Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haven't read Gene Wolfe (yet), but I can strongly recommend 'Hyperion Cantos' by Dan Simmons.
Sci-fi thread drinking game: take a shot every time someone recommends Hyperion regardless of context.
I use Arch Linux.
Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
111–120 of 145 posts
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#112I deeply love the characters Wolfe has given us. The moral systems by which his characters conduct themselves have been a scaffold for my own when my parents fell short. It's writing that exceeds itself past the only sensual, becoming symbolic glories to remember continually as I live. I can't praise him enough. It's so odd to have as a tension an author of fiction staining me on one half and the Buddha's early teach…
It is disappointing to see women locked out of Wolfe's books, but I wouldn't want to see him write in a critic's idea of a Strong Female either. Not everything has to be for everyone.
In defense of the BotNS, I think that it's mostly lazy readers that think Severian is having his way with all these women - astute or second time readers will note that these women are manipulating Severian who is actually somewhat dim. (Consider Agia). But this is more likely to turn off female readers.
In the context of Wolfe's treatment of women The Sorcerer's House becomes a favorite novel. It seems designed to bait that most common criticism. Here's an excerpt from a 3/5 review:
"I'm not overwhelmed with the treatment of women in this book -- every woman wants to sleep with Our Hero, for example, and quickly opens up to him, and I don't see why. He's not charming, he's unsettling. But maybe that's because we see him through his own report of himself to his brother... I don't know. I'm not a fan, anyway. Even if it works for the character, I could have done with a female character who really stood out."
This response is I think what Wolfe was going for. Baxter getting all the girls is a glaring clue hiding in plain sight. But even if it's in service of the novel it's normal to want to have a character for yourself and is a reasonable expectation of a fantasy novel. Fair enough.
>"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges."
"The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all."
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#113My favorite Wolfe, after all these years, is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_of_the_Mist - a Roman (pre-Republic, 5th C BC) soldier wandering around classical Greece, suffering daily amnesia, against which he writes notes. Also, he gets to see and interact with deities.
A novella with a pretty hard punch was Seven American Nights.
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#114Nice to see something about Gene Wolfe here. I'm a big fan. I just finished re-reading The 5th Head of Cerberus and have been eyeing The Book of the New Sun series on my shelf. Probably time for a re-read of that soon. If I may put on my pedantic hat for a second: the article writes of the world of the New Sun tetrology: "The sun is so old that it is dying." I thought it was pretty well establish that the sun was dyi…
Yeah, see here for example [0]:
Regarding the "worm" in the Sun being a black hole, I don't think the Prophet's description in Dr Talos's play (Claw, ch. XXIV) leaves much doubt: "Yet even you must know that cancer eats the heart of the old sun. At its center, matter falls in upon itelf, as though there were a pit without bottom, whose top surrounds it." He also says of it: "We know it to be far more, for it is a discontinuity in our universe, a rent in its fabric bound by no law we know. From it nothing comes - all enters in, nought escapes."
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AThe_Book_of_the_New_Sun
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#115No mention of his amazing Soldier in the Mist series.
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#116Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haven't read Gene Wolfe (yet), but I can strongly recommend 'Hyperion Cantos' by Dan Simmons.
Counter opinion: Hyperion books are recommended every time some of my favorite authors are mentioned (like Gene Wolfe and Peter Watts), but I found them very mediocre. Not as bad as Vernor Vinge books that are also always mentioned in similar contexts, but still quite meh.
Haven't read Wolfe, but this thread makes me very curious. Another out-of-context reference: How does Malazan Book of the Fallen (though in high fantasy, by Steven Erikson) compare in terms of prose, complexity, being like literature, originality, etc.?
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#118My favorite Wolfe, after all these years, is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_of_the_Mist - a Roman (pre-Republic, 5th C BC) soldier wandering around classical Greece, suffering daily amnesia, against which he writes notes. Also, he gets to see and interact with deities. A novella with a pretty hard punch was Seven American Nights.
Yes!! Seven American Nights is one of my favorite works of literature, it had a huge impact of me when I read it back in high school. I still re-read it occasionally. In my opinion it's more approachable than Fifth Head Of Cerberus and even Book of the New Sun, it condenses all of Wolfe's style and usual tricks into a single tight package.
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#119For all those who are saying now "Who's Gene Wolfe??" I strongly, strongly, urge you to read his tetralogy "The Book of The New Sun," it's one of the finest sci-fi/fantasy series I've ever read and I have a pretty damn critical taste when it comes to literature. (not trying to sound snobby by the way, I just don't praise books like these lightly or without good reason) So I love Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion, M…
I read just the first book in the "Book of the New Sun" and found it quite boring.
And my books are quite similar to yours with few exceptions:
- Martian Chronicles - interesting concept but eventually it goes into some ecological + anarchist sci-fi which I'm not a fun of
- Earthsea - good, but it is mostly for teens, young adults (I read it as a teen and loved it, reread it years later and it was so so)
- Dune - the whole series, each book is unique in its own way
- Kurt Vonnegut - never read anything by that author
- Hemingway - I read just The Old Man and the Sea (or actually was forced in school to read it) - and this was a short novel about basically nothing, boring as it can be
And books I really liked that are not on your list:
- Cixin Liu - Three Body Problem and the rest in the series - I loved it, never read anything like it
- Anything by Naomi Novik (so just two books right now)
- Vernon - A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep
- N.K. Jemis - Stone Sky and the other two in the series
- Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice (but only this, the other book was worse)
- (Almost) Anything by Philip K. Dick
That's from my recent reads (so few last years).
Re: Gene Wolfe Turned Science Fiction into High Art (2019)
#120Not related and slightly off topic, but here's a recent reddit thread, from a subreddit called ShittyGeneWolfe. Worth reading for the giggles.
https://old.reddit.com/r/ShittyGeneWolfe/comments/k58ar4/lis...