The Waif, A Traveler, and Shields of Mars

Nicholas Gevers · 23 Feb 2002, 09:46 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original

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From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=20Gevers?= <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
Subject: (urth) The Waif, A Traveler, and Shields of Mars
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 09:46:30 +0000 (GMT)
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Various notes about GW short stories:

I was asked for my comments on "The Waif"--well, this
is what I said in the February LOCUS:

"...Decidedly more weighty is =E2=80=9CThe Waif=E2=80=9D by Gene
Wolfe, that author at his magnificent subtle best, a
tale of superstition and religious repression in a
rustic post-holocaust community. A young boy acquires
a doppelganger from among a transcendent branch of
humanity that might as well be the Fairy Folk; he is
persecuted; and the final intersection of two worlds
is deeply shocking, part of an acute critical take on
faith that is doubly interesting coming from such a
resolutely religious writer."

Wolfe has a new story in the anthology MARS PROBES
(DAW, June, ed Pete Crowther.) Gene's own description:

>     The MARS PROBES story is "Shields of Mars."=20
> It's about a human and an=20
> alien who have grown up together and are the last
> workers at an air plant in=20
> a remote location that is about to be shut down.

And a final point: I've just read a little-known Wolfe
story, "A Traveler in Desert Lands", which appeared in
2000 in a limited edition anthology of stories set in
Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique. It's very good indeed,
a sort of alternate take on the analeptic alzabo
notion fom NEW SUN. A wandering ne'er-do-well enters a
necropolis inhabited by people who are either ghoulish
or ghouls indeed, and becomes ensorcelled. The
conclusion is shocking, very well executed. A
question: does anyone know in what language "Mahes"
might mean "golden lion"? And how it might pair with
the Greek "Endymion"?

--Nick Gevers.

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--=20

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