Wolfe's Out-of-Print Novels

Nigel Price · 11 Oct 2008, 10:57 · from 2008-October.txt.gz

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From: nigelaprice at talktalk.net (Nigel Price)
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:57:50 +0100
Subject: (urth) Wolfe's Out-of-Print Novels
Message-ID: <AFEFKBJKJDDJOMBNACBNGEMIDMAA.nigelaprice at talktalk.net>

I enjoyed all the novels on the out-of-print list - even "Operation Ares",
which Wolfe himself doesn't seem to rate. All right, it's not a masterpiece,
but there are early appearances of several distinctive Lupine themes (from
memory - alien animals naturalised on Earth as in TBotNs and rebellion as in
TBotLS) and a deep strangeness that I very much enjoyed.

"Pandora by Holly Hollander" is a fine piece of work, a pastiche and
inversion of the Nancy Drew novels with an assured use of a young female
narrative voice that is relatively unusual (unique?) in the Lupine canon.

"The Devil in a Forest" is also excellent, a well-written and accomplished
account of adolescent discovery that hovers on the boundaries of historical
fiction and fantasy.

"Free Live Free" and "Castleview" seem uneven to me, the former having its
longueurs while the latter seems overly rushed and compressed. They're both
very definitely worth reading, though "Free" might have been better shorter
and "Castleview" longer.

The completist in me says you really ought to try and read them all!

Nigel

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