SF Book Club

BraveSaintCroix · 29 Mar 2001, 23:39 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: BraveSaintCroix at aol.com
Subject: (whorl) SF Book Club
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 18:39:27 EST
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0513 at digest.urth.net>
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All,

    Whoo-pee, I finally feel like I have something worthwhile to contribute=20
to this group- unless, of course, someone beats me to it.  I got the April=20
catalogue of the Science Fiction Book Club today, and it has a one-page=20
article/advertisement for the Book of the Short Sun.  Of course, as is the=20
way of the SFBC, it makes the book sound terribly pulp-sci-fi-ish.  (. . .=20
the inhumi, blood drinking aliens who take human form. . . )  It even seems=20
to give away quiet a bit.  The last paragraph reads: "As his inability to=20
find Silk weights heavily on his mind, Horn if further tormented by the fac=
t=20
that his new body bears a striking resemblance to the lost Calde.  In the=20
end, he will have to answer a troubling question: has he truly failed in hi=
s=20
sworn task, or has he become the very man he sought?"
    I'm not complaining though, because it also includes a "note from the=20
author".  Gene Wolfe writes:  "At the end of the 18th Century, serious=20
scientists denied that stones could fall from the sky.  At the end of this=20
one, very few still insist that phenomena incapable of proof are beyond the=20
realm of possibility.  We may doubt telepathy, ghost, and precognition-=20
indeed, we should doubt them.  But we cannot rule them out altogether.  Tha=
t=20
phenomenon most often called astral projection plays a part in these books.=
 =20
(So does space travel, which most adults derided as utterly impossible not =
so=20
long ago.)"  And here's what really got me: "Accept it for the sake of the=20
story, and you may learn the identity of Master Malrubius's ghost."  (My=20
emphasis.)  Wow.  That makes my head spin.  I didn't even think of that, an=
d=20
if I remember, no one on here has discussed it much.  Who then, was Master=20
Malrubius's ghost?

-Steve=20

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