Product Description
Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN has been hailed by both critics and readers as quite possibly the best science fiction novel ever written. And yet at the same time, like another masterpiece of fiction, James Joyce's Ulysses, it's been deemed endlessly complex and filled with impenetrable mysteries. Now, however, in the first book-length investigation of Wolfe's literary puzzlebox, Robert Borski takes you inside the twisting corridors of the tetralogy and along the way reveals his solutions to many of the novel's conundrums and riddles, such as who really is Severian's lost twin sister (almost certainly not who you think) and why he believes the novel's main character may not even be the torturer Severian. Furthermore, and in essay after essay, Borski demonstrates how a single master key will unlock many of the book's secret relationships--all in the attempt to guide you through the labyrinth that is Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

completely absurd
The author has obvious knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the Book of the New Sun. But be warned: this book consists of a sequence of highly contrived theories, often of the form "but isn't it just possible that...", completely unsupported by the text. Or, rather, apparently "supported" through numerology, detailed etymology, and an elaborately contrived symbolic system ("Wolfe ... only uses the word 'gold' as a character attribute to link the various members of Severian's bloodline") which is developed without much evidence, and then used to "prove" further hypotheses.

This kind of thing can be fun, and if you enjoyed scouring web forums for conspiracies in Lost built from a mountain of minutiae and coincidence, you might enjoy this too. But anyone looking for a serious, insightful study of this complex work should look elsewhere.

Very disappointing.
I have to give Robert Borski a certain amount of credit.It's clear he's read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series many times, and given it a great deal of thought.For anyone wanting to engage in literary analysis, or deconstruct a text, Wolfe supplies the reader with an abundance of materials, and Borski clear takes advantage of this.

However, I found the majority of his conclusions to be well off the mark.Borski is able to provide solid proof for maybe 25% of his hypotheses, but the other 75% of his conclusions are total speculation and overreach, with little if any support from the text.He attempts to connect characters from the book who are vastly different, and seems convinced that half the characters in the series are close blood relatives of Severian - grandmothers, brothers, sisters, or cousins - including just about every character Severian sleeps with.Borski is trying much too hard to ram square pegs into round holes, and if you're a close reader of the series, it shows.If you're a casual reader of the Book of the New Sun series you will find Borski's analysis extremely confusing; if you're an avid fan, you will find it annoying.Either way, do yourself a favor & give Solar Labyrinth a pass.

Stunning Ideas
The most fascinating aspect of this book, for me, was the unraveling of Severian's family.There are fantastic ideas here, with plenty of evidence to back up the opinions.If nothing else, I am inspired to read Book of the New Sun again, armed with new ideas.That, in itself, makes this book worth buying.

The path revealed
Robert Borski does a phenomenal job of explaining the intricate orbits of the various characters revolving around the Book of the New Sun. His theories are well-founded and shine light on the mysteries hidden deep within the labyrinth forged by the master Gene Wolfe. If you thought you could follow the twisting and turning path of Severian and those accompanying him, think again. This book is for you.

Answered questions I didn't know I didn't know
Well this book definitely opened my eyes about all the clues that were laying around, folded into the narrative. I had never considered that any of the characters were related to Severian and I never considered the "many faces" of Father Inire. The list goes on, but now I'm re-reading the series and finding all the clues I passed over even after reading the whole series three times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Not Free SF Reader
More of a gently creeping horror tale, four ordinary people are given
residence in a building, and all is of course not what it seems. The
residents slowly discover, via an odd Madame, that maybe they are not
actually descending into something scary, but something that is a lot
different to that. In general, not that interesting, this book.

Another Excellent Find
I have yet to be disappointed by anything Wolfe has written.I will quickly agree with the general consensus that Free Live Free is not, by any means, Wolfe's greatest work, but it is an excellent story that experiments with the boundaries and definitions of the SF genre.Of all Wolfe's works, this is one of the least difficult to grasp, though there is still a wonderful complexity to the prose.It is also one of the grittier books he has published, which is not, by any means, a bad thing.

The greatest shortcoming of this book, I feel, is that the fabulous character of Mrs. Baker was left undeveloped...which was, I think, Wolfe's intention all along.Her amusingly endearing speech patterns practically screamed her significance to the story, but we are left, at the end, knowing very little more about her than we did the moment she misspoke her first cliché.

Do not enter this text expecting anything like the "Sun" cycle, or even anything like "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" or "Peace.""Free Live Free" is as unique as Wolfe himself.

A Second tier Wolfe book
This book attempts to adapt the quintessential Gene Wolfe formula by positing several interesting characters around a central mystery. Unforutantely, this is restricted to our world, unlike the fabulous worlds of his varied 'Sun' novels, so his imagiantion is not given free play.Equally unfortunately, he fully explains his vitae idea, a general time traveling back to a pereptually flying ship (which by the way was probably the msot origianl thing in teh book, of using the 300mph jet stream to glide on. Also includes a tie in to howard hughes.)
In brief, this is a book to read after you've finished your Pynchon and Eco.

SF only if you include the ending
I will have to re-read the last few chapters of this book but there is no getting around the fact that the plot ends with an unsatisfying and unnecessary red herring.It is as if Wolfe had a manuscript lying around unfinished and some cohort of his said "I dare you to end it using [X] plot device," and Wolfe took up the challenge.

Nor did I find his characterizations really compelling."Mr Barnes" is the most fully fleshed out of the four protagonists, but all four seem like facets of a single individual, not four distinct people driven by their individual motivations.

That all said, it was an interesting read, and more accessible than Gene Wolfe's heavier fiction.It is atypical among Wolfe's work for its lightness and clarity of prose.

Hoped for too much - ended in disappointment
Whilst the charaterizations and story development kept my rapt attention during the telling of the tale, to say I was disappointed by the ending would be an understatement. Its been a long time since a book that I enjoyed reading so much left me hanging limp and disappointed by an ending which seemed more of an excuse for lack of imagination than anything else. I've read a lot of Wolfe's other works and have not, so far, been let down by those works. Where was he when he wrote the ending to this one? Hard to say, but his mind didn't seem to have been on the job. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Short stories that hold my interest
I also own "Strange Travelers," a previous short story collection, and I thought it was very inconsistent. One story would be fascinating, the next would be ho-hum. I'm pleased to report that Starwater Strains is extremely consistent, and almost every story in this thick volume was a joy to read. The topics covered are all nominally "science fiction," but within this grouping Wolfe manages to cover a wide range of topics, and the tone of his stories run the gambit, from more classic-style hard, cold space science fiction, to dreamlike tales that could be set almost anywhere, at any point in history, the future, or the present. As is usually true with Wolfe, there are also tinges of horror throughout - not Steven King style gore, but subtle, horrifying little twists that will burrow into your mind and stay there, rising to the surface every so often, long after you're finished reading.

Many of his stories concern a speculative near future, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that several of these had a strong social or political message about our modern lives, always elegantly included so that without the message the story is still interesting if you don't agree with his stance or don't care for politics in your fiction.

I'll finish by saying that after I received this book for Christmas, I had several mornings at work where I could barely stay awake because I'd been up until 4am the night before, reading "just one more story" over and over again. It's a fine collection.

One of Science Fiction's Best Literary Stylists Is Back With A Superb Short Story Collection.....
Calling Gene Wolfe a great science fiction writer is a mere literary understatement, since he ranks, along with Ray Bradbury, not only as one of the premier elder statesmen of American science fiction, but more importantly, as one of the finest literary stylists in American fiction of any genre. "Starwater Strains", his new short story collection, merely reaffirms his splendid literary gifts for writing brilliant, evocative prose and marvellous storytelling. Most of these stories in this collection were written in the past decade, ranging emotionally from horrific to suspenseful to tranquil, covering themes as vast as contemporary fantasy to space opera harkening back to his "The Book of The New Son" series of novels. My own personal favorite is "In Glory like Their Star", which is an absolutely refreshing, polished literary gem of a tale about the religious connotations of First Contact by space travelers visiting a primitive planet inhabited by pastoral, devout believers. But it is not the lone gem, which I think also includes such diverse tales as "Of Soil and Climate", "The Fat Magician", "The Boy Who Hooked the Sun", and "The Seraph from its Sepulcher". The ones I've omitted citing are, in their own way, almost as riveting as those cited above. "Starwater Strains" will certainly delight those unfamiliar with Wolfe's impressive body of work, as well as his long-time fans and admirers.

Uneven collection but with some great gems
I always enjoy his short story collections.Even the stories I rated 2 out of 5 are worth the read.There are some I did not enjoy at all, but that may be simply my taste.
Of Soil and Climate
The Dog of the Drops
From The Cradle
Empire of Foliage and Flower
Lord of the Land
The Boy Who Hooked the Sun
being my least favorites.

The stars of this collection (for me) are
In Glory Like Their Star
Calamity Warps
Graylord Man's Last Words
Hunter Lake
Pulp Cover
The Seraph from the Sepulcher

Well worth your time.I've enjoyed ever Wolfe collection I've read and I believe I'm up to date on all of them.

Don't miss
The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories
Stories From the Old Hotel

More greats from Gene
I am always eager for a collection of Wolfe's short stories even if I have read some of them in other places.I particularly loved the cover of this book...it's so clever/humorous.Thanks for putting this book together!

I can't believe my good fortune
to have a writer like Wolfe *consistently* writing great stories.If you like thinking for fun, if you enjoy inventive storytelling, if you enjoy the feeling of being in hopelessly over your head, but in the hands of a chuckling, mostly benign master of his art, then by all means read Wolfe.

This collection contains:
Viewpoint
Rattler
In Glory Like Their Star
Calamity Warps
Greylord Man's Last Words
Shields of Mars
From the Cradle
Black Shoes
Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?
Of Soil and Climate
The Dog of the Drops
Mute
Petting Zoo
Castaway
The Fat Magician
Hunter Lake
The Boy Who Hooked the Sun
Try and Kill It
Game in the Pope's Head
Empires of Foliage and Flower
The Arimaspian Legacy
The Seraph from Its Sepulcher
Lord of the Land
Golden City Far

Some notes:
Wolfe has some typically intriguing and all-too-brief comments on each story.Each! Story! which excited me.
"The Arimaspian Legacy" is linked to, and evidently happens *before* the short story "Slow Children at Play from Wolfe's _Innocents Aboard_.Hint: Wolfe likes Herodotus.
"Lord of the Land," as Wolfe notes, is Wolfe doing a Lovecraft story; it was first published in _Cthulu 2000_ and also appeared in a Tor anthology, _Lovecraft's Legacy_ (1990). ... Read more

Product Description
Gene Wolfe's Return to the Whorl is the third volume, after On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles, of his ambitious SF trilogy The Book of the Short Sun . . . It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Horn has traveled from his home on the planet Blue, reached the mysterious planet Green, and visited the great starship, the Whorl and even, somehow, the distant planet Urth. But Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present to past. Perhaps Horn and Silk are now one being. Return to the Whorl brings Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun, to a strange and seductive climax.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Scraping along the slide's decline
You don't so much read a Gene Wolfe novel as unravel it and hope that you're putting the strands together in the right order, because he sure isn't giving you any help.Even if you're wrong (and quite possibly you are) when you come to the end of it feeling like your brain has been put through the wringer by a master and that whatever revelations you think you might have uncovered are just as valid as the ones that might actually exist, if they indeed do.The true nature of his novel might be that of a crystal rolling down a flight of stairs and past a crowd, so that every person seeing it go by will view a different sight in each moving facet and believe that memory to be real.

This novel comes at the end of the "Short Sun" trilogy and also comes at the end of a run that includes the groundbreaking "New Sun" and the simultaneously exhausting and exhilerating "Long Sun" series, so here we have both a finish and a culmination.I don't think I'm revealing anything by noting that nothing is ever concretely explained, that Wolfe suggests with shadows and negative space, that what isn't shown is just as vital as what we're witness to, the gaps between conversations, the difference between who you're talking to versus who you think you're talking to, the order in which events unfold, relentlessly linear and completely out of order.

In a way this is still Horn's story, he narrates parts of it and the focus is still nominally on his search for Patera Silk.But the view expands and the narrative constantly morphs and becomes more ornate, as Horn shifts to Blue and to the Whorl and even to long lost Urth, meeting old friends and new ones and becoming involved in events that seem to have nothing to do with his quest, until all the details pile up and everything interrelates.The pace of the book is steady, the prose cool and the narrative seemingly straightforward until you notice all the questions that aren't getting answered, or that the answers are coming just out of view, or out of reach.People are who they are and at the same time someone else.Horn is Horn, unless he's Silk or maybe one has replaced the other and we were just never informed.Everything is as solid as a dream, floating through environments at once bizarre and grounded.

All of this would seem very elusive and pretentious (and may seem that way to some . . . if you like your SF with spaceships and lacking subtext, this may not be your thing) if Wolfe didn't have such control over his story.Even when you don't have the slighest idea where a seeming digression is going or whether the latest revelation is simply a sleight of hand, you get the sense that Wolfe knows at all times what he's doing and that makes all the difference.You can read all three series back to back to back and come up with your own conclusions, and quite possibly read them again to find new wrinkles in what you suspected you knew.That's the gift and frustration of them.Wolfe shows you where to look, but the glass is tinted and perhaps bent, and what you see may not be what's actually there, it may have happened on the opposite periphery, while you were distracted.You care about Horn, even when you can't define his final shape.It's not for everyone, but SF, and literature in general, are better for it having existed in the first place.

A double-edged sword: rewards and frustrations of Wolfe's Sun series
I've finally finished reading the last of Wolfe's twelve Sun books. I've been waiting until I finished them all before writing a review, since they stand as one monumental, labyrinthine sf/fantasy epic adventure (although the New Sun books could be read by themselves). Here's what someone considering reading these books should know, in my view. The series is uniquely both rewarding and frustrating. The rewards come from Wolfe's unique genius at creating complex, mysterious narratives. The characters are well-realized, although it's hard to form strong emotional attachments to them, especially in the Short Sun trilogy, because of the disjointed narrative. This isn't to say, though, that I didn't feel for the main characters and was sad when it was over. For anyone who doubts that these books bear all sorts of interpretation, see the discussion forum at: www.urth.net/urth/ . There are many spoilers in those discussions, so don't visit that internet site unless you've read all the Sun books or are willing to read spoilers.

But the series is also frustrating--especially the Short Sun and Long Sun books, because of Wolfe's austere approach to telling the story. Instead of holding the reader's hand, Wolfe unfolds the plot in a perfectly concrete way, never breaking from the narrators' perspectives. Moreover, there's some Christian subtext to Wolfe's approach. I'm not talking about the Christian themes, but about Wolfe's penchant for immersing the reader in the details of drawn-out, relatively unimportant scenes, while passing over crucial revelations in the story very quickly, counting on the reader's alertness so that the reader doesn't entirely miss them. This style of writing sets up symbols of a kind of platonic dualism in the books. There's the material world which is a mere shadow of the spiritual, immaterial world. The concrete details in the story are like the shadows of the material world in which a person can get lost, while the important moments in the text are like glimmers of a hidden, spiritual world which only a willing, attentive person can perceive. The upshot is that there are pacing problems in some of the Sun books. The New Sun books have the least problems in this regard, and the most action.

But it's not necessarily a fault if the Sun books don't provide the cheap thrills of an average space opera. Fans of the far-future, dying-sun subgenre of sf/fantasy should certainly read the Sun series, but so should those who are intrigued by Wolfe's unique writing skills. Many weird things happen in the story, but they don't seem weird because of the lack of editorializing on Wolfe's part; I mean that the whole story is told from the narrators' perspective, and the narrators and the other characters don't often regard the events as weird, since the characters are part of these far-future, alien worlds, and Wolfe is a master of writing from his characters' perspectives. Again, this is a double-edged sword, since the reader has no author-given guideposts or formulaic structure as crutches. Instead, there's a wealth of details which hang together, making up an unbelievably complicated, intellectually dizzying set of adventures.

True 21st Century Literature
It has taken me about 3 years to get through the books of the Long and Short Sun by Gene Wolfe. Just finished Return to the Whorl and was totally blown away. There are other reviewers here at Amazon, who have made convincingly cogent arguments in favor of this magnum opus of Mr. Wolfe's. Of which, I would equal to James Joyce's Ullyses or even Homer's Odyssey but on a much more cosmic and grander scale. The saga starts out with Patera Silk a priest, who serves the gods of mainframe. The question of who are the gods and the instrumentality that enables them ends with a wonderful character, Horn. The conclusion sadly ends in this final Volume of the Book of the Short Sun. The odyssey is complex yet coherent. The questions asked were many. The answers were clear and subtle at the same time. A wonderfully personal work that is well written and honest. The book bears repeated reading and will be a Classic for years to come. As one reviewer aptly put it.Good Fishing! Good Fishing! Good Fishing!!!

Challenging--but as brilliant as it gets
NOTE: This review is for all three books comprising The Book of the Short Sun

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS:

The Book of the Short Sun will be one of the finest reading experiences of your life... if you can get through the thing. The difficulty in extracting those rewards out of the text is considerable and not to be lightly discounted. Reading these books will require supreme effort. Willing readers will have to be intensely interested with how individuals relate to historical and semi-mythical figures, religion, and their own personality as influenced by these themes. These books are about as far as you can get from the popular concept of "space opera" and thrilling, "page-turning" fiction. An analogy to Moby Dick is probably very appropriate as that work due to the very slow pacing, the introspection, and the great literary symbols stomping through the setting reified and alive. Any scholar of literature should be deeply fascinated by these books.

WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:

There is no shame in not reading these books. They are terribly difficult and an exercise in stamina though we feel most people should at least try once. If you have attempted Shakespeare and been turned back because of the language; if you have attempted Moby Dick or novels by Henry James only to be turned away by the lack of progression in the plot; if you have attempted James Joyce's Ulysses but been baffled by the interior monologue, then Short Sun is probably going to daunt you as well. But we feel the rewards of this book are equal to those giants in literature.
(...)

A powerful capstone
Every work of Gene Wolfe's that I read further increase my admiration of his writing._The Book of the Short Sun_ (I feel the three volumes are best read as a single novel) is easily the most thought provoking piece of fiction I have read in years.RETURN does not explicitly answer many of the questions that have been raised throughout the trilogy, but the questions themselves are what is important.
Even direct statements from Horn (the narrator) are often nothing more that guesses or even self deception.This book doesn't simply tell a story.What it does is provide half of a conversation.If there are answers, then they are for readers to determine for themselves.If this sounds needlessly philisophical, I can only say that I am still fresh from turning the last page of this extraordinary work and under it's spell.
Within the next year or so I plan to set aside a large chunk of my free time to re-read all of the "Sun" books (The Book of the New Sun, The Urth of the New Sun, The Book of the Long Sun, and The Book of the Short Sun) to give myself the full impact of the entire sequence.Anyone who looks down on the genre of science fiction need look no further that the works of Gene Wolfe to have their preconceptions blown away. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Journey Through a Golden Age
As an amateur student of history, as a writer, and as a lover of fantasy, this book pleased all aspects of myself and has become one of my favorites.I write this as I order the sequel, Soldier of Arete.They are both available combined as "Latro in the Mist" if you would like both and the third part "Soldier of Sidon" published 20 years or so later is also available.

Memories of mist
If miracles can flow from a pen, thenthat pen belongs to Gene Wolfe.Complex characters, gripping narratives and richly-furnished worldsof superabundant creativity -- Wolfe's vital power nevertheless turns to disadvantage when his books lose their way in impenetrable plots, although it hardly matters when the journey is so interesting.The place is ancient Greece -- the battleground of the city-states of Athens ("Thought") and Sparta ("Rope.")Latro is a greek warrior whose head injury makes it impossible to hold a memory for longer than 24 hours.Like ship lost in mist -- Latro is unable to see very far ahead or behind.Every morning he wakes among strangers, and only by writing the days events and then reading the long scroll of this handwritten narrative is he able to piece his life together and make sense of the events. But his injury has also left him with a secret strength -- the ability to speak to the Gods. It takes determination to wade through the tongue-twisting names and places, but it is well worth it to return to the authentic sense of ancient Greece, and unforgettable images of a world that has faded into the mists of the past. Wolfe never completed this trilogy, but if you appetite for greek battles has not been sated, you might turn to The King Must Die, by Mary Renault

--Auralgo

A VERY learned book.
I saw from the previous reviews of this book that many people found it and it's predecessor, Soldier of the Mists very confusing.What's seems to be at issue with these books is the high degree of learning required to completely understand the story.Gene Wolfe seems to have done a lot of research in writing these books.Without having a pretty thorough knowledge of the Persian Wars of the beginning of the Fifth Century B.C. as well as the Classical Greek tongue, a reader is just not going to get everything out of these books that is in them (Yes, Gene Wolfe is playing with the Classical Greek language in these books).By the end of the book, I feel that it is possible to draw definite conclusions about the identity of Latro.As you read these books, think about the following:Who was Latro revered as in Thrace?In Greek mythology, who are the only figures able to decend to the underworld and come back at will, as Latro does unwittingly?Latro believes that he is a Latin speaking mercenary in the army of the Great King.So who is the patron god of the Latin speaking people?In Greek myth what often is done to the Greek God of War by the other gods when he over steps his bounds?Think on these things, read the book again.I think it will make more sense.

No surprise that the trilogy was not completed.
Soldier of the mist was a great book, and this was a good sequel, but youcan see the problem with writing it.Unless you have a brilliant memorythe plot becomes more and more difficult to follow, the memories moredifficult to call up, like Latro we are referring to our journal to seewhat went before, and I think Wolfe, brilliant writer that he is, realisedthe limitations of this style of writing and decided to abandon numberthree.Confusing and difficult to read, this book is not a patch on thefirst!

A great sequel
Two books, no plot! I think Wolfe wrote these books just to show how unimportant a plot really is.

And take my word for it, these books prove he's right! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Deep Boredom
Almost no Science Fiction in that book. A collection of stories that quickly got me bored. I even lost hope of finding anything of interest by the middle of the book. And I was proved right; it went on worse and worse. Now I realised I should have written my review right after my reading (I read it three months ago) because I can't even remember anything notable that I could report here. Yet, a word still lingers in my mind: surrealism... For what it's worth.

Bach, Milton, and ...

Wolfe!Three intense pleasures!

I would advise readers not to read straight through *any* collection of short stories, but to savor them.More to the point, in his preface to his collection _Book of Days_ (also printed in _Castle of Days_) Wolfe advises his readers not to read his stories the way we eat potato chips (one right after the other), but to read, reflect, reread, consider.In this collection, too, Wolfe has a thoughtful, intriguing, and all-too-brief introduction.

I don't know another way to read Wolfe.The man taught me how to read.

The stories in the collection:

A Cabin on the Coast
The Map
Kevin Malone
The Dark of the June
The Death of Hyle
From the Notebook of Dr. Stein
Thag
The Nebraskan and the Nereid
In the House of Gingerbread
The Headless Man
The Last Thrilling Wonder Story
House of Ancestors
Our Neighbor by David Copperfield
When I Was Ming the Merciless
The God and His Man
The Cat
War Beneath the Tree
Eyebem
The HORARS of War
The Detective of Dreams
Peritonitis
The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus
The Woman the Unicorn Loved
The Peace Spy
All the Hues of Hell
Procreation ( i -- Creation; ii -Recreation; iii - The Sister's Account)
Lukora
Suzanne Delage
Sweet Forest Maid
My Book
The Other Dead Man
The Most Beautiful Woman on the World
The Tale of the Rose and the Nightingale (And What Came of It)
Silhouette

Some notes:
"The Map" and "The Cat" happen in the world of the "New Sun" series (Urth)
"The Dark of the June" "The Death of Hyle" "From the Notebook of Dr. Stein" and "Thag" form a sequence
"Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus" and "Woman the Unicorn Loved" are linked.
The titular "Nebraskan" of "The Nebraskan and the Nereid" also appears in Wolfe's "The Eleventh City" (available in his _Innocents Aboard_) and in his "Lord of the Land" (available in his _Starwater Strains_.)
"War Beneath the Tree" also appears in Wolfe's _Book of Days_ (pb in _Castle of Days_)
"The Detective of Dreams" shows the influence of G.K. Chesterton
"When I Was Ming the Merciless" is thought by many readers to have been inspired by the Stanford prison experiment.

Behind the veil, a loud voice that is never seen
How is it this man is not better known!Perhaps short stories, mr. mcdorman, aren't meant to be read by the plenty.I for one can't help placing the book down after reading a great one (and that applies to almost every story in this collection) to sit back in wonder as the story unfolds again in my mind.Enjoy this,you, anybody.And find the rest of his stories, which none are small or without ardor.

Outstanding, but too long
Wolfe's second short story collection is packed with excellence, but it goes on too long. At over five hundred pages and twenty stories, it is hard to maintain interest while reading straight through the book. The book is still worth reading, containing many stories of the highest quality, but I suggest reading through it at a slower pace.

The most underrated collection since Borges.
Gene Wolfe is a thinker.His intricate fiction demonstrates a mind that is crammed with ideas which hurl themselves into the souls of his characters and the ideals of his stories with forceful abandon.So insightful and varied that it usually defies the overapplied label of science fiction, Wolfe's work is not for the shallow reader; for those who desire food for thought, on the other hand, this is the richest of feasts.Yet in spite of his subtly interwoven social commentary and his consinstently profound innovations, Wolfe's most valuable trait is his skill as a pure storyteller.The quality of the material in these stories and the adeptness with which their themes are transferred to prose is enough to entice even the most bored bookworm ... Read more

Product Description
Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time, after The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wondrous ways, in a time when our present culture is no longer even a memory.Severian, the central character, is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est.This edition contains the second two volumes of this four volume novel, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Lifeless, Devoid, Utterly Boring
I love science fiction, and I love fantasy. While I do not read often and do not know a great deal about the current 'scene', I do know a good story when I read one.
On the strength of reviews read here on Amazon, I decided to purchase Book of the New Sun volumes 1 and 2. Big mistake!

This novel is incredibly slow. The author paints a rather oblique objective world in which scene by scene passes by without any reader involvement whatsoever. I have literally struggled over the past several months to read 100 pages. Having read the blurb, I feel this novel does not really deliver the fantastical world or story at all, rather, we are treated to page after page of forgettable feedback. I honestly feel like I am reading the journal of a mental patient from the 17th century. I am sorry to be so negative about it, but I do feel that the author (who apparently has some degree in engineering - how apt!) has given much thought to the plotline, I cannot help but think that this novel is in need of major editing, not to mention an overhaul of its entire storytelling approach.

Wolfe has butchered his own story but taking any and all magic out of it. There is no magic here, no life, and the protagonist appears to have zero presence whatsoever. If you are anything like me and want to be gripped, page to page, whether it be a powerful story, a well told story, or something interesting and different, then you will not find those things in Book of the New Sun v1 or 2. Unless you are a hardcore sci fi/fantasy buff, avoid these novels.

Like Wading through Hip Deep Oatmeal
I've also been reading Sci Fi and fantasy for a long time and have never run into such a long, tedious, plotless bag of nonsense in all that time... until I started reading, then skimming then ignoring this book.

I think this book is a product of the 'All form, no substance' school ofwriting.Dark moods, sullen characters, irrationally placed tech; be honest, did you learn anything useful about the world, yourself or others from reading the series? SOmetimes simple entertainment is good too. The world described in this series is not worth visiting.

Remember, you aren't immortal. Start with masters (real ones, not those dubbed by book marketers) Heinlein, Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Anne Cafferty, Herbert (father and son) are just a few; when you've run out of all of them, maybe read this series.

Sorry to be such a downer, I like a lot of different books and ideas. This one offended by wasting my time. I can get some of my money back but my time can never be replaced.

Quite possibly the best fantasy book(s) ever written
Be careful.The first time I attempted reading this book, on the recommendation of a friend, I read a few chapters and finally stopped.I was expecting something else.A fellowship on a quest?Swords and sorcery in full technicolor?A straightforward, but dark, fantasy tale of the future?I'm not sure.It just didn't do it for me though.It seemed to meander without going anywhere!

MONTHS later, I still found this little snippet of book nagging at me.Something there...something deep, dark, and mysterious.Colors, sounds, tastes.Something beautiful, but overwhelmingly sad.

"The play's the thing"

It dawned on me that I had to drop whatever it was that I was reading at the time, and start again and read it without distractions, without assumptions, without trying to shoehorn it into my idea of what a fantasy novel should be.Just let it flow.I am so glad I did.

My advice is to just read it and open your mind [possible (small) spoilers below].

If you don't get chills when Severian dreams his dog is alive again and is sleeping next to him in the field, and he awakes, and finds that it really might have happened...

If you don't smile when you realize the ancient "painting" (perhaps millions of years old) that he sees of a knight in a desert with a visor of gold and a strange stiff banner is probably of Neil Armstrong...

If you aren't shocked at the real relationship between Dr. Talos and Baldanders...

If you find yourself wondering if Severian is actually telling the truth...or maybe he is completely insane?...

etc. etc. etc.

No, it's not for everyone.Try it though.If it is "for you", you'll be so relieved that you experienced it in your lifetime.

Amazing Science Fiction, Somewhat Unrealistic Sexual Prowess
This book is incredible, make no mistake about it.The story is rich and powerful and all that good stuff.The thing is, there is one thing that's a little ridiculous about it, and I'd like to expand upon that, as it's more entertaining than listing its numerous positive qualities.

Specifically, the dude bones freaking everyone he comes in contact with.Seriously, if there is a woman anywhere in this book whose initial description doesn't include the words ugly, old, wrinkled or fat, you can bet that he'll be doing the no-pants dance with her in about as much time as it takes to describe her career and culture, and possibly to extricate her from some unsavory situation.He's like the Captain Kirk of the dying planet, no exaggeration whatsoever.

Indeed, the character's amazing ability to ply the entire female gender out of its collective underclothes gives rise to a notable incongruity in the storyline.Without spoiling too much, in the first book there's a woman who he wants desperately, her being a gorgeous lady of high class, but he's specifically warned against impregnating her, even should she offer herself, lest there be political entanglements.At no time during his initial encounter with her does he mention any sex, but later on he describes in some detail how he was with her numerous times.Perhaps I'm just missing it, but it seems that this man is endowed with the ability to take women RETROACTIVELY!

In spite of, or perhaps in part because of these little niggles, the Book of the New Sun is an enthralling read.Even a fast reader will take the better part of a weekend to finish the whole thing, and is practically guaranteed to lose sleep in order to see it to its conclusion.I know I did.

The second half of what is surely the book of gold, although this is the UK edition
SWORD AND CITADEL is an omnibus containing the second half of Gene Wolfe's four-volume work The Book of the New Sun, the novels THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR and THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH. The Book of the New Sun, a work in which science and myth, mystery and enlightment mix, is one of the finest works of speculative fiction in the English language. Anyone who is not familiar with The Book of the New Sun is encouraged to read my review for SHADOW AND CLAW, the first half. Be aware that this Amazon listing describes the UK edition, which is inferior in typesetting and paper to the US edition published by Orb Books.

THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR marks an key point in the wanderings of the exile Severian. The volume begins a few weeks after he has arrived in the provincial town of Thrax, where he performs the duties of a lictor, a sort of double-duty jailer and executioner. Like his exile from the Guild which began the saga, here Severian is soon forced to flee Thrax because he has again shown mercy to a woman set for execution. Over the course of this book, he slowly loses all material comfort as he goes north through the wild and is eventually tempted by a diabolical figure from Urth's past. Obviously meant to symbolize Christ's fasting in the wilderness, SWORD provides through Severian a showing of imitation of Christ. The end of the novel shows Severian as a man who has cast off the role of torturer. THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR contains, as a reading from Severian's brown book, a curious story called "The Tale of the Boy Called Frog," in which the myth of the founding of Rome, the Jungle Book, and the Thanksgiving story have all been combined over the eons into a single tale. Lovers of digging up Wolfe's buried allusions will find a feast in this and other parts of SWORD.

THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH is the fourth and final volume of The Book of the New Sun. Severian arrives in the north country of Orythia, where the Commonwealth is waging its endless war against Ascia. Severian joins a group of irregulars who pitch in to the battle and eventually he encounters the Autarch, whose successor he becomes. Thus, Severian's claim that the Book of the New Sun is the long story of how he has "backed into the throne" is unfolded. The last portion of CITADEL tells of Severian's return to Nessus to claim the throne, and includes of four beautiful chapters. "The Corridors of Time" tells of Severian's annointing by the Hierodules that he may bring a New Sun to Urth. In "The Sand Garden" Severian experiences an epiphany besides Ocean that ranks among the most beautiful religious writing in history. In "The Key to the Universe," Severian recounts the secret history of Time given to him by the Hierodules where Wolfe has wonderfully meshed science and religion. Finally, the last chapter "Resurrection" is penned by Severian moments before he is to board the ship of the Hierodules in order to stand trial for Urth. It contains some suprising conclusions about his role in Time and ends with his returning to the first girl whom he loved.

The Book of the New Sun is a masterpiece, a poetic tale in which the reader is dazzled by Wolfe's style and entertained by his literary allusions. Once one has read SHADOW AND CLAW, the ombibus of the first two volumes, the second half SWORD AND CITADEL will continue to delight until the last word of Severian's saga and the "translator's" appendix. ... Read more

Product Description
This omnibus of two acclaimed novels is the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who was fighting in Greece when he received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory but gave him in return the ability to see and converse with the supernatural creatures, the gods and goddesses, who invisibly inhabit the classical landscape. Latro forgets everything when he sleeps. Writing down his experiences every day and reading his journal anew each morning gives him a poignantly tenuous hold on himself, but his story's hold on readers is powerful indeed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Ancient Lives
This is of course a work of fiction,of fantasy, but I find that the most compelling element of the novels is it's treatment of the mindset of the Golden age Hellens and other peoples.Wolfe's treatment of Hellenistic religon is important to the novel.Modern day readers may be familiar with the gods and monsters of storybooks.Wolfe though fleshes out their religon into the full blown, complex theology and creed that it was, every bit as real as Christianity, Islam or any other modern religon. This is a facinating way of looking at the ancient world that through their eyes.In a sense, at times, these characters seem alien but familiar to us, like looking into an alternate reality.

Great Stuff
Gene Wolfe's unreliable narrator style, although hard to get used to, is very rewarding. After reading these books the first time, I felt like I was actually able to re-read them very soon, something I have never really felt the urge to do before. Don't miss out on these incredible stories.

wonderful fantasy, when the gods are there...
Gene Wolfe is a rewarding but very difficult writer. Like the little girl with the curl, when he is good he is very, very good and when he is bad...you want to throw the book across the room.

On one hand his books are frequently brilliant, imaginative, the hero "Latro" of this Historical Fantasy suffered a war injury to his head and can't remember yesterday unless he writes it down (as was said elsewhere). Some of his characters are well drawn - little Io is a joy, the black man Seven Lions helps him, as does Polos, a boy centaur, who was so normal a character Latro sees nothing unusual about him, Pindaros and others.Latro sees the gods and they manipulate him and others like chess pieces but he sees and converses with them, sometimes Io and other can see this, sometimes only Latro. These god and goddess interaction are wonderful, magic, fantastic. In that, it's like the Iliad and the Oddessy.

But in this (and in all his other books) - and I've read more than 15 - there Wolfe uses a lot of ellipsis, leaving out parts, and this as annoying as the rest is rewarding. If there is a major event in the book, Wolfe will spend chapters describing the lead up to it, chapters describing the aftermath and then leave the major event out all together! There is a bewildering profusion of characters, many of whom are poorly drawn, indistinguishable, half of which could be easily omitted. This book cries out for a larger map than the one included. Wolfe places the literal name in Greek of these Greek cities: "Rope" is Sparta, "Thought" is Athens, "Thrace" is somewhere in Turkey/Bulgaria (not on map), I guess, maybe where Troy was, - doubtless this is what the Greek words means, but why?Much of what the hero says or interprets of events is incorrect, he is the ultimate "unreliable narrator". A list of characters in the back of the book leaves out many. His books are full of sadistic bullies who beat other characters up for no reason. Many characters have multiple names. So this book like many other Wolfe books is very challenging, and often needlessly so. And the book drags and meanders plotlessly from time to time.

For this book in particular, checking out ancient Grecian history and geography on the internet, etc is needed, many characters and events are historical, the fictional characters wander through these historical events, but often Wolfe doesn't explain what's going on, assuming the reader already knows...

Be forewarned, Latro is brilliant fantasy, as good as there is, sometimes and difficult slow going others. Wolfe likes to parade his knowledge and always demands a great deal, a great deal of intuition, from his readers.

Wish I could give it 6 stars
If this was not written by Gene Wolfe, who is more well known for his New Sun series, this would be some writers greatest work.If you like mythology there is no way you won't love this book.If you like Neil Gaiman than there is no way you won't love this book.If you loved the New Sun series than you will love this book. Heck, if you love great books than here is another one for you.

Of all the Gene Wolfe books, well besides the short story collections, I would recommend this book for new Gene Wolfe readers.It is a great introduction to Wolfe's style but very accesible because its based in an environment where the reader is somewhat knowledgable of.

READ THIS EVERY DAY
This is what Latro writes on the outside of his scroll to remind himself to read over his writings every morning. He has to leave himself this note because he cannot form new memories. Sound familiar? Yes, this is very much the same general idea as the film Memento from 2000, but this novel (actually a compilation of two novels, Soldier of the Mist, 1986 and Soldier of Arete, 1989) was written well before then. According to Wikipedia another book in this series, Soldier of Sidon is due out this year (2006), although I felt that the second novel, Soldier of Arete, pretty neatly ended the story.

On to the specifics. On one hand I found it really interesting, well-written, historically engaging, and a real challenge to follow a lengthy novel when the narrator isn't much help. On the other hand, the format was at times frustrating and the whole "I forget everything" got a little tiresome, especially near the beginning when most chapters were consumed by notes from Latro to himself explaining that he can't remember anything. Gene Wolfe seems to enjoy the relationship that the narrator has with the audience, as I've found his narrators are generally unusual in some way. In the New Sun books his narrator couldn't forget a single detail that he had lived through; in the Latro books the narrator can barely remember what happened a handful of hours ago, losing the rest to time, what he describes as the mist. In many ways I found myself enjoying the task of piecing together Latro's experiences into a meaningful narrative, flipping back in the novel over and over again to see if I really remembered hearing that name or that place.

This brings me to the one thing that I think really helped the Latro books be successful, which is true of Memento as well, and that is that the medium of the work inherently causes the reader to suffer the same ailment and fate as the protagonist. Wofle's writing keeps you slightly in the dark, and his method of opening each chapter with what has most recently happened, not what you just finished reading about, before moving back in time and catching up with this new present keeps you on your toes. This is why I like reading post-modern novels and novels that share many characteristics with a post-modern novel, such as this one: the effort that the reader must give to the reading and the ability and responsibility to help create the art.

Lastly, it was interesting to read what could be very loosely constructed as an historical novel. Set in ancient Greece, Wolfe does a fairly good job of helping the reader through difficult geography and cultures without giving away the game too much. He gives us many details which are likely true (I'll admit that I'm nothing close to a Grecian scholar, but what I read of Wolfe is that he likes to bleed history into his fiction) and many rough sketches of life in Greece around the turn of the calendars from BCE to CE. These details never seem to intrude on the story, only to enhance or flush out a given moment.

Overall, I would recommend this novel to others, but keep in mind that it is not a passive read. However, I found it to be pretty rewarding. Yay for Latro. ... Read more

Product Description
The Wizard Knight Companion is a brief alphabetical dictionary for Gene Wolfe's two-volume THE WIZARD KNIGHT series. Its entries identify the characters in the novel, dive into the mysteries in the text, and explore the Norse, Celtic, and Arthurian sources for names and words in the novels. It includes a map of the region, a cosmology, and a synopsis of the narrative. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

The Urth of the New Sun shines just like its predecessors
If you've read the Book of the New Sun and you're wondering whether or not to read this book, then rest assured it is well worth the read.The book seamlessly continues the story of Severian in his journey to bring the new sun in the same style as the previous novel.Wolfe brings light to certain unanswered questions from the first book, without ruining its mystique.

good, but not as compelling as others in series
Ok, I love Gene Wolfe's work, and own most of it in hardcover because my paperbacks grew tattered and dog-eared; this one (still in paper) looks brand-new.This work just doesn't feel right; not because the prose isn't interesting, or because of the abrupt end. It just isn't compelling enough to pick up again. There's a weird "vibe" that you get when you read much of his work that stays with you, and it just feels missing from this one- and the abrupt end doesn't leave you wanting more, it's just irritating.

Just buy it already.
If you've read the first 4 books of The New Sun series and enjoyed them, just buy this book right now. There's no point in reading a review, or spoilers or anything else, positive or negative. Just buy it and read it.

After you finish, you'll probably be intrigued enough at some of the hidden meanings to re-read the first 4 books in the series. In fact, the last 4 times I've re-read the series, I started with this book first as it lends itself well to being both the first and last book, because Severian's adventure is somewhat cyclical, like Finnegans Wake or what Giambattista Vico would deem a 'storia ideale eterna'.

Questions Answered, but New Ones Arise
The Urth of the New Sun: The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun' (New Sun) isn't so much a book as a lengthy pontification on the nature of man.As compared to other beings, Severian, tells the reader his philosophies as if they are to become volumes in his gospel (which is what we are supposed to believe.)

This is told via travelogue, where we find out where Severian has gone, what he's done, but not why.He spends much of his time trying to work through the largest of all Why questions, without resolving that satisfactorily.

But, at the end of the book, Gene Wolfe stops writing.We never find out the answers to Severian's questions because it seems that the author tired of the internal socratic dialogue, realizing that others tried before and also didn't come up with definitive conclusions.

All that said, Wolfe is still a talented writer, and even with flaws the volume is worth a read.I didn't throw it in frustration, but instead I savored the words and only became perplexed after days pondering the plot and realizing that those errors came through retrospectively.

Enjoy it, and the whole series.

- CV Rick

Answers more than it entertains
The Urth of the New Sun is a coda to the Book of the New Sun, so going into it one has to expect a few things:

1) A story that builds heavily on what has gone before- this book is not for newcomers to this world!Read New Sun first.
2) Uncomplicated plots- this book is about half a story.Don't set your expectations too high.

However, if you can look at Urth of the New Sun getting past these first two hurdles, this book is the key that unlocks the secrets of the Book of the New Sun.Insight is provided on many questions left unanswered in the original tetralogy, and especially we learn a lot about Severian's character.

This isn't quite the Severian of New Sun, but it's still someone who has grown from there; still questionably insane, still the product of his society.Some more information is provided on the world.

All in all, the book is enjoyable, especially if you feel like you missed some major element of the Book of the New Sun.Urth of the New Sun isn't an incredible read, but it definitely filled me with some flashes of insight that made it well worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description
The Washington Post has called Gene Wolfe "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced." This volume joins together two of his rarest and most sought after works--Gene Wolfe's Book of Days and The Castle of the Otter--and add thirty-nine short essays collected here for the first time, to fashion a rich and engrossing architecture of wonder.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Greatfor Wolfe fans, especially of the Book of the New Sun
Gene Wolfe's collection CASTLE OF DAYS is a must for fans, especially those who enjoyed his four-volume great work the Book of the New Sun. It consists of three parts, "Gene Wolfe's Book of Days", "The Castle of the Otter", and "Castle of Days."

"Gene Wolfe's Book of Days" is a collection of some of Wolfe's short stories, each representing a particular holiday. While these pieces are generally lighter and less substantial than Wolfe's other short stories of the late 70's and earlier 80's, there are several stories that are highly worthy. "Forlesen", representing Labor Day, is a clever jab at life in a corporation and it shows that the Dilbertesque workplace is nothing new. "The Changeling" represents Homecoming Day. A chilling and haunting piece, it takes place in the same town as Wolfe's early novel PEACE and illuminates a cryptic reference made there. This story alone makes CASTLE OF DAYS worth getting for fans of PEACE.

The second part of the book is "Castle of the Otter", named in jest after the mispelling of THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH which appeared in a 1982 issue of Locus. Subtitled "a book about the Book of the New Sun", it is a collection of essays about Wolfe's best-known work and can greatly expand one's knowledge of that world. "Words Weird and Wonderful", for example, defines all the archaic words in THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER. "These Are the Jokes" is a collection of witty jokes, each told by a different character from the Book of the New Sun. "Onomastics" explains the names of many characters. "Castle of the Otter" was written when two of the four volumes of the series had been published, so it is a bit light on detail from THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH. Nonetheless, if you loved the Book of the New Sun, this part makes CASTLE OF DAYS the next Wolfe work worth getting.

The final section is "Castle of Days", which is a collection of diverse essays from the late 1980's. I found this the least interesting section, as much deals with science fiction fandom and a few pieces are rather quaint. However, there is the highly interesting essay "The Secret of the Greeks" which explains some of Wolfe's work on the Soldier series and why classical languages and literature are a worthwhile pastime.

All in all, CASTLE OF DAYS is an essential purchase for fans of Gene Wolfe. I didn't pick it up until six years after I read and was fascinated by the Book of the New Sun, and I instantly regretted missing out on such an illuminating collection. I can't recommend this collection enough.

Buy this book!
In one volume there is one of Wolfe's strongest story collections, essays on the Book of the New Sun, and a collection of entertaining miscellaceous essays. The story's are varied and all very powerful (though in different ways). The essays on New Sun are insightful without ruining the book. The other essays on literary topics are far more insightful than any snobbish literary professor's.

strange and wonderful
These stories are the work of a man with a sharp mind and a wicked sense of humor.Most of them are science fiction, but many are unclassifiable.For instance, "Forlesen," a story with many levels of meaning,attempts to sum up the twentieth century experience in forty-four pages anddoes it pretty well.There is non-fiction as well, including Wolfe'shilarious essay on knife-throwing.From my limited experience I'd say thatGene Wolfe is one of the most underrated science fiction writers. ... Read more

Product Description
A superb collection of science fiction and fantasy stories, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is a book that transcends all genre definitions. The stories within are mined with depth charges, explosions of meaning and illumination that will keep you thinking and feeling long after you have finished reading.
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Customer Reviews (21)

A genius collection!
Gene Wolfe has always been the kind of author that makes me feel guilty and maybe a little dumb. All his works - but especially his short fiction - require undivided attention, an almost maniacal eye for detail, and no doubt a passion for solving puzzles. The part that makes me feel dumb is knowing that the mystery is right in front of my eyes. Hiding in plain sight is always the trick with Wolfe, and one of the reasons his fiction is so exquisite. Alas, that knowledge rarely helps in unraveling the layers of innuendos, the significance of the character names, or the little details in the way words are arranged. Feeling guilty comes later, when I realize I've barely scraped the surface, but just couldn't force myself to start reading all over again. I am rarely able to reread before a long time has passed.

With all that said, I am nothing if not a sucker for punishment, so I keep reading Wolfe's works and keep loving them. The Island of Doctor Death And Other Stories And Other Stories is one of the more ridiculous titles of short story collections out there, and the reason for the repetition is the titular story, The Island of Doctor Death And Other Stories, which is a part of the so called "Wolfe Archipelago" - four stories that all have the words "Island", "Doctor" and "Death" in them. Here endeth the similarities though, as we can see from two of the other three parts of the Archipelago, also published in this collection. While The Island of Doctor Death... is a sort of magical realism and externalized metaphor for escapist literature (the characters from a pulp Science Fiction novel resembling The Island of Dr. Moreau all come to life, manifesting in the company of the young main character Tackie to help him with his real life problems), the second story, the Nebula award winning The Death of Dr. Island, is - in Wolfe's own words - "a thematic inversion" of it. The real island from the first story is replaced by the artificial satellite of "Dr. Island". The AI psychiatrist "Doctor" himself is now the villain of the story while the good boy Tackie is turned into the vicious and unstable Nicholas who has to be "cured" by the mind-screwing space station.

But Wolfe wouldn't be Wolfe if he made things that easy, and the third part of the Archipelago, The Doctor of Death Island, is nowhere near as comparable to the other two as they are to each other. It gives us a world in the near future, where humanity has achieved immortality at the price of losing love, ambition, literacy and other little things of the sort. Unfortunately for the main character - a convicted murderer - a life sentence in this world is still a life sentence. Although the author himself insists that themes of the other Archipelago stories persist here, I was not able to find them on the first reading. I also found the story a bit underwhelming, compared to the other two, and especially The Death...

Other highlights of this magnificent collection are:

The Hero As A Werwolf (the mistake is intentional) where humanity has turned itself into the "Masters" - a race of art-loving near-immortal creatures that never suffer from diseases, hunger or compassion. The remaining humans are hunted and purged, but they have learned to survive by feeding on the Masters. Thus the "Werwolf", from the Anglo-Saxon wer, which means "man"; the hero is a "man-wolf" - a noble creature turned into an animal, but still better in Wolfe's eyes to the soulless Masters.

Seven American Nights has to be my favorite story from this collection. In a future where America has barely survived a genetic apocalypse, leaving almost all of its citizens malformed and mutated in some way, a man from Iran arrives on its shores. The story is told through Nadan's journal. But it seems to cover only... six nights. Seven American Nights is by far the most intriguing mystery among the fourteen stories and a shining example of Wolfe's love for the "unreliable narrator". First of all, the number of nights does not match. Second, Nadan is vain, and trying to impress his potential readers - his mother and fiance. Also, at some point he gets paranoid about the intrigues in which he has inadvertently involved himself, and tears pages from his diary in fear that someone might read them. Also there are moments where he is obviously not in his right mind, be it under the influence of drugs or just raging fear. None of the characters - not even Nadan himself - are what they seem to be, and there are many theories as to what really happened, and how many nights he spent in the enigmatic third-world country of America.

Hour of Trust again sees America almost destroyed, this time by a vicious anarchist civil war. The only opposition are the big corporations which have taken the side of the failing American army, and are trying to raise funds from other firms in Europe by staging a party where their expected victory over the rebels in Detroit is to be aired live on TV. Here there seem to be no big secrets to unravel, but Wolfe gives indications for the ending from the very beginning. Names are important, and actions, and also little words. The strongest point of the story is in the atmosphere. You could feel the desperation, even if the main characters can't, the delusions of the Old Order that things could ever get back to what once was. Hour of Trust is a story about change, and about a world dying so that it can be reborn. It is also a little sad, because Wolfe never gives guaranties that what comes next will be better than what was lost.

All the stories offer more on second and third glance. I could write about the New Testament allusions in The Hero As A Werwolf, or about the multi-faceted relationship between Tackie and Doctor Death in The Island of Doctor Death...; or of the many layers of mystery and misleading clues in Seven American Nights. But I am neither qualified, nor willing to steal the incredible sense of wonder and fulfillment that comes with untangling Wolfe's stories by yourself. Suffice to say that after almost twenty years of reading SF and Fantasy, I am yet to find another author with such eye for intricate detail, and able to tell a self-sufficient straightforward story with another straightforward story hiding in plain sight inside it. And yet another one, thrown in for good measure. It is not a coincidence that Gene Wolfe has been labeled by many of his colleagues as the greatest living stylist in American literature. It is not an empty title, and I am yet to read a book or short story from him that disproves it.

As for The Island of Doctor Death And Other Stories And Other Stories, I couldn't find a single story inside that I didn't love, and I just couldn't recommend it enough.

10/10


[...]

"The old woman closed the notebook..."
Amazing - thank you Frank! Somewhere between the best science fiction earthbound and DeLint's secrets inside of our cities ... is how Wolfe reads to me. When I smack into his funny twists of phrase and timing - the worlds lost - the technology overrunning - the psychosis - the human side of all the changes the world can imagine for itself. I stop still at some phrases: "We are all sketches, as it were, of the same set of pastels." 'Eyeflash Miracles', 'Seven American Nights' - and the circular patterns of Doctor Death / Death of Doctor Island... etc. I am hunting up more Wolfe for future reads.

Fantastic -- but must read with care
The stories in this book are almost all winners. Read with care or you will miss critical details. Wolfe never explains completely, and he never gives a clue twice. My favorite is "Seven American Nights," the travel journal of a lost tourist from the Middle East in a fallen America. Pay attention and you may find a second horror story behind the obvious one.

I also loved "The Death of Dr. Island," "The Eyeflash Miracles," "Hour of Trust," and "Tracking Song."Some of the really short ones, like "Cues" are extremely cryptic and seem to be jokes.

Pure greatness
Wolfe is the best writer at work in SF and fantasy. These early stories prove just how subtle, exciting and completely riveting his writing can be. Each story is a true gem, and each is totally different. The title story (and the variants on that title) all provide insight into the human heart you cannot believe until you have read them, aand the sorcery of the writing just pulls you right into each imaginary world. Irresistable.

Island doctors and their deaths
These being the first short stories I've read by Gene Wolfe I went into the read curious, hopeful and genuinely unsure how they'd turn out.I'll be upfront w/my bias; I think Gene Wolfe is an amazing author.

The good news:I'm even more impressed by his writing and stories than I was before.

The bad news:Not every story is amazing; such is reading short fiction collections.

Overall, I rate this as an excellent collection of short fiction, and unless you simply have an aversion to the fantastic, I would highly recommend it.And if you already like Gene Wolfe?Look for familiar devices, such as memory and sense perception.He winds such nice paths... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

The story was just too shrouded
I wanted to enjoy this novel; the style reminded me of the old text-adventure games I used to play in the 80s.The novel opens with a fleeing love and the character finds himself in a different dimension, very similar to our own but different enough to be intriguing.As the story continues to unfold, you begin to seriously question the narrating character's mental health.

However, I can only stand a mystery for so long.After a couple of chapters had gone by, more mysteries had been presented and even fewer solved.I will keep reading a novel if I have faith that the mysteries are going to be explained at a later point, but the author did so little to explain how the lost love could be assuming the many different forms she was adopting and went to almost no trouble to explain the alternate universe in which the character had found himself.By about the fifth chapter I lost faith and patience that any of these mysteries would be explained and put the book down for good.

I'm not surprised to see that the novel has so many favorable reviews.I'm sure it appeals strongly to a certain type of reader.It's definitely different than most books with its disjointed and dream-like narrative.However, I found the tone of the novel stilted and, therefore, less enjoyable.

I would guess that if you are the type who enjoys bizarre modern art, interpretive dance, and offbeat experimental cinema, then you'll probably love this book.However, if your tastes run more mainstream - as do mine - then you probably won't be thrilled by this book.

Not Free SF Reader
Another Wolfe oddity. An ordinary man discovers that there are
passageways to other places and worlds. He becomes obsessed with a
superior specimen of woman, a goddess. Unlike Garth, for example, who
has a similar relationship, but is basically a superhero.

There is a question though of whether this is all real, or
something that is just in his head. So one of those stories where the
sanity of the protagonist is in quesiton.

Schizophrenia - Pure, Simple, And Brilliant
From the point of view of the schizophrenic, there is only occasional and fleeting doubt about their reality principle, and to the outside world those are the moments of clarity and hopefully the beginning of the return to normalcy. Apart from those moments, the person's worldview is as airtight as language itself - self-referencing and reinforcing.

Though the narrative of "There Are Doors" is third-person, the narrative only questions Adam Green's life and thinking when he does - which only comes with electric shock, and still are fleeting moments. The end result for the reader is that there is no independent point-of-view from which to verify or repudiate Adam's thinking, his questions and conclusions and behavior. The reader is stuck with Adam willy nilly, beginning to end.

It's a wild ride of a read that takes you from department store break room to bizarre underground theater, from talking barbie dolls to drives in big black limousines with Presidential Cabinet members. This, I think, is a testament to Wolfe's brilliance as a writer: he's committed to describing the world from Adam's point of view alone, to tying it all together in a mad, coherent whole. Either it all hangs together, or none of it hangs together. That's what makes this story what it is. That's what the story is, period. And it's a great story.

For those interested in this kind of story: it's more truth than fiction, if you take the word of the author of "Operators and Things" - another out-of-print book, unfortunately. Barbara O'Brien (apparently a pseudonym) gives her ostensibly autobiographical account of her own schizophrenic episode and spontaneous remission. It reads much like "There Are Doors", and certainly they have in common the almost suffocating circular reasoning of the main character. For a quite different take on mental illness, one not quite as locked into the mind of the patient but just as jarring, is "Scandal" by Shusaku Endo.

Bravo Gene Wolfe!

Sorry - my opinion differs
Sorry my opinion differs greatly.

I cannot believe I see all those 5 stars! 5 stars to me is for Austen's Pride and Prejudice orTolstoy's Anna Karenina. 4 Stars would be for Stephen King's Carrie or Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy. I cannot see how this book is deserving of anything more than a two tops!

I did completely fall for the character and his love for all different people he encountered, not just Lara. Even with that being said I think he reallyneeded to pull open that hidden compartment of the desk and find a spine! Not Tina!!! How wishy-washy can one man be when it comes to matters of the heart yet be so fearless when saving another man's life?

Although I felt completely robbed at the ending and wished for the couple weekends back that it took me to read this book, I would not buy a sequel if there were one.

I wouldn't classify this book asScience Fiction Fantasy at all - I would call it delusional at best.

Speculative fiction of the highest quality
I rarely praise any book quite so highly as I am about to praise this one. A great novel is one that, in addition to telling a good story, gets better on every re-reading and rewards its readers more and more as their understanding grows. This is a terrific story that holds a great wealth for the reader to discover, and thus I'm forced to admit that I do think this really is a great novel.

The style, if not the content, is definitely influenced by Kafka - there are deliberate references thrown in and even a character unmistakably based on Kafka himself. This is far from a retread of "The Trial", however.

The protagonist is led on a surreal chase through another dimension in search of "the Goddess", who he has fallen in love with after a short tryst in his own dimension. This other world is strange, yet familiar: it runs a bit slower in time (the clock, one might say, has gone by now about 40 years slow), but the major difference is that here, for unexplained reasons, human males inevitably die after mating. This creates a (significantly) bee-like social structure with childbearing women (queens, if you will) in the positions of power; the men are for the most part skittishly subservient, but with a dangerous revolutionary undercurrent.

Most of the struggle in this book, however, is internal, as neither the reader nor the protagonist himself has a firm grasp on his own identity. What is his real name? Is he really an "alcoholic"? Is he mad? Is he, perhaps, a god?

A bit of knowledge about ancient myth will greatly expand the scope of your experience with this book - it is a good story regardless, but looking up some myths (if you don't know it already) will open up a whole new dimension to things. A knowledge of mythology and the world of myths itself will take you even further. Reading Campbell - or better yet, Robert Graves - is a great help in appreciating the artistic depth in much of Wolfe's work, and especially this book. Hopefully "There Are Doors" will encourage you to check these out, if you haven't already. But all this aside, this was a tremendous novel and I recommend it highly. ... Read more

Product Description
Lexicon Urthus is an alphabetical dictionary for the complete Urth Cycle by Gene Wolfe: The Shadow of the Torturer; The Claw of the Conciliator; The Sword of the Lictor; The Citadel of the Autarch; the sequel Urth of the New Sun; the novella Empires of Foliage and Flower; the short stories "The Cat," "The Map," and "The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin Is the Sun"; and Gene Wolfe's own commentaries in The Castle of the Otter. The first edition was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. This second edition, available for the first time in paperback, includes 300 new entries.When the first edition was published, Science Fiction Age said: "Lexicon Urthus makes a perfect gift for any fan of [Wolfe's] work, and from the way his words sell, it appears that there are many deserving readers out there waiting." Gary K. Wolfe, in Locus, said: "A convenient and well researched glossary of names and terms. . . . It provides enough of a gloss on the novels that it almost evokes Wolfe's distant future all by itself. . . . It can provide both a useful reference and a good deal of fun." Donald Keller said, in the New York Review of Science Fiction: "A fruitful product of obsession, this is a thorough . . . dictionary of the Urth Cycle. . . . Andre-Driussi's research has been exhaustive, and he has discovered many fascinating things . . . [it is] head-spinning to confront a myriad of small and large details, some merely interesting, others jawdropping." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Real Page Turner
I'm thrilled to see the second edition of the Lexicon Urthus available in Kindle format. I only wish that the 4(+1) books in the New Sun saga were likewise available (sigh).

I downloaded a sample of the Lexicon yesterday evening--mostly to verify the formatting. Each entry is a pearl of information. Some of the information made me gasp.Before I knew it, I had purchased the Lexicon and (at 2:00AM) completed reading the work cover to cover.Oh, I cannot wait to dive back into the Book of the New Sun with this searchable tool close at hand.I might even attempt to wrap my brain around Urth of the New Sun one more time.

A must for lovers of the series
If you have read and re-read Wolfe's masterpiece, The Book of the New Sun, and loved the experience, but felt you were missing out by not knowing many of the words within, then this book, Lexicon Urthus, is a must have for you.Not only has the author painstakingly traced down each obscure word Wolfe used in the books, he gives their history and origins.Every place and character name in the Book is listed here with info for each one.There are several maps, a wonderful synopsis, and an intro by Wolfe himself.I applaud Michael Andre-Driussi for what must have been a very long and challenging book to put together.And, most important of all (to myself, anyway), the book is just a ton of fun to read, skim, or flip through, evoking Wolfe's Urth almost as potently as the series itself.Brilliant.Probably the only reference work I have read for pleasure.

A must-have for Wolfe fans
As a proud owner of the first edition of this work (now out of print), I want to make clear that this is a much-expanded second edition (440 pages vs. the original 304) and all the richer for it.

Having read Wolfe's Urth Cycle (as Driussi himself names it) several times, I read this book much like an encyclopedia, with one reference pinging me off to the next and so on. With a full list of characters (named and unnamed), etymological explanations for many terms in the text, as well as longer articles detailing some of the intricacies and going some way to provide answers to the puzzles hidden in the books, it is an invaluable work of reference for the Wolfe enthusiast.

It will also prove of great use to newcomers to Wolfe's books, as the unfamiliar words can be off-putting to some. Rest assured none are truly made up and have their roots in Latin, Greek and many other sources.

My only (very, very minor) quibble with it is the discovery of the odd typo (Chateline, for Chatelaine, for instance), but even the man himself (Wolfe) has been known to make the occasional mistake. On the other hand, as this is a Print On Demand title, perhaps the author will make these minor corrections, rendering my copy even more valuable!

Charming and informative though not entirely dependable
LEXICON URTHUS is a dictionary prepared by Michael Andre-Driussi of the unusual words and names used by Gene Wolfe in his four-volume masterpiece The Book of the New Sun (and its coda THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN). Originally published in 1994, it swiftly went out of print and used copies went for high prices. The publication of its second edition is to be heralded.

Those who have read Wolfe's work know that he usually allows many of his archaic terms to be defined for the reader through context, but those wishing to know more about these words weird and wonderful can turn to this resource. The book doesn't limit itself merely to terminology, however, but also contains the names of characters and places. Many characters in the Book of the New Sun are named after obscure saints of early Christianity or the Middle Ages or mythological figures, and Andre-Driussi shows why they have the names they do. For example, "Nilammon", the man mentioned in passing by the caretaker who shows Severian a picture of the moon ("Now there's trees enough on it to hide Nilammon") is named after a 4th century Egyptian saint who hid in his cell to escape a mob that wanted to proclaim him bishop.

Yet, Andre-Driussi sometimes goes astray. In the entry on Valeria, for example, he mentions several female saints, but doesn't mention who, I would say, is the most likely namesake of the character: Claudius' wife Valeria Messalina. The name of "Kim Lee Soong", the ancestor of the prisoners in the antechamber, is said to be Chinese, but clearly it is Korean. And occasionally Andre-Driussi makes pronouncements that are simply beyond reason, such as that Hethor is the same as Soong. The work is also clearly an amateur production, although Sirius Fiction has typeset and bound it quite nicely.

Educated readers will already recognise many of these etymologies, and LEXICON URTHUS is no substitute for the Oxford English Dictionary and a good saints dictionary. Still, the book is worth reading for any passionate fan of The Book of the New Sun.

An important key to following "Book of the New Sun"
The first edition of this book sold out before I could get a copy (before I even heard of its existence), but I was lucky enough to borrow a copy from a friend to accompany my first re-read of "New Sun." It added hugely to my enjoyment and my understanding, and it was with great reluctance I returned it to the owner. I am immensely pleased to see this new edition, and look forward to another pass through "New Sun" with its accompaniment. ... Read more

Product Description
Arthurian legend collides with Main Street, USA, in Gene Wolfe's classic fantasy adventure. Castleview, Illinois, got its name from occasional sightings of a phantom castle on stormy nights--a place where the barrier between past and present is weak and strange things happen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A fun read just not the author's best.
This isn't Wolfe at his best. The story is at times maddeningly confusing. It appears to be a mishmash of Arthurian legends, fairy folklore and vampire stories all set in small town America. The characters often seem to act in a contrived manner and for a short novel is has an extensive cast. But it's still Wolfe. The book has some interesting ideas and wonderful images and his prose is always a pleasure to read.

It moves along at a fair old clip and the second half is practically frenetic. This both serves to draw the reader in and then to leave them even more bemused when they have a moment to cogitate on what just occurred.

Definitely worth a read but would not recommend this to a first time reader of Gene Wolfe.The Book of The New Sun series or Soldier in the Mist would be better starting point.

ARG!
This book was recommended to me by Library Thing. I wanted a little diversionary reading, checked around about Wolfe and found him very highly rated.

I only wish I had read these reviews first. ARG! This guy might have some great stuff, but I will never know because of Castleview. A total mess, completely incomprehensible, with many loose ends left untied.

What happend to Sally's sister, among many other loose ends...

I kept plowing through this thing thinking somehow, somewhere, it will begin to make sense.

Arg and double arg!

Fun
I first read Castleview fifteen years ago and to this day it is one of my favorite novels!It was fast paced, puzzling, hilarious, exausting and the most fun I've ever experienced reading a book.I'm buying a copy for my nephew.

So much promise, so little reward
In this frustrating and ultimately not-worthwhile book, Wolfe takes an incredible premise (an Arthurian castle that appears on the outskirts of a middle America town, but is only visable to certain people) and totally ruins it.

Having read a great amount of Arthurian literature (both modern and classic - like Malory, de Troyes, and von Eschenbach), I can honestly say that the plot is incomprehensible. Very few characters have any parallel to Arthurian figures (other than an occasional name), and most of them behave in a completely bizarre fashion.

I slugged my way through every last agonizing page in hopes that the end might clear up the mysteries of this book... only to be disappointed again. My only guess is that Wolfe wrote this book while on drugs, his publisher agreed to publish it based on his prior reputation alone, and that anyone who claims to have enjoyed it is a diehard Wolfe fan that won't admit that this book is a total failure.

I had absolutely no idea what was going on
Gene Wolfe's CASTLEVIEW is the second of his turn of the 90's trilogy of fantastical fiction novels. The first, THERE ARE DOORS, was a rather confusing but ultimately comprehendible book, but with CASTLEVIEW the reader has no idea what's going on.

CASTLEVIEW is perhaps the most infamous of Gene Wolfe's novels. Wolfe has always like to present puzzles to the reader, and every book he's written is filled with mysteries, allusions, and inside jokes. The answers to these are usually to be found after some diligent reading and research, and in any event the main plot can always be followed. In CASTLEVIEW, even the plot is totally baffling. Apparently it has something to do with magical creatures and characters from folklore, especially King Arthur and company, plaguing a modern town outside of Chicago. That's really all one can say for certain after reading the book. The entire point of the book is an enigma, and it doesn't appear that Wolfe has included the key anywhere in its 200+ pages. My personal hypothesis right after reading the book was that 50 pages or so fell out of my copy during the printing process, so that I missed the part where everything comes together. However, I read the same copy everyone else did, and no one's ever shown it was incomplete.

Ignoring the fact that the book goes right over the heads of its audience, CASTLEVIEW is not one of Wolfe's stronger works. I was annoyed by the speed in which Wolfe introduced new characters, so that it was difficult to follow who's who. Chapters end abruptly on some mysterious development which may create suspense but which irks the reader. Ironically, the teenagers are the only characters which are portrayed realistically, and the adults are somewhat two-dimensional, which is the opposite of how these sorts of things normally turn out.

Gene Wolfe is truly one of the finest writers in the English language. His four-volume work The Book of the New Sun is legendary, and his latest work The Book of the Short Sun is filled with moments of sublime beauty and poignant emotion. I would most certainly recommend that one read Wolfe's "solar" works first (starting with the BotNS), his magisterial novel PEACE, and just about everything else he's every written before coming to CASTLEVIEW. I do recommend CASTLEVIEW, and reading the book sure does explain why so many Wolfe scholars are beating their heads against the wall on this one. Save CASTLEVIEW for last. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

volume three
'The Sword of the Lictor' is volume three of Gene Wolfe's 'Book of the New Sun', so you probably don't want to read this one first. We follow the further adventures of Severian as he reaches the city of Thrax to take up his duties as Lictor. However again he shows mercy to a client and if forced to flee the city into the mountainous wilds of the north.
Like the previous two books this is a multi-layered story with many allusions not all (or even most) of which I grasped. Still it was an enjoyable read and an entertaining story with some memorable scenes and a compelling setting. I am looking forward to the concluding volume.

Not Free SF Reader
The title delineates a role that Severian, whose memoirs these books
purport to be, must play. It is an office of duty. Being a torturer and
executioner, he is called upon to kill yet another woman, He refuses
one of these due to emotion, and has to leave.

More than just SCI FI
The novel continues the story of Severian and leads him through new adventures which confront him with new perspectives and thoughts. This book is more than just a Sci fi novel, since it offers a critical view of theforces in the portrayed society and so different and similar at the sametime from maybe ours.Among the themes dealt with by Severian are life,humanity etc. It is definately worth readingif you don't only look for asequence of action events and a little more food for thought. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (9)

Another reason to read Wolfe.
Simply put, Gene Wolfe uses the written English language better than any other writer alive today.

Read anything of his that you can.

Marvellous!
These are stories for people who love to read, and to reread, and to think about what they've read -- for people who love the feeling that they're playing a game with the author as they read -- and for people who don't mind losing that game b/c they realize that just *playing* against an adversary this good is better than winning any number of games against normal players ...

A terrific collection which contains:

The Tree Is my Hat
The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun
The Friendship Light
Slow Children At Play
Under Hill
The Monday Man
The Waif
The Legend of Xi Cygnus
The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun
How the Bishop Sailed to Inniskeen
Houston, 1943
A Fish Story
Wolfer
The Eleventh City
The Night Chough
The Wrapper
A Traveller in Desert Lands
The Walking Sticks
Queen
Pocketsful of Diamonds
Copperhead
The Lost Pilgrim

Some notes:
"The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun" is NOT connected to the Long Sun cycle.However, "The Night Chough" is (linked to the Long Sun/Short Sun series).

"Slow Children At Play" is linked to, and evidently happens *after*, Wolfe's story "The Arimaspian Legacy," which can be found in his _Starwater Strains_.

Wolfe's talent for horror (not graphic or disgusting, but chilling and terrifying) is on display here in several stories, including (but not limited to) "The Friendship Light" "The Monday Man, "Fish Story" "Walking Sticks" and "The Eleventh City."

It often helps me to find a context for a Wolfe story.For instance, if you haven't read _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ recently, reread it after you read "Walking Sticks".

In the same vein, "Pocketsful of Diamonds" feels to me like Wolfe doing a P.L. Travers story.Read PL Travers' Mary Poppins Books, esp. "Full Moon," "Evening Out" "High Tide" "Happy Ever After" and "Hallowe'en".Then reread "Pocketsful" and see if you agree.

Innocents Aboard
One cannot, of course, write a review of a collection of short stories the same way on writes a review of a novel.A novel is one piece, a collection many.But enough chains run through "Innocents Aboard" to deal with it as a whole.This is not because Wolfe specifically picked out works that would function well together.But here's an amazing thing about Wolfe's career: that although it has spanned three decades, twenty plus novels and hundreds of smaller tales covering a rather mind-blowing variety of settings, set-ups, and deliveries, he has managed to clutch tightly to common threads throughout.

Thread number one, perhaps, is the slipperiness of the narrator.A well-known critic has remarked that Wolfe's career goal may be to prove that there is no reliable narrator.He's covered all possible types one by one, showing us the dangers of trusting a person who has perfect memory or no memory at all, high intelligence or complete immaturity, and so forth.In "Innocents Aboard" many stories open with problems of reliability.Of necessity, as this book contains only fantasy and dark fantasy/horror tales, everything that takes place must be somewhat strange.As such, the narrators know that their listenersmay be skeptical of what they hear.Often times they say as much outright, and are reassured that the listeners are at least willing to listen.

For instance "The Monday Man" begins when an average Joe asks his policeman friend to go fishing.But the policeman friend always refuses invitations to fishing trips, and eventually decides to explain why.His story, a delicious twist on a standard police tale, features a blue-jeans thief who defies expectations by turning out to be less than what he seems, and wraps with a quite comepelling reason to avoid the sport of angling.But the point, in Wolfe's view, is how to reconcile the huge intrusion of the supernatural into reasonably normal human existence.He does it with style, as always.

The other stories in "Innocents Aboard" range everywhere, from the mythological tale "The Old Woman whose Roling Pin is the Sun"to the historical horror fest "The Desert Traveler".True to form, not everything is as simple as "The Monday Man"; some, such as "The Tree is My Hat" and "Houston, 1943" will require devoted rereads to ferret out their meaning.But again true to form, they're mainly worth the effort.

Especially the Made-Up Parts
This short story collection has given Gene Wolfe a break from the gigantic sweeping epics of his more famous volumes, so he can explore some less portentous and more whimsical ideas. The stories here include everything from typical fantasy and hard science, to time travel and semi-autobiography. One reoccurring concept in these stories is the fine line between magic and reality, which is Wolfe's forte. Winners here include the disturbing xenophobia tale "The Waif," a bizarre mix of Arthurian chivalry and alternate history in "Under Hill," an exploration of the true purpose of people who share the author's last name in "Wolfer," and a strangely disconcerting tale of twisted time travel to ancient Greece in "The Lost Pilgrim." A slight weakness of this collection is the inclusion of several short stories that appear to be simple exercises in exploratory writing based on old fairy tales and legends. Such stories are fun to read but tend to not really go anywhere, such as "The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun," "A Fish Story," or "The Eleventh City" - though one exception is the intriguing stylized lullaby "The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun," which was created for Wolfe's granddaughter. But overall this is a very engaging, if sometimes underwhelming, collection of tales from one of the true masters of speculative fiction. [~doomsdayer520~]

Gene Wolfe still on top of his form as one of SF & F's best
For decades Gene Wolfe has received lavish praise from fellow writers and fans of science fiction and fantasy as the finest writer currently at work in both genres. He merely reaffirms such praise in his latest collection of short stories, "Innocents Aboard", which contains some of the best writing I've seen from him in years. It is a riveting collection of 22 fantasy and horror tales, with some loose elements from science fiction thrown here and there for good measure, and elements which could be described as "Magical Realism". My favorite tale is "Houston, 1943", which is sort of a bizarre twist from "Peter Pan" and other classic tales of childhood, along with sections which Wolfe claims is autobiographical. The final tale in the collection "The Lost Pilgrim", about a time traveler who stumbles upon the truth behind certain ancient Greek legends, is another classic. Those unfamiliar with Gene Wolfe's influential body of work may find this a minor introduction, but one which shows him still crafting great literary art in his 70's; others more familiar with his work will undoubtedly embrace it as much as I have. ... Read more

Product Description
An annotated bibliography and criticism on Wolfe's science fiction and non-fiction writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Over the years sf and fantasy writer Gene Wolfe has proven himself to be adept at all lengths of fiction.

Now in THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT, once again literary detective Robert Borski brings his critical eye and acumen to the wide array of Wolfe’s work, from short stories to novellas to mega-book series.

Along the way he’ll reveal to you the hidden alchemical structure of PEACE, why he thinks Latro and several others may be werewolves, what has happened to the missing twenty-four hours in “Seven American Nights,” what Biblical story is retold in the pulpish “Tracking Song,” who might or might not be an abo in THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, and how to navigate your way through dozens of other lupine mazes—all before concluding with an extended examination of Wolfe’s dazzling, if often opaque, BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Gene Wolfe Fan
I am a fan of Gene Wolfe and have been for some time.However, I have recently crossed a threshold where I am now reading books about Gene Wolfe's books, which I don't do for anyone else.This is an interesting, well written book that analyzes some of Wolfe's works.I was especially pleased by the fact that it talks about many works other than The New Sun.Not that I necessarily accept all of the theories, but I find it intersting to read the thoughts of someone who has spent way more time analyzing and thinking about the works than I have or will. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Free SF Reader
A reasonable collection of fantasy, with a 3.55 average.The best stories being Garth Nix's very funny and clever giant monster short, and Laird Barron's horror piece.

There is a quite brief piece by the editors about the state and source of stories in general, and each individual tale is prefaced with further info.

A solid 4, this book

Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Eating Hearts - Yoon Ha Lee
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Denial - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Fraud - Esther Friesner
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Sunbird - Neil Gaiman
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Shard of Glass - Alaya Dawn Johnson
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Farmer's Cat - Jeff Vandermeer
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Crab Apple - Patrick Samphire
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Comber - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Walpurgis Afternoon - Deliah Sherman
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Monster - Kelly Link
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Robots and Falling Hearts - Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Still Life with B00bs - Ann Harris
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Heads Up Thumbs Down - Gavin J. Grant
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Newbie Wrangler - Timothy J. Anderson
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Being Here - Claude Lalumière
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Mom and Mother Theresa - Candas Jane Dorsey
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Imago Sequence - Laird Barron
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Magic in a Certain Slant of Light - Deborah Coates
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Single White Farmhouse - Heather Shaw
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Read It in the Headlines! - Garth Nix
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane - Jonathon Sullivan
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Mortegarde - Liz Williams
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Inside Job - Connie Willis


Perfect magician, belt up and bonk.

3 out of 5


We're dead, stupid.

3.5 out of 5


Pregnant unicorn variation end.

4 out of 5


"I have a presentiment of doom upon me," ..."And I fear it shall come to us with barbecue sauce."

4 out of 5


Racist memory power runaway.

4 out of 5


Moggie ursa major makes troll mob minor.

3.5 out of 5


Dryad heart dump.

3 out of 5


Swiftly tilting city.

4 out of 5


Witchiness good for gardens.

3.5 out of 5


Hey, Bungalow Jim
I Might Eat Him

3.5 out of 5


Reality altering with replicating rodent robots. With a bit of mechanical criticism of the critical literary abilities of people.

3.5 out of 5


Mendicant mammaries.

4 out of 5


Sound of music is Matchless.

3 out of 5


Gud is bloody lazy, Zep Boy.

3.5 out of 5


Can't see this one, maybe that's us.

2.5 out of 5


No Aunt, just gimme shelter.

3 out of 5


Awful art lust trephination escape cave meld.

4 out of 5


Predicting dirigible desperation.

4 out of 5


Architectural pr0n, same?

3.5 out of 5


Very large Daikaiju font.

4.5 out of 5


Statue sword-slinger saves scientist.

4 out of 5


World Tree gatespeaking wyvern blood lecture dissection decision.

3.5 out of 5


Making monkeys of mediums.

4 out of 5



4 out of 5

Bizarre and beautiful
YEAR'S BEST FANTASY 6, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, is an engaging anthology of the absurd, the fantastic, the beautiful, and the horrifying, comprising twenty-three stories written by some of the best in the industry. The tales range from light and whimsical, as in "Still Life with Boobs" by Anne Harris, to dark and chilling, as in Laird Barron's much-acclaimed novella, "The Imago Sequence," which has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award in the long fiction category for 2005.

The book comes in with a tiger in Yoon Ha Lee's elegant parable "Eating Hearts," and goes out with a tiger, in Connie Willis's smartly crafted homage to H. L. Mencken entitled "Inside Job." Kelly Link's outstanding "Monster" is a tongue-in-cheek modern-day version of Beowulf in a boys' summer camp; and Bruce Sterling's satirical "The Denial" brings to mind the genius of Isaac B. Singer. Authors include Esther M. Friesner, Neil Gaiman, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Jeff VanderMeer, Patrick Samphire, Gene Wolfe, Delia Sherman, Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout, Gavin J. Grant (husband to Kelly Link), Candas Jane Dorsey, Timothy J. Anderson, Claude Lalumière, Deborah Coates, Heather Shaw, Garth Nix, Jonathon Sullivan, and Liz Williams.

Award recipient David G. Hartwell is the senior editor at Tor/Forge Books, the publisher of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, and the author of AGE OF WONDERS.

World Fantasy Award winner Kathryn Cramer is an editor at THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION. She has also co-edited the outstanding anthologies, THE ASCENT OF WONDER, THE HARD SF RENAISSANCE, and the YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION series.

YEAR'S BEST FANTASY 6 is highly recommended reading for anyone who enjoys variety in the fantastic.
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