Subject: Gene Wolfe, _On Blue's Waters_

From: David Kennedy <kennedyd at bireh010.europe.nortel.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 10:52:30 +0000

If anyone else but Gene Wolfe had embarked on their third trilogy in the
same fantasy sequence there'd be cries of complaint at the crass
commercialisation. However, it's a new set of books by Wolfe and I for one
will happily read anything he writes!

No spoilers other than general comments. Spoiler for the Long Sun series.

I was irritated by the end of the Long Sun books, I felt that the
appearance of the inhumi (spelling?) as they approached Green and Blue
didn't fit with the rest of the series and was something of a slapped on
ending.

Since then I have read, er, memory failure, _The Fifth Head of Cerebus_?
(The one with the three interlinked stories of shapeshifters.) This
established some context for the ending of the Long Sun books, but I still
didn't like it.

I'm happier now. Wolfe addresses this issue directly in the new book,
having the protagonist Horn (the youngster Silk knew in the Long Sun
trilogy) wonder about the events at the exodus from the Whorl. It looks
like this will be a central story element in this series.

The style is quite different from the Short Sun or Long Sun books. As you
would expect the narrative isn't linear and straightforward but he doesn't
play too many games with the reader. The writing is more transparent than
before, with less of the layered imagery of the Short Sun books for
example. This is due in part to the story being told by Horn I suppose. He
has a markedly different view of the world from Silk (or so he tells us)
despite being hugely influenced by him. Once I started to dis-entangle
events I enjoyed this book hugely.

Anyway, I'll reserve judgement until I read the rest of the series, but I
always find other people's reading of Wolfe's books to be much more
incisive than my own!

Anyone want to tell me what they though was worth remarking on? Please?  (I
_want_ something to look for when I reread it)

David Kennedy

---

From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at crossover.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 15:51:30 +0000

While I think that _On Blue's Waters_ is Wolfe's best novel in 20 years,
and that's saying *quite* a lot, thank you, I don't think it's a good place
to start. It is the fifth volume in a seven-volume series*, and quite a lot
of the emotional and intellectual interest of _OBW_ depends on prior
knowledge of the characters and situations as depicted in _The Book of the
Long Sun_.

In short, this is *not* the Gene Wolfe book to start with. 

I usually recommend _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ as the Wolfe book to start
with; if you read all of it and don't like any of it, you probably aren't
going to like much else of Wolfe. However, if you like it, the odds are
excellent that you'll want to read more and will enjoy it when you do.

*Minor and oblique spoiler below

And it's also the 10th volume in a 12-volume series, since _The Book of the
Long Sun_ is an indirect sequel to _The Book of the New Sun_, and the
connection between the _New Sun_ and _Long Sun_ narratives is going to
become much more important in the final two volumes of _The Book of the
Short Sun_.

Kevin Maroney