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<P>Hi all, </P>
<P>This is my first time posting here, been reading this list for about six months- </P>
<P>Gene Wolfe was forced on me. The BotNS was only read because I promised my neighbor I'd read the book he had handed me. The cover was hideous, the beginning slow, the print small. But I had made a promise. I soon was in awe of this writer. Reading Gene Wolfe is work, but his worlds are real places. His books almost are alive, unique to literature. They do not sell as well as Jordan or Martin (I worked in a bookstore for about 8 years, being 26 that is a large part of my life) but they do sell. What buyers of Wolfe possess is passion and curiosity. Wolfe proves that there is more to life than the shallowness that so many others insist on, that safeness in literature that Don so accurately remarked upon. </P>
<P>I do not know anyone who walked by and picked up a Gene Wolfe book by accident. But, I would handsell 8-12 copies of "Shadow & Claw" a year and almost everyone returned for the rest of BotNS, then more. These were people who not always read SFF, they just wanted more in a book. The comfort in Wolfe is that our world seems so much brighter in comparison, he gives us plenty of fodder to talk about and discuss, his work is poetry, classic mythology, and future SFF in one. I have friends I would never recommend him to, but of those who do read him- Wolfe is possibly the greatest author alive. </P>
<P>Very few new authors of his intensity and approaching quality make it into bookstores each year. For those publishers who are brave (fiscally risky?) enough to support the new authors, I applaud you. I for one will continue to support the quality, even if I buy an equal number of lighter and predictable (yea Discworld!!) books. A healthy diet consists of variety.</P>
<P>peace, </P>
<P> Megan</P>
<P> </P>
<P>--- "Roy C. Lackey" <<A href="http://by119fd.bay119.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=6afea7c20f027781e967946cb53ae7243e91be9fd26030a3e154ae8f9808538f&mailto=1&to=rclackey@stic.net&msg=7FE6FD9C-E28D-444B-9B76-C8BA979B0537&start=0&len=4609&src=&type=x"><FONT color=#000099>rclackey@stic.net</FONT></A>> wrote:<BR><BR>Most people<BR>> who read fiction read for<BR>> pleasure, and most people, I think, do not find<BR>> reading Wolfe pleasurable.<BR>> That, in a nut shell, is why Wolfe fans have so much<BR>> trouble turning other<BR>> people on to him. It is why his books do not sell<BR>> particularly well even<BR>> within the genre.<BR><BR>This is the second time this has come up, and it just<BR>hasn't felt quite right. I couldn't figure out why, so<BR>I've been thinking about it and I
believe I've at<BR>least pinched it between two fingers if I haven't<BR>quite grasped the answer. I read fiction solely for<BR>pleasure as well. If a novel doesn't grab my interest,<BR>it doesn't even get 50 pages of my attention anymore.<BR>I enjoy Wolfe; he draws me into his world and it's<BR>pleasurable to go there. The work comes when I'm<BR>finished and have to figure out what's "really" going<BR>on. Now, of course I'm not an expert, but I have<BR>worked on and off in bookstores for about 19 years,<BR>and from what I've seen, people read for comfort, not<BR>pleasure. They like consistency and repetition, and<BR>they like the illusion of feeling like they know<BR>what's going on even before the author does. Maybe<BR>that's pleasurable. It's certainly safe, and it<BR>accounts for 90% of SF, Mystery, and Lit, and all of<BR>Romance. There's very little comfort in Wolfe, and<BR>what
there is is fairly cold, whether it's in the<BR>plot itself, or in his narrative style. That's at<BR>least part of the problem I think, if you want to call<BR>it a problem. My 2 cents.<BR><BR>Don<BR><BR><BR></P>
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