Hmm -- isn't there some stuff about time progressing at a different rate on Woldercan? Letters arriving before they're sent, etc. Maybe Wolfe meant she's trying to find a past Reis. Just a random idea.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Roy C. Lackey <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rclackey@stic.net">rclackey@stic.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">James Wynn wrote:<br>
<br>
> Look, maybe this has already been said, but don't recall it. I thought I'd<br>
> surely get a reaction on this quote so I'm going up the ante. For reasons,<br>
> that would be compelling only to me, the death of Bill Reise at the end of<br>
> AEG really sat wrong with me. It struck me as totally random. But if the<br>
> person killed on the island were Gideon Chase in disguise, it makes<br>
> perfectly good sense. Also, Bill Reise avowing his love for Cassie at his<br>
> death seemed so out-of-character.<br>
><br>
> So when Wolfe said this in the panel on Fictional Characters, a series of<br>
> tumblers fell into place in my head. It was Bill Reise disguised as Gideon<br>
> Chase who left for Woldercon at the end of AEG. Cassie didn't go to<br>
> Woldercon merely to get her mojo back (although she would probably need to<br>
> in order to win Reise).<br>
<br>
</div>Reis was a big man; Gideon was not. A conventional disguise or one that<br>
involves a "glamour", to say nothing of shape shifting, would have to<br>
account for Gid's missing leg. Shape shifting involves a certain<br>
conservation of mass, such that the subject will weigh the same after the<br>
transformation as before.<br>
<br>
Cassie told Klauser that Reis was dead, and at the end of the book, when<br>
there was no one to hear her and she was on the way to Woldercan, she<br>
bemoaned his death. Who was she fooling?<br>
<br>
She had been in perfect position to see the body that had been clubbed to<br>
death, and she had been forced to watch. Shape-changers and glamour-casters<br>
lose control at death. Who did Cassie--and more importantly the<br>
islanders--see dead at her feet, if not Bill Reis? I don't think it is<br>
possible for it to have been one-legged Gideon Chase.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
-Roy<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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