URTH |
From: Jason Voegele <voegele.6@osu.edu> Subject: Re: (urth) The Dark Shore Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 09:37:02 [Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works] >You got my attention with your A.A.Attanasio reference. Are you saying >that Adam Lee *is* A. A. Attanasio? I'm a big fan of Attanasio's, but >I've never heard of this one. Yup. Locus listed The Dark Shore as "A. A. Attanasio writing as Adam Lee" or something to that effect. Also, the newly published Encyclopedia of Fantasy (Clute and Grant, 1997--HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) lists The Dark Shore as Attanasio's latest novel. Oddly enough, it doesn't mention the pseudonym. >I got excited about a Attanasio tribute to Wolfe, so I checked out the >brief description in Amazon Books, but I don't see the similarity to >BOTNS. From this short paragraph, it sounds more like straight fantasy. >Where's the link? Sorry, didn't mean to confuse anyone here. I wasn't trying to imply that there is any connection as far as plot (or "shared universe") is concerned. What I noticed right away (and, again, I haven't actually read the book yet) is that there is a distinct similarity in both tone and style. Notice how Attanasio spells "Irth." While this one similarity between The Dark Shore and TBOTNS isn't enough to discern that Attanasio is a copycat or commentator, I very much doubt that it is coincidence. Apart from that, the universe of The Dark Shore is (I think) a decaying landscape rather similar to Urth, and from flipping through the pages of TDS, I've noticed Attanasio's use of obscure words very much like those in TBOTNS. I'll see if I can't shed some light on this when I read the book. Jason