Soldier of Sidon Questions

James Wynn · 27 Feb 2007, 15:49 · from 2007-February.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:49:17 -0600
Subject: (urth) Soldier of Sidon Questions
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Message-ID: <e8e9702e0702270749v5f30b23av5bb82aeb9d1716b8 at mail.gmail.com>

I finally got around to buying and reading SOS. Here are some things
that perplexed me.

1. This is now the 3rd Wolfe novel in a row where the protagonist has
a vampiric inhuman paramour who poses more or less successfully as a
beautiful woman. I can think of no thematic requirement (literary,
mythological, religious, or narrative) that compels Wolfe to continuously
rework this particular scenario.

On the same note, I was little relieved when they came to a fork in the river
and the branches were called "Blue and WHITE" instead of Blue and
GREEN.

2. The dog that joins Latro at the end of the book is Set or Set's servant,
I suppose: Set's heiroglyph is a dog. But who is the "scarred child"?
Any likely candidates in Egyptian mythology?

3. The titles of the Soldier series are as follows:
Soldier of the Mist (denoting clouds and the mist of memory)
Soldier of Arete (denoting mountains and soldierly virtues)
Soldier of....Sidon??

Is there a discernable double meaning to "sidon"?

J.

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