[UA] [REVIEW] Free Live Free

[Patrick O'Duffy]

Back again with another set of reviews.  I really should do this sort of
thing more often; instead, I store the material in my head for
weeks/months and eventually do it in bulk.

Anyway, this review is of the novel FREE LIVE FREE by Gene Wolfe.  As
usual, the review contains spoilers.

SYNOPSIS
Four losers - a fat prostitute, a failed salesman, an unlicensed
detective and a gyspy fortune-teller - move into a decrepit house with
an old man named Ben Free; Free gives them free accomodation in exchange
for their company.  However, the city issue a demolition order for the
house shortly after the four move in.  Free, old and possibly senile,
tells them that he originally comes from the 'High Country', and that a
ticket back there exists somewhere in the house.  But the house is
demolished, and Free vanishes; the four team up to find the 'ticket'.
What follows is a strange mix of thriller, comedy and detective story,
with hordes of gypsies, riots, drunken sailors, spies, escapes from
mental hospitals, a giant wooden aeroplane, and the final truth about
Free and the High Country.

BOOK AS BOOK
Gene Wolfe is a genius.  Not debatable.  Most readers will know him best
as the author of the 'Book of the New Sun' series, which I personally
believe to be the greatest fantasy series ever written (Tolkien?  Fuck
that.).  His work is deep, articulate, complex and beautifully written.
The man's a god.  FREE LIVE FREE is a minor work, but a very good one.
It mixes SF, fantasy and gritty realism, like Charles Bukowski
collaborating with Asimov (and possibly the Marx Brothers).  While the
book includes detective elements, Wolfe unabashedly cheats by not
telling us (the audience) everything; characters make deductions and
decisions based on information we _can't_ possibly know, because Wolfe
never spells it out.  He doesn't need to; this book isn't about _us_,
but about the four damaged and utterly believable characters at it's
core.  The ending is a little weak, unfortunately; Wolfe yanks aside the
curtain to show us the truth, and while it's perhaps not what we
expected, it's still a bit cliched.  But who cares?  The ride's the
thing here, and the ride is fine indeed.

BOOK AS UNKNOWN ARMIES
There's the usual mix of absurdism and memorable characters here, which
is what makes me think UA.  But there's also a potted adventure
storyline here, a cool self-contained one you could spring on players.
A group of PCs on the skids move into a house with an old man - who just
happens to be a weary St. Germain, waiting for the final days.  After
dropping hints to the PCs, he vanishes - ascending finally into the
Clergy.  But he left behind a unique artifact, one that will - if the
PCs find it - allow them a chance to ascend to the Clergy and replace
some of the members already ensconcsed.  As reality begins to crumble
around them, the PCs have just 24 hours to find this artifact, and
propel themselves far enough along an Archetype so that they can depose
the Clergymen.  And of course, other desperate characters want the
artifact as well...

--
Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia

I want to be President because I hate you.  I want to fuck with you.
I want to make you shut up and do things properly.  Get through your
doomed little lives quietly.
I want to be President because I think I should be.

 - Gary Callahan (President of the USA), TRANSMETROPOLITAN #23



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