An Evil Guest - Big Questions, Major SPOILERS

Matthew Keeley · 21 Sep 2008, 21:59 · from 2008-September.txt.gz

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From: matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com (Matthew Keeley)
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:59:14 -0400
Subject: (urth) An Evil Guest - Big Questions, Major SPOILERS
Message-ID: <44fb53d10809211459n5df648aj477c9f2696845460 at mail.gmail.com>

I just finished An Evil Guest, and I have quite a few questions (as is par
for the course with Wolfe). Really liked the book though - I liked Pirate
Freedom, but I thought this was much superior. And I think it provided more
room for speculation too.
My major questions follow below the spoiler space...

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The Wolders - Are those the bat creatures? How are the laws of physics
different on Woldercan? Does this relate to hopper technology? And alchemy
too? Time travel? What exactly IS Gideon Chase? Where did RC (presumably his
father Robert) get that watch? The Silent Woman? The living mountain? Arthur
Thomas Franklin? Three names... like Howard Philips Lovecraft? What sort of
incantatory purpose did Dating the Volcano God serve?
Did Cassie really DO anything - she sometimes seems more spectator than
actor How does William Reis know the name "Ry'leh?" Did the Navy win?

Other comments:
Forty-seven states? Also, the bit about "post-parturition abortion" was the
most explicitly political I've seen Wolfe get in a long time. What, by the
way, is a "defective" child? Perhaps one whose genetic engineering didn't
work out? There's a reference to anticloning laws in the last chapter, so
presumably the future US can perform some genetic engineering.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the book,

-Matt
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