mantis picks the hits

Right. Well you've just caught me at a bad time for such a thing: recent discussion about a story that has bugged me for 20 years ("Hour of Trust"), and then the rediscovery of a (for me literally forgettable) story ("The Blue Mouse") that imho makes a very nice pairing with the first story (slightly raising the value of the second story). But to what end? Both are collected; neither is one of my favorites. Discussion bogs down, ceases . . . which is just as well, since where is the enthusiasm anyway?

It is too early to say for more recent stories, but stories published before 1996 have been passed over by Wolfe and his editors many times, so this would be caveat number one. Unlikely to find a "Tracking Song" or "Forlessen" there. Caveat number two: we argue about everything around here, and something as subjective as ranking of stories seems likely to draw argument (if anybody else has read the stories; if, among this subgroup, anybody can raise the ergs to respond). Still. Urth sort: The Boy Who Hooked the Sun WT Spring 1988, YBF #2 Empires of Foliage and Flower CS, Crank! #2 The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin Is the Sun CS These are stories related to Urth. Bubble sort: up/down. UP The Arimapsian Legacy CS At the Point of Capricorn WT Spring 1988 Game in the Pope's Head Ripper!, YBF #2 Going to the Beach Showcase (Elwood) Houston, 1943 Tropical Chills (Sullivan) Lord of the Land Lovecraft's Legacy, BNH #2 The Monday Man Monochrome: Readercon Anth. Remembrance to Come Orbit 6 The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun Grails: Quests of the Dawn (Gilliam) The Seraph from the Sepulcher Sacred Visions (Greeley) The Tale of the Four Accused Arabesques 2 (Shwartz) DOWN The Friendship Light F&SF 10-89 How the Bishop Sailed to Inniskeen Asimov's 12-89 It's Very Clean Generation (Gerrold) King Under the Mountain WIF 11/12-70 Loco Parentis ADV Robot's Story ADV Tarzan of the Grapes F&SF 6-72, MWALB (Farmer) Try and Kill it Asimov's 10-11/96 Bubble sort: UP refined UP-HIGH At the Point of Capricorn WT Spring 1988 Game in the Pope's Head Ripper!, YBF #2 Remembrance to Come Orbit 6 The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun Grails: Quests of the Dawn (Gilliam) The Seraph from the Sepulcher Sacred Visions (Greeley) The Tale of the Four Accused Arabesques 2 (Shwartz) UP-LOW The Arimapsian Legacy CS Going to the Beach Showcase (Elwood) Houston, 1943 Tropical Chills (Sullivan) Lord of the Land Lovecraft's Legacy, BNH #2 The Monday Man Monochrome: Readercon Anth. Bubble sort: UP-HIGH refined UP-HIGH-HIGH Game in the Pope's Head Ripper!, YBF #2 The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun Grails: Quests of the Dawn (Gilliam) The Seraph from the Sepulcher Sacred Visions (Greeley) UP-HIGH-LOW At the Point of Capricorn WT Spring 1988 Remembrance to Come Orbit 6 The Tale of the Four Accused Arabesques 2 (Shwartz) ===== "ADV" = Again, Dangerous Visions (Ellison) "CS" = Cheap Street "F&SF" = The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction "MWALB" = Mother Was A Lovely Beast "WIF" = Worlds of If magazine "WT" = Weird Tales "YBF" = Year's Best Fantasy "YBH" = Year's Best Horror ====== There! Let the disappointment and quibbling begin! =mantis= Sirius Fiction booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley Now with UPDATES! http://www.siriusfiction.com/

Mantis proclaims:

Very well.

Perhaps it's simply because these (along with "With the Lafayette Escadrille") were my first Wolfe encounter of the Gene kind, but I'm rather fond of both of them. "Robot's Story" is, to be fair, slight and somewhat dated - it is very much a product of the '60s, in the way that much of DV and A,DV are. "Loco Parentis" is neither slight nor dated, and is (to my mind) rather chilling in the way Wolfe does so well. Not as chilling as, say, FIFTH HEAD, but in the same kind of way. Tarzan of the Grapes F&SF 6-72, MWALB (Farmer) The only other story on the "uncollected Wolfe" list I believe I have read, this is slight indeed and quite unmemorable.