Embryonic Wolfe

mournings glory23 Feb 2006, 03:35

Some terrific discussion taking place lately over in the Asimov's Message Board: http://www.asimovs.com/discus/messages/2/4857.html?1138501545 Among other things Gardner Dozois is currently reading (or more likely has probably finished by now) Wolfe's Soldier of Sidon which according to Gardner will be out in a couple of months. But even more fascinating, Dozois admits to having rejected a very early Gene Wolfe novel -- quite possibly his first. Dozois: <As for the early novel of Wolfe's that I did indeed reject (or, to be more accurate, that I recommended that the editor not buy, since I was just a lowly slush-reader), it was hardly a hard SF novel--it was a metaphysical novel about strange occult happenings in a small town, narrated by the unborn fetus of one of the characters, who dies in a miscarriage at the end of the novel (in fact, as I recall, the last line was "And then I died.").> <Gardner, I've never heard of such an early novel by Gene Wolfe. Did it precede 'Operation Ares'?> <Yes. And he never did sell it to anybody, although after he became famous, he probably could have, at least to some small press. > Could, I wonder, this possibly be Frieda from the Fire mentioned in Urth-Man Extraordinary as a phantom title? If so, it sounds similar to one of my favorite all-time reads, Thomas Keneally's Passenger. 13 19 7

aramini1 at cox.net23 Feb 2006, 07:23

↳ follows, by subject match mournings glory

In correspondence, Wolfe once indicated to me that he had written a novel before Operation Ares, that had "entirely too much plot" that was more like a mystery novel than SF. He says he does not know where the manuscript is or what happened to it. Sniff .... I am sad, it sounds like it could be interesting, even if it isn't "great" Wolfe.

22 quoted lines

From: "mournings glory" <mourningsglory at hotmail.com> Date: 2006/02/22 Wed PM 10:35:16 EST To: urth at lists.urth.net Subject: (urth) Embryonic Wolfe Some terrific discussion taking place lately over in the Asimov's Message Board: http://www.asimovs.com/discus/messages/2/4857.html?1138501545 Among other things Gardner Dozois is currently reading (or more likely has probably finished by now) Wolfe's Soldier of Sidon which according to Gardner will be out in a couple of months. But even more fascinating, Dozois admits to having rejected a very early Gene Wolfe novel -- quite possibly his first. Dozois: <As for the early novel of Wolfe's that I did indeed reject (or, to be more accurate, that I recommended that the editor not buy, since I was just a lowly slush-reader), it was hardly a hard SF novel--it was a metaphysical novel about strange occult happenings in a small town, narrated by the unborn fetus of one of the characters, who dies in a miscarriage at the end of the novel (in fact, as I recall, the last line was "And then I died.").> <Gardner, I've never heard of such an early novel by Gene Wolfe. Did it precede 'Operation Ares'?> <Yes. And he never did sell it to anybody, although after he became famous, he probably could have, at least to some small press. > Could, I wonder, this possibly be Frieda from the Fire mentioned in Urth-Man Extraordinary as a phantom title? If so, it sounds similar to one of my favorite all-time reads, Thomas Keneally's Passenger. 13 19 7 _______________________________________________

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