Gene Wolfe Books

While the Book of the Long Sun ended on a satisfactory note to those who didn't want to read further, it also allowed itself plenty of room to continue the stories of those who were involved in it. At the end of that long work, we found that the Whorl was apparently a giant spaceship and that the actual plan was to get everyone to two planets that it was near, Blue and Green. And thus, everyone did. Sort of. We pick up the tale a few decades later on Blue where Horn (who "wrote" Book of the Long Sun) finds that everything seems to be falling apart, civilization isn't what it used to be and the colonists are being attacked by inhumi, flying, shapeshifting vampiric creatures. Thus he decides to go on a quest to find the one man who can put it all back together, Patera Silk, who has been AWOL since we last saw him (and had an awesomely understated exit at the close of that last tetraology) and while he fully intends on doing it alone, it doesn't quite work out that way.

Wolfe is never going to an action packed writer, his prose is dense and things tend to unfold slowly, interlocking and branching until it all comes together. This is probably his most accessible book, at least on the surface, told in a first person style by Horn that is straightforward, although still heavy on ruminations from time to time. Horn has personality, although he lacks Silk's razor sharp and almost casual insights and his singularity of purpose. But as a straight-up quest, events are much easier to follow this time out. At first. Then things get deceptive.

The early part of this book, for all its accessibility, can be rough going for those who never read "Book of the Long Sun" because there are a lot of references to that previous series, to the point where I wondered when the actual plot was going to start or if we'd just be rehashing events from "Long Sun" in greater detail and a first-person viewpoint. Then it changes and I can remember almost the exact point where all the first-personness condensed and became something far sharper and harder than I expected. It comes as suddenly the narrative starts to reference events that have occurred after our current point of view, a future Horn writing about events from his relative youth.

The sequence is brief, but it ends with the lyrically eloquent: "But know this: the best and happiest of my hours you know nothing about. I have seen days like gold." From that point on the book seems to gain focus, especially once Krait the inhumi comes on board, inserting these very alien but seemingly human creatures into the story adds another level to it. Meanwhile, the narrative itself splits and simultaneously becomes about Horn's life years from now after the book's events are over and what is happening now and what gets him to Green. He manages to do both without becoming confusing and still allowing mysteries to linger for future novels and does it so easily that you don't realize how difficult this is to pull off. Which is what makes it deceptive, he pulls you right into the complex and you never realize how much of a fractal you've entered.

Gene Wolfe at his best as he weaves the whorl and Horn in an enigmatic manner that exemplifies his style. I am always just short of being frustrated with Wolfe. You wait and wait, read and read, hoping for something significant to happen yet never seems to, only to discover that it has already happen but you didn't know. The frustration and mystification will only increase with subsequent books in the series as Horn devolves into
a multi-dimensional confusion of characters and space-time reality. I fell in love with the siren Seawrack and feel pity for Krait the alien vampire...or is he a manifestation of Horn's son Sinew? Wolfe will tease and tempt you but never really answer any of your questions while seducing you with effortless, gorgeous prose. I miss Silk.

Reading this brilliant first portion of "Short Sun," I repeatedly wondered if Wolfe had not decided to pay homage to David Lindsay's woefully unknown masterpiece, "A Voyage to Arcturus." In many ways, Horn seems much like Lindsay's character, Maskull, metamorphosizing to meet the demands of each situation, using and abusing those who offer him aid while trying to overcome his base urges and rise to the status of savior.

Wolfe is never content to simply tell a story, though, and his narrative complexities often scare off readers...Severian's memoir in The Book of the New Sun is, sadly, seen as overly long-winded by some; the progression of intrigues in Long Sun is considered, by many, the book's greatest weakness, along with its treasury of characters. Short Sun is no different: Horn's meditations are deeply personal, more of a confessional than anything. It is fitting that Horn, like Severian, narrates in the first person. Where Severian is distinctly amoral, relating his actions, ranging from murder to rape and worse, with no hint of regret, or even the notion that he should feel regret, Horn relates his actions with perfect honesty and marked shame...his memoir is a plea for mercy, while Severian's is simply a chance to allow others to remember.

Wolfe's characterization is at its peak, here, and I do not believe he has ever written more human characters. I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of the next two volumes in my mailbox!

..
I've never much cared for the Wolfe I've read (which isn't all that
much), but he gets so much praise from people whose opinions
I respect that, every few years, I try him again [note 1]. This time,
I tried On Blue's Waters (1999), since I recalled seeing some comments
that the Short Sun 'series' (which appears to be one long novel) is
unusually accessible. Plus, I saw a blurb by Michael Swanwick
praising Wolfe as the world's greatest working novelist, in *any*
genre....

Anyway, Blue's does have clear prose and an unambiguously sfnal
setting -- Blue is a pleasantly Earthlike planet that has recently been
settled by colonists from the Long Sun generation-ship, which is a
VERY large spaceship indeed. This is good, because I recall being put
off in both the New Sun and Long Sun books by the fantasy-that's-
really-SF tomfoolery [note 2].

Blue's also has a broken-back plot structure that got in the way of
Wolfe's story (IMO), but there was enough going on to lure me into
finishing the thing, even after it became obvious that this wasn't a
stand-alone book (another annoyance). Anyway, Wolfe's conceit
here is that On Blue's Waters is the memoir of the viewpoint
character (with complications noted in the reviews cited below).
Fine, except that it's a *first draft* memoir (written with a quill pen
on handmade paper....), and the narrator is constantly jumping around
from story-present to various times in his past, which I found both
confusing and annoying. Plus the bridge-bits (which make it a
'memoir' rather than flashbacks) are meandering and rather dull.
And there are all these carried-over characters from the Long Sun
books, that I'm supposed to recognize, I guess... Faugh.

So here I am again, wondering how Wolfe has acquired such a
stellar reputation from books that I find, at best, annoyingly 'literary'
and at worst unreadable. Why would Wolfe structure Blue's as a
confusing, meandering and dullish pseudo-memoir? How is this
better than using a conventional first-person with flashbacks plot-
structure? Why does Wolfe deliberately fracture and obscure what's
basically a fine travel-adventure yarn? His choice, of course, and he
clearly knows what he's doing, but it sure doesn't agree with me.
Sigh.

I'm guessing that the Short Sun is as straightforward as Wolfe is
likey to get, at novel-length anyway, and I liked On Blue's Waters
well enough that I may continue into Green's Jungles sometime --
but I'm afraid that most of the glittering jewels that others see in
Wolfe's work look like dusty pebbles to me.
___________________
Note 1). I vividly recall a long-ago weekend in some godforsaken
mining camp when for some reason all I had to read was Free Live
Free. And it rained. It was a VERY long weekend, and it was years
before I touched another Wolfe.

2). I abandoned both series (after about 1.5 of each), not because of
this, but because I Didn't Care What Happened to Those People.
I have had better luck with his short stories -- I've liked maybe 1/3 of
those that I've read, as opposed to, basically, none of the novels.
I believe that I've sampled most of what Wolfe's fans think is
his best work....

Review copyright 2002 by Peter D. Tillman
First published at Infinity Plus, with links and discussion:
infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/blueh2o2.htm

(...)
The Book of the Short Sun will be one of the finest reading experiences of your life... if you can get through the thing. The difficulty in extracting those rewards out of the text is considerable and not to be lightly discounted. Reading these books will require supreme effort. Willing readers will have to be intensely interested with how individuals relate to historical and semi-mythical figures, religion, and their own personality as influenced by these themes. These books are about as far as you can get from the popular concept of "space opera" and thrilling, "page-turning" fiction. An analogy to Moby Dick is probably very appropriate as that work due to the very slow pacing, the introspection, and the great literary symbols stomping through the setting reified and alive. Any scholar of literature should be deeply fascinated by these books.

WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:

There is no shame in not reading these books. They are terribly difficult and an exercise in stamina though we feel most people should at least try once. If you have attempted Shakespeare and been turned back because of the language; if you have attempted Moby Dick or novels by Henry James only to be turned away by the lack of progression in the plot; if you have attempted James Joyce's Ulysses but been baffled by the interior monologue, then Short Sun is probably going to daunt you as well. But we feel the rewards of this book are equal to those giants in literature.

(...)

Wolfe is the best writer at work in SF and fantasy. These early stories prove just how subtle, exciting and completely riveting his writing can be. Each story is a true gem, and each is totally different. The title story (and the variants on that title) all provide insight into the human heart you cannot believe until you have read them, aand the sorcery of the writing just pulls you right into each imaginary world. Irresistable.

These being the first short stories I've read by Gene Wolfe I went into the read curious, hopeful and genuinely unsure how they'd turn out. I'll be upfront w/my bias; I think Gene Wolfe is an amazing author.

The good news: I'm even more impressed by his writing and stories than I was before.

The bad news: Not every story is amazing; such is reading short fiction collections.

Overall, I rate this as an excellent collection of short fiction, and unless you simply have an aversion to the fantastic, I would highly recommend it. And if you already like Gene Wolfe? Look for familiar devices, such as memory and sense perception. He winds such nice paths...

This collection features some of the best Science Fiction short stories ever written, and is probably Wolfe's best collection. It exemplifies his amazing ability to construct a fantastic new world, with unforgettable imagination and scenery, using the Baroc-like prose with the archaic and ancient echoing in the background.

If you still haven't read anything by Wolfe, and prefers not to begin with his mega Suns series, this could be a great starting point.

Most recommended:
- The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories
- The Death of Dr. Island
- Tracking Song
- Seven American Nights

(I wish there was a 6 stars scale)
Read it!

His Castle of Days comes at the second place.
One other reviewer called this a perfect introduction to Wolfe. It certainly is. Do not begin with The Fifth Head of Cerberus. That one might turn you off.
Wolfe is at his best in these short stories and he keeps publishing them. I hope an additional collection will appear. Even in his novels Gene Wolfe holds tight to his concept of creating tiny gems of writing. Every chapter in the Book of the New Sun could be seen as a short story. Some of them might well stand alone. Will make some weird reading, but that's Wolfe.
This is a review of this collection, so I will return to this book now. This language is one of the best prose I have yet encountered. Vladimir Nabokov is another superb stylist. If the language won't sedate you the ideas will.
This is so good! On par with the greatest of short story writers. Certainly the top of SF in general.
I'm not giving away anything. Just buy yourself a copy and start reading, slowly. Give it the time it needs. SF readers are generally not used to this kind of writing, but don't think you can't handle it. I don't think that many non-SF/F readers come here, but that's fine. They don't know what they're missing.
Other readers recommended the more favorite stories in this collection. Follow their advice. Start with them.

THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR DEATH AND OTHER STORIES AND OTHER STORIES (yes, it's supposed to be titled that way), first published in 1980, is Gene Wolfe's first collection of short stories. It brings together 14 works published in the 1970's, some of which originally appeared in Damon Knight's "Orbit" anthologies. Like with any collection of short stories it ranges widely, but the volume does contain some of Wolfe's finest pieces.

The first story in this book may make the reader wonder why exactly Wolfe receives so much praise, for "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" (1970) is a very immature work, an unconvincingly written tale of child whose love of pulp adventure magazines helps him escape a broken home. The next story, "Alien Stones", dates from two years later and shows a dramatic improvement in Wolfe's writing. On the surface it appears to be about a spaceship crew exploring an abandoned alien vessel, but under the surface hints at a darker story. Wolfe, like Larry Niven in his 60's hard science-fiction works, unfortunately underestimates the progress of technology---his spacecraft's computer uses CRT's and manual switches---and his far-future female character seems supiciously like a stereotypical ditz of the early 1970's. Nonetheless, the strong storytelling and intricate plot more than make up for this.

"Three Fingers" is a short diversion, an enhibition of Wolfe's droll sense of humour. "Tracking Song" is another of the high points of the volume, the chronicle of a journey on a frozen world where humanity has evolved into myriad diverse forms. The narration is reminiscent of Wolfe's first great novel, THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS.

If this collection begins with Wolfe's weakest story, it ends with one of his best. "Seven American Nights" is the record of an Iranian visiting a bizarre post-apocalyptic America for less than honourable purposes, an ironic reversal of the phenomenon of 60's hippies visiting the Middle East for drug tourism. The novella contains the hallmarks of Wolfe's finest writing: unreliable narration, casual relevations, fantastic world-building, the perpetual feeling that the reader isn't getting the whole story, and an ending that shows that all the plot's secrets were really right there in the text all along. This is a powerful work, and it is worth buying the entire collection just for it.

While perhaps not ideal for the reader who hasn't read anything but Wolfe yet, this is an excellent work to turn to next if you enjoyed one of his accessible works like The Book of the New Sun, PEACE, or THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS.

I also own "Strange Travelers," a previous short story collection, and I thought it was very inconsistent. One story would be fascinating, the next would be ho-hum. I'm pleased to report that Starwater Strains is extremely consistent, and almost every story in this thick volume was a joy to read. The topics covered are all nominally "science fiction," but within this grouping Wolfe manages to cover a wide range of topics, and the tone of his stories run the gambit, from more classic-style hard, cold space science fiction, to dreamlike tales that could be set almost anywhere, at any point in history, the future, or the present. As is usually true with Wolfe, there are also tinges of horror throughout - not Steven King style gore, but subtle, horrifying little twists that will burrow into your mind and stay there, rising to the surface every so often, long after you're finished reading.

Many of his stories concern a speculative near future, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that several of these had a strong social or political message about our modern lives, always elegantly included so that without the message the story is still interesting if you don't agree with his stance or don't care for politics in your fiction.

I'll finish by saying that after I received this book for Christmas, I had several mornings at work where I could barely stay awake because I'd been up until 4am the night before, reading "just one more story" over and over again. It's a fine collection.

I am always eager for a collection of Wolfe's short stories even if I have read some of them in other places. I particularly loved the cover of this book...it's so clever/humorous. Thanks for putting this book together!

Calling Gene Wolfe a great science fiction writer is a mere literary understatement, since he ranks, along with Ray Bradbury, not only as one of the premier elder statesmen of American science fiction, but more importantly, as one of the finest literary stylists in American fiction of any genre. "Starwater Strains", his new short story collection, merely reaffirms his splendid literary gifts for writing brilliant, evocative prose and marvellous storytelling. Most of these stories in this collection were written in the past decade, ranging emotionally from horrific to suspenseful to tranquil, covering themes as vast as contemporary fantasy to space opera harkening back to his "The Book of The New Son" series of novels. My own personal favorite is "In Glory like Their Star", which is an absolutely refreshing, polished literary gem of a tale about the religious connotations of First Contact by space travelers visiting a primitive planet inhabited by pastoral, devout believers. But it is not the lone gem, which I think also includes such diverse tales as "Of Soil and Climate", "The Fat Magician", "The Boy Who Hooked the Sun", and "The Seraph from its Sepulcher". The ones I've omitted citing are, in their own way, almost as riveting as those cited above. "Starwater Strains" will certainly delight those unfamiliar with Wolfe's impressive body of work, as well as his long-time fans and admirers.

to have a writer like Wolfe *consistently* writing great stories. If you like thinking for fun, if you enjoy inventive storytelling, if you enjoy the feeling of being in hopelessly over your head, but in the hands of a chuckling, mostly benign master of his art, then by all means read Wolfe.

This collection contains:
Viewpoint
Rattler
In Glory Like Their Star
Calamity Warps
Greylord Man's Last Words
Shields of Mars
From the Cradle
Black Shoes
Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?
Of Soil and Climate
The Dog of the Drops
Mute
Petting Zoo
Castaway
The Fat Magician
Hunter Lake
The Boy Who Hooked the Sun
Try and Kill It
Game in the Pope's Head
Empires of Foliage and Flower
The Arimaspian Legacy
The Seraph from Its Sepulcher
Lord of the Land
Golden City Far

Some notes:
Wolfe has some typically intriguing and all-too-brief comments on each story. Each! Story! which excited me.
"The Arimaspian Legacy" is linked to, and evidently happens *before* the short story "Slow Children at Play from Wolfe's _Innocents Aboard_. Hint: Wolfe likes Herodotus.
"Lord of the Land," as Wolfe notes, is Wolfe doing a Lovecraft story; it was first published in _Cthulu 2000_ and also appeared in a Tor anthology, _Lovecraft's Legacy_ (1990).

Disclaimer: I expect many negative ratings as Mr. Wolfe's fans feel it their duty to discredit anyone who rates him less than a 'god' (5).

That said, I always enjoy his short story collections. Even the stories I rated 2 out of 5 are worth the read. There are some I did not enjoy at all, but that may be simply my taste.
Of Soil and Climate
The Dog of the Drops
From The Cradle
Empire of Foliage and Flower
Lord of the Land
The Boy Who Hooked the Sun
being my least favorites.

The stars of this collection (for me) are
In Glory Like Their Star
Calamity Warps
Graylord Man's Last Words
Hunter Lake
Pulp Cover
The Seraph from the Sepulcher

Well worth your time. I've enjoyed ever Wolfe collection I've read and I believe I'm up to date on all of them.

Don't miss
The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories
Stories From the Old Hotel

Wolfe! Three intense pleasures!

I would advise readers not to read straight through *any* collection of short stories, but to savor them. More to the point, in his preface to his collection _Book of Days_ (also printed in _Castle of Days_) Wolfe advises his readers not to read his stories the way we eat potato chips (one right after the other), but to read, reflect, reread, consider. In this collection, too, Wolfe has a thoughtful, intriguing, and all-too-brief introduction.

I don't know another way to read Wolfe. The man taught me how to read.

The stories in the collection:

A Cabin on the Coast
The Map
Kevin Malone
The Dark of the June
The Death of Hyle
From the Notebook of Dr. Stein
Thag
The Nebraskan and the Nereid
In the House of Gingerbread
The Headless Man
The Last Thrilling Wonder Story
House of Ancestors
Our Neighbor by David Copperfield
When I Was Ming the Merciless
The God and His Man
The Cat
War Beneath the Tree
Eyebem
The HORARS of War
The Detective of Dreams
Peritonitis
The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus
The Woman the Unicorn Loved
The Peace Spy
All the Hues of Hell
Procreation ( i -- Creation; ii - Recreation; iii - The Sister's Account)
Lukora
Suzanne Delage
Sweet Forest Maid
My Book
The Other Dead Man
The Most Beautiful Woman on the World
The Tale of the Rose and the Nightingale (And What Came of It)
Silhouette

Some notes:
"The Map" and "The Cat" happen in the world of the "New Sun" series (Urth)
"The Dark of the June" "The Death of Hyle" "From the Notebook of Dr. Stein" and "Thag" form a sequence
"Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus" and "Woman the Unicorn Loved" are linked.
The titular "Nebraskan" of "The Nebraskan and the Nereid" also appears in Wolfe's "The Eleventh City" (available in his _Innocents Aboard_) and in his "Lord of the Land" (available in his _Starwater Strains_.)
"War Beneath the Tree" also appears in Wolfe's _Book of Days_ (pb in _Castle of Days_)
"The Detective of Dreams" shows the influence of G.K. Chesterton
"When I Was Ming the Merciless" is thought by many readers to have been inspired by the Stanford prison experiment.

Gene Wolfe is a thinker. His intricate fiction demonstrates a mind that is crammed with ideas which hurl themselves into the souls of his characters and the ideals of his stories with forceful abandon. So insightful and varied that it usually defies the overapplied label of science fiction, Wolfe's work is not for the shallow reader; for those who desire food for thought, on the other hand, this is the richest of feasts. Yet in spite of his subtly interwoven social commentary and his consinstently profound innovations, Wolfe's most valuable trait is his skill as a pure storyteller. The quality of the material in these stories and the adeptness with which their themes are transferred to prose is enough to entice even the most bored bookworm

How is it this man is not better known! Perhaps short stories, mr. mcdorman, aren't meant to be read by the plenty. I for one can't help placing the book down after reading a great one (and that applies to almost every story in this collection) to sit back in wonder as the story unfolds again in my mind. Enjoy this,you, anybody. And find the rest of his stories, which none are small or without ardor.

Wolfe's second short story collection is packed with excellence, but it goes on too long. At over five hundred pages and twenty stories, it is hard to maintain interest while reading straight through the book. The book is still worth reading, containing many stories of the highest quality, but I suggest reading through it at a slower pace.

Each of the "short stories" is long enough for a meaningful theme. The elderly Catholic titular queen of Carinthia's summary of the history of the Reformation alone is worth the price of the book, as Dr. Calvin flees from France to Germany, changes his name to Luther, is thrown out by the local ruler, goes to Switzerland, changes his name to Zwingli, and that's why the Switzers have to come to France to be confirmed.

Long before the words "magical realism" ever cropped up in literary criticism, Avram Davidson was quietly creating a spectacular body of erudite, eloquent, evocative history-as-myth. The Dr. Eszterhazy stories, along with the Vergil novels and "Adventures in Unhistory", are the pinnacle of his accomplishment.

No one has ever had a better ear for dialect, a better sense of the self-importance of minor officials, a better notion of how Balkan politics play out in the back-alleys of minor capitals. And certainly no one has ever had such a perfect (and reverent) sense of the ridiculous, when it comes to the probable behavior of the Vicar-at-Large of the Unreconciled Zwinglians, or the demands of the Frores for an independent Bureau of Weights and Measures, or the universal value of a glass of shnopps, wudky, or St. Martin's.

If you do not love these stories, you're probably just not ready for them yet.

Avram Davidson imagines a world where science is slightly skewed: alchemy works, phrenology (studying the bumps on a skull to determine personality) is a real science, etc. The author takes each "scientific" dead end of the late 19th century (and earlier centuries) and builds witty, cohesive stories around each one. His characters are great and all his plots neatly resolve. The more you know about European history, the more fun you'll get out of his books (Mr. Davidson is, I believe, a professor of an arcane branch of European history).

I love this book. At first when I heard we had to read an assigned book I thought oh great another boring book report, but I really enjoyed reading this one. The book, The Gift, was published in 1997 by the author Patrick O'Leary. It's very complicated and hard to summarize. It takes you through many different times and places, bringing an unruly team of an orphan, a king, and a Waterman (magical frog) together to triumph over an evil wizard and his accomplice at impossible odds. It is a network of many stories being told by the characters in other stories, interwoven to make one awesome novel.
The review I choose to respond to was written and published by Kate Nepveu on February 21, 1999. She named this book "an astonishing novel of and about stories." Her opinions of the book were all positive, but she thought it was "a book that neither summarizes well nor a book that should be spoiled." She claimed it was a science fantasy for mixing magic with technology, but with the two often confused. In summary, she said "The Gift is an elegant and interesting meditation on story, power, women, and the price one pays with regard to all of them."
I agree with most of the review. While at times it can be hard to follow, The Gift is the kind of book that can take your mind to places your body may never be able to get to. I agree with her (the author's) comment that the book carries some importance of female characters in it. The triumphing hero in the end was female; even the reason the antagonist became the antagonist was because of women. I agree totally with the review's comment on how the importance of women wasn't preached upon but was a natural undertone throughout the plot. After all, the book begins and ends with women with untold stories that cross other stories surrounding them, leaving much to the imagination.
One of the parts I liked in the book that this review touches on is the fact that you can't sum it up in just one story. Kate Nepveu said it the best with her comment that "This is a book about stories." There is the story of the Teller telling the sailors and their Captain another story, the story of Tim. Tim and Simon and Marty encounter many different people, who each have their own background stories and more to tell. It's kind of hard to follow until the last chapter and epilogue, where everything is explained. The review I chose labeled The Gift's many overlapping stories as having "an intricately nested effect that illuminates the world and its characters in a concise, elegant fashion." I agree wholeheartedly with that statement because though there are many things going on. The one story that contains all the others is explained by its contents. The little stories make the big picture, and that in turn made it a very interesting and good book to read.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that will make them think. It's not the kind of book you can read in bits and pieces; once you start it you won't want to stop. It's a modernized fairy tale full of dragons, wizards, people who can fly, frogmen, and anything your imagination can fathom. I guarantee it'll keep any reader enthralled till the very last word.

"Other Voices, Other Doors" will introduce you to the work of Patrick O'Leary. The book is chock full of charm, wit, compassion, style, and voice. A wonderful collection. But what else should we expect from the author of the marvelously inventive novels, "Door Number Three" and "The Gift"?

This is a great mystery, with odd twists and thrilling turns, told with a refrshingly new voice about a very unseemly murder. Although not overtly at first (ignoring the title), it uses every bit as much symbolism and allusions and references and all that kind of literary stuff that make you wonder--as people who read Gene Wolfe's work already know about--what you're gong to catch the next time you read it. Arthur'd be proud.

PANDORA, BY HOLLY HOLLANDER is perhaps Gene Wolfe's most mainstream novel. A murder mystery set in a small town in Illinois, the novel contains little of the fantastic elements of his other works, such as his acclaimed masterwork The Book of the New Sun. The book also lacks the puzzles for which Wolfe is notorious, so that the reader gets pretty much everything on the first time through.

The narrator of PANDORA is Holly Hollander, a 17-year old girl who, though plainly immature, is no ditz. She has a thing for mystery novels and can think quite logically. The plot of PANDORA is that Holly's mother buys an locked box marked "Pandora" to be the star attraction of the annual town fair. Tickets are sold, and whoever wins the raffle gets whatever is in the box. I can't say too much to spoil the plot, but the box unleashes death and Holly is determined to find the culprit.She meets a criminologist, Alladin Blue, who seems to know more than he should about the people of her small town.

PANDORA was the third of Gene Wolfe's turn-of-the-90's trilogy of books with contemporary settings. It is perhaps the least substantial, both THERE ARE DOORS and CASTLEVIEW better reward repeat reading with their numerous riddles. Nonetheless, PANDORA is entertaining, and I'd recommend it to any fan of Gene Wolfe. Nonetheless, for people who haven't read anything by Wolfe, I'd suggest starting with the Book of the New Sun, his acclaimed four-volume work.

I always feel inadequate looking for words to describe Vera Nazarian's work - she does words so much better than I ever could! (or, arguably, anyone, ever) This is a collection of fairy tales for grown ups - a lot of them take on classical themes, such as "Swans" (probably my favorite) and "Beauty and His Beast" - and they all carry the ethereal sense of wonder, of something eternally fresh and true about them. The language is lyrical and exquisite, akin to opera in its apparent ability to tighten something in my chest and constrict my throat out of the sheer power of the melody. All that aside...

This is a very strong collection of short stories, entertaining, easy to get into, enjoyable reads. Delicious twists on familiar myths with surprise endings. Recommended for about anyone with an interest in fantasy.

This collection contains the following short stories by Vera Nazarian:
-Rossia Moya
-Beauty and his Beast
-The Young Woman in a House of Old
-Absolute Receptiveness, the Princess, and the Pea
-Bonds of Light
-The Starry King
-The Stone Face, the Giant, and the Paradox
-A Thing of Love
-The Slaying of Winter
-Sun, In Its Copper Season
-Lady of the Castle
-Wound on the Moon
-I Want To Paint The Sky
-Lore of Rainbow
-Swans
-The Story of Love
The only stories original to this collection are Story of Love and Lore of Rainbow, but Salt of the Air collects Vera Nazarian's stories from old Sword and Sorceress anthos and outdated web publishings and other hard-to-find or mildly-expensive-to-collect items. Wound on the Moon was the first story I read by Vera Nazarian, a long time ago in my yet-still-close youth, and I've always remembered it. Marion Zimmer Bradley compared it to early Tanith Lee. It's a vaguely gothic story of a swordswoman looking for her missing lover. A Thing of Love is another decadent tale of a tyrant's executioner and her soul. The Starry King always makes me cry, the story of a woman searching for a myth. These are my favourites, all with elaborate prose and shiny, decadent surroundings. (Okay, Starry King isn't decadent, it's just a very goth sort of story.) There is also one story set in the world of Lords of Rainbow (Lore of Rainbow) and one set in the world of the Compass Rose (The Story of Love). If I remember correctly, Rossia Moya either won an award or was nominated for one. An emigre goes back to Russia for a visit right before it's scheduled to be closed off from the world. It's a very Russian story. Swans is an interesting reworking of the fairy tale of the girl with the swan brothers.

There is one semimajor typographical error in the book, Wound on the Moon is listed as starting on page 185 in the contents but starts on page 197. However, the title headings change to Wound on the Moon on page 187 and only change back to Lady of the Castle on page 193, shortly before the end of the story.

This book is a strange assortment of characterizations, stories no longer then one or two pages, recounting the bizarre and surprising lives of twenty (actually, twenty-one) characters. It's a wonderful glimpse at the immensely original and awe-inspiring imagination of Gene Wolfe, including an unforgettable look at one of the 20th century's most underrated authors. It's another must have for Gene Wolfe fans. And, as I've said before, if you're not a Gene Wolfe fan, go be one, okay? It's way worth it.

General for all books in "The Book of the Short Sun" ("On Blue's Waters", "In Green's Jungles", "Return to the Whorl"): This third series of books, which are a direct continuation of the books in "The Book of the Long Sun" and an semi-direct continuation of the books of "The Book of the New Sun" is similar in its writing style and tone. When you start to read "On Blue's Waters" you feel like you've been thrown into an alien world inhabited by non-alien people with an alien culture. That's what Gene Wolfe has created in these books. He has gone where few authors have dared to go: in the very distant future of Mankind; not a few decades or a few hundred years, but many thousands of years. Frank Herbert, in the "Dune" books, started nine thousand years or so into our future. In Gene Wolfe's books, we don't know how far into the future we've gone, but it's well beyond what Herbert did, as the sun is cooling.

The characters in these books are highly developed, three-dimensional, and realistic. The story-line is extremely non-linear, with abrupt shifts in time and setting, along with dream sequences loaded with meaning. It takes a while to get accustomed to that style, and some readers might not like it, but it was worth it for me. The writing is highly descriptive, and one comes away with a feeling of having visited the places described and having known the characters. One strange note about the series as a whole is that its central character, Horn, gets semi-transformed into Patera Silk, the central character of "The Book of the Long Sun", as the story progresses (or does he?). This series of books also resurrects from "The Book of the Long Sun" one of the most entertaining supporting characters I've ever encountered, Oreb, the semi-intelligent, wise, and highly vocal bird who was the constant companion of Patera Silk and is now the companion of Horn, the new central character. Oreb reminds me of Robert Heinlein's "Buck, the genetically-enhanced talking mule who was a companion to Heinlein's near-immortal Lazarus Long.

For "On Blue's Waters": The story starts off twenty years or so after the end of "The Book of the Long Sun", with Horn (a character from the "The Book of the Long Sun") setting off on a quest to find Patera Silk, the hero and central character of "The Book of the Long Sun". It takes a while to get used to the very non-linear nature of the narrative. Horn has to find Pajarocu, a semi-legendary city that has a spaceship capable of returning to the Long Sun Whorl (an enormous, semi-evacuated orbiting spaceship), where he believes Patera Silk to be. While most of the characters in the book are human, there are also the inhumi, the race of intelligent but parasitic beings that evolved on Planet Blue's neighbor, Planet Green, and eventually spread to Blue, as well as the Neighbors or Vanished People, who were the original inhabitants of Blue before being nearly killed off by the inhumi. There might also be a race of superbeings who functioned as the gods of the Vanished People, but we're never sure of that.

For "In Green's Jungles": This continues the story of Horn and his search for Patera Silk. The ship that was supposed to take him to the Long Sun Whorl, instead takes him to Green, the home of the inhumi. He has to lead his fellow shanghaied shipmates against the inhumi, who want to enslave them and drink their blood, and Horn gets some help from the enigmatic Neighbors or Vanished People. Horn is killed along the way (or is he?) and reincarnated, thanks to the Neighbors, in the body of the dying Patera Silk (or is he?). The reader is never certain of exactly what happened to the central character, which reflects the character's confusion about himself (he is never certain again if he is Horn, Silk, or some combination of both). The writing is somewhat more linear here, and there are increasing hints that this series connects not only with "The Book of the Long Sun" but also with "The Book of the New Sun". A wonderful continuation of a complex, enchanting story.

For "Return to the Whorl": In the most linear (but still not very linear) and least obtuse book of the series, Horn (or is he Patera Silk?) jumps back and forth between the Planet Blue and the spaceship Whorl, searching for Silk (himself?), helping his new friend Pig (whose dialect is initially hard to understand but you get used to it), and making his way back to his (Horn's) family. He succeeds at returning to his family, he succeeds at helping Pig regain his sight (and stop being a blind pig!), and he succeeds, in an extremely strange way, at finding Patera Silk. All of the threads get tied together here, from "The Book of the New Sun", "The Book of the Long Sun", and "The Book of the Short Sun". The main character of "The Book of the New Sun" series, Severian the Torturer, even plays a small but important part, although he never gets named. The ending leaves the reader wondering if another series is planned, as the opportunity is there (Silk goes back to the Whorl as it readies to head back into deep space), but the tone is wistful, bordering on melancholy, as if Gene Wolfe were saying good-bye to his beloved characters. This is a very obtuse, poetic, complex, and wonderful set of books. It was a challenge to read, but was well worth it.

Overall, this is a strange, well-written, complex, and enchanting tale.