stuffWhorl

Finally got my hands on OBW! Does Krait, a naturally base creature, atone for his original sin (sucking blood) by helping others? Does Horn/Silk shrive him? Is that when he divulges his secret? I suspect that Remora et al. were hip to both the lander's real destination and the inhumu's secret when they went to Lizard. If the Neighbors reveal themselves to everybody a la Westwind, Remora et al. might have learned these secrets from them. Alternatively, Remora might have shriven Quetzal as Horn apparently shrove Krait. Since the inhumu apparently absorb the attitudes (as well as the intellegence) of their dinners, perhaps Remora et al. are sending Horn to "poison" the inhumu with kindness. (Maybe the think he's kind of dumb, too.) Also: p. 368: "felwolf" How can a one-armed girl (?) catch fish with her "hands?" Pajaroku, the city that's not really there, reminds me of A Solar Labyrinth, a maze that's not really there. p. 246: "there are men here where land is free for the working who want land, and more and better land, and others to work it for them, and they always believe that someone else's land is better. They would crush the small farmers if I let them." Um, O.K. Gene. Why not simply have Oreb say, "Conglomerates Bad!" Finally, what made Horn act like a bastard on p. 286, or was he just pretending? (In that case, why was he pretending?) bee

"Joshua A. Solomon" <j.solomon at ucl.ac.uk> wrote: <<Finally, what made Horn act like a bastard on p. 286, or was>> <<he just pretending? (In that case, why was he pretending?)>> Are you referring to his lopping the heads off of the men who collected tax and kept part of it for themselves? As a ruler, what would you have done? Slapped their wrists? That would have encouraged others to do the same and the city would have lost all or most of their operating funds. Sometimes being a leader means making the hard choices. Do you think we and Horn have seen the last of Seawrack or do you expect her to make an appearance in the next two books? She was a very interesting character that I confess I don't totally understand. I hope her mystery will be revealed later. Horn warned she could be a grave danger that "the mother" has sent among the landbound people. Also, do you think that Mucor possessed Babbie most of the journey? Or was she there in disembodied spirit. I thought the main reason she sent Babbie was to have a psychic connection to Horn and keep track of him. Interesting thought, shriving the inhumi. Would inhumi understand shriving or merely mimic men doing it? I still don't understand why Krait couldn't mimic the use of the gun and thus fire it. Dennis/Endy Happiness is reading a good scifi book while listening to XTC :) ~~dancing us from the darkest night is the rhythm of love powered by the beating of hearts~~ XTC *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.