Gene Wolfe and the Severian series

Mark Brown · 11 Feb 1991, 19:54 · from sf-lovers.1991.mbox

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From: mbrown at testsys.austin.ibm.com (Mark Brown)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe and the Severian series
Date: 11 Feb 91 19:54:05 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v16-53-5 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V16 #53
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-16a

DMARKFIE at INDYMED.BITNET writes:
>>On the subject of Gene Wolfe, are there any people out there who have
>>read _The Shadow of the Torturer_ and the other books in the series?  I
>>have not found many people who have read GW at all, let alone this
>>series.  Any comments?  Thoughts?
>
>I've got most of the whole story of Severian and IMHO I found it a very
>hard read.  Very slow, very plodding at times.  I realize that Gene Wolfe
>has won awards, etc. but personally I did have trouble.  I enjoyed Shadow
>it was just one of those books it seemed to take forever and Claw of the
>Concilliator and Sword of Lichter hit me the same way but, I suppose on
>the flip side Wolfe must have been doing something right for me to keep
>buying and reading.  (or is it just that masochistic streak rising to the
>top?)

Or, it may just be a love of great writing. Wolfe is easily one of my five
favorite writers.

The NEW SUN series (SHADOW, CLAW, SWORD, CASTLE and URTH) is *not* an
actioner. His point is as much to play with the language, and show you his
world, as it is to tell the story (which is not necessarily about
Severian).  He has a way of describing the commonplace such that it appears
new, fresh, and downright different at times. *All* of his characters are
fully-fleshed, including several minor ones; you cannot tell which of these
people will be important later (just like in real life)(and some of them
are!) and which are there just for color.

His plots, well, let's just say that you have to be on your toes, look at
everything carefully; everything is used.

Wolfe's written some lesser stuff - FREE LIVE FREE comes to mind
immediately.  His quality is so high in general, though, that I will easily
buy everything he writes.

Mark Brown
IBM PSP
Austin, TX.

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