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Post by mummifiedstalin on Mar 8, 2009 10:58:33 GMT -5
This guy is, in my opinion, the greatest sf/fantasy writer...ever. And I mean that in all seriousness. But very few people even within the genre have read him...probably because he's actually a bit hard to read.
So here's my informal survey: anyone else read him?
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Post by CBG on Mar 8, 2009 11:46:32 GMT -5
Not as yet...but I'm intrigued. What about his writing appeals to you? I'm looking for some well written sf/fantasy. What kind of fantasy does he write? Elves and fairies, post-apocalyptic..?
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Mar 9, 2009 11:53:20 GMT -5
It's his style and themes.
First, he writes in a way that demands serious attention. You'll often get a first person narrative in which it seems like certain important details are just left out. But then, when you read closer, you realize that the narrator may be trying to hide something or present himself in a better light. Or it may be that he's writing from with a mind or culture where certain things are taken for granted that seem utterly strange to us. For example, in one of his books, you read about ships and sailors and only realize halfway through that, in this culture, space ships AND boating ships are so common and close to each other that the narrator makes very little distinction. So all of a sudden what looked like a fantasy novel becomes science fiction.
But it's also his themes. He's constantly working on problems of self, memory, the closeness of magic and science (or techology looking like magic), and the inability to have true religious feelings.
Wolfe's a Catholic, for example, but his major work, which looks like it might be a retelling of the gospels, might also be a story where the savior is merely a pawn in a great cosmic conspiracy.
And, in the end, it's that ambiguity that makes you keep reading and rereading. There are no easy answers, but lots of questions where figuring out the answer is imperative. Hard but great stuff.
His master work is _The Book of the New Sun_ about a torturer, Severian, who might become the savior of an Earth which is so old that the sun is dying out. (It's actually red and so dim that you can see stars at noon.)
A good place to start, though, is his much shorter book (actually 3 short novellas) called _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_. It's a book about the problems of identity.
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Post by CBG on Mar 10, 2009 9:30:02 GMT -5
Very nice, Mr. Mumms. I shall start with _Cerberus_, and let you know. Thanks for the thoroughness, btw.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Mar 16, 2009 23:39:21 GMT -5
I love Gene Wolfe. I'm one of the few people who really liked the ending of The Book of the Long Sun. I thought it was brilliant, while a lot of people felt cheated.
My favorite book of his is The Urth of the New Sun. What an extraordinary way to explain how Severian brought The New Sun to Urth. I'll never forget his descriptions of riding the rainbow. The old sense of wonder shines through.
I haven't read Pirate Freedom yet. Anyone here read it?
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Mar 17, 2009 21:32:59 GMT -5
I love Gene Wolfe. I'm one of the few people who really liked the ending of The Book of the Long Sun. I thought it was brilliant, while a lot of people felt cheated. My favorite book of his is The Urth of the New Sun. What an extraordinary way to explain how Severian brought The New Sun to Urth. I'll never forget his descriptions of riding the rainbow. The old sense of wonder shines through. I haven't read Pirate Freedom yet. Anyone here read it? I've read it. I was underwhelmed. Same with _An Evil Guest_. Both seemed like they could have had interesting subtexts going on, but they were far too elusive in the end. Fun stories, in the end, but not worth the same kind of return reading and thought of his earlier stuff. That said, I thought the _Wizard Knight_ (both) was amazing. And I have to admit that while I appreciate Urth for what it told us about Severian's "world," I felt like the novel itself suffered from Wolfe's sometimes overly compacted plotting. It was great on reflection but a bit of a chore to read. Just my opinion, of course.
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Post by Captain Hygiene on Mar 17, 2009 23:27:12 GMT -5
Now you've got me curious. I wish this subboard had never started, because my reading list keeps getting longer and longer.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Mar 18, 2009 9:53:32 GMT -5
You really should. You might also like some of his short stuff, although _Fifth Head of Cerberus_ is really three short novellas in one book, all connected.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Mar 19, 2009 17:18:07 GMT -5
I love Gene Wolfe. I'm one of the few people who really liked the ending of The Book of the Long Sun. I thought it was brilliant, while a lot of people felt cheated. My favorite book of his is The Urth of the New Sun. What an extraordinary way to explain how Severian brought The New Sun to Urth. I'll never forget his descriptions of riding the rainbow. The old sense of wonder shines through. I haven't read Pirate Freedom yet. Anyone here read it? I've read it. I was underwhelmed. Same with _An Evil Guest_. Both seemed like they could have had interesting subtexts going on, but they were far too elusive in the end. Fun stories, in the end, but not worth the same kind of return reading and thought of his earlier stuff. That said, I thought the _Wizard Knight_ (both) was amazing. And I have to admit that while I appreciate Urth for what it told us about Severian's "world," I felt like the novel itself suffered from Wolfe's sometimes overly compacted plotting. It was great on reflection but a bit of a chore to read. Just my opinion, of course. Thanks. I'll still end up reading Pirate Freedom. It is Gene Wolfe, after all. And you're right. If Mr. Wolfe has a weakness, it's being too complicated at times. What's strange is I that found Urth too not be that complicated. Maybe my brain was working at full capacity that week. I need to go back and re-read Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete. It's been 13 years. I remember really liking those stories.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Mar 23, 2009 9:16:31 GMT -5
Oh, yeah. Both PF and AEG are good tales. I liked the noir/Lovecraft homage of AEG in particular. But neither of them had the same sense of a real sprawling world/culture of his best stuff.
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Post by callipygias on Oct 27, 2009 23:15:29 GMT -5
Like I said in another thread I just got a 2-book collection of short, "fantastic tales of horror," and I recognized Gene Wolfe's name from this thread on the 2nd to last story in the collection, it's called The Little Stranger, so I started with it. Fun, dark little story with an almost children's-book twist ending, but I really liked the way he writes. I've never been much into hard sci-fi, but I might try one of his.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Oct 29, 2009 19:11:05 GMT -5
Awesome! He just came out with "Best of" for his short stories. That might be worth a read if you want to stay with stories rather than novels.
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Post by callipygias on Oct 29, 2009 19:29:52 GMT -5
I ordered The Fifth Head of Cerberus earlier today. I almost got the book of short stories too, but I might wait till after I read Cerberus.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Oct 29, 2009 20:40:07 GMT -5
I ordered The Fifth Head of Cerberus earlier today. I almost got the book of short stories too, but I might wait till after I read Cerberus. Cerberus is like three short novellas, anyway. They're connected, but can stand alone. They're also all chock'd full of awesome.
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Nov 3, 2009 14:41:22 GMT -5
Back when I read s-f, I read most everything Wolf had written up to that point. He's an intellectual writer, a literary writer, I'd say.
I liked Free Live Free a good deal--it has a good deal of humor in it. Haven't read but two or three s-f novels since 1990, so I have no idea what he's doing now. But yes, he was very good. I probably prefer Tiptree and LeGuin and others, and my favorite s-f book of all time is the not-much-read Architect of Sleep by Boyett (which is only actually half a novel. The other half was never published)
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