(urth) An Evil Guest: tone, and clones

[brunians at brunians.org]

There may very well be more stories forthcoming. I agree that there is
just too little information for a Wolfe story: too many possible
explanations. A Wolfe story should narrow down more.

There was one already, in the same World. AEG even referred to it. Perhaps
there will be more. I bet there will be.

.



>> That there are so many explanations, each equally bad and
>> consistent, bothers me a lot. But enough about clones!
>
> Or time travel or both.
>
> At Dragon*Con, Wolfe said,
> "Cassie loved Bill Reis and at the end of the novel she goes to Woldercon
> to
> look for him."
>
> After a re-read, I'm convinced that Pavlatos is Casey years later. Sharon
> Bench described the boy Chase healed and his mother as "a little piece of
> a
> man she loved and lost." It is entirely reasonable to conclude, based on
> that, that Rian is the result of Casey's trip to Woldercon, and the
> meaning
> of Wolfe's summation. I'm skeptical, however, about that last part. Rian
> could be Chase's son and the Bench's reference could to the "man" could
> refer to him. But this is a Wolfe novel, so they are probably the same guy
> somehow, right? But that's impossible. It is impossible, right? Anyway,
> all
> this suggests that Bench knows all about Pavlatos and that is why she
> doesn't want Casey to approach her with the information given her.
>
> And then there's glamours, shape-changing, and inscrutable, contrary
> agendas...but enough about Gideon Chase.
>
> But, yeah, the death of Reis is frustrating. As is Gideon's occultation
> after Cassie goes to the island. As is, to a lesser extent, Margaret's
> exit
> from the story. The whole execution scene stinks. I refute the possibility
> that it as it appears, but I can't really explain what is going on
> instead.
> This is common with Wolfe, no? But I don't think even 'The Book of the
> Short
> Sun' has a world that seems so inviting and interesting, yet presented so
> incomprehensibly.  I'd read it again to try to connect more dots if I
> believed it would be fruitful, but I don't. Not without more stories based
> in this world.
>
> J.
>
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