color change in azoth and other stuff

I have no idea if this means anything or not: the description of the azoth from Return to the Whorl describes the jewel in the hilt as "a watery somewhat purplish stone" when Mint gives it back to Silk, claiming that she has given it to him before, but he gave it right back to her. (Well, I'm thinking this is Kypris talking - she prompted Hyacinth to give the azoth to Silk, then received it again when Silk gave it to Mint). The weird thing is that the jewel in the hilt has changed colors from its original description in Nightside the Long Sun. I can't remember the color right now, but I know I was suprised because it wasn't purple (I was reading it out loud to my mother a few weeks ago right after reading the description of the azoth in Return to the Whorl on my own; she has the book now) I think it was blue or blue-green. Has anybody noticed if the jewel in the hilt changes throughout the Long Sun series? (Also, as I've talked with a few people independently, the wounds on Silk's arms could have come from a brush with foliage or trees in the beginning of Return to the Whorl, but I won't belabor that point. Note how he stumbles out of the house to a tree. I wonder if the trees are something unique to the Short Sun books? Did Wolfe already have trees planned as important, possibly sentient beings from the beginning of Nightside the Long Sun? There is that odd scene when Silk is breaking in to Blood's house where he feels like someone is watching him from the trees, but I thought it was an owl or possibly an inhumu. Who can say? I think that the beginning of In Green's Jungles, echoing Peace, clues us in to pay attention every time a tree pops up: Elmo has fallen.) On a very different note, I know that John Crowley is coming out with a mainstream book called the Translator later this year, but amazon.com also has Otherwise: Three novels of John Crowley slated for release as well, but they don't name the novels. Does anybody have any idea which books are going to be included in that upcoming collection (or when the last Aegypt book will be out?) Anybody here like Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber or read Moorcock's Colonel Pyat series? Corwin of Amber, in his hard-hearted, super-competent, and basically indestructible way, seems like a pretty "Severian" type character. (And Pyat might possibly be the most unreliable narrator of all time). Another thing that confuses me is Clute's categorization of Wolfe and Zelazny as exemplary modernists, labeling Moorcock and Gibson as definitely postmodern, while in the mainstream Borges and Calvino are usually classified as "postmodernists" - and it seems to me that most of Wolfe's stories could have come from the pen of someone just like Borges (but not someone like DH Lawrence or even Joyce). Those terms pretty much stink, anyway, but I was just curious if anyone had any good justifications for such a classification. Ok, hope everybody has a good night. Marc Aramini

From Marc Arimani:

The three are Crowley's short early books: The Deep, Beasts and Engine Summer. They have been omnibused before, by Bantam. The Translator isn't quite mainstream, though it's being marketed that way and it's comfortable that way. As a guess, the last Aegypt book will be next year; it's going to be much shorter than the previous ones. Maybe 2004. I know Crowley wants to wind up the series, and who can blame him. -a-

Thanks for the news, Alga. You make it sound as if Crowley is thoroughly fed-up of the series. Hope he's not going to short-change us. Any more words on what the Translator is about? Kieran C.

Well, remember that Quetzal slithers onto a tree at one point (in Nightside?). There's "serpent in Eden" motif here that is very obvious, given that we're in the Church -- though Quetzal seems a kind of "converted serpent." Someone watching Silk from a tree would most likely be Quetzal. Of course, on your thesis, the tree might be more than a tree also. Nutria