Subject: (urth) The Land Across

From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:34:43 +0000

Looks like we have a release date, synopsis, and cover art. So excited!
Looks like something of a change for Wolfe, I am very intrigued. My two
favorite writers have new novels coming out in the fall / winter. 2013 will
be a good year!
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From: Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 03:33:27 +0000

On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 7:34 PM, Antonin Scriabin
<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
> Looks like we have a release date, synopsis, and cover art.

Synopsis:

> A novel of the fantastic set in an imagined country in Europe
An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses
to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment
Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could
have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is
detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a
family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are
supernatural agencies at work, but they are not in some ways as
threatening as the brute forces of bureaucracy and corruption in that
country. Is our hero in fact a spy for the CIA? Or is he an innocent
citizen caught in a Kafkaesque trap? Gene Wolfe keeps us guessing
until the very end, and after.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I thought that _The Land Across_
was going to involve time travel or dinosaurs!

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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From: Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:52:03 +0000

From: Gwern Branwen 

> was going to involve time travel or dinosaurs!

At least he can plausibly argue that cellphones, internet etc. are not available to the public in this setting.  
This is not a criticism of Wolfe — he has been criticised for ignoring such things in _Home Fires_ but in truth perfect communication is a plot-wrecker.  I suspect few novelists/scriptwriters etc. like what cellphones do to their mise en scene.
- Gerry Quinn 
 
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