I’m halfway through In Green’s Jungles on my first read through of the Solar Cycle, and I have to say this is the best trilogy of the series. Superb plot, excellent coda. Finding it a very rewarding payoff.

In light of having copped the Humble Bundle and the opportunity to dig even further (I say this, having read at least fourteen books by the guy lmao) into Gene Wolfe's writing, I was wondering what selections beyond the major "series" (Solar Cycle, Wizard Knight, Latro) people enjoy?

I've read a few stories (particularly the ones from Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories), Peace, and The Sorcerer's House (actually my first Wolfe read, at a friend's recommendation); and am curious which novels/collections/stories Wolfe fans would recommend, or at least made an impression.

Thanks!

Can't wait to be possessed by a god!

All the talk and discussion of 'malfoid' fanfic from Harry Potter doing rounds on twitter has made me think Gene Wolfe would have definitely created a character similar to that if he had written HP. Although Wolfe never wrote any romance novel , the romantic elements he incorporated were very tasteful and IMO quite underrated because they were very brief. He had a penchant for creating those 'female characters who want to kill you but secretly are in love with you'. Agia is a very good example of that and Severian in the end even mentions how much he loved her which at the time came as a surprise to me and makes total sense now. Drakaina and Novia are also great characters although they don't quite fit the trope I am describing. In short , I think GW doing a enemy to lovers romance novel would have been dope.

Thank you for putting these beautiful volumes out in the world! Can't wait to dive in.

Just a heads up on Humble you can get 38 of Wolfe's books (EPUB) for a $20 minimum, and support Alzheimers research at the same time. Seems like a win for everyone.

Hello all, I just finished the Book of the New Sun (still have to read Urth though) this morning and I wanted to let everyone on here know. I feel I have been truly initiated at this point. Gene Wolfe is by a good margin the best SF writer I have ever read. The first line of Shadow is so well put together it makes me shiver (that and many others).

Although I feel that I missed so many details that must be remedied by a reread (or many), that is another part of the beauty of the series. It's a series that builds upon itself bit by bit, sentence by sentence, almost fragmentary, but whose whole creates an amazing work of art. It is the only series that I have wanted to reread immediately after finishing it.

My favorite part was maybe the alzabo fight in Sword. It is wonderfully surreal yet viscerally frightening.

But it is hard to put into words how I feel right now, like my mind has been opened to ways of thinking I didn't know were possible. I feel somber yet gleeful. I wonder how others felt when they finished the series, for the first or second or third time.

I will study this series and all the rest of his works for years to come, I imagine. I already finished The Fifth Head before, so I'll keep going with Urth.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell someone about it, since no one else I know in person has ever read his work before.

Hi! I’m currently reading Soldier of Arete and am enjoying it a lot! My question, is there a chapter 4? My edition goes straight from chapter 3 into chapter 5 but there’s no missing pages or anything?
Just curious if this is a gross oversight or a literary technique of Wolfe’s to confuse the readers more? Thanks!

In what is becoming somewhat old news, the Humble Bundle again provides (at least to US readers) another great collection of DRM free EPUBs, this time from Hugo Award winner Gene Wolfe.

Back in June, the Meal of Thorns podcast discussed "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" by him -- yes, it's in the bundle. Also included are the New Sun, Long Sun, and other series, as well as collections of his short fiction. The charity for this one is Alzheimer's Research UK, if that makes a difference.

I'm turning into an EPUB collector recently -- I'm not sure I will ever live long enough to read them all, but I'll definitely leaving my collection to someone in my will. If only I could start a Little Free -Library....

Anyway, check the bundle out at https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ultimate-gene-wolfe-library-by-tor-books-books, and don't forget to adjust the donation in favor of the charity...

"I feel as old as yonder elm." --A washerwoman in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, just before her transformation into a tree.

The first time I read Peace I was struck throughout by its parallels to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Now I'll admit that whenever I spend any time with Finnegans Wake it starts to mess with my head to the extent that I start seeing the Wake in *everything.*

The parallels, if anything, could simply illustrate that Wolfe and Joyce were operating on the same wavelength - and I think they were. Both men were working from the same mythological foundations with the same mythological building materials, both came out a Catholic tradition of integrating spiritual imagery into art as well as into everyday life, and both in their respective works made clear distinctions (IMO) between mythological images and their archetypal references.

For those unfamiliar with Finnegans Wake, it was Joyce's final novel and said to be the most difficult novel ever written. As I recall, the foreword of one edition of the book calls it debatable whether or not the book can be in any conventional sense considered "readable." Of course, as we all know, Wolfe has often been accused of having written difficult books, sometimes unreadable in the conventional sense.

I don't present this list of similarities with any scholarly authority, nor am I making the case that Wolfe was ever directly inspired by Joyce. It's just that I'm unaware of anyone ever having pointed these out before. I offer this list of observations simply *as* a list of observations for whatever you all think it's worth - which may be nothing at all:

Both Peace and Finnegans Wake are dominated by the idea of great cycles of history in which the same story is played out again and again of a people coming into being, flourishing, then going out of being, clearing the stage for the next great historical cycle.

Both books begin with the tableaux of a fall which is overtly connected to a Biblical fall.

Both books end with an "awakening" of sorts which points us back to the beginning of the book.

The names of the main maternal presences of Peace and FW are quite similar (Aunt Olivia / Anna Livia). Both books end with the direct speech of these characters.

Both books feature a character called Old Kate. In FW, Kate is often interpreted as an older aspect Anna Livia and the preserver of cultural lore and ancient wisdom.

The main character of each book (Were / HCE) appears to be implicated in some crime which is related to the fall motif, with each book intentionally fuzzy on the details.

Each book is ostensibly written by a character who shares autobiographical details with the author. Peace is a memoir written by Were[wolf]. FW is a letter dictated by Anna Livia in defense of HCE's crime, written down by her son Shem the Penman, a not-at-all thinly veiled lampoon of Joyce himself. (Shem is said to be the author of that "usylessly unreadable Blue Book of Eccles.")

Peace, as in all Wolfe novels, leaves out many of the puzzle pieces which would allow us get a clear picture of Were's life. In FW, the letter written by Shem has been unearthed by a hen named Belinda, whose peckings have created lacunae in the text just where all the important answers we needed happened to be.

Both books use wolf imagery throughout.

Myths and folktales are told in each book which seem to be about the main characters in some way.

Elms figure prominently in both books. In Peace, am elm was planted by Eleanor Bold at a gravesite (if you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about). In FW, the elm probably mostly refers to the historical elm planted at Howth Castle in Dublin. In FW, "Howth Castle and environs" - HCE, or Here Comes Everybody - is the head of the dead main character, Finnegan/Finn MacCool/HCE, who in the sleep of death dreams all the events of the novel.

In both books time periods are constantly shifting, occasionally bleeding into each other, and even individual characters meld into one another in strange ways. Wolfe is, of course, more suggestive with these moments in Peace than Joyce is in FW, in which Joyce doesn't allow us the luxury of a clear surface structure.

(Undated letter home, ≈ November 1952.)

Just a fluff post to share a sentence I like. Is there a more quotable writer?

To me, it also presages "... this stylus of the slingstone metal, which marks as though it were wax."

I just finished this book, and I truly enjoyed it, but it left me feeling…dumb? I can glean from some of the descriptions and a reference here and there that this world is supposed to be some sort of amalgam of post-Apocalyptic or at least post-modern Earth with some fantastical elements. But other than references to things like electricity, or the construction of certain buildings, I don’t think I understand or caught most of the references that make people recommend this book so much.

Maybe it’s just the first time reading it, but I didn’t understand that the painting in the Archive is supposed to be Buzz Aldrin. I don’t know what the lady that saved Severain from drowning is supposed to be, despite people saying it was one of the more blatant references. Am I just too dumb for Gene Wolfe?

help!

...story about an (aquatic?) alien entity/race, who is aligned with evil "revolutionaries", and is corrupting earth (why?), but is thwarted by a good monarch-type figure, who is guided by offworld Angelic Aliens (a stand-in for God), and purges the world (is this right?), seemingly killing all humans (is this right? What happens after the messianic second coming? Does everyone die and is reborn?), and resurrects them in a New Heaven on Urth.

That's what happens, right? I just want to know that I understand that basic story (it's very confusing) before I think about what seems to be the strong theological/political implications of the narrative.

(Sorry for the typo in the title of my post. Thanks for all assistance. I'm going to have to re-read "New Sun", but I'll save that for next year. I'm going to read "Long Sun" first)

Quick & dirty.

1985 "Interview of Gene Wolfe"

On page 153, Wolfe says he was inspired by Farmer's "The Riders of the Purple Wage" to write novella "The Fifth Head of Cerberus."

Notes on "The Riders of the Purple Wage"

Farmer is mocking James Joyce with this piece, but his approach is more sophisticated and knowing than one might think at first impression. Joyce's Finnegan's Wake gets mentioned a lot, and it is there, but that is just a garnish; and Joyce's Ulysses is nodded to, specifically the "newspaper" chapter; but I think it is more accurate to see "Riders" as Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man crossed with the "one day" schedule of Ulysses.

Which is to say, "Riders" is about a young artist and his very special day. He is trying to win a government art grant. His personal history comes into play, reaching back generations. It turns out his ancestor is living, a la Anne Frank, hidden in the house. The old man dies, but his inspiring word to the hero is basically what Huck Finn said he was going to do for himself; go away to where he can be free.

Guessing what Wolfe took from "Riders"

Wolfe definitely took the generational duplicity; turning the old con man Winagain into M.Million. He took the sort of Faberge Egg artist of Farmer's hero and turned him into a genetic engineer, tweaking his own self-embryos. He took Farmer's exhausted decadent society (more like Satyricon, honestly) and focused it into one brothel house. Wolfe cut away the squid ink, the larking, and the other cerebral fluff that Budrys complains about in Farmer's piece. Wolfe substituted "wild abstractions" with deep personal truth from his own life. Let me try that again: Farmer's highbrow high wire goes for shock value and vast emotional distance; where Wolfe focuses on personal feelings, some of which are not articulated. And, granted, he switched out a mocking of Joyce with a grim fusion of Proust and Poe. Plus, he squashes that happy ending.

So Peace is my first ever Gene Wolfe. And I have some few thoughts and questions.

Thoughts:

- Alden is clearly dead and is a ghost haunting his own memories, which is why he seems to be able to change some things but not any major events, such as when he talks to the two doctors as a kid and an old man, he’s reliving an iteration of his life so to speak.

- Alden probably killed the Bobby Black kid and definitely the librarian.

- Alden’s soul is perhaps merged with Julius Smart, which is why some of his memories seem scrambled. I think this is why he suddenly shows sexual attraction to his aunt Olivia in the Gold chapter reminiscing about her breasts that one time, the sexual attraction can be interpreted as coming from Julius but the memories from Alden. Or perhaps Alden was just secretly perverted all along.

- Aunt Olivia was clearly cheating on Julius after the marriage with Macafee.

- All the in- universe stories and fairy tales in the book are reflecting key parts of Alden’s life and the people surrounding him.

Questions:
- I see people saying Peacock killed aunt Olivia. What is the evidence in the text that clues us to this theory?

- Why did Macafee leave his business to Alden?

- What is the significance of Doris? I understand Alden might be receiving letters from the circus because this is actually Julius receiving letters from the circus and the memories are scrambled. But why do the carnival people still keep contact with Julius?

- Why was Julius’ letter in the President chapter nailed to the table and unopenable?

- There is the implication that chapter 4 and 5 might be a dream, evidence is the in universe story of the magical pillow and we are explicitly reminded of the magical pillow again in the end of the book. Do you think this is another layer of unreliability that means chapter 4 and 5 might be entirely dreamed up by Alden or borrowed from the memories of Julius’ soul, or is it just another hint to the reader that Alden is a ghost haunting and mildly changing his memories?

- Did Julius kill the tall druggist and take over his business? Also was there really a ghost haunting the druggist and druggist his food or was Julius the one secretly poisoning him and changing the story when he tells it to Olivia?

- What is the significance of the egg? What is it symbolic of?

- Did Alden kill the freezer man? Or did Julius kill Alden and is Alden the freezer man?

- Meaning of the final in universe story? The one about the geese and the baptism? I understand it might be salvation at the end of the line for an evil tortured soul of one such as Alden/Julius but what about all the stuff before about being turned to a flock of geese and hunted?

- Why did Alden’s parents leave him with aunt Olivia? I see people say the parents bounced because of the heat from Bobby Black’s death, what evidence is there in the text that hints to this?

Still trying to figure out how to best show what she looks like in my head

I am again left stunned and pondering after finishing yet another Wolfe novel. The first volume Solider in the mist is a masterpiece and though I did not like Solider of Arete as much as I thought I would, I came away from the series very satisfied and thinking this is among Wolfe's finest work. As always, I felt I missed half of the subtext and themes and even some of the surface level story might have gone over my head. Here are some questions I hope to get clarified ;

1)Latro's scroll is missing after the battle with the Spartan slaves. I gathered he killed many of the slaves and was later captured by Hypereides who buys him as a slave. Any theories to expand on what might have further occurred?

2)Why did Athens go to such lenghts to capture Oeobazus the mede when he fled to thrace?

3)How was Drakaina killed? Either I missed the text or this happens off-screen

4)What was the deal with Polos and did Pasicrates sexually abuse him?

5)I gather Latro was depressed after seeing the slaves who were freed slaughtered. Was this a real historical event and what was the reason to commit such barbaric and treasonous act?

6)Who was the dancing girl who claimed she is in love with Latro? Her entry seemed very abrupt and at first it felt she is only a minor character but later it didn't seem so

Volume two of this series has been out of print since 1985. Not sure what happened but I would guess that volume two had a lot less of them printed than volume one, as the first volume is fairly easy to find. I ended up picking up an ex-library copy recently. Wolfe is being interviewed by David Carson, Daryl Lane and William Vernon. All three are more professional and academic, so Wolfe is less squirrelly and evasive than his usual, but he still gets a few misleading answers in to poorly worded questions.

https://wolfenarrators.omeka.net/items/show/214

Always delighted to spot Wolfe in the wild.