nwouldn't've bothered to explain what 'Skotos' means in Greek, or\n'Zwart' in German.\n\n--\ngwern\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Gwern Branwen", "address": "gwern0 at gmail.com" }, "date": "2010-03-29T23:08:22+00:00", "subject": "(urth) _The Sorcerer's House_ reviews", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 10:55 AM, Gwern Branwen wrote:\nA list of online reviews I've seen thus far:\n\n- http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/121553-the-sorcerers-house-by-gene-wolfe/\n- http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58638\n- http://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=941\n- http://www.fantasyliterature.com/wolfegene.html#house\n(This one, incidentally, agrees with us that Bax kills George at the\nend. I'm coming to think that Bax's talk of cheating is supposed to\nhint that he boobytrapped or disabled one of the 2 dueling pistols,\nand that's how he won.)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2010/03/sorcerers-house-by-gene-wolfe-reviewed.html\nhttp://goldenpigsy.blogspot.com/2010/03/sorcerers-house-by-gene-wolfe.html\n\n(Both agree about the twist ending.)" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "gwern" } ] } ] }