And When They Appear

Adam Stephanides · 20 Sep 2000, 11:50 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: (urth) And When They Appear
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 11:50:08
Message-ID: <urth-v0029-0215 at digest.urth.net>
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I finally got around to reading STRANGE TRAVELLERS, though I'd read a
number of the stories in it before.  On a first reading, I'd say the
major one I'd missed is "And When They Appear."  This is one of Wolfe's
grimmest stories (which is saying a lot), made more powerful by the
matter-of-fact narration and by the deceptive "Christmas story"
atmosphere of the first half.  (It just struck me that this first half
reads a lot like a Bradbury pastiche.)  It's also one of the most
effective uses of a child narrator by anyone that I've read.  In some
ways the story is like a reprise of "The Death of Doctor Island," with a
boy protagonist in an enclosed setting controlled by an AI, but the new
story stands on its own.

Anybody else have any thoughts on it?  (Forgive me if I've been
redundant; I don't recall anything being said about it during the
STRANGE TRAVELLERS discussion, but I can't download that volume of the
archives onto my computer.)

--Adam

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