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jazzfishGene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
Vol. 1 of The Book of the New Sun. Neat. I'm definitely getting a lot more out of this than I did five years ago. Little things, like the mention of the "engines" in the Citadel, or the green moon, or just the need to go north to get to the tropics. Things that elicit responses of "What the-- oh." Severian doesn't seem to be all that distasteful a character, even if he is an apprentice torturer. I do get the feeling he's not telling the whole truth about a few things, though.
Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator
New Sun part 2. The good: Jonas the cyborg. He alone made this book so cool. The bad: to quote Nick Lowe, "if the Claw of the Conciliator is anything more than a general-purpose plot voucher I'm buggered if I can see what." There's a lot of really well-written adventure in here, and good character development of a couple of villains, but the all-healing Claw is starting to get on my nerves. There's lots of neat stuff; some of it I understand [Jonas, Jolenta] and some of it I don't [the whole vision at the end of the book]. I really hope some sort of explanation will be forthcoming.
Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Word of Unbinding" / "The Rule of Names"
Two stories set in Earthsea. "Word" is only okay, though it ties into some stuff about the land of the dead from Farthest Shore. "Rule of Names" I read in a high school English textbook ages ago, and thought it mildly amusing. It's improved with age. And it stars one of the more interesting characters from Wizard of Earthsea. The book they're in [The Wind's Twelve Quarters is sadly out of print, so no complete Earthsea collection for me.
Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"
Wow. Just. . . wow. Also from W12Q, but found in tons of other anthologies, and available online as well. It's short, and mostly something that's been done before, but the last paragraph is really rather impressive. Wow.
Gene Wolfe, The Castle of the Otter
[Reprinted in Castle of Days]
When Wolfe was finishing up the Book of the New Sun, Locus somehow got the title of the fourth volume leaked to them as "The Castle of the Otter," and he liked the wrong title so much he used it for a collection of essays on the BotNS. There's lots of neat stuff in here: a defence of genetically-modified cavalry on the future battlefield, a glossary for Shadow of the Torturer [including an explanation of why the torturers' portion of the Citadel is called the Matachin Tower], and some details of the publishing hassles involved in the series. [Plus a one-sentence explanation of what happens at the end of Citadel, telling exactly how the New Sun will come about. Iiinteresting.]
As an unrepentant Tolkien geek, I eat this kind of stuff up. Any and all background information on a world as richly detailed as Urth. . . it's great. Give me more. [The only "more" that I know of is the GURPS New Sun sourcebook, sadly. Oh well.]
Vol. 1 of The Book of the New Sun. Neat. I'm definitely getting a lot more out of this than I did five years ago. Little things, like the mention of the "engines" in the Citadel, or the green moon, or just the need to go north to get to the tropics. Things that elicit responses of "What the-- oh." Severian doesn't seem to be all that distasteful a character, even if he is an apprentice torturer. I do get the feeling he's not telling the whole truth about a few things, though.
Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator
New Sun part 2. The good: Jonas the cyborg. He alone made this book so cool. The bad: to quote Nick Lowe, "if the Claw of the Conciliator is anything more than a general-purpose plot voucher I'm buggered if I can see what." There's a lot of really well-written adventure in here, and good character development of a couple of villains, but the all-healing Claw is starting to get on my nerves. There's lots of neat stuff; some of it I understand [Jonas, Jolenta] and some of it I don't [the whole vision at the end of the book]. I really hope some sort of explanation will be forthcoming.
Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Word of Unbinding" / "The Rule of Names"
Two stories set in Earthsea. "Word" is only okay, though it ties into some stuff about the land of the dead from Farthest Shore. "Rule of Names" I read in a high school English textbook ages ago, and thought it mildly amusing. It's improved with age. And it stars one of the more interesting characters from Wizard of Earthsea. The book they're in [The Wind's Twelve Quarters is sadly out of print, so no complete Earthsea collection for me.
Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"
Wow. Just. . . wow. Also from W12Q, but found in tons of other anthologies, and available online as well. It's short, and mostly something that's been done before, but the last paragraph is really rather impressive. Wow.
Gene Wolfe, The Castle of the Otter
[Reprinted in Castle of Days]
When Wolfe was finishing up the Book of the New Sun, Locus somehow got the title of the fourth volume leaked to them as "The Castle of the Otter," and he liked the wrong title so much he used it for a collection of essays on the BotNS. There's lots of neat stuff in here: a defence of genetically-modified cavalry on the future battlefield, a glossary for Shadow of the Torturer [including an explanation of why the torturers' portion of the Citadel is called the Matachin Tower], and some details of the publishing hassles involved in the series. [Plus a one-sentence explanation of what happens at the end of Citadel, telling exactly how the New Sun will come about. Iiinteresting.]
As an unrepentant Tolkien geek, I eat this kind of stuff up. Any and all background information on a world as richly detailed as Urth. . . it's great. Give me more. [The only "more" that I know of is the GURPS New Sun sourcebook, sadly. Oh well.]
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Date: 2004-07-03 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 10:09 pm (UTC)