(urth) Long Review Essay on Wizard Knight

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1000 Adam Stephanides 
<adamsteph at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>The idea of Able as a Mary-Sue (the technical term for a male 
>specimen is Gary-Stu) hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense. 
>It had crossed my mind that Able may have been wish-fulfillment on 

>Wolfe's part. The short story "Golden City Far," which was first 
>published around the same time as The Knight iirc, is even more 
>obviously wish-fulfillment, to the point that I found it 
>embarrassing. And there's no hint of parodic intent in that story, 

>so I doubt that Able's Gary-Stu qualities are parodic.

I think the Toug character puts a spike in this. He's pretty much 
Able minus the "power-ups", and if Wolfe had been indulging just in 
Gary-Stu-ism, I don't think he would have bothered with him. 

OTOH, I think Wolfe would be a better writer if the Tougs and Horns 
were his main characters ...