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<p>Thanks!<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/18/2020 6:55 PM, Dan'l
Danehy-Oakes wrote:<br>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">I
just read and reviewed George Alec Effinger's book _What
Entropy Means to Me_, and I think it may be of interest to
y'all.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Here's
my review, which will explain why.</div>
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<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">This
book by the late Mr. Effinger could have been written by the
late Gene Wolfe as a _jeu d'esprit_. It has many of the
earmarks of Wolfe's best novels...</span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">On
a distant planet, a Mother and a Father have settled down to
raise a passel of kids - I mean an utterly unreasonable number
- and, along the way, instituted a religion with themselves as
deities. Father goes off and disappears. After a while, and
not long before her own death, Mother sends Dore - the eldest
son and only one who was born on Earth - to look for either
Father, or the source of the River which plays a major part in
their religion, or, ideally, both.</span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">It's
been a long time and there has been no word of Dore. A younger
son, Seyt, is tasked by the elders with writing a history of
Dore's journey.</span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">This
is the story of Syet writing Dore's story. Dore sets off and
meets a wide variety of characters, including a Mysterious
Companion, a Mad Doctor and his Monster, a Treacherous Baron,
and more. Dore develops as the story progresses.</span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">And
so does Seyt. The First household is a crazed hotbed of
political and religious factions, in which the wrong words can
get Seyt sent to the Pen, along with losing his name and being
assigned a number. Seyt tries, as he writes, to please (or at
least not to too-badly displease) all the factions at once.
His life as he writes is intermingled with Dore's story, each
rising and falling in a sort of pulsing double-helix of
narrative. </span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">If
you know your Wolfe, you'll find a lot of this famililar. Only
... this book was published in 1972, the same year as Wolfe's
first serious book (_The Fifth Head of Cerberus_). Thus, that
Wolfe had influenced Effinger's book is fairly unlikely,
though it is quite possible that Effinger's book influenced
Wolfe's later work. Sadly, it's too late to ask him whether
he'd ever read it.</span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">What
this book has that Wolfe's major work lacks, however, is
bellylaughs. Wolfe used humor, and used it well, but it was a
sly sort of humor that usually involved suddenly getting the
joke several pages (or chapters, or even weeks) later when you
realize what something back there actually meant. Many of
Wolfe's jokes only appear on rereading; Effinger's jump out
and buttonhole you.</span><br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<br
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:12px">Recommended,
and for two bucks on Kindle you really can't go wrong.</span> </div>
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<div>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes</div>
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<div><em
style="color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"Open
Sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">Maka ki ecela tehani
yanke lo!</em><br>
</div>
<div><em
style="color:rgb(60,55,54);font-family:"Open
Sans";font-size:16px;letter-spacing:0.125px">--</em><span
style="color:rgb(84,84,84);font-family:Roboto,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Tȟašúŋke
Witkó</span></div>
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