(urth) Cassie's Mobile Home (AEG spoilers)

[Dave Tallman]

Thalassocrat wrote:
> Thanks for digging up all of that and putting it together. I'm not totally
> convinced that Cassie's apartment changes. She actually does have a balcony
> to start off with (p76, down the bottom). It doesn't have to be a
> particularly deluxe building to have a doorman. In my experience, generally
> visitors who know which apartment they are going to don't get stopped by
> doormen, but somebody in a chauffeur's uniform might well be, and of course
> the driver might simply have asked the doorman which apartment Cassie was
> in. I don't see any particular inconsistencies in the references to parking
> difficulties etc etc. The only really telling points are the reference to
> "five floors below", and the "East Arbor" reference by the assassin. These
> *might* just be typos.
>   
I suppose most of these things could have natural explanations if we 
really pushed it. The apartment building could have a bizarre numbering 
scheme such that apartment 301 is on the fifth floor and the twin 
apartment next to it is numbered 3B.  Maybe the assassin got the address 
wrong and Cassie went along with it because she was afraid to contradict 
someone who was pointing a gun at her. Wolfe is normally so careful with 
details that I tend to believe such things are clues. He has done 
characters with reality-warping powers before -- for example when Horn 
turned a different ring into Seawrack's ring over time.

> On other time things: If Kololahi is a fictionalised Tonga and Kingsport is
> in MA then the time difference in fall would be about 18 hours, or 6 hours
> with a day shift (GMT+13 versus GMT-5). This fits with Cassie's observation
> after being dropped off by Gid at the airport (p225) - in the evening back
> home, a little after lunch here. If she's having an early breakfast and
> Sharon is coming up to lunch-time when they speak, that fits also: her
> comment about getting up at 11am earlier doesn't mean much (she's playing
> prima donna, I think, and anyway apart from late-night encounters with alien
> bat-people it's likely enough she's getting to bed early in Kololahi).
>   
Cassie seems to wake up late whenever she has a chance to, all through 
the book. I think she  would continue this habit when she was treated as 
pampered royalty. When Cassie asks for her breakfast after her call to 
Sharon, there is a pause as if the hotel staff is confused. Afterwards 
they say that King Kanoa and his men have been given something to eat, 
but they don't call it breakfast for them (p. 237-238). I get the sense 
that her breakfast is not at a normal early hour.

The phone call went through a dedicated satellite in Clarke orbit (p. 
227). Reis may have installed strange technology from Woldercan to allow 
him send calls through time, which would help to explain how he can keep 
one jump ahead of his enemies. The other people on the island who make 
cell phone calls are Australian tourists who would be close to the same 
time zone when they called home.

> I wonder if Cassie is hoping Gid can bring Bill back to life, at the end. I
> think she's hoping he can bring back her mojo, but maybe that as well. Is it
> possible that Bill can astral travel in some way? His appearance as
> talking-head to Cassie in his limo may not have been just a holo-projection.
> Gid seems to have ghosts or spirits of some kind in his hopper; he says
> somewhere that he's talked with ghosts; maybe he can bring Bill's, somehow.
>   
That's an interesting possibility. I doubt she will get her mojo back, 
but possibly Gid can get her in touch with Bill's spirit again. (I say 
again because I think she just lost contact at the end when she calls 
out to him).