Gene Wolfe, 'magnificent' giant of science fiction, dies aged 87

I cannot recommend enough Latro in the Mist, a combination of two of his novels about a Roman soldier in Greek times given the curse of losing his memory every day.<p>To me this was his most &#x27;approachable&#x27; novel by virtue of the fact that I could cross-reference the names with historical resources like Thucydides -- I also highly recommend the Landmark series for their detailed annotations.<p>Fifth Head of Cereberus is, of course, the best way to start with him, and I re-read it every few years. If you have never read Wolfe before, I would start with Fifth Head. It will give you an early sense for whether Wolfe is your cup of tea.

Wolfe wrote some incredible masterpieces. <i>The Fifth Head of Cerberus</i>, <i>Peace</i>, and some of his 1970s short stories deserve a place in 20th-century serious literature in general. <i>The Book of the New Sun</i> stunned me as a teenage reader, and I fondly reread the book every few years (that said, Severian’s habit of shagging everyone he meets doesn’t hold up well in this day and age, and I have seen female readers call <i>The Book of the New Sun</i> a risible male fantasy).<p>However, there is no doubt that Wolfe’s powers declined over time, and homages to him inevitably focus on the works from decades ago. Besides their intricate plots, those early works had incredible prose, just as rich as Proust, Nabokov, or Faulkner. Once the 1980s came in, suddenly Wolfe’s prose became plainer, more workaday. Then, his novels increasingly started to milk the “unreliable narrator” gimmick but without much else to them. Furthermore, it is not even clear that readers are appropriately given all clues to figure out the real action and themes. I have spoken to multiple Wolfe superfans who worry that <i>A Land Across</i>, for example, ultimately turned out to be turgid and impenetrable, and that Wolfe’s publisher accepted it just on blind faith that readers got earlier Wolfe novels, so surely there was something to this one too.<p>(I know the principle of <i>de mortus nil nisi bonum</i> and I don’t want to be too harsh about the man, but this is probably the only opportunity for a long time that the Hacker News community will get to discuss his work.)

This is a great loss. When I was quite young I made the mistake of joining the Science Fiction Bookclub, unaware that it&#x27;s intent and purpose was to mislead kids into over-buying books they didn&#x27;t want. At the time, one of the books they sent me was Gene Wolfe&#x27;s &quot;Urth of the New Sun&quot;, and it bewildered me and fascinated me so much that I reread it in college, and realized it was part of a much longer tale. I went on to read virtually everything he ever wrote. Unlike so much science fiction (and fantasy, on occasion), Wolfe&#x27;s uses tremendous texture and nuance; reading his work feels incredibly dream-like to me, even though there&#x27;s nothing overtly trippy. As I get older, and recognize so much of what I once enjoyed as the same juvenile power fantasy told over with slightly different mechanics, Wolfe is (was) one of those rare genre authors who was doing something very different.<p>For anyone who wants to try a Wolfe book, the most accessible one is &quot;The Wizard Knight&quot;, IMHO. It&#x27;s still quite good, and has that gauzy, dreamy style and unreliable narrator Wolfe is known for, but is rather more straight-forward than, say, the Torturer series (which is actually part of the series in which Urth of the New Sun played a role). Ironically (to me) this is also the closest he got to &quot;juvenile power fantasy&quot; but ends up deconstructing the bildungsroman in a really beautiful, even loving way. Highly, highly recommended.<p>Also, I remember reading somewhere that he was a working engineer while he wrote some of his first novels; I presume he was writing full-time later. I think that&#x27;s cool, too.

&quot;Peace&quot; is a true masterpiece. When you reach the end, you start thinking what was this book about. Suddenly you will figure it out and you want to read it again, armed with this knowledge. And you might need a few iterations before you will be finally satisfied.

The Fifth Head of Cerberus is such a delight. Made me finally understand the concept of an unreliable narrator. It made me a better reader and expanded my attitudes around colonization. It is a great example of how science fiction can teach us about our modern lives.

His work, which I came across in my early teenage years, was mind expanding. I am grateful for and to him.<p>Wolfe was also one of the authors that really made genre fiction academically respectable, without hiding in shame about what and who he was (cough Atwood cough). Entire future generations of writers - and students - owe him a thank you.

I can&#x27;t count the number of times I&#x27;ve re-read The Book of New Sun. Absolute masterpiece.<p>Wolfe&#x27;s books are truly mind altering and forever change the way you think about science fiction and life in general.

A tremendous loss, his science fiction and fantasy novels are some of the best out there. Others have mentioned other books of his, but my favorite is still Book of the Long Sun. Patera Silk is a great character, and The Whorl is a marvelous setting.

On Blue&#x27;s Waters is a masterpiece. The narrative structure is temporally very complex, but coherent, and alternates between wistful contemplation of the past by the protagonist (often times about things that have not yet happened yet), and and an account of that protagonist&#x27;s search for Silk. On the whole it is a dream like experience.

I’m about halfway through rereading The Book of the New Sun, so I’m very sad to hear this

Terminus Est.

He was the first author I read where I couldn&#x27;t get away with my typical habit at-the-time of skimming the boring bits, rather than paying close attention to the text, and which was interesting enough to warrant reading more carefully. A great writer. I&#x27;ll have to pick up what I missed of his work.

<p><pre><code> a woe below woe! the sun into darkness was thrown, over all a dim shadow had flown, and my heart sorrowed deep and alone at the foot of that empty throne. -- nec novitas solis nec figura solis gravitatem tuam lucemque effinget. volumen necesse non est: memoria tua tenemus. pius dominus tibi requiem donet. die post idus aprilis.</code></pre>

Sad to see another of my favorite authors pass away. Those who aren&#x27;t into fantasy may enjoy his last novel, <i>A Borrowed Man</i>. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;A_Borrowed_Man" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;A_Borrowed_Man</a><p>RIP

It gets lost in his other excellent books, but I really liked <i>Pirate Freedom</i>. A guy from the near future finds himself sent back in time to the golden age of piracy, and Wolfe does a masterful job of tying the plot threads together at the end.

I cannot recommend his collections of short stories and novellas enough. I love his novels, but I love his short stories even more.<p>Some of them are so well done they still haunt me years after reading.

The book of the new sun is probably my favorite series bar none. Wolfe will be remembered as one of the greats I think. Very sad to see him go.

If you want to read a series about a time traveling torturer that becomes king of the planet earth and replaces the dying sun while raising the dead, eating the dead, avoiding death, all while working as a carnifex. Then read the Book of the New Sun and The Urth of the New Sun.