SCiFi Chat Transcript – Gene Wolfe

3 Comments

1. Scott says:

   January 18, 2004 at 7:49 pm

   I really likes his bookies too.

   In all seriousness, the two I read were good – if a bit, I dunno, too obscure or hard to decipher. I think of his books much like I felt about Canterbury Tales – its a good story, but strange side things got introduced that were never quite explained.

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2. jp says:

   January 18, 2004 at 10:32 pm

   I felt the same way after first reading The Book of the New Sun. However, a lot of things that happen is explained, if not overtly. You have to read carefully to figure it out. For instance, Severian is an orphan, I believe, or at least, he doesn’t remember who his parents are. But, he actually encounters both during his books. Its not spelled out in 20 point font, but its there.

   Wolfe’s writing styly is dense and obscure, which servers to help give more than one layer of meaning to the stories. If you are familiar with old timey words, you can usually figure out what something is from its name, for instance, hierodule. It helps to have a lot of unbroken time to read his stuff. The Book of the Long Sun was a bit easier to read, up until the last book. I haven’t yet read the Book of the Short Sun, but from what I’ve read, its back to the dense writing style.

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3. bob Emery says:

   February 20, 2009 at 4:31 pm

   Not sure this is the proper place to do this, but I have just had a sci fi novel published by Glenbridge Publishing.  The title is In the Realm of Eden and I hope you take the time to check it out at glenbridgepublishing.com.

   Thanks to all.

   Bob Emery

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