Wolfe's _Shadow of the Torturer_

HYLTON · 12 Aug 1992, 18:38 · from sf-lovers.1992.mbox

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From: HYLTON at sjsuvm1.bitnet
Subject: Wolfe's _Shadow of the Torturer_
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 11:38:25 PDT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v17-418-15 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V17 #418
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-17b

Like David Ben-Ami, I, too, have just finished reading Wolfe's _Shadow of
the Torturer_ and I am not inspired to continue with the series.  In all
fairness, I must say I do not care for fantasy but after hearing/reading
so much high praise for Gene Wolfe's stuff I decided to give it a try.
Further, I resent authors (publishers?) who put out what Donald Lindsay
calls "multivolume book plus a sequel."  Most of the trilogies I read at
least are quasi-complete within each volume (especially the first) Big
exception: _Hyperion_.  I, for some reason, did not resent the two-volume
treatment as much with these two.  Back to SotT, however, here we are
simply left hanging without even having received the quality of writing
that Simmons gave us in _Hyperion_.  As for the attempts to increase our
vocabularies via archaic and/or made-up terms, I find this irritating if
not presumptious; however, to each his or her own.

Cal Hylton

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