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Chichevache posted:I really like Golden City Far in Starwater Strains. If you haven't read that collection give it a shot. I have not. City of stories, stories from the old hotel, and I haven't touched the third one. I love how trilogies take up so much time, but appreciate the world building that short stories accomplish. I will eventually but everything he has every written. He has earned his own shelf.
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Jun 23, 2015 02:28
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Only Wolfe collection I've read is The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories and it's pretty incredible.
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Jun 23, 2015 03:41
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Beyond sane knolls posted:Only Wolfe collection I've read is The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories and it's pretty incredible. Okay I will get that one next.
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Jun 23, 2015 09:32
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thewireguy posted:Okay I will get that one next. Seven american nights alone is worth the price of admision , as well as that one werewolf story.
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Jun 29, 2015 04:46
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Mister Nobody posted:Seven american nights alone is worth the price of admision , as well as that one werewolf story. Book of Days is great, though mainly for Forlesen: "No. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Maybe."
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Jun 29, 2015 05:36
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sebmojo posted:Book of Days is great, though mainly for Forlesen: "No. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Maybe." I am on castle of days now. Endangered species next.
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Jun 29, 2015 07:16
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sebmojo posted:Book of Days is great, though mainly for Forlesen: "No. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Maybe." I thought that story was good the first time I read it, but after a half-decade as a corporate office drone its become one of my favorite short stories ever. stealth edit: were you aware that the string of answers you quoted correspond to the list of 'explainers' Death gave Forlesen the option of talking to? The only one I remember off the top of my head is that the last one is 'an author' (meaning Wolfe himself), so Wolfe's own answer to whether Forlesen's life has been worth it is "maybe." Goddamn I love that poo poo. Popular Human fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Jun 29, 2015 |
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Jun 29, 2015 15:06
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Forlesen is great. The thing that moves under the highway is, for me, the greatest Wolfe mystery.
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Jun 29, 2015 15:36
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You know, honestly, I want to recommend The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories to this thread, but I reread it a while back with a couple friends in a makeshift book club and it made me realize that there are a LOT of duds in that collection. For every story that could go in a compilation of the best sci-fi stories of the 20th century (The Death of Doctor Island, Tracking Song, Seven American Nights) there's one that's either painfully dated or not all that good. 'Hour of Trust' might be the worst story Wolfe ever wrote, IMO.
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Jun 30, 2015 03:32
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I just finished reading the Latro books and I didn't want to cope with withdrawal so I picked up The Book of the Long Sun again. It might have my favorite opening sentence ever. Enlightenment came to Patera Silk on the ball court; nothing could ever be the same after that.  P.S. I am currently working on convincing the fiance to let me name our future sons Lucius and Cassius. 
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Jul 3, 2015 20:41
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Halfway through endangered species. Even the mediocre ones are better than most poo poo I have read.
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Jul 12, 2015 14:18
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Chichevache posted:I just finished reading the Latro books and I didn't want to cope with withdrawal so I picked up The Book of the Long Sun again. It might have my favorite opening sentence ever. Latro. Or Monet if it is a girl.
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Jul 12, 2015 15:27
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Castle of the otter has some cool insights into the book of the long Sun.
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Jul 19, 2015 17:15
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Read BoTNS+Urth for the first time while wandering around the birthland of civilization this summer. I don't know if sitting in the wreckage of thousand year old cities while reading it raised the impact or what, but goddamn this is some of the best science/fantasy-fiction I've read in my entire life and I'd thought the genre played out for me. Started in on the Long Sun and it's already amazing, how I missed out on Wolfe for 25 years I do not even know. 
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Aug 22, 2015 17:09
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Rime posted:Read BoTNS+Urth for the first time while wandering around the birthland of civilization this summer. I don't know if sitting in the wreckage of thousand year old cities while reading it raised the impact or what, but goddamn this is some of the best science/fantasy-fiction I've read in my entire life and I'd thought the genre played out for me. I am glad you liked them! Where is this "birthplace of civilizarion"?
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Aug 22, 2015 17:22
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Caucasus & Turkey. I don't know if it's my natural dislike for narratives which strive for a heavily religious theme, but drat am I ever finding Long Sun to be a slog. Can't put my finger on why exactly, other than that. Too much prose wasted on inane details? Main character is insufferable and preachingly idealistic? I dunno, I'm fighting through it, but it barely feels like the same author as the New Sun sometimes. I don't particularly care how many times he fixes his drat shirt and how this will impact the feelings of his cyborg coworkers, I want to know more about the world FFS. 
Rime fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 08:54
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Rime posted:Caucasus & Turkey. Long Sun is his best work. And those little details are how you learn about this world.
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Sep 12, 2015 13:03
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I honestly found Silk more relatable than Severian - you can tell he's in over his head the entire time even when he somehow looks like he's in control, at least in the first two books. Which gets better once you start reading Short Sun and realize just what the other people made of him.
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Sep 12, 2015 14:43
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anilEhilated posted:I honestly found Silk more relatable than Severian - you can tell he's in over his head the entire time even when he somehow looks like he's in control, at least in the first two books. Which gets better once you start reading Short Sun and realize just what the other people made of him. 
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Sep 12, 2015 14:51
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Chichevache posted:Long Sun is his best work. A bold assertion.
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Sep 12, 2015 18:12
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Neurosis posted:A bold assertion. His most fun, then.
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Sep 12, 2015 19:18
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Rime posted:Caucasus & Turkey. Preach it. Late Wolfe bad Wolfe. It's chalk and cheese to me, and BotNS is one of my favourite pieces of writing.
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Sep 12, 2015 20:05
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Rime posted:Caucasus & Turkey. Long Sun gets really, REALLY good after the slow start.
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Sep 13, 2015 03:58
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Rime posted:I don't particularly care how many times he fixes his drat shirt and how this will impact the feelings of his cyborg coworkers, I want to know more about the world FFS. You can read literally any other science fiction in existence, I want to read about those things.
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Sep 13, 2015 13:22
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:You can read literally any other science fiction in existence, I want to read about those things. My issues are more around the lengthy periods where it just seems like everyone is explaining the plot to each other.
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Sep 13, 2015 23:22
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sebmojo posted:My issues are more around the lengthy periods where it just seems like everyone is explaining the plot to each other. That I can see, but even then I kind of suspect that, at least with some of those times, the point is that their explanations are wrong due to faulty information or outright lying. (Although much less of the latter compared to anything in BotNS.)
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Sep 13, 2015 23:34
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Rime posted:Too much prose wasted on inane details? Main character is insufferable and preachingly idealistic? I dunno, I'm fighting through it, but it barely feels like the same author as the New Sun sometimes. I liked Silk as a character. There's a bit in Short Sun where someone explains his deal - that he's so good it's scary to those of us who are less good - which I totally agree with, but having it stated so baldly killed my interest. Sure the basic idea of the series was to write a good man in a bad religion, but that doesn't mean it's preachy.
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Sep 15, 2015 15:00
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He gets turned into that by other people, though: no one really idolizes him until Long Sun is over and Horn grows up and turns disciple. Even in the war and evacuation, the one in the face of public is Mint. There's always the discrepancy between Silk the man and Silk the saint.
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Sep 15, 2015 16:43
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Long sun is great and even better when you realize that what appears to be an omniscient author can be unreliable as well
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Sep 19, 2015 05:46
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I finally got around to reading BotNS after having it on my list forever, and boy am I absolutely sold. I've finished the first three and and just started the fourth, if I finish it tomorrow I'll have read them all in a week and am already anticipating a re-read, probably after I read the rest of the Solar Cycle. I've really fallen in love with the bizarre world Wolfe created, and it does the science-fantasy thing where fantastic technology coexists with medieval life far better than anything I've read before. It reminds me a lot of Michael Moorcock's Elric series, which is generally much more by-the-books sword and sorcery than BotNS is, but the characters of Elric and Severian share some similar traits and Moorcock's world is (Elric spoilers) implied to be the Earth of a long distant past (and/or a parallel universe) in the same way Urth is the Earth of a distant future. And then I started reading Citadel of the Autarch and in the second paragraph there's an interesting name that I don't think appeared in the first three books, can't say if it's in the fourth again yet: quote:Just as our familiar Urth holds such monstrosities as Erebus, Abaia, and Arioch, so the world of war is stalked by the monsters called battles... The Biblical Arioch was apparently the captain of the guard and the head executioner(!) of King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel, i.e. a human, so interesting to see that name mentioned alongside the two monsters with mythological names Severian has talked about before. And in the Elric series, Arioch is a chaos deity who thrives on war and discord. Michael Moorcock himself says: quote:I've said elsewhere that I admire Gene Wolf's work. I was privileged to publish his first story in New Worlds in, I think, 1967! So I wonder if Gene Wolfe throwing in Arioch, seemingly randomly, is a reference to Moorcock. I came across a fan theory that Severian is written to be an aspect of Moorcock's Eternal Champion, which is of course meaningless but still fun to think about.
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Sep 23, 2015 18:49
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So new book soon? I'm probably in the minority but I've really enjoyed his recent work.
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Sep 25, 2015 13:17
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A friend of mind suggested I check out the new sun books, so I picked up the first two. I'm really excited to find this thread. I just plowed through The Shadow of the Torturer and I am 2/3rds of the way through Claw. I'm not sure if this thread is still active or anything, but I'm loving the use of language. It's kind of surreal to me, because I've basically have developed the same rule set for writing, without any knowledge of Gene Wolf's stuff. I'm enjoying how I can't tell if Severian is a complete lunatic, who is telling a revised and idealized version of events or maybe just an autistic dude on an adventure. I'm going into this blind, so I have no idea what to expect. I just got to Dr. Talos' play, and had to set it down. It was a bit too rough to get though in a sitting. I didn't read through all the thread to avoid spoilers, so I hope peeps don't mind me just posting my thoughts as I plough through the new sun stuff. hell astro course fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Oct 11, 2015 |
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Oct 11, 2015 07:32
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pugnax posted:So new book soon? I'm probably in the minority but I've really enjoyed his recent work. Naw, the opposite if anything - my sense is a lot of people like his newer stuff.
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Oct 11, 2015 10:49
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Space-Bird posted:A friend of mind suggested I check out the new sun books, so I picked up the first two. I'm really excited to find this thread. I just plowed through The Shadow of the Torturer and I am 2/3rds of the way through Claw. I'm not sure if this thread is still active or anything, but I'm loving the use of language. It's kind of surreal to me, because I've basically have developed the same rule set for writing, without any knowledge of Gene Wolf's stuff. I think it's fair to gloss over some of the more opaque chapters - I know I did. Off the top of my head I didn't really sweat trying to figure out Talos's play or the little hut in the jungle room of the gardens. Maybe I missed something huge in those chapters but I doubt it.
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Oct 11, 2015 14:41
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Space-Bird posted:I'm enjoying how I can't tell if Severian is a complete lunatic, who is telling a revised and idealized version of events or maybe just an autistic dude on an adventure. I'm going into this blind, so I have no idea what to expect. He's definitely revising and idealizing. Don't look up the specifics unless you want to get spoiled, but Severian is constantly glossing over or even outright lying about all kinds of things that make him look ignorant, childish, or weak -- these ones are probably conscious -- and he also does some really horrific things while seemingly unable to realize that they're wrong.
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Oct 11, 2015 15:53
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Bold Robot posted:I think it's fair to gloss over some of the more opaque chapters - I know I did. Off the top of my head I didn't really sweat trying to figure out Talos's play or the little hut in the jungle room of the gardens. Maybe I missed something huge in those chapters but I doubt it. My feeling on stuff like this in Wolfe is that you almost certainly did, but you can always figure it out later, and it doesn't matter to your enjoyment as much as you might think.
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Oct 11, 2015 16:30
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Bold Robot posted:I think it's fair to gloss over some of the more opaque chapters - I know I did. Off the top of my head I didn't really sweat trying to figure out Talos's play or the little hut in the jungle room of the gardens. Maybe I missed something huge in those chapters but I doubt it. Ok this is good to know. I found the jungle bit and the play difficult to trudge through. In sure there are some nuggets of info tucked away in there, but I enjoyed the story of the student and his child made of dreams a lot more. I haven't quite put together what was really going on with that, yet, but I have a few ideas. Does the story ever return to that book, or have relevance? Or is it just some fun world building / set dressing. Tuxedo Catfish posted:He's definitely revising and idealizing. Don't look up the specifics unless you want to get spoiled, but Severian is constantly glossing over or even outright lying about all kinds of things that make him look ignorant, childish, or weak -- these ones are probably conscious -- and he also does some really horrific things while seemingly unable to realize that they're wrong. Yeah, even if you take the stuff he is saying at face value he still comes off as extremely uh... On some kind of spectrum. I think I've only really found one or two characters actually likable people so far, but I have no idea if something will come up later to completely change my original view of that. That's probably one of the most enjoyable thing about Wolf's writing so far. I'm really enjoying how he'll obfuscate something though the eyes of the narrator or the ignorance of the world and the reader just has to make their own educated guess as to what is really going on.
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Oct 11, 2015 18:34
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The Vosgian Beast posted:My feeling on stuff like this in Wolfe is that you almost certainly did, but you can always figure it out later, and it doesn't matter to your enjoyment as much as you might think. My feeling is that some of it - the jungle hut, for instance - is actually really straightforward - the scene is there to introduce the idea that time isn't linear or constant and can be manipulated. This plays a huge role later in the story, of course, so it's clever of Wolfe to introduce it early on in such a weird context. I'm sure someone's written a long essay about the deep significance of the jungle hut, though, and maybe they're right! That's half the fun.
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Oct 12, 2015 01:36
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Chichevache posted:P.S. I am currently working on convincing the fiance to let me name our future sons Lucius and Cassius. If you don't refer to your kid (male or female) as The Kallikanzaros, I just don't know what the point of being a parent is.
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Oct 14, 2015 06:18
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I'm sure most of you know already but there is a new book out now, I haven't started it yet (the new mistborn book got in front) but looking forward to it. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848252-a-borrowed-man
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Oct 28, 2015 11:38
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