<div dir="ltr">I just read this on Sci-fi wire. A bit of info on GW's next two books.<br><br><br>
Multiple-award-winning SF/fantasy author Gene Wolfe told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, <i>An Evil Guest</i>, takes place in the same world as his novella "Memorare," which was a finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
<br><br>"I'd written 'Memorare,' laid in a world in which a low-cost
star drive had been discovered in the near future, and I wanted to set
another story there," Wolfe said in an interview.
<br><br>But while that sounds like a traditional science fiction story, <i>An Evil Guest</i> includes many other elements, such as wizards and werewolves.
<br><br>Years ago, Wolfe heard someone describe a consultant as a
"wizard," so he thought: What if that consultant everybody said was a
wizard actually <i>was</i> a wizard? "When I had pictured him in the
Oval Office talking to the president, I knew what he looked like and
what he was like, and I knew that his name was Gideon Chase," Wolfe
said.
<br><br>In the novel, the wizard Gideon Chase is asked to go after
sinister billionaire William Reis. "Unable to locate Reis, Chase uses
his powers to render a minor actress--Cassie Casey--beautiful,
glamorous and immensely talented," Wolfe said. "Reis takes the bait. He
steals it, too."
<br><br>There are many technological (and other) wonders in the book.
"The star drive is the main technological marvel," Wolfe said. "The
money that would buy you a light plane today will buy you a spacecraft.
Cassie's agent says her hopper [spacecraft] is just a little pink bug,
but one she can drive to Mars. [Also,] Reis can manufacture gold, but
his gold is radioactive. There are aliens living on Earth and keeping
out of sight."
<br><br>Wolfe is currently working on two new books. "<i>The Sorcerer's House</i>
[is] almost ready to go to the agency; of course it's been almost ready
for about a year," he said. "I'm still writing the first draft of <i>Home Fires</i>, and the second is going to be a bear." --<b><i>John Joseph Adams</i></b><br></div>