Free Live Free by Wolfe

Ron Henry · 22 Mar 2000, 21:13 · from sf-lovers.2000.mbox

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From: ronhenry at clarityconnect.com (Ron Henry)
Subject: Re: Free Live Free by Wolfe
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 21:13:37 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v25-53-9 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V25 #53
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-25

Wolfe's multi-volume works might look, from the outside, like series
potboilers, but they're anything but. I just finished reading On Blue's
Waters, and I can testify that it's as smart, and in many ways as subtle,
as anything he's ever written. He seems really to have mastered the art of
deceptive simplicity - making a story look quite straightforward while
concealing all sorts of tricks and hints and foreshadowings. Wonderful
stuff to read.

His other books of short stories, Endangered Species and Storeys from the
Old Hotel, are well worth reading (as is, I presume, the new one, Strange
Travellers, which I have not yet gotten). I also enjoyed There Are Doors
and The Fifth Head of Cerberus, though both of these might take several
readings to fully appreciate (lots of very subtle clues and general
ambiguity about what's really going on and who is who).

Ron Henry

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