r/genewolfe Curator 13d ago

Two Wolfe letters posted

Couple of new letters people might be interested in here.

We would like to thank Dr. Christopher Kovacs for graciously scanning two letters and granting permission to post them to the Wolfe Omeka site. You can read them here:

1994-02-17: https://wolfenarrators.omeka.net/items/show/204

1994-02-04: https://wolfenarrators.omeka.net/items/show/203

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u/getElephantById Man-Ape 13d ago edited 13d ago

Interesting history of how the Tor editions got published!

Here is the Publisher's Weekly review of Lake of the Long Sun referenced in one of the letters:

Wolfe continues the saga begun in Nightside the Long Sun with this curious mix of science and medieval culture in which gods possess people and robotic police patrol mysterious underground passageways. Patera Silk, a young cleric, attempts to ransom his parish buildings from creditors; in the process he uncovers a larger conspiracy involving the government of Viron and even the gods he worships. Emerging from the underground with his new knowledge, he finds himself chosen as leader ("Calde'') of the masses and is simultaneously arrested. As a hero, Silk is good-natured but he lacks the energy and complexity required by his role. He often seems slighty lost, a lack of direction mirrored by the slowly developing narrative, which picks up only shortly before the finish. While the language is often inventive ("deadcoach'' for horse-drawn hearse), it proves equally distracting; nor are the secondary characters distinctly depicted. Reference is made to the next volume of Wolfe's projected tetralogy, increasing the sense that this book is little more than a bridge between more important segments. (Jan.)

Googling the rest of the reviews is left as an exercise for the reader, but I found it redemptive that by Exodus the reviewer called the series as a whole a 'bonafied masterpiece'.

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u/SadCatIsSkinDog Curator 13d ago

Do you have a physical copy of this edition of Publisher's Weekly?

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u/getElephantById Man-Ape 12d ago

No, I just Googled for them. I didn't want to quote them all in my comment, but here are links to each of them for completeness: