It's Mostly the Ending

Kevin J. Maroney · 11 Apr 2001, 11:10 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) It's Mostly the Ending
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 11:10:29
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0576 at digest.urth.net>
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At 09:15 AM 4/11/01 -0400, David wrote:
>b) the fact that the narrator is Horn in Silk's body has been obvious since
>the first volume, so the climactic revelation that the narrator is Horn in
>Silk's body falls flat.

The climax isn't the "revelation", since that fact is clear to a reader who
is paying *any* attention at all during _Green_ or _Return_. The climax is
the narrator's *acceptance* of the truth he has been denying since page 1
of _Blue_.=20

Overall, I found _Return_ a disappointing novel for many of the reasons
that Alga did, but I thought the climax was one of the parts that was
completely satisfying.=20

I can probably elaborate on what I'm going to say next, but not today: One
of the things which sets _Blue_ and _Green_ apart from the majority of
Wolfe's work is their naked emotionalism. _Return_, on the other hand,
feels much more distant, and that change of tone is frustrating.=20

--=20
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

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