An Evil Guest was published by Tor Books in 2008, and it is one of Wolfe’s most enigmatic late works — a novel that defies genre classification, operating simultaneously as noir thriller, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, science fiction, and theatrical romance.
Cassie Casey is a talented but unsuccessful actress in a near-future America where interstellar travel has been achieved and alien civilizations have been contacted. She is approached by Gideon Chase, a mysterious scientist and diplomat recently returned from the stars, who offers to make her beautiful — genuinely, extraordinarily beautiful, the kind of beauty that commands any room and any stage. She accepts, and the transformation works: she becomes a star overnight. But Chase’s gift comes with obligations, and Cassie is drawn into a conflict between Chase and another figure of power — a conflict whose stakes involve entities from beyond ordinary reality.
The Lovecraftian elements are unmistakable: there are references to Cthulhu, to sunken cities, to entities sleeping beneath the Pacific, to the horror that lurks at the edge of human comprehension. But Wolfe treats these elements with his characteristic indirection — they are glimpsed rather than described, implied rather than stated, and their relationship to the surface plot is never made explicit.
The novel divided Wolfe’s readers: some found it his most accessible late work (the plot moves quickly, the prose is relatively transparent), while others found it frustrating (the genre shifts are disorienting, and the ending leaves most questions unanswered). As with all Wolfe, subsequent readings reveal hidden structures and connections invisible on first encounter.
Collecting An Evil Guest
First edition (Tor Books, New York, 2008): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $20–$50
- Signed copies: $40–$100