(urth) More Wolfe Blurbs
Iorwerth Thomas
iorweththomas at hotmail.com
Tue May 17 03:41:55 PDT 2005
>From: David Duffy <David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au>
>Reply-To: The Urth Mailing List <urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
>To: The Urth Mailing List <urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
>Subject: Re: (urth) More Wolfe Blurbs
>Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 08:50:45 +1000 (EST)
>
>On Mon, 16 May 2005, John Barach wrote:
>
> > I've also discovered that this site gives a list of several (though it's
>far from complete). I can't say I'm familiar with any of the authors:
> >
> > * Robert Nathan, Portrait of Jennie (1940)
> > * George Turner, Drowning Towers (1987)
> > * Robert Aickman, The Model (1987)
> > * David Zindell, Neverness (1988)
> > * Paul Park, Coelestis (1993)
> > * Terry McGarry, Illumination (2001)
> >
> > Anyone read these?
> >
>
>Paul Park's _Starbridge Chronicles_ have been compared to Wolfe in the
>past, esp for the use of language -- you are halfway through _The Soldiers
>of Paradise_ (vol 1 of the trilogy) before realising "horses" are
>reptilian, and "petrol" is also edible...is was definitely influenced, I
>think, by BotNS, but goes it its' own way. Very stylish writing.
>
I'll have to keep an eye out for those; I've only read 'Coelestis', which is
similar in theme to 5HoC - namely, how colonialism messes up both the
colonists and the natives. In this case, however, the natives have to be
assimilated via drugs (so that they have a human worldview; originally they
were all but catatonic, possibly observing a reality to which humans have no
access) and plastic surgery. There are also the Coelestis, the original
'masters' of the natives, who may in fact be thoughtforms created by the
natives in order to protect them from the invaders. The plot focuses around
an ambassador from Earth, who is isolated by relativistic timelag from both
the colonists and his home planet, and an unfortunate assimilated native,
who is kidnapped by a militant (and human-run) native rights group.
Whereupon her drugs begin to wear off.
It's very good; I'm not sure if that summary does it justice though. I can
see why Wolfe likes it.
Iorwerth
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