Mutations?

[Greg Montalbano]

On Thu, 18 Jul 1996 09:52:09 -0400 (EDT) you said:
>> Probably not an answer to your question, but what do foax on this
>> list think of  Gene Wolfe's _Book of the New Sun_, an attempt to
>> write a SF encyclopedic novel?
>
>I myself absolutely love the epic.
>
>It's not everyday you get an enormous piece of Catholic Neoplatonism
>wrapped in a Dying-Earth literary tradition, by someone who deeply loves
>language.
>
>Adam
>--
>adam at phoenix.princeton.edu | Viva HEGGA! | Save the choad! | 64,928 | Fnord
>"Double integral is also the shape of lovers curled asleep":Pynchon | Linux
>Thanks for letting me rearrange the chemicals in your head. | Team OS/2
>You can have my PGP passphrase when you pry it from my cold, dead brain.
>
Christ, I wish I had about two hours to respond to this, but I'm writing
from work & must be brief:
Yes, THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is all that, and more.  Wolfe has not only
created a world, he's created an entire universe;  and I can't say enough
about the STYLE of his writing in this book.
I first encountered it many years ago, in bed for a week with a horrendous
virus -- read all four volumes in about 5 days between fever hallucinations
and absolutely HATED the book (I'd been trying to read it as an SF adventure,
but Severian's overly-serious slightly pompous narration kept getting in the
way of the action -- truly, I was reading with my eyes closed-- can only blame
the fever).  But I found images, language & characters from the book kept
coming back to me over the next few months -- couldn't shake them, no matter
how hard I tried.  Finally gave in & re-read the series, and was ASTOUNDED
-- not only by the scope of his achievement, but by how much I had missed
on the first reading.  As LeGuin states on one of the jacket blurbs from this
series, this work truly deserves the superlatives that have been cheapened &
wasted on other books.

Other Wolfe works worth checking out:  PEACE, an excellent (but slightly
      spooky) mainstream novel; and
      SOLDIER OF THE MIST, a truly ambitious effort:  supposedly the notes of
      an ancient Greek soldier who has received a head wound that has caused
      him to lose his memory while he sleeps, so that he begins each day by
      reading his notes from the previous day.  (another side effect of his
      injury is that he is apparently able to see the various gods that
      surround him & the other characters in their daily lives)

I don't know if he really pulls it off completely, but I can't imagine anyone
else who would even ATTEMPT something like this.

Oh, crap -- back to work. But thanks for the opportunity to gush for a moment
about a truly unique and MULTI-TALENTED writer.