From: Joshuafalchion@aol.com
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 18:41:45 EDT
Subject: Re: (urth) Reading Order

Oren, I say read the books in the order they were published--I am currently 
going through them all myself, in order.  I just finished New Sun for my 
fourth or fifth (or possibly sixth--I lose count with Wolfe, just as I lose 
count with all my favorite novelists), and I found that it contains 
fascinating clues (as regards Typhon and his relationship with the 
Conciliator, as well as others) that are helping me in my current (third) 
reading of Long Sun.  I've only read Short Sun once, but if I learned nothing 
else during that reading, it was that I should have paid more attention to 
Long Sun.
I'd love to talk about the connective tissue between the three series, but 
most of the points I would make have already been beaten to death by others 
in this group.  I would say (hopefully without spoiling anything) that it is 
valuable to remember the strong possibility that Typhon the Monarch and 
Patera Silk are, genetically, the same person--in which case it behooves us 
all to study both characters as closely as possible (and on that subject, 
Wolfe gives us, in two widely-separated clues, the information that Typhon is 
blond-haired, just like Silk is).
Happy reading! 

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