Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup

Fernando Q. Gouvea · 13 Oct 2008, 23:02 · from 2008-October.txt.gz

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From: fqgouvea at colby.edu (Fernando Q. Gouvea)
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:02:16 -0400
Subject: (urth) Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup
In-Reply-To: <C51913E2.7C1E%ishmael at drizzle.com>
References: <C51913E2.7C1E%ishmael at drizzle.com>
Message-ID: <48F3D378.8010001 at colby.edu>

I don't find the initial experience of reading Wolfe off-putting, no. 
Orson Scott Card once wrote a review (of, I think, Free Live Free, but I 
may be misremembering) saying that for him Wolfe had reached or passed 
that point. So folks can disagree on that.

I'm a little amazed at the Strange Horizons review. I find An Evil Guest 
perfectly accessible on a first reading, and a great deal of fun. It 
certainly doesn't clarify the moral status of Reis and Chase, but hey, 
when does life ever do that? (My tendency is to think that both of them 
are trying to be as moral as they can, though they approach this with 
very different premises.) There are certainly mysteries all over the 
place, but not all mysteries need to be explained.

Someone mentioned that there is some sort of connection between Finney's 
"The Circus of Dr. Lao" and "An Evil Guest" (at the very least because 
of the name "Woldercan"). But one of the remarkable features of "Dr Lao" 
is exactly Finney's refusal to come up with any explanations at all. The 
circus is there and it is what it is, and the novel is concerned with 
other things. Similarly, "Guest" doesn't explain a lot of its mysteries; 
perhaps it's just that Wolfe is interested in other things.

It seems to me that "An Evil Guest" is something of a romp, and it can 
and should be enjoyed as such. Yes, Wolfe's conservative take on a lot 
of things is evident in it, and yes, there are a lot of mysteries left 
over after my first reading. So what?

Fernando

James Crossley wrote:
> The Strange Horizons review captures a great deal of what I think about
> Wolfe, especially recent works such as "Memorare," _Pirate Freedom_ and now
> _Evil Guest_.  All have hidden depths that make them well worth exploring
> and reward rereading, but am I the only one who feels that Wolfe is on the
> verge (if not past it) of making the initial reading experience off-putting?
> 
> James

-- 
==================================================================
Fernando Q. Gouvea
Carter Professor of Mathematics
Colby College                     Editor, FOCUS
Mayflower Hill 5836               Editor, MAA Reviews
Waterville, ME 04901		
fqgouvea at colby.edu

Usually mathematicians have to shoot somebody to get this much publicity.
   -- Thomas R. Nicely, on the attention he received after
      finding the flaw in Intel's Pentium chip in 1994

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