(urth) Question for Lafferty fans ...

Daniel Petersen danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com
Mon Jul 16 14:59:17 PDT 2012


Hi Antonin, I still haven't read anything but *The Devil Is Dead* because
the other volumes have been too expensive for me to obtain.  I get the
impression you can read at least the first two out of order, but it
eventually makes sense better if you read the entirety.

Interestingly, related to Wolfe, I believe Lafferty's novella 'From The
Thunder Colt's Mouth' in the affordable 'science fiction triad' called *In
the Wake of Man* (where Wolfe's 'Tracking Song' first appeared) is an
excerpt from *More Than Melchisedech*.  The novella is an interesting read
in itself, but I'm not sure how much it tells you about the trilogy (I
certainly didn't notice much connection to *The Devil is Dead*, but there
was an appearance from *Devil*'s protagonist, Finnegan.)

Whilst there is good news in the pipeline that there should be a new
Lafferty collection of short stories coming out in a few years' time
(possibly introduced by some famous authors), with more popular volumes to
follow such as his novels *Past Master *and *Fourth Mansions* - the Argo
Mythos cycle (as the volumes you're referring to are sometimes called) is
almost certainly not high on the publisher's priority list and so it will
still be quite some time before they see the light of day.

Since you're self-professedly curious about all things Lafferty, I highly
recommend a perusal of the Lafferty blog I write as some quite
knowledgeable people frequently comment with lots of insights and insider
knowledge about the publication of Lafferty.

http://antsofgodarequeerfish.blogspot.co.uk/

Take care,

DOJP

(For those wondering what all this Lafferty stuff is doing here in a Wolfe
board, check out Wolfe's rather fawning comments on Lafferty here:
http://antsofgodarequeerfish.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/its-great-to-be-young-and-in-danger.html
.)

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 9:02 PM, Antonin Scriabin
<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>wrote:

> I was wondering if any of you have managed to get your hands on and read *
> Archipelago*, the first in the "Devil is Dead" trilogy.  As far as I can
> tell, there was only one print run of 1,000, and the copies that I find
> online are at least $150.  Does this work like a "regular" trilogy, in that
> it is necessary (or at least highly recommended) that the books be read in
> order?  I know with Lafferty all bets are off, so I wouldn't be surprised
> if I could read them out of order!
>
> I am also not sure about the last couple volume ... the Wiki says that the
> third book in the trilogy, *More Than Melchisedech, *is itself in three
> parts, that look like they were printed as chapbooks.  All are virtually
> impossible to find online, and incredibly expensive.  If they were printed
> as chapbooks, do any of you know if they have been collected elsewhere,
> perhaps in a science fiction anthology or something similar?  I ask because
> I stumbled across a nice copy of the second volume (*The Devil is Dead*)
> that, while still expensive, was a bit more in my price range.  Of course,
> I am also just plain curious about all things Lafferty I can find!
> *
> *
> Thanks!* *
>
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