From: Alice Turner <al@ny.playboy.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v004.n021
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:45:56 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]



>
>His real name is Lucius; he is a Latin; he was cursed by the Great
>Mother Goddess for messing up her temple during a battle; "Latro"
>means both "mercenary" and "pawn" (game piece), and Lucius is
>definitely both; and, in the interview words of Gene Wolfe, Lucius
>has a truly magic sword--"It cuts things." <g>

Plus, there are a lot of real people and real events in the books. Latro's
nearest and dearest are fictional, of course, but the "important" periphal
characters, politicians, royalty and such (as opposed to farmers and the
like), are not. Latro gets caught up with these people, never quite
understanding his role. The gods are the Greek versions; though Latro is
Roman, this is early enough so that the Romans had not yet adopted (and
adapted) the Greek pantheon---and of course the gods would necessarily be
local, anyway.

Eheu fugaces!
-alga-