(urth) To Serve Man in Woldercan

Greg Bates tedkennedyrolls at gmail.com
Thu Sep 25 16:46:50 PDT 2008


Just finished Evil Guest, so I can finally contribute to the discussion.
Great book, btw. I'll admit I wasn't too crazy about it until about halfway
in, but once they get to the Takangas the book becomes spectacular.

The more I think about it, the more Gideon Chase seems to be neither Robert
Chase's son nor human, and might even be one of the "evil guests" the title
implies. Wolfe calls him a 'guest' three times on the very first page, and
mentions that "On Earth, the guest's name was Gideon Chase." Is Gideon
someone else entirely on Woldercan? His deal with Cassie seems like a
regular devil's bargain - he gives her the thing she wants most in the
world, with incredible consequences. A big thing that struck me - Chase
tells Cassie that there are many non-human races in the world that have sent
small envoys secretly to Earth (I think the bat people are some of these and
not Wolders, Klauser mentions that Wolders look 'like us, unless you look
closely (e.g. Gideon's eyes)). However, none of these races have ever made
official contact with us because of the presense of Cthulhu (squid god/storm
king). So what's different about Woldercan? Is Woldercan in league with Mr.
Squid God? They both seem to make out well in the end - Cthulhu gets his
enemy, the man who fights for "a blue island in a sea of black" murdered,
and Chase becomes the ambassador to Woldercan, where he can presumably
control diplomatic relations between his planet and Earth, as well as bury
whatever secrets Reis stole during his time as ambassador.

I get a sort of "To Serve Man" vibe from Woldercan, to be honest. Like the
aliens in TSM, the Wolders give humanity (or some humans) great wealth in
the alchemical process of lead to gold. Even though they don't seem to be
eating humans (Scott not withstanding), the whole book has a muted theme of
shapeshifting and genetic engineering, and there might be evidence of such
practices with our locals. Between Klauser's advice to Cassie to bring guns
with his mentions of Wolders "trying to seduce human women" and "hybridizing
with lesser forms" I get the sense that something very weird is going on
with Wolder foriegn policy. Even Reis's son Rian (need to check etymology)
is "defective" in some way - until the wizardly Woldercan Chase "heals" him.
I can't help but think that somehow the picture Klauser gives Cassie is the
climax of a hushed warning he subtly tries to give her throughout the last
chapter, and there's some clue nobody's picked up on that she's heading
towards a dismal fate.
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