_The Wizard_ by Gene Wolfe - too much like previous Wolfe

Andrew Plotkin · 08 Nov 2005, 00:24 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2005.mbox

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From: Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath at eblong.com>
Subject: Re: _The Wizard_ by Gene Wolfe - too much like previous Wolfe
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 00:24:59 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <dkor8r$hot$1 at reader2.panix.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <1131110580.237908.247530 at g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1131155926.362586.111770 at g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <dp8om1tedg5g5lltds3chekrbiqtudhvd8 at 4ax.com> <1131183373.953697.104340 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <m3acgjuhwf.fsf at localhost.localdomain> <1131217562 at sheol.org> <1131218145.536944.299810 at g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1131407559.246092.94630 at f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>

Here, JavaJosh <javajosh at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm not sure what GRRM controversy of which you speak, but he's a much
> different writer. He takes the almost-omniscient-loose-following POV
> character approach, which is a more common voice and so more
> accessible. GRRM is artistically very straightforward; the problems are
> mostly matters of plot. Wolfe seems to enjoy the fantasy genre in its
> own right, but, like Herbert, seems to be concerned about issues of
> conciousness, identity, and imagination (this is much plainer in "The
> Wizard Knight" than his previous works). Wolfe's work has a dream-like
> patina over it - the narrator sounds like he doesn't talk about things
> not because he didn't think of them, but because they really don't
> matter.

My one-line review of _The Wizard Knight_ is: Having mastered and then
deconstructed the idea of the unreliable narrator, Wolfe has now moved
on to the *incompetent* narrator.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
I'm still thinking about what to put in this space.

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