# Tiny reviews of Gene Wolfe novels *The SF-Lovers list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 16 Jan 1993* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Dan Rabin *16 Jan 1993, 20:01* Everybody seems to be recommending _The Book of the New Sun_ as *the* series of novels by Gene Wolfe to read first. Yes, they are the best, and _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ is almost as good, but what about Wolfe's other novels? Here follow some short reviews of them, ordered from most recommended to least. I omit the _Soldier_ series, which other posts have addressed. I also omit _Peace_, which I have not yet read, and _Operation Ares_, which I have not yet obtained. _There Are Doors_ The reader has a problem here. The narrative is in the third person, restricted to the point of view of the protagonist, who is obsessively in love with a woman from an alternate universe. He goes there to seek her. Or does he? We have reason to doubt... OK, I've told you too much already. It is characteristic of Wolfe that an abstract problem like the foregoing provides enough tension to hang a novel on. Of course, the alternate world itself is surreal and frightening. And of course there are surprises and brilliant ideas galore, and of course the book grabs your mind and firmly twists it. _Pandora, by Holly Hollander_ This book is a refreshingly light murder mystery set in the present day in the far suburbs of Chicago (where, incidentally, Gene Wolfe resides). The narrator is a teen-age girl who seems to have personal relationships with most of the suspects. Thus all of Wolfe's authorial personality has to be expressed through the limited voice of a young person of a different generation and sex from the actual author. It doesn't work all of the time, but it's lots of fun to read. And short, too. _Castleview_ Illinois, again. A small town. All Hell breaks loose. Literally. Once again, Wolfe concerns himself with points of contact between two worlds. The small-town characters (and even their pets) become elevated to a heroic plane again, quite literally. There is no lack of action and excitement. There *is* a lack of much indication of what the **** is going on, but if you've gotten this far down the list, you expect this from Wolfe. _Free Live Free_ A very odd book indeed. Four down-and-out mutual strangers are thrown together in house that is then demolished. The old man disappears - what was his secret? Escapades ensue, ranging from comic to suspense-thriller fare. There are many chapters of these, and then there is a conclusion, which doesn't quite justify the journey and is drawn from yet a different genre. I hope these reviews prove useful to somebody. I'm writing this out of a sense of duty, because I found it difficult to make up my own mind two years ago to explore Wolfe's works beyond _The Book of the New Sun_ and _The Urth of the New Sun_. There seems to be something compelling about certain created universes that makes me reluctant to read other works by the same author. Perhaps I fear that to do so would reveal that these worlds, which seem so real, are actually artifices. How do other readers feel about, for example, * J.R.R. Tolkien's non-Middle-Earth works? (_Leaf by Niggle_, _Farmer Giles of Ham_, _Smith of Wootton Major_). * Frank Herbert's non-Dune books? (admittedly, there are other reasons to regret having read _The God Makers_) Dan Rabin --- ### K R Maxson *18 Jan 1993, 23:20 · follows Dan Rabin* I would take exception with those who say that Wolfe's New Sun material is his best work, but to each his own. My personal favorite is _There Are Doors_, followed closely by _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_, "The Death of Doctor Island" (not to be confused with any of the other short stories about death, doctors, and islands), and _Peace_. To describe many of Gene Wolfe's novels before they are read is, in my opinion, to diminish them. I have never read a Wolfe piece that I regretted, so read all of them. His _Gene Wolfe's Book of Days_ and _Endangered Species_, both collections of short stories, are good places to start. The New Sun material is an attempt to weave a Wolfesque story into the tapestry of commercial fantasy and science fiction. I think it is done rather slickly, but that much of the current SF market would rather bypass books that aren't reassuringly shallow and don't spell out the point for the reader by the end. (Personally I feel that if the writer can sum up his or her thesis in a few sentences at the end of the book, the book should have only been a few sentences and save the gloss. If a book doesn't make me think at least as much as walking in the woods does, I'd just as soon walk in the woods.) _Castleview_ and the _Pandora_ I both found disappointing, although still enjoyable. ---