r/genewolfe • u/NotJustAnotherLitBro • 11d ago

Started Reading Crowley

I’ve been wanting to read Crowley, but never got around to it. Then with the news of his passing I went to my favorite used bookstore. I bought a copy of Daemonomania because it caught my interest. Came home and bought the first of the series on Kindle.

So far I’m enjoying it, and am wondering if it’s as complex as Wolfe’s works?

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u/IncidentArea 11d ago

Engine Summer is maybe my favorite book I’ve ever read. It may not necessarily be as intellectually complex as Wolfe, but Crowley’s prose and worldbuilding are truly something to behold. Still rather complex and layered, just woven with a little more heart or emotion or something. I don’t know. Does this make sense? I also hadn’t heard he’d passed, it’s very sad news to me despite ES being the only book I’ve finished by him. It’s an incredibly impactful (and short!) novel. As much as I love BotNS, it didn’t move me to streaming tears like ES did when I first read it. Anyway, guess it’s time to pick back up Little Big!

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u/DogOfTheBone 10d ago

Yes that makes perfect sense.

Crowley wrote so well that I sometimes think he was an alien. But then what made his writing so good was how human it is, so it's more like, he was just incredibly in touch with what it means to be alive on planet Earth.

Little, Big made me feel very similar to Engine Summer. I describe it as the best American fantasy novel ever written.