10-12-2023, 03:14 PM
A poster brought up Gene Wolfe as a counterexample to tryhard dork jewy neurosis Gritty fantasy in another thread. However this undersells Wolfe, who might be the greatest fantasy author of all time. Wolfe's biggest influence by far is Jorge Luis Borges, his writing almost always has a "puzzle" aspect to it, typically via the mechanism of first-person narration. This is the closest thing he has to an authorial schtick but Wolfe's method is a revelation compared to the typical literary employment of this perspective. Like most other great artists, Wolfe doesn't just iterate the same thing; aside from a first-person viewpoint his writing deals with quite disparate themes and especially settings.
Prior to taking up the pen for a living, Wolfe worked as a mechanical engineer where he allegedly designed the machine that produces Pringles. He was also an observant Catholic and veteran of the Korean War. Although he generally doesn't hit you over the head with any of these things, do find their way into his books.
No one truly obeys unless he will do the unthinkable in obedience; no one will do the unthinkable save we.
His magnum opus is The Book of the New Sun, a quadrilogy that begins with The Shadow of the Torturer. BotNS is part of an even longer "Solar Cycle". If you don't read much and just want to get The Best of Gene Wolfe then just read BotNS. While it has a deserved reputation for being "challenging" it is not beyond any sensitive young man who can put down his phone for thirty minutes at a time.
You people who have never tried it think the technique is simple because you’ve heard it can be done.
A common recommendation by anyone who thinks you can't handle BotNS is The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Wolfe's first "real" novel (he more or less disavowed Operation Ares as juvenilia). It is a collection of three related short stories and is itself rather short, about 250 pages. You could also pick up one of his short story collections; the most common are "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories" and "The Best of Gene Wolfe". I like these but the short story is even more dead than the novel and even the "Best Of" anthology has some entries that the average reader will probably not like.
Lois had gone out of my life (I should say that she had left my future—I could never eradicate her from my past, no matter how hard I tried)
If for some reason you don't like "Science Fiction and Fantasy" then consider reading Peace. It is partly Wolfe's riff on Ray Bradbury's style, although I think I'm the only person under the age of 50 who has read any of Bradbury's novels. It is a superior example of the now virtually abolished Small Town Americana subgenre.
A knight is a man who lives honorably and dies honorably, because he cares more for his honor than for his life. If his honor requires him to fight, he fights. He doesn’t count his foes or measure their strength, because those things don’t matter. They don’t affect his decision.
Finally there is my own recommendation for "where to start" if BotNS doesn't sound like something you want to read: The Wizard Knight. This is one of Wolfe's later novels, and it's also rather long (around 800 pages). It is an isekai story about a young boy who finds himself (probably after drowning although there are other theories) in an Arthurian fantasy world under a pantheon of Norse gods.
Prior to taking up the pen for a living, Wolfe worked as a mechanical engineer where he allegedly designed the machine that produces Pringles. He was also an observant Catholic and veteran of the Korean War. Although he generally doesn't hit you over the head with any of these things, do find their way into his books.
No one truly obeys unless he will do the unthinkable in obedience; no one will do the unthinkable save we.
His magnum opus is The Book of the New Sun, a quadrilogy that begins with The Shadow of the Torturer. BotNS is part of an even longer "Solar Cycle". If you don't read much and just want to get The Best of Gene Wolfe then just read BotNS. While it has a deserved reputation for being "challenging" it is not beyond any sensitive young man who can put down his phone for thirty minutes at a time.
You people who have never tried it think the technique is simple because you’ve heard it can be done.
A common recommendation by anyone who thinks you can't handle BotNS is The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Wolfe's first "real" novel (he more or less disavowed Operation Ares as juvenilia). It is a collection of three related short stories and is itself rather short, about 250 pages. You could also pick up one of his short story collections; the most common are "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories" and "The Best of Gene Wolfe". I like these but the short story is even more dead than the novel and even the "Best Of" anthology has some entries that the average reader will probably not like.
Lois had gone out of my life (I should say that she had left my future—I could never eradicate her from my past, no matter how hard I tried)
If for some reason you don't like "Science Fiction and Fantasy" then consider reading Peace. It is partly Wolfe's riff on Ray Bradbury's style, although I think I'm the only person under the age of 50 who has read any of Bradbury's novels. It is a superior example of the now virtually abolished Small Town Americana subgenre.
A knight is a man who lives honorably and dies honorably, because he cares more for his honor than for his life. If his honor requires him to fight, he fights. He doesn’t count his foes or measure their strength, because those things don’t matter. They don’t affect his decision.
Finally there is my own recommendation for "where to start" if BotNS doesn't sound like something you want to read: The Wizard Knight. This is one of Wolfe's later novels, and it's also rather long (around 800 pages). It is an isekai story about a young boy who finds himself (probably after drowning although there are other theories) in an Arthurian fantasy world under a pantheon of Norse gods.
