{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/usenet/44",
    "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": "usenet",
  "thread": {
    "id": 44,
    "subject": "Anyone read Gene Wolfe: Free Live Fr",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1990-06-25T20:37:43+00:00",
    "last": "1990-06-25T20:37:43+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<\"900625203743.72717.3247.DHJ9-1\"@CompuServe.COM>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Eric M. VAn",
        "address": "72717.3247 at compuserve.com"
      },
      "date": "1990-06-25T20:37:43+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: Anyone read Gene Wolfe: Free Live Fr",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Ahh, Free Live Free.  Give it a 3 for Wolfe, a 4.5 for the world at large.\nBy way of comparison, I'd give There are Doors a 2.5 and 4, respectively.\nIt's worth noting that Free Live Free is the Wolfe novel that There Are\nDoors is most like -- easily -- but Free Live Free is much sunnier.\n \nI thought it was a ton of fun.  I agree with the critical consensus that the\nplot machinations, especially at the end, don't really add up/work.  The\nTor editions contain an appendix, a chronology to help explicate the\ntime-travel stuff, that Wolfe put together reluctantly at the request of his\neditors.  Which is where I might point out that there's *two* versions of\nthe book: the original (and by Wolfe, preferred) from Mark V. Ziesing - a\nhandsome, oversize, illustrated hardcover ($45, and still in print), and\nthe later text in hardcover and paperback from Tor. The later version,\nrewritten a bit by Wolfe at the request of editor David Hartwell, omits a\nchapter and condenses the early action so as to get the mystery-novel plot\nmoving quicker.\n \nI found neither point to be a problem in my first reading, by the\nway, but that's probably because I knew and loved Wolfe and trusted him to\ntake me where he wanted to take me.  I think Hartwell was editing with the\nnew-to-Wolfe reader in mind, and was hoping that this could be a breakout\nbook for him.  (Ironically, it's his latest and weakest in years --\nCastleview, which offers a gripping read, some typically amusing Wolfe\nconundrums (and their concomitant loose ends and lacks of explanations) and\nnot much else -- that was an alternate choice of the BOMC).\n \nAs far as some of the other comments re Wolfe in this thread, I just have to\ndiffer about Peace: I think it's one of Wolfe's three masterpieces, and\narguably the finest fantasy novel ever written (adjective chosen with care:\nThe Lord of the Rings remains the *greatest* fantasy novel ever written, I\nthink).  Last time I asked him, it was his own favorite of his books.\n \nAnd we ought to mention the short story collections, all of which are\nsuperb.  It's hard to imagine now, but back before The Book of The New Sun\nthere were those who wondered if Wolfe was another Bradbury or Ellison,\nbasically a short story writer (since Operation Ares was weak, The Fifth\nHead of Cerberus actually three linked novellas, and Peace -- by most --\nunread)!\n \n[In defense of Operation Ares, we do have to mention that the MS. as\npublished was about half of what Wolfe wrote, and that the editing was\ndone rather rapidly by Gene -- if I recall correctly, that is.]\n \nWe should also mention Pringle's potato chips, since Gene, back long ago in\nthe real world, headed the team that designed the machine that makes them!\n \nBy the way, David Hartwell tells me that Gene is at work on a science\nfiction novel that he (uncharacteristically, I might add) refuses to say\nmore about ... might this be the major Wolfe work we've waited for since\nThe Book of the New Sun? (There's another novel, a straight mystery he wrote\nsome years ago, that should be out within the next year.)\n \n-Eric M. Van, 72717.3247 at compuserv.com  (You might want to e-mail me copies\nof any direct replies; a usenet buddy forwarded me the thread so far)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}