Gene Wolfe Books

Rich Horton · 22 Nov 2005, 01:13 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2005.mbox

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From: Rich Horton <rrhorton at prodigy.net>
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe Books
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 01:13:08 GMT
Message-ID: <5vr4o1poaq802ttimcjva40r79b55a0m87 at 4ax.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <2dkgf.27307$rc7.1415 at fe12.lga>

On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 08:46:46 -0500, "Evelyn C. Leeper"
<eleeper at optonline.net> wrote:

>Assume one has the following books by Gene Wolfe and is trying to trim 
>down one's collection:
>	Book of the New Sun (4 vols.)
>	Devil in a Forest
>	Fifth Head of Cerberus
>	Nightside the Long Sun
>	Soldier of the Mist
>	Urth of the New Sun
>
>Which would people say are his major works and which could be gotten rid 
>of?  (Yes, I know some will say "keep everything", but that way lies 
>madness.)

Of course you should keep everything. Seriously, Wolfe is perhaps our
best -- why not?

That said, of the books above, perhaps _Nightside the Long Sun_ would
go first because it really doesn't stand alone -- you need the other
three books in the Long Sun series.

After that, _The Devil in a Forest_ is a very good juvenile but not
absolutely brilliant.

And _The Urth of the New Sun_ is an intriguing but not really
necessary coda to _The Book of the New Sun_.

Of course we would have to punish you if you got rid of _The Book of
the New Sun_, very clearly an essential SF series, or _The Fifth Head
of Cerberus_, a great novel, from which in many ways almost all of
Wolfe descends.

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