Subject: The Book of the New Sun

From: pete <pete at stc.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1986 10:57:45 +0000

There's been some good discussion in this group about the
merits or otherwise of _The Book of the New Sun_. Now I'm going to
stick my oar in.

        C.S. Lewis, who knew a thing or two about writing fantasy
and SF said:

        "To tell how odd things struck odd people is to tell one
         oddity too many"

        I think that it is a demonstration of Gene Wolfe's ability
that he breaks this rule and (just) gets away with it. There is a
sense of living dangerously in the style of the book that is very
exciting.

        I have tried (on a subsequent reading) checking the 'funny
words' in a dictionary. This is a bad idea, because most of the time
the words are used as much for their sound and feeling as for their
literal meaning. Nevertheless, those words that I found (in Chambers'
20th Century) _were_ correctly used _and_ not flogged to death by
repetition like Donaldson.

        BTW, Prince Caspian's horse was called 'Destrier'.