REQUEST: Gene Wolfe recommendation

Matt Austern · 16 Jan 1993, 05:19 · from sf-lovers.1993.mbox

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From: matt at physics2.berkeley.edu (Matt Austern)
Subject: Re: REQUEST: Gene Wolfe recommendation
Date: 16 Jan 93 05:19:53 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v18-86-7 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V18 #86
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-18a

bible at iastate.edu (Anthony E Bible) writes:
> I've seen several favorable comments on the net about Gene Wolfe so I
> picked up a book of his short stories (_Gene Wolfe's Book of Days_) at
> the library a couple days ago, and I am enjoying it very much.  When I'm
> done with it I intend to read one of his novels.  I'd appreciate
> suggestions from the Gene Wolfe fans amongst ye.

Well, I think you have two obvious choices.

First, you might read _The Book of the New Sun_.  It is sometimes called a
tetrology, but I think it's more accurate to describe it as a novel
published in four volumes.  Either way, though, it is very intricate, with
links backwards and forwards between different parts of the book.  The
language is also very carefully constructed.

Another choice is _Soldier in the Mist_.  This is a slightly difficult book
to describe.  We might view it as fantasy; alternatively, you could think
of it as a novel set in ancient Greece (and nearby parts of the world), but
where the ideas of what is and isn't real are those that someone of that
time might have had, not those that we have.

Both books, in my opinion, are excellent.  And, interestingly enough, an
important element in both books is the memory of the main character.

Matthew Austern
(510) 644-2618 
austern at lbl.bitnet

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