From: "Dave Lebling" <dlebling@shore.net>
Subject: (urth) Random Thoughts as We Slouch Towards Bethlehem
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 11:03:23 

1) What is the Christian take on the fact that in tBotNS, it's apparently
hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years in the future, and the
Second Coming hasn't happened yet?  Somehow this just popped into my head as
I was the reading the posts on whether or not Sev's apocalypse is the true
Second Coming.  It reminds me of _The Restaurant at the End of the
Universe_, where Zarquon still hasn't appeared at the last moments of the
Big Crunch.

2) Sev's ice-bound future may have occurred in the past, several times!
According to a recent publication in _The New Scientist_ (I think) the
entire Earth may have been covered by ice several times in the distant past.
It happens when most of the continents have drifted to near the equator.  We
got out of it due to carbon dioxide released by vulcanism.  Of course, Wolfe
points out that the core is cold in Sev's time, so they would have no way
out.

3) I read Paul J. McAuley's _Child of the River_ recently, and wanted to add
my recommendation (I know that one of the sages here previously mentioned
it, but now it's out in paperback).  A very Wolfean feel, almost, one
thinks, an _hommage_.  It's the first volume of a (mumble)ology, and so far
there aren't quite as many mysteries and wheels-within-wheels, but there is
much more to come, so who can say for certain?  To summarize very briefly, a
child, Yama, of mysterious origins, lives in a civilization that clings to
the banks of a world-river on an extra-galactic Big Dumb Object in the far,
far future.  Most "people" appear to be genetically engineered
animals-made-human, but Yama appears to be a true human.  He grows to
manhood in a decaying city near a huge necropolis near a larger
even-more-decaying city.  A Destiny Awaits Him, and he begins a journey of
apprenticeship in this volume.

 The second volume, _Ancients of Days_, is out in hardcover.

4) I too am unsure why this list is booming and the Whorl list is quiet.
Perhaps we are all waiting for the next installment.  I know I've read the
thing (that is, _On Blue's Waters_) three times already, and am increasingly
awestruck each time.  The degree of control Wolfe exhibits is astonishing.
If he continues at this level for the remaining two volumes, _Short Sun_
could be his masterpiece. Consider this a push for those of you who haven't
yet taken the plunge to do so immediately.  You'll be glad you did.  (And
then you'll be impatient for the rest to come out).

    Dave Lebling
    (aka vizcacha)



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