(urth) Bloodsport

[Marc Aramini]

I can't reconcile what is going on in this story with a lot of Wolfe's other themes.  We see chivalry and bravery to some degree, but once a leader is exalted and enshrined to new levels of power, the pawn-like agent of enthronement elinates them. 

Power corrupting absolutely is NOT a common theme in Wolfe, indeed it is usually the imitation of God that leads one to be more like a god.  I never saw him as a writer that subscribed to the old deterministic hubris character flaw schema of ancient Greek literature, for the praxis of pretending to be a good man actually seems to turn you into one in Wolfe, just as pretending to be evil no matter what your intentions leads down a slippery slope (at a fundamental, simplistic level, this is not a rule, but a tendency).  Yet it seems at the end that the lowly warrior must be an agent of nemesis toward unreasonable growth of power and influence.

In conclusion, the first time through this seemed like a Wolfe story only in its inscrutability, not in any of its particulars.