Friday, August 19, 2011

Mists of memory

I'm not even all the way through it, but I have to note here that I'm reading Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe and it is fantastic! The plot seems a bit like Memento in which the protagonist has no real short-term memory to speak of. In this case, the main character Latro can remember the events of the day, but after about 12 or 14 hours (judging by the clues in the book) things start to fade away.


Latro seems to be some sort of mercenary soldier who fought in the Persian army that invaded Greece. And not necessarily historical Greece, but the Greece of Herodotus where the gods and goddesses actually walked the earth. Latro suffers his memory loss because he was wounded in the defeat of the Persian army. It also has the peculiar side-effect of allowing him to see both the physical world and the spiritual as well. When he seeks the guidance of the gods, however, it is not always as helpful as one might imagine since he cannot always remember who he meets and what advice they give. Further, these are not omnipotent gods, but can be thwarted by each other and even sometimes by mortals. And again, by no means are they all benevolent.

I do hope that the ending will not be the terrible disappointment that Memento was. The book is written as if it were a transcription of events by Latro on his scroll at the end of each day. Thus, we are bound by what he is able to recall and his actions are governed only by what he knows at any one moment in time. He frequently reads his scroll and gains some knowledge of his own recent past, but it is a bare account and would necessarily lack the vibrancy and details of memory. Wolfe does an excellent job bringing this to life. I've got another couple books about this character after this one ends and so far I can't wait to get back to it.

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