(urth) Wolfe at Dragon*Con (AEG)

[Roy C. Lackey]

James Wynn quoted and wrote:

> > Rian planned to attend (277).
>
> Well, we'll see. I'm beginning to find the existence of Rian (as an actual
> son anyway) to be pretty suspect. As we agree, there is a serious problem
> with his failure to make an actual entrance in the story. This is
especially
> true for a Wolfe novel.

Months after Reis was killed, Cassie had to call Rian to tell him his father
was dead (296).

{big snip]
> > Neither do I think it likely that Reis, posing as Gideon Chase, was
> > appointed by the sitting president as U.S. ambassador to Woldercan. No
> > matter how good Reis may have been at shape-shifting, there is still the
> > mass-conversion angle to account for. As for just altering one's
> > appearance,
> > as Gid did to become Gil Corby, it doesn't fool mirrors (196) or cameras
> > (189, 194). The wedding invitation Klauser received came with pictures
to
> > be
> > displayed on a computer that showed Cassie and Reis kissing (295). I
dare
> > say Klauser knew Reis when he saw him.
>
> Shape-shifting is unnecessary, but a perfect impersonation is also
> unnecessary. The Woldercon appointment was probably in lieu of the $50
> million Chase was owed. I saw nothing in the President's face-to-face with
> Chase that made me think he would want to repeat it. The wedding
invitation
> Klauser received was not of the wedding. It might well have been sent by
the
> "real Reis" (whatever that means).

You are missing the point. I have given you text-based reasons why the man
who was killed at Cassie's feet was probably not Gideon, and practical
reasons why it is *very* unlikely that Bill Reis could have impersonated Gid
well enough to usurp the appointment as ambassador to Woldercan. Ambassador
to Woldercan is a high-profile position in a digital age. There would have
been pictures and video in the media, both of which would have penetrated a
magical disguise. Ambassadorships don't happen in a vacuum. Reis would have
to have been a fool to even try such a ruse.

More to the point, Reis would have had no need to seek Gideon's post as
ambassador. He was more than wealthy enough to go to Woldercan on his own
dime, even if he had any reason to go there, just as Cassie did.

Cassie knew for a fact that the man who kept vanishing and reappearing at
her feet before being clubbed to death was Bill Reis, and she said so. She
also knew that he wasn't Gideon Chase. We know that because, months later,
shortly after she got back to the States, she tried to contact him by
calling the university where he was employed. It was then that she learned,
to her surprise, that he had been appointed the new ambassador to Woldercan
(293).

Now back to your original jumping-off point: If Wolfe said that Cassie was
going to Woldercan to find Reis, and if he wasn't pulling your leg (I
would like to have the full context of his remark), that doesn't preclude
Reis having died on the island, just as the text has it.

Any theory that seeks to reconcile these two seemingly contrary points must
do so within the bounds of the text, and cannot ignore such text-based facts
as we are afforded, however inconvenient those facts may be to said theory.

-Roy