Gene Wolfe interview in Locus

S H L G Bisson · 06 Jun 1991, 15:01 · from rec.arts.sf-lovers.1991.mbox

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From: eesshlgb at gdr.bath.ac.uk (S H L G Bisson)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe interview in Locus
Date: 6 Jun 91 15:01:05 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Jun6.150105.26982 at gdr.bath.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers
References: <10723 at castle.ed.ac.uk> <1991Jun4.174051.6210 at tc.fluke.COM> <4358 at polari.UUCP>

>|Perhaps the reason many people dislike LIVE FREE LIVE is not that it is such
>|a bad novel, but that it is not a great novel, and Gene Wolfe has set us up
>|to expect greatness.
>
>I've always thought this was the problem too.  I happen to like
>Free Live Free, but readily admit it's not nearly as good as Book of
>the New Sun, for instance.  On the other hand, I've read very few
>things as good as BotNS...

I tend to think that the most unsatisfying thing about _Free Live Free_ was
that it came across in the back blurb as another _Winter's Tale_ (by Mark
Helprin) and unfortunately was only a pale shadow of it. A pity that, for
the genre needs more books like _Winter's Tale_, and now that Helprin no
longer writes genre (or almost genre!) fiction it seems that there will be
no more (unless John Crowley becomes more productive...).

---
Simon H Le G Bisson...net.jerriais...bibliophile, climber, and FORTRAN hacker...---

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