Pandora/Gene Wolfe

Shawn L. Baird · 09 Feb 1991, 08:44 · from sf-lovers.1991.mbox

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From: bairds at eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Shawn L. Baird)
Subject: Re: Pandora/Gene Wolfe
Date: 9 Feb 91 08:44:29 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v16-50-8 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V16 #50
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-16a

>>Wolfe is a tricky guy, and I think a restless one.  He seems to go
>>through phases of experimentation, which can produce failures, followed
>>by masterpieces.  Right now he seems to be putting out busy, chaotic,
>>cryptic novels.  Who knows what great work might follow from this?
>>Several post-New Sun works have been failures, in my opinion - "There are
>>Doors", "Castleview", "Free Live Free" but, the successes are as original
>>as anything you could ever wish for, believe [...]
>
>I agree about ~There Are Doors"...  That was the dullest book I've ever
>read by him; such an interesting premise, too.  The first half wasn't bad
>and then the book just spiralled around aimlessly after that.  Haven't
>read "Castleview" yet, nor "Soldier of the Mist".  With that series, I'm
>waiting [...]

I have to say that I liked _There Are Doors_, although I wouldn't count it
as one of my favorites. I haven't read _Castleview_ yet.

>without long pauses in between.  My first foray into SotM made it pretty
>clear that it was going to be at least as (delightfully!) difficult to
>assimilate as "The Book of the New Sun", which I could never have followed
>if I'd had to wait a year between books.  Oh well.

_Soldier of the Mist_ is an excellent book, one of my favorite Gene Wolfe
novels. I didn't find _Soldier of Arete_ as pleasurable, unfortunately. As
far as short stories go, you can't beat _The Death of Doctor Island and
Other Stories and Other Stories_ or his rather new anthology _Endangered
Species_. Just a few years ago, or so, the Weird Tales magazine was
restarted with the first issue being about half dedicated to Gene Wolfe. It
had some very good stories.
   I must say that I feel that one of the prerequisites for being a Gene
Wolfe fan is being able to take a sort of surreal outlook on life and, in
fact, one has to wonder sometimes if these stories aren't associated with
hallucinogens or some such. Sometimes, I almost feel like I'm full of
hallucinogens because it all gets so weird.

Shawn L. Baird
17650 SE Cason Rd.

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