Interlibrary Loan

April 13, 2020
With this wily, witty work, SFWA Grand Master Wolfe (1931–2019) takes readers on a final trip to the far future world of 2015’s A Borrowed Man, in which clones of long-dead writers can be borrowed from the library. Ern A. Smithe, a library clone of a deceased mystery author, is on loan to little girl Chandra Fevre and her bedridden mother, Adah, who hope for his help in deciphering a treasure map and recovering Chandra’s missing father, Dr. Fevre. Smithe, together with the clones of a cookbook author and a romance writer, moves into their haunted mansion, plans an expedition to follow the map to the mysterious Cadaver Island, and succeeds in bringing home Dr. Fevre, a scientist with grandiose dreams. But all is not as it seems, and soon Smithe has to solve Fevre’s murder. This devious, often difficult series ender pushes its Gothic aesthetic to an extreme until the plot becomes a surreal fever dream. Throughout, Wolfe raises questions about the agency of the clones, challenging whether Smithe is really any less human than his borrowers. It’s a sardonic view of human relationships on offer, leavened with a droll, punny narrative voice. Complex and clever, this last offering from Wolfe is sure to please sci-fi readers.

June 1, 2020

E.A. Smithe is a reclone, imbued with the personality and memories of a dead mystery writer. Available to borrow from libraries, Smithe is sent off to the library branch of Polly's Cove, along with reclones Millie Baumgartner, a renowned cookbook author, and Rose Romain, a romance novelist. When the three arrive at Polly's Cove Public Library, Smithe is borrowed by a young girl who hopes to bring her mother back into reality, a dead father who may have been dabbling in strange dealings with Millie and Rose, and another E.A. Smithe, who turns up dead. Nothing a mystery writer cannot solve--maybe. A winding tale, essentially Smithe's train of thought as he writes the adventure in retrospect, with an abrupt ending that will have readers going back looking for details they missed the first time around. VERDICT Wolfe died in 2019 at age 87; this posthumous sequel to A Borrowed Man blends a hard-boiled mystery style with a sf future and is mostly successfully. While this can be read as a stand-alone, familiarity with the main character's background story may bring more clarity for readers.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

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