(urth) Fifth Head of Cerberus: Shadowchildren vs. Abos

[James Crossley]

On 4/10/08 5:04 PM, "E" <euth82 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I found a transcript of a chat w/ Gene Wolfe
> 
[snip]
> 
> So if Wolfe is being truthful, Marsch was replaced by a shadow-child,
> not a humanoid abo.  Meaning that VRT is a shadow-child.
> 
> I know there was an unresolved debate about whether shadow-children
> are the original abos or are the result of early space fairing humans
> degenerating due to addiction to the drug found on the planet.

My understanding was that the shadow children were the original inhabitants,
able to shapeshift but lacking a humanoid model until the humans arrived and
colonized the planet.  Once that happened, the shadow children mimicked the
colonizers (becoming known to them as "abos" along the way) sometimes so
successfully that they might forget their true nature.

James