The Book of the New Sun

Jim Aspnes · 28 Nov 1984, 09:28 · from sf-lovers.1984.mbox

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From: Jim Aspnes <ASP%MIT-OZ at MIT-MC.ARPA>
Subject: The Book of the New Sun
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 1984 04:28 EST
Message-ID: <sflovers-v9-211-5 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V9 #211
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-09

I, too, found it difficult to find a true plot to The Book.  It's
curious, because Wolfe has done more substantial works (_Fevre
Dream_ comes to mind), where he has managed to keep his plot tight
and his characters human.  Perhaps it's the strange setting or the
self-indulgent first-person narrative, but The Book of the New Sun
reads like literary doodling.  It has points of greatness (the story
told by the Ascian is a work of art in itself), and they manage to
carry the story limpingly along, but the work as a whole seems more
of an anthology than a series of novels.

My praise will flow freely for anyone who can pick out some
semblance of continuity of plot and can justify it well.  But at the
moment it seems very much that the Autarch's clothes are impossible
for any but the truly wise to see.

Jim

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