Gene Wolfe

Tying in with Dave Q's comments the book has massive alienated-boy appeal in that the hero is an outcast with no sense of humour but is also a pulling machine with an implied massive dick but Wolfe writes it in such a way as not to, ahem, wave this in your face and also to make it seem as if this great sexual success is the natural consequence of being dark and moody.

Never read Peace; Fifth Head I remember as being good. He did a weird modern day fantasy book called Free Live Free which in retrospect reminds me of Neil Gaiman so I wonder if I'd still like it. I also like his "Soldier" books which he did after BotNS - having made his name he followed it up with a series written from the point of view of an amnesiac in Ancient Greece using a fantastic narrational trick which unfortunately made the books even harder to read. I think the low sales of those made him return to his 'New Sun' universe.

The first two books definitely go together, but the second
two are completely independently readable. "The Book Of The Long
Sun" is slightly related to one or two pages in TBOTNS - there's
no recurring characters (well, not really) and the tone is
completely different. It starts out straightforwardly enough,
almost dissapointingly
so, but halfway through vol. 3 you release not all is as it seems,
and vol. 4 is one mindsmashing revelation after another.

"The Book Of The Short Sun" can probably be enjoyed on it's own
as well, although it is directly linked to the Long Sun.
I haven't finished this book yet, but it looks to be the most
fractured, bizarre narrative since "The Fifth Head Of Cerberus."

Speaking of with, 5th Head is probably the best introduction
to wolfe for anyone unwilling to commit to a series.
It's structure is maddening and beautiful, and it's
secrets are unforgettably haunting.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22gene+wolfe%22+%22fifth+head+of+cerberus%22+group:rec.arts.sf.written.*&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=rec.arts.sf.written.*&selm=7ev18r%24949%241%40sparkie.st-andrews.ac.uk&rnum=6

This cool Wolfe site contains two long, erudite essays more
thoroughly dissecting the puzzle:

http://www.ultan.co.uk/

starting book of the new sun now. totally into it so far (40 pages maybe) that is all.
i think bene_geserit has read this; max??

I voted it #1 in the SFF poll. Plan to reread again in a year or two. Miraculous books.

of COURSE you love it, you are the sci-fi guy. :)

Wolfe is probably the best living/working sci-fi writer imho

I think everybody on ilx who reads these threads has gotten into this guy except for me and ledge.

read the first book int he series a looooooong time ago and dug it

i recently finished my 2nd time through the whole series (including UotNS)

i floated the idea of an ILX BotNS reading club but nobody took me up on it, would still be interested

so instead of a third go through i started on "litany of the long sun" and i couldn't get into it

the next series after that has very dire-looking cover art

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312058664l/60214.jpg

do not want!

though i do like that dude's bear-sloth companion

Hey I've been meaning to read it, would be up for that

i'd also be into it.

slocki are you in new york city

i'm also up for the reading group

Ian I am beep me on FB if u are hangable tmrw

Wouldn't mind doing a reading group myself.

is that an ILB group?

feel like thread needs a haters rolecall

Thinks there's one more that I overlooked

i was just talking about reading this on ilb! okay, i'll start it soon. i have all four books in hardcover.

private press handstitched limited editions with signed cardstock insert and illustrations by this guy on etsy?

Say what?

Truth be told haven't read enough by this guy to be a hater. Still trying to find a way in.

Wonder how book club will work because it seems like he is the kind of writer who will ask of his public, old-skool adventure game or Encyclopedia-Brown style: "on page three of volume I gave a veiled hint that THE TORTURER WAS LEFT-HANDED! Now this fact has finally become relevant. Dear Reader, you haven't been paying attention." Note: This may or may not be a real example.

well that's what will make the book club fun - "DIDJA NOTICE HE DID ...."

Yes but, as I forgot to add, the third time readers might SPOIL it for the rest of ud

spoilers can only hurt u if u let them, maaaaan

Say what?

no slam, joking abt the craftsmanship thread, where scott has recently spent time

solemn oath not to spoil

uh, just fyi---

http://www.centipedepress.com/sf/shadow.html

yeah, full circle

http://www.centipedepress.com/sf/sword.html

^^ uh, $225? uh. at some level i appreciate spending money for a nice book but that is just insaniac pricing.

eh, if they can find a hundred suckers, why not

spoilers can only hurt u if u let them, maaaaan

i mean, i agree with that for sure (you see the same thing in records sometimes but rarely at that high a price.), it's fine to sell something nice at a high price, but i guess i just underestimate the demand for boutique editions of cult(ish) sf & horror novels, and even among the people who would want the book how many would be able to toss a few hundred bucks at it? like, for the four books--total price of the paperback omnibuses is somewhere around $30; for the boutique editions probably around $900. it makes me feel poor, kind of? xp about book pricing

people like nice stuff, disposable income, collector mentality i know. i get weirdly obsessive abt things like this for some reason.

that guy has some nice artwork on his site but i sort of wonder if i missed some scenes when i look at some of it

like what scene is this supposed to be - http://www.abalakin.de/artwork/hi_110116-tcota.jpg ... it's titled "citadel of the autarch"

http://www.abalakin.de/artworks.asp

^^ afaict all of the BotNS-related art is in the 2nd and 3rd rows from the top

anyway for me what is massive and inscrutable about Wolfe is not the plot or all the little asides but actually the theology of it

wolfe is a devout catholic, right? can't tell whether he's practicing critique or apologetics and when severian is supposed to be a naive barbarian and when he's preternaturally wise

rufus got all the lion/witch/wardrobe books at the thrift store the other day and i said to him: "you know those are all veiled christian allegories, don't you?" and maria said: "don't ruin them for him!"

it seems to me like your kids will end up being super smart & cultured.

Did you tell him "Aslan" was the Turkish word for lion and get him started as a language hacker?

the worst

it's no chillwave the genre

wolfe or lewis?

I'm no kind of book collector -- I mostly have shelves of old paperbacks -- but for whatever reason I was searching around for Book of the New Sun volumes and got seduced by the Easton Press editions. (Leatherbound, but way cheaper than the Centipede Press ones.) I found the first two on ebay and ordered them before I discovered Easton never got around to Autarch -- so the best I can hope for is to have the first three. Oh well. I read them in middle/high school as they were published, and then again in my 20s. I remember the story making way more sense to me the second time through. Looking forward to revisitng.

yay!

please start this up!

gene wolfe's book of the NEWSUN!!!!! reading club

Finished Claw of the Conciliator last night, torn on continuing - the back half of CotC was a slog, the completely tossed-off rape of Jolenta was WTF.

I'm going to guess Poochie/Jonas did not die on the way back to his home planet and will return.

I read and enjoyed Shadow of… but didn’t feel motivated enough to continue, as I assumed (rightly or wrongly) that they would all be on similar lines. I feel like a bad Wolfe reader but I prefer the plotty, early sections to the episodic rambling afterwards.

I gave up after Claw, my first time through, but I’ve since read the whole thing three times and consider it one of my faves. There is a lot to dig into when you steer considering why Sev elides certain events and emphasizes others. I don’t want to get into spoilery and meta theories but do want to encourage folks to keep reading. Someone on the other BOTNS thread, prob Vahid, suggested reading the narrative voice as an oblivious pompous ass and I think that helps, especially in the earlier volumes.

I read Book of The Long Sun and Book of the Short Sun last year and I think they’re brilliant as well.

gene wolfe's book of the NEWSUN!!!!! reading club

it may help to read my posts in the thread similarly

I didn't like Sword and Citadel as much as Shadow and Claw, maybe, though there are some sections in the former as good as anything in the series. Especially that descent in the mountains. Absolutely worth reading imo.