So I said this week would be the next book or a Guide and Snow post.
Guide and Snow won out.
In the anthology ‘Far Horizons’ is a short story about when Snow chose Guide as her Consort. I’ll do a couple posts about it because it is GOOD!
The story itself is fantastic because it’s also the story of when Guide and his Hive reprogrammed the Asurans, stopping them from slaughtering the Wraith.
Guide is still young here, but he and Seeker (a cousin and friend) have made places for themselves as part of Queen Snow’s zenana.
Queen Snow is somewhat different from other Queen’s in that she sees the value in Clevermen and what they can bring to the Wraith as a whole. The impression is that Clevermen are needed and also valued, but Blades are more important because they keep everyone safe.
Of course, we know that Guide himself is quite practiced as a cleverman. Wether it’s because of his age or because he’s smart enough not to make the same mistake twice (we are distinctly not mentioning his making deals with the Lanteans multiple times and expecting them not to screw him over).
I’m pretty sure, though it’s not eluded to in any way here, that Snow is the reason he got into the Clevermen track of life. If only enough to get himself in trouble.
This time though, his clever mind is the reason the Asurans were defeated.
Talking to Seeker, Guide asks why another of the zenana (a Cleverman and also vying to be Snow’s Consort of course) hasn’t figured out how to stop the Asurans.
The conversation hits a point where Guide asks why they can’t be reprogrammed.
They can.
The real problem is that the new code would have to be uploaded directly to the main core.
Which is on the home planet and, obviously, well guarded.
Guide, already being the lovable psycho we know now, decides that that’s what they’ll do.
Infiltrate the Asurans homeworld and upload a new code before heading home.
As we also know now, he succeeds on most occasions with astounding results.
This is no different.
They succeed and life goes on until the Lanteans come around and undo the work.
At which point they need Guide to help them and they take him prisoner and so on until Rodney’s sister is infected with nanites.
This is a very brief summary of what happens. I’m going to be diving in a little more because it’s a really great look into Wraith life and especially Guide’s early start with his beloved Snow.
Also, Snow is awesome!
See everyone next week!
The Dark Library 