(urth) A Question
Joe Riley
whamdoodler at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 14 22:00:37 PDT 2007
I am probably in the minority on this, but I think the Soldier series is a fantastic place to start. It's language is as clear-cut as The Knight's is, but it's set in a world most people are at east passing familiar with. Maybe if you include a little cheat sheet that translates the places and gods from Latro-speak into English, they could at least surf through the story and wallow in Wolfe's brilliant realization of ancient Greece. They're bound to realize there's more down below...
Steve Taylor <steve.taylor at majitek.com> wrote:
Dave Lebling wrote:
> Personally, I would consider "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" (meaning all
> three novelettes, of course) as a good introduction to Wolfe. I have to
> admit that I've had very little luck getting people interested in him,
> using that or "The Book of the New Sun." The prospect pretty much has to
> be interested in SF or Fantasy and be interested in "literary" fiction;
> not many are.
>
>
I started on Book of the New Sun and it suited me very well. I owe it
all to Michael Moorcock too - I'd been ignoring it because "Shadow of
the Torturer" sounded pretty trashy. In _Wizardry and Wild Romance_, a
book of essays on fantasy, he talked it up big enough that I was willing
to try it - and loved it of course. I'd recommend this for readers who
would be taken by the sweep of invention
I can see The Knight (haven't read The Wizard yet) as a good starting
point because of the astonishing simplicity and purity of the language.
Somehow Wolfe can write "The sea was blue. The sun came up." and make
the prose sing. I am mystified as to how he does it.
Fifth Head would be suitable for puzzle solvers. It's one of the
demanding books which asks the reader to untangle it. I'm not a puzzle
solver by nature - I figure that if the author thinks I need to know
something they can just come out tell me. Which makes it pretty odd that
I'm such a big Wolfe fan - but then, that's my point - there are
different Wolfe's for different readers. Fifth head would be a poor
starting point for me, but possibly a good starting point for others.
(Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I read Death of Dr Island etc when I was
about 9 - but at that age I would finish any book I read, whether I
disliked it, whether I completely failed to understand it, whether I was
holding it upside down... My only memory of reading it is "Huh?".
> Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha
>
Steve
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