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An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
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An Evil Guest (original 2008; edition 2009)

by Gene Wolfe

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3921764,227 (3.31)26
Lovecraft meetsBlade Runner in a stand-alone supernatural horror novel. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants--and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner,Soldier of Sidon, and his stunningPirate Freedom, Wolfe turns to the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror. Set a hundred years in the future,An Evil Guest is the story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious private detective and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, a man who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided--perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. The rich man is the angel of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are otherevils. As Lovecraft said, "That is not dead which can eternal lie."… (more)
Member:bellisc
Title:An Evil Guest
Authors:Gene Wolfe
Info:Tor Books (2009), Paperback, 304 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:SFF

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An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe (2008)

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» See also 26 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 17 (next | show all)
Oh, Gene. I was so excited when I read the dustjacket. Pulp 1930s Lovecraftian noir fiction by Gene Wolfe? I was salivating. But what's here does not deliver the goods -- not even slightly.

What this really looks like is two novellas mashed together with mostly the same characters, and only one of them is any good. The first two-thirds of the book reads like a [b:Raymond Chandler|2052|The Big Sleep|Raymond Chandler|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AGA624Z5L._SL75_.jpg|1222673] detective-noir piece. It's almost all dialogue, and while the suspense is great and the characters interesting, it's like reading a sketch of a novel. So little information about anything is there that one keeps reading to learn something -- anything -- that will put the dialogue in some kind of context.

The last third of the book we suddenly get the Lovecraftian elements we've been waiting for, but only as stage props. Only two or three times does Wolfe manage a passage that's Lovecraftian in language or effect. That said, we also find out a lot more about what's going on, which makes this part of the book far more interesting.

But wait. The conflict from the first two-thirds of the book is rendered null and void by fiat in part two. So Wolfe has to concoct an entirely new conflict -- warmed-over HPL -- that ultimately fails to deliver the goods.

I wanted to like it, I really did. But if you truly love Gene Wolfe, go read "Shadow of the Torturer" again. You'll be far, far happier.

( )
  Byakhee | Feb 21, 2024 |
A cross-genre clusterf*ck. Would not be so bad if the "main" genre story was not horribly boring. ( )
  audient_void | Jan 6, 2024 |
This book charmed me, then took a few left turns without, I think, enough clues to bring me along. It's worth a little more puzzling out, and it was certainly fun while it lasted, but.... ( )
  grahzny | Jul 17, 2023 |
I had added this to my to-read list a long, long time ago after seeing rave reviews along the lines of "Wolfe does Lovecraft right", and it's been gathering dust for a while.

I had really enjoyed Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series (despite how much it made my head spin); An Evil Guest surprised me with how little I enjoyed it. It has its moments, but getting to them is a slog through a boring story. I'm aware that Wolfe's whole thing is an ostensibly simple surface concealing something complex, but...well, even when I didn't understand what was going on in the Book of the New Sun, I was able to sort of drink in the scenery as Severian wandered about. Cassie Casey's future America fails to produce that same sense of wonder and discovery. (I have to say that even looking up analysis of this online doesn't drive me to reread it the same way that looking up information about Book of the New Sun did) The ending is pretty interesting, but it's just too little, too late.

Maybe it's unfair of me to compare a big, dense series like New Sun to a single novel, but that's all the Wolfe experience I've got, and I just feel like this one failed to grab me.
( )
  skolastic | Feb 2, 2021 |
A brilliant, complex novel dealing with deep concepts of time, space, and love, packaged in a deceptively pulpy mystery/horror framework. ( )
  aickman | May 30, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 17 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Gene Wolfeprimary authorall editionscalculated
Fischer, ScottCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
"Gold is the kindest of all hosts when it shines in the sky, but comes as an evil guest to those who receive it in the hand."

-- Simonides of Ceos
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Joe and Rebecca Bushong-Taylor.
First words
They sat at ease in the Oval Office.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Lovecraft meetsBlade Runner in a stand-alone supernatural horror novel. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants--and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner,Soldier of Sidon, and his stunningPirate Freedom, Wolfe turns to the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror. Set a hundred years in the future,An Evil Guest is the story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious private detective and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, a man who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided--perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. The rich man is the angel of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are otherevils. As Lovecraft said, "That is not dead which can eternal lie."

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