Wolfe's Out-of-Print Novels

I just realized that I've now read all but three of Wolfe's currently-available novels. Though I have a few short story collections still to read, I'm not sure what Wolfe I should read once I finish with those (Yes, of course, I could always re-read). Which of Wolfe's out-of-print books are most worth tracking down? How would you rank the books in terms of quality? (My best guess is below) The Devil in a Forest (best?) Castleview Free Live Free Pandora by Holly Hollander Operation Ares (worst?) Thanks for the help. -Matt

I haven't read Operation ARES, but for the others I would personally rank them: Free Live Free (best) Castleview The Devil in a Forest Pandora by Holly Hollander in terms of their depth, thought-provokingness, delving into Wolfean themes, etc. All are well worth reading though! best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/

I would swap Castleview and Free Live Free, but other than that you've captured my opinion exactly.

I didn't realize that these were all out of print! I knew "Ares" was, and Wolfe has more or less vowed that it will never be reprinted. Too bad, because it's actually better (imho) than one of the others... Free Live Free (best) Castleview The Devil in a Forest Operation Areas Pandora, by Holly Hollander -- the last being the only Wolfe novel I don't think I'll ever reread.

Devil in a Forest was a bit disappointing to me, mainly because I couldn't help comparing it to Barry Unsworth's Morality Play, which is incredible. Don The Evangelists: a Lesser Apocrypha http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=178109961 --- On Fri, 10/10/08, Mo Holkar / UKG <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote: From: Mo Holkar / UKG <lists at ukg.co.uk> Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe's Out-of-Print Novels To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Date: Friday, October 10, 2008, 8:52 AM

I haven't read Operation ARES, but for the others I would personally rank them: Free Live Free (best) Castleview The Devil in a Forest Pandora by Holly Hollander in terms of their depth, thought-provokingness, delving into Wolfean themes, etc. All are well worth reading though! best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/

That does look interesting, based off your take on it and the Amazon description. This list just exacerbates my book-buying habits, but I love it anyway. Thanks for the implicit recommendation. Is there a section on the WolfeWiki suggesting other books Wolfe fans might like? I know there was quite a long thread on that subject here recently, and I'd be especially curious to see what non-sf writers get recommended. I just finished Muriel Spark's The Ballad of Peckham Rye, and it struck me as something some Wolfe fans would really like. I certainly thought it was great. -Matt

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

Not for nothing, I agree with you about the Unsworth book. A great example of a short novel that’s not a bit longer than it needs to be. James

There isn't at the moment, but please do add one -- that would be great. (Also, I'd like to third the recommendation of Morality Play -- there's a film of it too, called The Reckoning: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258816/ which bears about the same relation as the The Name of the Rose film to its book, ie. it gives the story and the rough idea but is rather lacking.) best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/