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squashie posted: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. Thanks! I hadn't known about that and I look forward to reading it.
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Oct 28, 2015 13:21
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Enjoying the hell out of A Borrowed Man - it reminds me a lot of Fifth Head of Cerberus actually.
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Nov 6, 2015 19:24
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pugnax posted:Enjoying the hell out of A Borrowed Man - it reminds me a lot of Fifth Head of Cerberus actually. That's good to hear - going to check it out now. Post-Wizard-Knight Wolfe hasn't been the same for me, but the premise sounded more interesting than his other recent stuff.
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Nov 7, 2015 03:51
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I seem to be the only one who enjoys New Wolfe alongside Old, although I do miss the older prose and melancholy. I've been hanging on to A Borrowed Man for days now without cracking it open. I've been dog-tired lately, and despite the massive temptation I don't want to spoil my First Read by being braindead. You only get one First Read. And what I love most about Wolfe is that you often get to read a completely different book on the second read.
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Nov 7, 2015 04:38
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You're not the only one; I'm probably the only living fan of Home Fires, though. Eagerly awaiting to get my hands on the new one.
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Nov 7, 2015 11:49
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Finished A Borrowed Man. Really in the same vein as Home Fires/Land Across, with a heavy influence of Fifth Head of Cerberus. I liked it a lot, but it reminded me a lot of Inherent Vice - it's certainly no Gravity's Rainbow, but it's a really good time. Much like Pirate Freedom was a play on the traditional Treasure Island style adventure, and Wizard Knight was like Narnia from Hell, Borrowed Man is very much a hard boiled detective story.
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Nov 9, 2015 16:53
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Just started Book of the New Sun, I'm excited because I've never read Wolfe before. That said, the description of the woman whose leg the torturers flayed is pretty  . Had me squirming something fierce.
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Nov 11, 2015 21:50
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Lprsti99 posted:Just started Book of the New Sun, I'm excited because I've never read Wolfe before. That said, the description of the woman whose leg the torturers flayed is pretty Thankfully the books sort of move away from that quickly. I was kind of like "am I going to be reading about a creepy torturer for 4 books?" the answer is yes, but not how you'd think.
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Nov 11, 2015 21:56
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Lprsti99 posted:Just started Book of the New Sun, I'm excited because I've never read Wolfe before. That said, the description of the woman whose leg the torturers flayed is pretty Late in the first or early in the second book (very minor spoiler) there's a point where he's like "just assume I tortured people every now and again, I'm not going to get into it because it's just a living for me."
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Nov 12, 2015 14:15
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Yeah Wolfe does a good job not making it some Terry Goodkind torture porn poo poo.
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Nov 19, 2015 05:58
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Bold Robot posted:Late in the first or early in the second book (very minor spoiler) there's a point where he's like "just assume I tortured people every now and again, I'm not going to get into it because it's just a living for me." Yeah, I just hit that at the beginning of the second book. I really enjoyed the first book! I'm glad that I'm well-read and have a good grasp of word roots, though. Wolfe is great at providing context for the archaic words he uses in lieu of making poo poo up, but seeing the word and either just knowing it or being able to work it out without needing much context is pretty great.
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Nov 19, 2015 06:25
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So I realize this is a year old, but I Thought it was pretty neat. Sorry if it's an old post. http://aidanmoher.com/blog/2014/12/art/gorgeous-covers-jian-guo-book-of-the-new-sun/
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Dec 7, 2015 22:43
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Space-Bird posted:So I realize this is a year old, but I Thought it was pretty neat. Sorry if it's an old post. Those are gorgeous. First I've seen them, thanks.
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Dec 8, 2015 04:01
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Space-Bird posted:So I realize this is a year old, but I Thought it was pretty neat. Sorry if it's an old post. Those are cool, and what's especially neat is that the covers for Shadow and Claw are references to the original hardback cover illos.
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Dec 8, 2015 06:55
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Oh, hi everyone. I am a really big fan of Gene Wolfe. I find that a lot of his books seem disappointing on the first read, and then I love them after the second. All of the books in the solar cycle are amazing but I think they start off great (new sun) and get better and better: Long+short sun together are my favourite of all of his books, and probably my favourite books ever. Has anyone here read the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance? The book of the new sun was Gene Wolfe's take on those. The middle two books of Dying Earth (Cugel's two books) are loving amazing. I made a thread about them a few years ago but few people seemed to care.
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Dec 9, 2015 00:47
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Love the Dying Earth. It has a surface of black comedy, with horror lurking just underneath. The psychology of the characters is great too: the closeness of the end of the world has tended to leave people apathetic, incurious and callous towards the suffering of others. Must re-read the books!
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Dec 9, 2015 13:09
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Finished A Borrowed Man, enjoyed it a lot although some of the events and sequences seemed totally random to me - what's the deal with the otherworldly ocean monster thing - I realy thought it was just a sea turtle, except apparently not and why is it even there? Overall, the more contained, smaller-scale story worked extremely well. I loved Wolfe spoofing the detective/mystery novel genre complete with the protagonist holding all the cards close to his chest all the time and saving it up for big reveal; I really wish he wrote more books like that. It's not anywhere near his peak but a good read all in all. I am however saying that as someone who likes Home Fires to take that as you will.
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Dec 9, 2015 17:38
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I just finished The Wizard Knight and loved it, but I'm very, very confused about the ending. So Able/Arthur puts on his helm of true seeing and see's that Berthod is actually his brother from America, Ben. Did they both get switched at some point? edit: also what happened to Mani? He just seemed to dissapear at some point.
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Mar 2, 2016 02:40
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So fuligin's finally a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack
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Mar 22, 2016 16:44
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Your Gay Uncle posted:I just finished The Wizard Knight and loved it, but I'm very, very confused about the ending. So Able/Arthur puts on his helm of true seeing and see's that Berthod is actually his brother from America, Ben. Did they both get switched at some point? I didn't really get that either. There's at least one other allusion to the real world and this mythological one existing in parallel and possibly occupying the same space in some weird way, like after Able fights the pirates he has flashes of him in an ambulance after being wounded by terrorists.
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Mar 23, 2016 05:22
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If you're interested in wildly in-depth and possibly-conspiracy-theorist reviews, https://duchyofcumberbatch.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/the-wizard-knight-commentaries/ has a great one for the Wizard Knight. It's been a while since I read it, but by the end of it I remember being convinced by its astounding claim: The Wizard Knight and The Sorcerer's House are related works. As a general Wolfe rule I'd say don't read the reviews until you've read the books at least twice or you'll miss out on a lot of the fun of discovery. After that, I find it delightful to absorb external suggestions and re-read the works with those thoughts in mind. Even if I find myself in disagreement.
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Mar 23, 2016 18:14
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Hammer Bro. posted:If you're interested in wildly in-depth and possibly-conspiracy-theorist reviews, https://duchyofcumberbatch.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/the-wizard-knight-commentaries/ has a great one for the Wizard Knight. It's been a while since I read it, but by the end of it I remember being convinced by its astounding claim: The Wizard Knight and The Sorcerer's House are related works. Thanks for the link. I'm looking it over now.
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Mar 25, 2016 01:29
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Speaking of which, I finished A Borrowed Man last week (surprisingly good, btw) and my personal crazy Wolfe theory is that book and An Evil Guest take place in the same universe, and the alien planet Smythe finds a portal to in the rich guy's house is Woldercan.
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Mar 25, 2016 05:49
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Hammer Bro. posted:If you're interested in wildly in-depth and possibly-conspiracy-theorist reviews, https://duchyofcumberbatch.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/the-wizard-knight-commentaries/ has a great one for the Wizard Knight. It's been a while since I read it, but by the end of it I remember being convinced by its astounding claim: The Wizard Knight and The Sorcerer's House are related works. Thanks! I've never seen much discussion on the Wizard Knight, which I thought was a pity because I think they're maybe the most accessible and fun of all of Wolfe's works. Accessible to genre readers anyway, if I were recommending to someone who doesn't read genre fiction much I'd put up Peace or the Fifth Head of Cerberus first.
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Mar 25, 2016 08:40
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Popular Human posted:Speaking of which, I finished A Borrowed Man last week (surprisingly good, btw) and my personal crazy Wolfe theory is that book and An Evil Guest take place in the same universe, and the alien planet Smythe finds a portal to in the rich guy's house is Woldercan. Oooh, I've gotta keep that in mind. I've always enjoyed An Evil Guest more than I suspect most people did. Especially once you start to consider that Gideon is really not a nice guy. Of the humans, he's the villain. There's also a decent body of evidence that the book is its own sequel, and that Margaret is Cassie from the future, returned from Woldercan and trying tragically to save Wally (hope I got the names right). Neurosis posted:Thanks! I've never seen much discussion on the Wizard Knight, which I thought was a pity because I think they're maybe the most accessible and fun of all of Wolfe's works. Accessible to genre readers anyway, if I were recommending to someone who doesn't read genre fiction much I'd put up Peace or the Fifth Head of Cerberus first. I actually read that one pretty early into my Wolfe career, and I almost didn't hang onto it because nothing at all happened in the second book. Then I reread it a few years later, not yet properly clued in to how tricksy Wolfe is, and it was an amazing experience. It felt like a completely different book and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I didn't realize how awesome it was the first time. It does strike me as a shame when his minor works get brushed aside and don't receive the analytical attention they deserve, because I've heard convincing arguments about delightful undercurrents for all of them. Even Pandora by Holly Hollander. I've also heard some off-the-wall bonkers no-way-I'm-believing-them theories. But I still derive enjoyment from reading those. tl;dr Don't die, Mr. Wolfe!
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Mar 25, 2016 18:20
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I firmly believe that years from now, scholars all around the world will confirm my conviction that Home Fires is a great book.
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Mar 25, 2016 21:54
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Hammer Bro. posted:Even Pandora by Holly Hollander. I thought I was the only person who liked that one! I just started a reread of An Evil Guest thanks to thinking about it so much - we'll see if I like it better the second time. This line stuck out at me on the very first page, in the middle of a description of Gideon: Gene Wolfe posted:Had he looked into this man's eyes, he would have seen the night looking out through a mask; it was because he had looked there once - and had not liked what he had seen - that he did not look again. That is some straight-up Ligotti poo poo and I'm shocked anyone ever thought Gideon was supposed to be the 'hero' of the book. AEG might be flabby as hell in parts and have conversations that go nowhere and take way too long, but that first chapter is taut as gently caress. Made me want a novel-length version of Wolfe doing Stross' "A Colder War." Popular Human fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Mar 26, 2016 |
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Mar 26, 2016 03:59
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Hammer Bro. posted:If you're interested in wildly in-depth and possibly-conspiracy-theorist reviews, https://duchyofcumberbatch.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/the-wizard-knight-commentaries/ has a great one for the Wizard Knight. It's been a while since I read it, but by the end of it I remember being convinced by its astounding claim: The Wizard Knight and The Sorcerer's House are related works. Thank you, this was a very interesting and helpful read.
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Apr 9, 2016 21:10
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I finally tracked down the first half of Book of the New Sun and I'm about a 150 pages into the first part, and holy poo poo; this book is unreal. I don't think I've been in awe of a book like this since Blood Meridian, it's just such a subtle and beautiful work. I fell in love right at the beginning with the chapter where Severain finds a dog and rescues it, it;s such a subtle and nuanced take on adolescence and the affecting power of things mostly out of your hands, it did more in six pages than some books have done in 150. So yeah, thank you thread for having good taste and recommending this book to me 
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May 14, 2016 17:35
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I got the GURPS guide to BotNS for myself and a friend (who got me into New Sun to begin with) as a reference and reading guide and, imo, it's pretty awesome. I recommend it to other folks who want to make sense of what's happening in the series. Anyone else have it / have an opinion on it?
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May 14, 2016 23:14
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ManlyGrunting posted:I finally tracked down the first half of Book of the New Sun and I'm about a 150 pages into the first part, and holy poo poo; this book is unreal. I don't think I've been in awe of a book like this since Blood Meridian, it's just such a subtle and beautiful work. I fell in love right at the beginning with the chapter where Severain finds a dog and rescues it, it;s such a subtle and nuanced take on adolescence and the affecting power of things mostly out of your hands, it did more in six pages than some books have done in 150. So yeah, thank you thread for having good taste and recommending this book to me It's his pinnacle, IMO.
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May 14, 2016 23:27
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EmperorFritoBandito posted:I got the GURPS guide to BotNS for myself and a friend (who got me into New Sun to begin with) as a reference and reading guide and, imo, it's pretty awesome. I recommend it to other folks who want to make sense of what's happening in the series. I enjoyed the heck out of the books but...whats a GURPS and what does it do?
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May 14, 2016 23:56
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Space-Bird posted:I enjoyed the heck out of the books but...whats a GURPS and what does it do? I think he's suggesting that you get a tabletop roleplaying game sourcebook and use it to understand the novel better.
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May 14, 2016 23:58
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:I think he's suggesting that you get a tabletop roleplaying game sourcebook and use it to understand the novel better. I am, and I was serious. 
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May 15, 2016 00:13
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EmperorFritoBandito posted:I am, and I was serious. Ok, I'm extremely curious. What class is a Baldanders. Can I roll a cacogen?
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May 15, 2016 00:30
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Baldanders is a 325-point character of assorted talents and disadvantages. You don't "roll" cacogens or anything else, which is kind of the point of GURPS. My original question stands.
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May 15, 2016 00:44
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Let me google that for you... ftp://109.172.12.231/doki/gurps/GURPS%203rd%20Edition%20eBooks/GURPS%20New%20Sun.pdf
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May 15, 2016 00:55
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CountFosco posted:Let me google that for you... Any thoughts?
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May 15, 2016 01:04
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i haven't read it at all, but it is written by michael-andre druissi who also wrote lexicon urthus, which is interesting.
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May 15, 2016 01:23
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I don't really like it that much because to me it feels like it oversimplifies things, takes some things for granted, but I only skimmed it so I haven't really given it a fair shake. It's done by M. A-D. though so I'm sure it has its merits and it's well-researched.
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May 15, 2016 01:43
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