How did I initially encounter Gene Wolfe’s work? When was the first time I heard his name?
I can’t remember exactly. Memory fails. It’s like a mist shrouding my eyes. It doesn’t help that I lost my only pair of glasses a few months ago and couldn’t afford a new one until last week, so this mist is not just a metaphor. The tribute to this Grand Master is quite fitting, I’m afraid.
But, if I could venture a guess, how then?
As far as I can remember (and I have a very selective memory), I have two possible explanations, maybe two origin myths for my meeting with this remarkable man. The first is fairly trivial: I might have read his name for the first time in Locus magazine, in the late eighties. But (speak, memory! — no, this is from another writer) I’m sure that I only started to subscribe to Locus years later, almost halfway through the nineties, even though I was well aware of the magazine’s existence at least since 1987, when I joined the CLFC (Science Fiction Reader’s Club) in Brazil.
The other possible version is that a friend of mine, Pedro Ribeiro (whom I had met also in 1987, but in a translator’s course) might have been the first person to tell me of Gene Wolfe. I like this version better, because it also carries the weight of discovery via the borrowing of a book. The book I remember very well: it was The Shadow of the Torturer.
Even though I wasn’t a Fantasy buff (but things have changed since then), Pedro told me: “I know you’re not quite into Fantasy, but I strongly suspect you’ll like this series.” Then he told me about The Book of the New Sun, and he spoke the key words to this science fiction reader: “far future.” I was by then already an avid reader of Jack Vance, and I loved not only his Demon Prince stories, but I also liked his Dying Earth saga quite a lot. So, Pedro added that the New Sun series (of which a new volume had just been published, being the ‘fifth’ book in the tetralogy) was set in the distant future, and I was already a sucker for this trope.
Then he let me borrow the first volume. And I loved it.
After that, of course, I took home all the other volumes with me. Details are fuzzy (as they tend to be in time, unless you have a perfect memory—as Severian, the protagonist, and I don’t), but what I do remember is the feeling of enjoyment, the sense of wonder recaptured between the pages of those five books. I was twenty-one and already was elbow-deep in ennui because I didn’t feel science fiction could surprise me anymore. I had devoured many of the classics, from Wells and Verne to Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Pohl. Also Kornbluth, Brown, Sheckley. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the New Wave authors (I would, years later, but that is another story), and the cyberpunks were still a couple of years in my future. Octavia Butler and Ursula K. LeGuin were also waiting for me down the line, and I would soon come to feel more than a bit ashamed for thinking I knew everything.
Buy the Book
The Complete Book of the New Sun
I seem to be steering off course, but bear with me: Guilt is one of the things the careful reader should be watchful for in Wolfe’s oeuvre, especially that of the Roman Catholic variety. As a former Catholic myself (I had walked away from the church on my sixteenth birthday), having been a devotee of Saint Francis, I felt a kind of romantic kinship with Wolfe’s own personal Christ figure, Severian, a torturer’s apprentice who would face a hero’s journey of sorts to become the ruler supreme of his future Earth, the Autarch—but would pay for that at least two prices: one, mutilation. The other, remembrance. I will have more to say on that later. The details are fuzzy but the mist is clearing.
After The Book of the New Sun, Pedro lent me a standalone novel, There Are Doors, which was much lighter in scope and in number of pages, but eerily seductive. The plight of a simple man, a man with no interesting history to speak of (being therefore an unmemorable man) who sets out to find his lover, who is a goddess from an alternate timeline, intrigued me greatly. Memory and its byproducts—loss and nostalgia, among others—is also one of the pillars of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
After that novel, I borrowed still another book, this time a collection of stories, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories. Soon after, I found in a used book store one of Wolfe’s other collections, Endangered Species —which contains some of my best-loved stories, like A Cabin on the Coast and The Detective of Dreams. Stories that also dealt with the pain of loss, and the hope of a better world—in dreams or in other realities.
Gene Wolfe became one of my favorite all-time writers. Not one of my favorite genre writers. One of my favorite writers, period. A full rereading of his works has been long overdue, but there never seemed to be a proper time for such an undertaking. When he passed away in April, I finally started preparing for this task. I made a list of his books. I had many of them but not all. I bought some and borrowed a few. Then I realized that, even having enshrined him in my personal pantheon for so long, I had read less than half of his books. Even though I loved The Book of the New Sun, and bought the entire Book of the Long Sun when I lived in London in the early nineties—and now I just checked the publication dates and discover that I’m lying to you and to myself, because the series wasn’t complete until 1996, so I certainly acquired the books *after* my European spree—I never got around to reading this part of the mega-saga. Much less the Book of the Short Sun, which I also purchased long ago… It doesn’t matter. They will be read now, and I will write about them here.
So, this Gene Wolfe Reread will also be a first-time read for me in some cases. I’m going to be reading Wolfe’s works in chronological order of publication, beginning with The Fifth Head of Cerberus, published in 1972. I decided not to review his first novel, Operation Ares, because it’s an early work and Wolfe himself didn’t like it. On the other hand, I’ll also write about related texts, such as the tribute volume Shadows of the New Sun (which contains two short stories by Wolfe, plus an interview) and the companion volumes Lexicon Urthus and The Wizard Knight Companion, by Michael Andre-Driussi, though not necessarily in separate articles. Every other Thursday, I’ll be publishing reviews and analysis of many of his standalone novels, including but not limited to Peace, Free Live Free, Pirate Freedom, Home Fires, The Land Across, A Borrowed Man, plus the entire Sun series, the Soldier series, and collections, such as Storeys from the Old Hotel, Starwater Strains and Innocents Aboard.
In doing so, it is my hope to recapture for myself some of that sense of wonder that only Gene Wolfe made me feel in my youth. This I remember well. And I hope you feel the same.
See you all on Thursday, June 27th for a discussion of The Fifth Head of Cerberus…
Fabio Fernandes started writing in English experimentally in the ‘90s, but only began to publish in this language in 2008, reviewing magazines and books for The Fix, edited by the late lamentedEugie Foster. He’s also written articles and reviews for a number of sites and magazines, including Fantasy Book Critic, Tor.com, The World SF Blog, Strange Horizons, and SF Signal. He’s published short stories in Everyday Weirdness, Kaleidotrope, Perihelion, and the anthologies Steampunk II, The Apex Book of World SF: Vol. 2, Stories for Chip, and POC Destroy Science Fiction. In 2013, Fernandes co-edited with Djibrilal-Ayad the postcolonial original anthology We See a Different Frontier. He’s translated several science fiction and fantasy books from English to Brazilian Portuguese, such as Foundation, 2001, Neuromancer, and Ancillary Justice. In 2018, he translated to English the Brazilian anthology Solarpunk (ed. by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro) for World Weaver Press. Fabio Fernandes is a graduate of Clarion West, class of 2013.
Oh man, I am so here for this. I read Long Sun last year and I’m reading Short Sun this year, with plans to tackle the Latro trilogy in 2020. I had just finished On Blue’s Waters a few days before Wolfe passed away and the man and his work have been on my mind a lot lately.
Very glad to see Michael Andre-Driussi get mentioned. I love Lexicon Urthus and I don’t know if I could have made it through Long Sun without his Gate of Horn, Book of Silk. If you’re digging into that kind of stuff you might also want to check out Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” by Robert Borski.
This is a great idea and I’m looking forward to it. Now i’ll finally get to some of his later works that have been gathering dust in my library.
I am very excited for this! Wolfe has been such an inspiration for not only my own writing but the way I read…it’s a delight to see him getting the prominence he deserves here.
@ScavengerMonk, thank you for the recommendations. I have the Andre-Driussi books, but not the Borski. Will definitely check it out.
Take Borski with a grain of salt, @Fabio. His M.O. is to speculate and then run down his own tangents…
Looking forward to this!
@nathancarson I enjoyed some of Borski’s ideas, but yeah, you’re not wrong.
I am looking forward to each and every article. Thank you!
I have read many of Wolfe’s books 3 or 4 times, as it should be done. I hope you include The Knight and The Wizard books. The Sorcerer’s House.
Gene Wolfe’s first novel was “Peace”
It was the first G.W. that Neil Gaiman ever read.
He wrote the introduction for the most recent reprint.
Oh, thank you, this is wonderful. I was starting this myself, re-re-reading it all as I’ve been doing for decades
I may cry with joy and recognition:)
John Garrett @@@@@ 9:
Gene Wolfe’s first novel was “Peace”
No, as Fabio Fernandes mentions, his first novel was Operation Ares, published in 1972; Peace was published in 1975.
@Scott: The Knight/Wizard duology and The Sorcerer’s House are definitely included!
I’m so on board with this…Wolfe is my favorite author, but I haven’t read nearly enough of his oeuvre. This is probably due to the fact that my first read-through of any of Wolfe’s works is usually marked by feelings of confusion and inadequacy. I’m glad the first selection is Cerberus, as I’ve read that before and will (hopefully) be in a position to have some idea of what’s going on.
@12 Fabio
Came for this, amazing, can’t wait till we get to these series, such a dreamlike prose, elegant and yet it spoke directly to my inner child. Did not know about this Wizard/Knight companion book, now you made me spend more money!.
Thanks for this wonderful homage, some speculative fiction sites did not even bother mentioning the passing of the great Grand Master.
My compliments on the title! I love Wolfe, but reading him I definitely feel as if I’m in the mist at times. I look forward to the series.
I remember quite clearly. I ran into the Ace pb edition of Fifth Head in 1976 shortly after it was released at the now defunct Schiller’s Books in the same mall where I worked selling guitars at Sam Goody. I liked it quite a lot, although it just gave a hint of glories to come. I liked it enough to buy the Ace pb of The Devil in a Forest the next year. Then when Shadow came out from TImescape with that wonderful Don Maitz cover, by which time I was managing the guitar department, I bought it at Schiller’s, read it, and was hooked.
I don’t remember how I became aware of it, but the first time I read Wolfe would’ve been as a sophomore or junior in college, lying on my bunk in my dorm room with a copy of Shadow of the Torturer and being utterly transfixed; then going on to track down as many of his other books as I could lay my hands on, even if sometimes I’d read them and they’d go whooshing straight over my head.
My big problem is that it is going to take SO many weeks for you to go through all of Wolfe’s books. That’s OK. I am patient enough. Gives me some weekly anticipation.
I read all of the classics by all of the old school and prolific science fiction and fantasy authors. Then about 15 or so years ago my brother gifted me Litany of the Long Sun. Who was this Gene Wolfe with the really thick book? The back of the book did not sound like my speed. Wrong. Changed everything. Changed how I read everyone else. That book challenged me unlike any other story. Well…then I went on to the New Sun books and found more enjoyable challenges. Tricksy stuff. And then all the rest.
Bring it on.
Be sure to look at Marc Aramini’s companion book Between Light and Shadow, part one of what is probably going to be the most comprehensive analysis of everything gene wolfe wrote. I have been consulting it during my own sporadic reread and it has been indispensable.
@Jensen: will do! Thanks!
Thank you for doing this! Wolfe’s non-Solar Cycle books deserve more exposure and discussion.
I’ve been slowly reading Wolfe’s entire oeuvre over the past decade or so, and he’s my all-time favorite author. My first exposure to Wolfe was reading The Fifth Head of Cerberus in 2003. My mind was blown when I read Robert Borski’s “Cave Canum” treatise that revealed so much of what I missed in The Fifth Head of Cerberus as a neophyte Wolfe reader. While Borski isn’t held in as high regard as Marc Aramini or Michael Andre-Driussi by Wolfe scholars these days, he really jumpstarted serious analysis of Wolfe’s texts, and I personally consider “Cave Canum” to be Borski’s finest work and still well worth consideration.
I’d like to also point everyone to the WolfeWiki (do a web search for the URL), which is a fantastic resource for the Wolfe reader but it could still use more contributors. The complete “Cave Canum” can be found on the WolfeWiki.
There is a wonderful podcast called Alzabo Soup, which has done some fairly close readings of GW’s books, and who are currently just finishing up the fourth book in the new sun series, definitely worth checking out.
My first Gene Wolfe was Shadow of the Torturer as well.. read it in junior high and was in way over my head, but the images stuck with me. Neil Gaimain posted on his blog a long way back about Wolfe, so I started reading again as an adult, starting with Peace. When I got to Shadow of the Torturer my memories kicked in and I kept running from there. I love Knight Wizard, and the Soldier series and have re-read both. Only got through the Book of the New Sun once, so maybe it is a good time to return to it..
That said, I attempted the Malazan Re-Read of the Fallen and fell behing very quickly, so I doubt I’ll be able to take the journey with you all this time as well. I can always go back to the posts though, which I love about these re-reads. Even if I can’t participate, the accumulated knowledge of all you wonderful people is there waiting for me.
I’ve never read any Wolfe, but I’d like to. I just bought myself copies of The Book of the New Sun series and The Knight. Would this be a good series of articles to follow, or will there be lots of spoilers? I’ve heard his work can be confusing, so I’m looking for resources to help me catch as much as I can.
First Wolfe was “The Death of Doctor Island”, probably in a Nebula collection.
Amazing. Don’t focus so tightly on the novels, that you miss his short fiction.
I can remember the exact date (Severian like?) that I became aware of a writer by the name of Gene Wolfe. Friday, October 7, 2011. Early morning hours, probably around 1:00AM. Because I could not fall asleep. On a work night! (New job angst. Missing my old coworkers. Especially a smart one that told entertaining stories about all the sci-fi he was reading.) Reflecting on my old friend’s stories it dawned on me that if I simply had a good sci-fi book to read each evening it might distract my mind for a bit and let me drift off to sleep. But which story? On a whim, I did an internet search for something like “Best Sci-Fi Books of all time”.
The link below was one of the search results, an article written in 2010 by Alex Carnevale. I clicked the link – and it changed my life:
http://thisrecording.com/today/2010/1/18/in-which-we-count-down-the-100-greatest-science-fiction-or-f.html
The very next evening I emailed my smart friend asking if he had ever heard of a writer by the name of Gene Wolfe (because I certainly hadn’t) who had several books high in Carnevale’s list. He had, and assured me “Shadow of the Torturer” was very good. (I still have the emails, which preserved the dates and hyperlink. Okay, not so Severian-like).
The “Book of the New Sun” series is awe-inspiring. A true masterpiece. I’ve re-read it three or four times over the years. And Gene Wolfe’s “Latro in the Mist” is even better, in my opinion. I’ve re-read that series at least four times.
@darthed and @Alexander: thank you for the recs!
@Teichert: there will be spoilers, I’m afraid. But in Wolfe’s case, his stories are so rich and complex that I seriously doubt the presence of a few spoilers in the articles will effectively spoil your experience.
The late Roberto Bolaño’s recent novel The Spirit of Science Fiction (written in the 80s but only recently published and translated), includes an unexpected appearance by Wolfe. The novel is more in the mode of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs than Wolfe, but one of the two main characters is a young writer who is depicted as writing letters to various science fiction authors he admires (Ursula Le Guin, James Tiptree Jr., Philip Jose Farmer) and also discussing some of their works. Wolfe’s short story “Silhouette” (currently available in the anthology Endangered Species) is discussed at some length and with great admiration. I have no idea if Wolfe was aware of this shout out (the English version appeared just a few months before he died), but given the Latin American influence on Wolfe (Borges, in particular) and on the setting of BotNS, it struck me as quite intriguing.
Wolfe… I first read “The Island of Doctor Death and other Stories” when I was a sophomore in high school. Discovered Severian and never looked back. I’ve collected all of his books and introduced his work to my kids. My youngest (16) just finished “The Knight” and is now plowing through “the Wizard.”
On a side note, I live in Peoria. Several years back as a surprise my wife invited him over for dinner. That was amazing and I probably came off as a total moron.
Wolfe is frustrating because so few people seem to have read him. There is name recognition but that is about it. You get with any group of fan/sci-fi readers and chances are no one has even picked up a short story. I’m really looking forward to following the reread and the discussions that ensue.
Thanks so much for doing this.
@garry : I would have loved to be on that dinner!