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The Book of the Short Sun #2
In Green's Jungles
Gene Wolfe's In Green's Jungles is the second volume, after On Blue's Waters , of his ambitious SF trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun .
It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Now Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present to past. Horn recalls visiting the Whorl, the enormous spacecraft in orbit that brought the settlers from Urth, and going thence to the planet Green, home of the blood-drinking alien inhumi. There, he led a band of mercenary soldiers, answered to the name of Rajan, and later became the ruler of a city state. He has also encountered the mysterious aliens, the Neighbors, who once inhabited both Blue and Green. He remembers a visit to Nessus, on Urth. At some point, he died. His personality now seemingly inhabits a different body, so that even his sons do not recognize him. And people mistake him for Silk, to whom he now bears a remarkable resemblance.
In Green's Jungles is Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun , building toward a strange and seductive climax.
"Wolfe's narrative glows, rich and seductive as ever."-- Kirkus Reviews
It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Now Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present to past. Horn recalls visiting the Whorl, the enormous spacecraft in orbit that brought the settlers from Urth, and going thence to the planet Green, home of the blood-drinking alien inhumi. There, he led a band of mercenary soldiers, answered to the name of Rajan, and later became the ruler of a city state. He has also encountered the mysterious aliens, the Neighbors, who once inhabited both Blue and Green. He remembers a visit to Nessus, on Urth. At some point, he died. His personality now seemingly inhabits a different body, so that even his sons do not recognize him. And people mistake him for Silk, to whom he now bears a remarkable resemblance.
In Green's Jungles is Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun , building toward a strange and seductive climax.
"Wolfe's narrative glows, rich and seductive as ever."-- Kirkus Reviews
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
43 people are currently reading
1468 people want to read
About the author
Gene Wolfe
506 books3,577 followersGene Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying a Catholic. He was a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the field.
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
November 5, 2023
3.5 – 4 stars
This is a difficult book to discuss without roving into major spoilage territory, especially in regards to many of the mysteries and conundrums that are central to the Short Sun saga. That being said I’ll do my best to give a general feel for this book without crossing that dangerous line.
Our narrator finds himself in a position not altogether unlike the one in which he found himself in the previous volume. Having escaped his unwanted role as Rajan (leader) of Gaon he finds himself in the city of Blanko where he becomes, if not the leader, then a leading figure and primary counsellor to the titular leader, Inclito. He also gains a new name, Incanto, continues to experience the deepest confusion as to his identity and is constantly surprised and nonplussed at the way he is treated by all those he meets. As with Gaon (and New Viron before it), Blanko is undergoing social upheaval and is on the verge of a war with a powerful neighbour state. For reasons that may be becoming obvious to the reader, even if they aren’t to our narrator, Inclito immediately latches onto ‘Incanto’ when he sees him and all but forces him to become an ally and advisor. At first it appears as though Blanko will inevitably lose the imminent war, but as events progress we see that with the aid of Incanto there may yet be hope that they will come out of the conflict intact, and perhaps even on top.
Incanto, certain that he has failed in his quest to bring Silk back from the Long Sun Whorl, simply wants to return home to his wife and sons (with the exception of Sinew, whose fate is inextricably wound into some of the narrator’s previously mysterious adventures on the deadly planet Green that are only now starting to be unveiled to the reader), but he finds himself stymied at every attempt to return as everyone he meets wants to recruit him to their cause. When he learns that his twin sons Horn and Hide, like their older brother, may have gone out in search of him (and may even be nearby) Incanto tries to track them down even as he aids his new allies in their growing war. Add to this the narrator’s continued, and growing, relationships with various inhumi who find themselves as attracted to him as do the human settlers of Blue that he comes across and we begin to see a tangled web of relationships sprouting up around the narrator and his new and constantly growing ‘family’.
This new ‘family’ of inhumi proves to be a catlyst for a strange form as astral travel that allows the narrator, and those in his vicinity, to travel vast distances to places such as Green (where he remembers a previous, more physical, journey to the homeworld of the inhumi under tragic circumstances that ultimately leads us to the crux of the narrator’s identity crisis) and even to a strange red-sun world that mystifies the narrator, but that any reader of the Solar cycle will recognize as the Urth of Severian. Finally, the long-awaited direct connection to the progenitor of the series!
Suffice it to say that with the narrator’s identity crisis, tangled web of growing relationships, and habit of setting off on strange and inexplicable dream-voyages to distant worlds at the drop of a hat this volume is no less confusing than the previous one, though the reader may have pieced together the mysterious identity of the narrator by this point…or at least have some good guesses as to part of what is going on. It's all really par for the course for Gene Wolfe.
This is a difficult book to discuss without roving into major spoilage territory, especially in regards to many of the mysteries and conundrums that are central to the Short Sun saga. That being said I’ll do my best to give a general feel for this book without crossing that dangerous line.
Our narrator finds himself in a position not altogether unlike the one in which he found himself in the previous volume. Having escaped his unwanted role as Rajan (leader) of Gaon he finds himself in the city of Blanko where he becomes, if not the leader, then a leading figure and primary counsellor to the titular leader, Inclito. He also gains a new name, Incanto, continues to experience the deepest confusion as to his identity and is constantly surprised and nonplussed at the way he is treated by all those he meets. As with Gaon (and New Viron before it), Blanko is undergoing social upheaval and is on the verge of a war with a powerful neighbour state. For reasons that may be becoming obvious to the reader, even if they aren’t to our narrator, Inclito immediately latches onto ‘Incanto’ when he sees him and all but forces him to become an ally and advisor. At first it appears as though Blanko will inevitably lose the imminent war, but as events progress we see that with the aid of Incanto there may yet be hope that they will come out of the conflict intact, and perhaps even on top.
Incanto, certain that he has failed in his quest to bring Silk back from the Long Sun Whorl, simply wants to return home to his wife and sons (with the exception of Sinew, whose fate is inextricably wound into some of the narrator’s previously mysterious adventures on the deadly planet Green that are only now starting to be unveiled to the reader), but he finds himself stymied at every attempt to return as everyone he meets wants to recruit him to their cause. When he learns that his twin sons Horn and Hide, like their older brother, may have gone out in search of him (and may even be nearby) Incanto tries to track them down even as he aids his new allies in their growing war. Add to this the narrator’s continued, and growing, relationships with various inhumi who find themselves as attracted to him as do the human settlers of Blue that he comes across and we begin to see a tangled web of relationships sprouting up around the narrator and his new and constantly growing ‘family’.
This new ‘family’ of inhumi proves to be a catlyst for a strange form as astral travel that allows the narrator, and those in his vicinity, to travel vast distances to places such as Green (where he remembers a previous, more physical, journey to the homeworld of the inhumi under tragic circumstances that ultimately leads us to the crux of the narrator’s identity crisis) and even to a strange red-sun world that mystifies the narrator, but that any reader of the Solar cycle will recognize as the Urth of Severian. Finally, the long-awaited direct connection to the progenitor of the series!
Suffice it to say that with the narrator’s identity crisis, tangled web of growing relationships, and habit of setting off on strange and inexplicable dream-voyages to distant worlds at the drop of a hat this volume is no less confusing than the previous one, though the reader may have pieced together the mysterious identity of the narrator by this point…or at least have some good guesses as to part of what is going on. It's all really par for the course for Gene Wolfe.
July 19, 2019
Wolfe continues in Green's Jungles in his literary vein, exploring new types of ambiguity. Towards the end of this book the thought entered into my head - this is the "science fiction of literary ideas". New ambiguities: ambiguity of location (Blue and Green), ambiguity of person (Silk and Horn), uncertainty of body, are all explored, it's endlessly fascinating. Mostly at the beginning of the book, the tone of the prior one is achieved with some of these added nuances. One great thing he does at the beginning is have people in the book tell stories, kind of like Apuleius' "The Golden Ass", which is very interesting.
Fans of more traditional science fiction will be pleased that far more of this book has straight narrative than the prior. Long passages read like a typical story. Wolfe is fascinated by war, and much of this is a pure war story. He shows his fearlessness again though, in the "horror" sections of the planet Green, which are among the most disturbing I've ever come across. He has a surprising ability at vivid world description, and the jungles of Green and its alien life are fabulously described.
Towards the end of the book, the last fifth or so, the book oddly goes off on some tangents which are inconsistent with the flavor of the prior portion - it's almost as if he's gotten tired of writing brilliantly, and he wants to fall back on some easy stuff. These are well done, but are mildly irritating. They really undermined my thinking of Wolfe as a truly great American writer. Much of what was subtle becomes quite overt, and unnecessarily so. The same thing sort of happened at the end of the New Sun tetrology, where it seemed like he had to finish with 100 pages to go and so went from a fascinating Proustian style to a very perfunctory one.
All that said, at his best there's nothing better than Wolfe in science fiction or literature generally. One more book to go in the series of 12, surely the best sci-fi and one of the best literary experiences I've come across.
Fans of more traditional science fiction will be pleased that far more of this book has straight narrative than the prior. Long passages read like a typical story. Wolfe is fascinated by war, and much of this is a pure war story. He shows his fearlessness again though, in the "horror" sections of the planet Green, which are among the most disturbing I've ever come across. He has a surprising ability at vivid world description, and the jungles of Green and its alien life are fabulously described.
Towards the end of the book, the last fifth or so, the book oddly goes off on some tangents which are inconsistent with the flavor of the prior portion - it's almost as if he's gotten tired of writing brilliantly, and he wants to fall back on some easy stuff. These are well done, but are mildly irritating. They really undermined my thinking of Wolfe as a truly great American writer. Much of what was subtle becomes quite overt, and unnecessarily so. The same thing sort of happened at the end of the New Sun tetrology, where it seemed like he had to finish with 100 pages to go and so went from a fascinating Proustian style to a very perfunctory one.
All that said, at his best there's nothing better than Wolfe in science fiction or literature generally. One more book to go in the series of 12, surely the best sci-fi and one of the best literary experiences I've come across.
February 27, 2024
RE-READ EDIT: On second reading In Green's Jungles is more satisfying as a unit, probably because the past and present stories feel more integrated when you're used to the narrative voice and aren't trying to figure out what's happening when. One element I noticed more this time, though - Wolfe's treatment of adolescent sexuality and sexual violence in this book has its issues. I don't think it's his exact intent, but he comes uncomfortably close to positioning rape as the catalyst for character growth for one character, and it's clumsily handled for a usually very subtle writer.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
Hmm. I'm not sure anything else in Wolfe's "Solar Cycle" has such strong middle-book-in-a-trilogy-vibes as In Green's Jungles: a sense of set-up and of establishing characters and concepts. Which isn't to say there's not a story here. In fact there are two, the one we're expecting to read (the "past" adventures of Horn on Green, the twin planet of his new homeworld Blue) which is hidden and told obliquely within a second one, the "present" story of our narrator, who calls himself Horn even if nobody else will, as he finds himself caught up again in another part of Blue's local politics.
This present-day story makes up most of the book's action, which is the flip of how On Blue's Waters worked, but makes sense: in the previous book, the narrator had a strong urge to tell the story of his voyage with Seawrack and to reminisce, boast, explain and apologise for his actions. In this book, the events on Green were so horrific that the narrator is traumatised, largely able to approach them only by fictionalising them as stories he's telling to his host Inclito and family.
This being a Wolfe narrator, there's plenty of unreliability - again, in a reverse pattern to On Blue's Waters. In OBW the narrator presents himself as a man trying to do and be good even when his actions are far from that. In IGJ, Green is presented as a place of nightmares and suffering, but looking at the actual events described the narrator actually seems to do a lot of good there, working to partially cleanse the place (literally and metaphorically). A lot of this happens as the present and past narratives start to collide, with the narrator discovering he can - in certain circumstances - will himself (or his spirit) back to Green and deal with unfinished business there. The people around him travel with him, a fact which does nothing to help his continued denials of magic powers.
These memories of terror and death on Green, and the later episodes of psychic travel there and elsewhere, are mysterious and compelling, very much the high points of the book. The frame for them - Inclito dealing with a spy in his family, and a looming war between Inclito's city of Blanko and its neighbour - is not as gripping, which is a shame as there's a lot of it. It's not at all bad - Gene Wolfe enjoys writing about war, and he's telling a story of resistance against terrible odds, which is always satisfying. The nested structure of the stories mean you never get too bogged down, but still there were times I realised I was struggling to remember who was who for the first time in several books.
What the Blanko sections achieve very well is to let us get used to the new narrative voice of In Green's Jungles. In between running out of paper at the end of the last book and finding a new quire in this one, there's been a definite shift in style - more didactic, more discursive, less apologetic and excitable - which is matched to a narrator who's more decisive, active and bold than the Horn we'd got used to. The basis for this man's physical transformation is revealed very clearly in this book. Understanding the mental and spiritual one required me to dig back into the end of On Blue's Waters (though it's still oblique) - the first of what I expect will be many back-tracks before an inevitable re-read.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
Hmm. I'm not sure anything else in Wolfe's "Solar Cycle" has such strong middle-book-in-a-trilogy-vibes as In Green's Jungles: a sense of set-up and of establishing characters and concepts. Which isn't to say there's not a story here. In fact there are two, the one we're expecting to read (the "past" adventures of Horn on Green, the twin planet of his new homeworld Blue) which is hidden and told obliquely within a second one, the "present" story of our narrator, who calls himself Horn even if nobody else will, as he finds himself caught up again in another part of Blue's local politics.
This present-day story makes up most of the book's action, which is the flip of how On Blue's Waters worked, but makes sense: in the previous book, the narrator had a strong urge to tell the story of his voyage with Seawrack and to reminisce, boast, explain and apologise for his actions. In this book, the events on Green were so horrific that the narrator is traumatised, largely able to approach them only by fictionalising them as stories he's telling to his host Inclito and family.
This being a Wolfe narrator, there's plenty of unreliability - again, in a reverse pattern to On Blue's Waters. In OBW the narrator presents himself as a man trying to do and be good even when his actions are far from that. In IGJ, Green is presented as a place of nightmares and suffering, but looking at the actual events described the narrator actually seems to do a lot of good there, working to partially cleanse the place (literally and metaphorically). A lot of this happens as the present and past narratives start to collide, with the narrator discovering he can - in certain circumstances - will himself (or his spirit) back to Green and deal with unfinished business there. The people around him travel with him, a fact which does nothing to help his continued denials of magic powers.
These memories of terror and death on Green, and the later episodes of psychic travel there and elsewhere, are mysterious and compelling, very much the high points of the book. The frame for them - Inclito dealing with a spy in his family, and a looming war between Inclito's city of Blanko and its neighbour - is not as gripping, which is a shame as there's a lot of it. It's not at all bad - Gene Wolfe enjoys writing about war, and he's telling a story of resistance against terrible odds, which is always satisfying. The nested structure of the stories mean you never get too bogged down, but still there were times I realised I was struggling to remember who was who for the first time in several books.
What the Blanko sections achieve very well is to let us get used to the new narrative voice of In Green's Jungles. In between running out of paper at the end of the last book and finding a new quire in this one, there's been a definite shift in style - more didactic, more discursive, less apologetic and excitable - which is matched to a narrator who's more decisive, active and bold than the Horn we'd got used to. The basis for this man's physical transformation is revealed very clearly in this book. Understanding the mental and spiritual one required me to dig back into the end of On Blue's Waters (though it's still oblique) - the first of what I expect will be many back-tracks before an inevitable re-read.
May 2, 2018
a m a z i n g
February 23, 2023
I knew this was going to be a 5 star by the time I reached the halfway mark, not only because of the quality in the story but the way Wolfe loves to completely subvert expectations and also completely change the way his narrative is told. I can confidently say that this character is now as wonderfully written as Severian if not more so. There’s time I even thought there were typos because I was just so thrown off and thinking of it being another character but it was all laid out with a purpose. It’s hard to talk about this book without spoiling but I think this book is a lot stronger than the first book of Short Sun and cannot wait to see how this wrapped up. The main character throwing all of these reference to Urth and places we know and love from New Sun. I can see a lot more of the picture that Wolfe is painting with Blue and Green but the dream travel is still throwing me off.
“I think so. It’s the interior person that survives death, Mora. Fava was an inhuma, as we both know. We both know, also, that her interior person, her spirit, was not. When you yourself die—and we all die—you will be the interior person, and there will be no other. To put it a bit more accurately, that interior person will be the only you in existence.”
There are so many beautiful quotes in this novel and you can see Wolfe flexing all of the time and using this character to really hit home certain things. It was unsettling to say the least to see some familiar faces and I was anticipating one that we actually didn’t get on screen. I can’t believe I only have one more book in the Solar Cycle to read for the first time.
“I cannot make you well again, and if I could you would still be in this place. I can do this for you, however, if you desire it. I can send your spirit into someone else, into someone whose own spirit is dying. If you wish, I will find someone in the whorl in which you were born. Then there will be one whole man there, instead of two dying men, one here and another there.”
“I think so. It’s the interior person that survives death, Mora. Fava was an inhuma, as we both know. We both know, also, that her interior person, her spirit, was not. When you yourself die—and we all die—you will be the interior person, and there will be no other. To put it a bit more accurately, that interior person will be the only you in existence.”
There are so many beautiful quotes in this novel and you can see Wolfe flexing all of the time and using this character to really hit home certain things. It was unsettling to say the least to see some familiar faces and I was anticipating one that we actually didn’t get on screen. I can’t believe I only have one more book in the Solar Cycle to read for the first time.
“I cannot make you well again, and if I could you would still be in this place. I can do this for you, however, if you desire it. I can send your spirit into someone else, into someone whose own spirit is dying. If you wish, I will find someone in the whorl in which you were born. Then there will be one whole man there, instead of two dying men, one here and another there.”
June 28, 2021
This book terrifies me. At this point in time (6/28/21), I’ve read it twice, and I have to say that, each time, I’ve been left somewhere between frustrated by how many more questions we get for every answer and baffled by the unconventional world-building Wolfe dazzles with. Very few books frighten me, and this one does it for a reason you’d least expect; Wolfe’s intelligence is sinister and on full display here. I wish I could recommend this to fans of New Sun, and especially to those who have read Long Sun. Fact is, no one can recommend or review this book. I hereby disqualify everyone. Read In Green’s Jungles at your own risk. And be sure to take notes like “why did Horn/Silk stop there? Say this?”, to seek out answers to simple things such as “what does that word mean” “was this dialogue deliberate and does it refer to something in Long Sun or On Blue’s Waters”, and please don’t ever accept anyone’s authority on this novel. Wholly brilliant, uncanny in its brilliance of prose and atmosphere (clarity in obscurity, obfuscation, doubt!), and terrifying in its implications regarding identity and the inevitability of human societies, this Wolfe novel has a special place in my mind and bookshelves.
August 10, 2017
Every single word of the Short Sun books is phenomenal! I was in the second-to-last chapter when my dad noted, "You're past the climax of your book," which made me realize that these (and New Sun and even Long Sun) don't really have a climax as such but keep building up and getting twistier and stranger and better until the last page. And that I'm already looking forward to reading it again. I recently read an old interview with Gene Wolfe where he talked about Silk as the ultimate good guy:
"We were talking about war in my most recent panel, how easy it is and how dramatic it is. The same thing can be said about evil. A lot of people have the notion that evil is interesting and basically fun, and that good is dull and no fun, and I don't think that's true. If anything, the reverse is true, and I wanted to have a shot at proving that I was right."
And I love it because even so Silk (and especially in the Short Sun with the added complication of Horn) is not perfect and that somehow makes him even more compelling to read about.
In that same interview, they bring up two of my other favorite aspects of the series - the huge cultural differences throughout the whorls and the careful speech patterning (which also stands out in many of his other novels). In regards to the first and this book, I enjoyed the switch from Gaon to the Italianesque colonies of Grandecitta and especially Duko Rigoglio; as well as the fixation with words and naming and etymologies. And for the second, Horn/Silk echoes Severian/Thecla (and two-headed Pas) but here rather than the big differences in memory that signal the divide between Severian and Thecla there is a distinctly Silk attitude and speech pattern that pops up and a few verbal tendencies. I think in a lot of books I take for granted that the narrator's or principal character's voice echoes the authors but these books are more carefully constructed.
Anyway it was completely worth 9 volumes previous to get to On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles! Though the fact that they are technically a separate series is now constantly tempting me to recommend them to innocent bystanders as standalone novels just to gauge how confusing they would be. If you've read this far, why don't you make the Short Sun your first Sun? I promise you will love it.
"We were talking about war in my most recent panel, how easy it is and how dramatic it is. The same thing can be said about evil. A lot of people have the notion that evil is interesting and basically fun, and that good is dull and no fun, and I don't think that's true. If anything, the reverse is true, and I wanted to have a shot at proving that I was right."
And I love it because even so Silk (and especially in the Short Sun with the added complication of Horn) is not perfect and that somehow makes him even more compelling to read about.
In that same interview, they bring up two of my other favorite aspects of the series - the huge cultural differences throughout the whorls and the careful speech patterning (which also stands out in many of his other novels). In regards to the first and this book, I enjoyed the switch from Gaon to the Italianesque colonies of Grandecitta and especially Duko Rigoglio; as well as the fixation with words and naming and etymologies. And for the second, Horn/Silk echoes Severian/Thecla (and two-headed Pas) but here rather than the big differences in memory that signal the divide between Severian and Thecla there is a distinctly Silk attitude and speech pattern that pops up and a few verbal tendencies. I think in a lot of books I take for granted that the narrator's or principal character's voice echoes the authors but these books are more carefully constructed.
Anyway it was completely worth 9 volumes previous to get to On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles! Though the fact that they are technically a separate series is now constantly tempting me to recommend them to innocent bystanders as standalone novels just to gauge how confusing they would be. If you've read this far, why don't you make the Short Sun your first Sun? I promise you will love it.
March 14, 2023
Wow! I'm blown away by this book. Gene Wolfe manages to deliver a book that manages to be slow paced and meticulous while also an un-put-downable page turner.
Wolfe continues to prove that he was a master of narrative unlike any other by providing a unique structure to the story, one that elevates every moment of it's nestled flashbacks, stories, and "dreams" into something that's pure spectacle to behold.
The other night while falling asleep, I briefly thought that the battle of Blanko had been a real thing that actually happened and I think that says more than anything else I could write here.
Wolfe continues to prove that he was a master of narrative unlike any other by providing a unique structure to the story, one that elevates every moment of it's nestled flashbacks, stories, and "dreams" into something that's pure spectacle to behold.
The other night while falling asleep, I briefly thought that the battle of Blanko had been a real thing that actually happened and I think that says more than anything else I could write here.
November 10, 2023
Wolfe in full stride is a titan, and this book kept me glued until the end.
November 2, 2015
If In Green's Jungles were a nonfiction work, its author, Horn, would be ripped apart by the resident critic of whatever the planet Blue's equivalent of the New York Review of Books is--not just for his inability to tell a straight story, but also for his inability to decide whether he's writing a diary or a memoir. Moreso than the one before it, this book is all over the place, temporally and geographically. The story, as told by Horn, fluctuates between what he's doing now (the "diary" sections) and what he did a while back (the "memoir" sections), with no apparent rhyme or reason, save the order in which Horn happens to set them down on paper.
But of course In Green's Jungles is *not* nonfiction, so it's a fascinating puzzle rather than a hair-rending nightmare of a reading experience. As with every Gene Wolfe novel I've read before, this one raises plenty of questions in the reader's mind without always providing clear, easy answers, but the greatest mystery to me personally is why I enjoyed this book and not its predecessor, On Blue's Waters. It's true that Horn is (or, this being a Wolfe novel, should I say "presents himself as"?) less of a bastard in this book than he was (did) in the last one, but Horn's personality and actions alone weren't what disappointed me about Blue.
I think it might have something to do with the settings explored in Green, which were more varied and interesting than those in Blue. In Green, Horn spends some time in the town of Blanko, getting to know Inclito and members of his household. There, while telling stories, Horn (and the inhuma Fava) tell us a little about the planet Green, home of the inhumi. Then Horn leads the citizens of Blanko into battle against the seemingly superior horde of Soldo. Before this sequence is over, Horn and Fava somehow transport themselves and several soldiers astrally onto Green, only to return to Blue as if from a dream. Afterwards, Horn finds a primeval sacrificial stone that presumably belonged to the Vanished People and performs the first Eucharist in who knows how many millennia. Then Horn and Jahlee, another inhuma, transport themselves (again, presumably astrally, and in this case presumably far back in time) as well as some others to Nessus, Severian's old stomping grounds on Urth. Last but not least, Horn, his son Hide, and Jahlee travel to Green to see Horn's other son Sinew, who was trapped on Green during Horn's *physical* trip to that planet earlier in the book. They don't actually see Sinew, but they do find Silk's old friends Auk and Chenille, who had been on one of the landers from the Long Sun meant to colonize Green, became slaves of the inhumi, and were now captives of Sinew. The book ends with Horn, Hide, and Jahlee traveling, on Blue, to an uncertain destination. Horn had mentioned earlier his desire to return to his wife on the island known as Lizard, but seven pages from the end of this book he admits--to his companions, to his readers, and to himself--that if he could be anywhere he would choose to be with Seawrack on their boat. So who knows where the hell he's headed.
In short, it's a book in which a lot happens; some of it confusing, but nearly all of it interesting in some way. In contrast, I did not find much of interest in Blue, and this is what made me dislike it even more than this awful man who acted as my narrator and guide. I wonder, though, if the Horn who narrated Blue is the same man who narrates Green. The Green Horn is the same man insofar as he has memories and feelings relating to the events in Blue. In other words, there is a continuity between these narrators. So he may be the same person--but is he the same *fundamentally*, or the same *superficially*? I'm not sure. I'd argue the latter, if only because I hated the Horn of Blue and appreciated the Horn of Green. My appreciation might stem from the implication that the Horn of Green is channeling, or even embodying, Silk somehow. Oreb calls him Silk, though Horn dismisses this as a symptom of the bird's limited vocabulary. His own son, Hide, didn't recognize him when they reunited outside Blanko. According to Hide, his father did not have as much hair as Horn does (and this may be a sci-fi novel, but even Gene Wolfe hasn't found a believable way to reverse male pattern baldness). Others, including some inhumi, also address Horn as Silk or Caldé. He protests, but not too much.
The sequence that really hit home for me, however, came near the end. To explain how it affected me, I must first discuss the middle of the book, which concerns the battle between the towns of Blanko and Soldo. As I was reading this section of the book, I was enjoying it well enough but kept thinking about how often Gene Wolfe's novels are about war (or, at least, all the books of his that I've read seem to be about war). I began to wonder if he wrote about war so much because he enjoyed it, or because he felt compelled to for some larger reason. In the three Sun series (New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun), Wolfe has invented a handful of amazing, alien, unique worlds, and yet war is a nearly constant factor in all of them. Knowing that I was reading the work of a thoughtful author, I had to believe there was a reason.
And then he provided that reason at the end of Green: Horn, Hide, and Jahlee have a conversation about the relationships among the humans and inhumi in the Short Sun star system. Horn's belief, which Hide echoes, is that the humans will ultimately triumph over the inhumi if only for mathematical reasons: because when the humans kill inhumi they only benefit, whereas when the inhumi kill humans they also harm themselves because humans are their foodsource. But Jahlee disagrees. Humans fight among each other more than they fight against the inhumi. They betray each other to the inhumi constantly. Humans are cruel and violent, she says, and the more of them there are, the crueler and the more violent they become. Jahlee reminds Hide that he had asked Horn why the humans of a particular settlement had bothered to construct a wall around their town since the inhumi can fly. Her implied answer is that inhumi aren't the only ones that humans need to keep out of their settlements. I am reminded of Ripley's equivalent line in Aliens: "You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them f***ing each other over for a goddamn percentage."
I honestly don't know where this series, as a whole, is headed. Our narrator seems content to ramble aimlessly around as many whorls as Gene Wolfe will let him. But I enjoyed Green enough that I'm plunging right into the third and final book, Return to the Whorl, without taking a breath. Let's see where we end up!
But of course In Green's Jungles is *not* nonfiction, so it's a fascinating puzzle rather than a hair-rending nightmare of a reading experience. As with every Gene Wolfe novel I've read before, this one raises plenty of questions in the reader's mind without always providing clear, easy answers, but the greatest mystery to me personally is why I enjoyed this book and not its predecessor, On Blue's Waters. It's true that Horn is (or, this being a Wolfe novel, should I say "presents himself as"?) less of a bastard in this book than he was (did) in the last one, but Horn's personality and actions alone weren't what disappointed me about Blue.
I think it might have something to do with the settings explored in Green, which were more varied and interesting than those in Blue. In Green, Horn spends some time in the town of Blanko, getting to know Inclito and members of his household. There, while telling stories, Horn (and the inhuma Fava) tell us a little about the planet Green, home of the inhumi. Then Horn leads the citizens of Blanko into battle against the seemingly superior horde of Soldo. Before this sequence is over, Horn and Fava somehow transport themselves and several soldiers astrally onto Green, only to return to Blue as if from a dream. Afterwards, Horn finds a primeval sacrificial stone that presumably belonged to the Vanished People and performs the first Eucharist in who knows how many millennia. Then Horn and Jahlee, another inhuma, transport themselves (again, presumably astrally, and in this case presumably far back in time) as well as some others to Nessus, Severian's old stomping grounds on Urth. Last but not least, Horn, his son Hide, and Jahlee travel to Green to see Horn's other son Sinew, who was trapped on Green during Horn's *physical* trip to that planet earlier in the book. They don't actually see Sinew, but they do find Silk's old friends Auk and Chenille, who had been on one of the landers from the Long Sun meant to colonize Green, became slaves of the inhumi, and were now captives of Sinew. The book ends with Horn, Hide, and Jahlee traveling, on Blue, to an uncertain destination. Horn had mentioned earlier his desire to return to his wife on the island known as Lizard, but seven pages from the end of this book he admits--to his companions, to his readers, and to himself--that if he could be anywhere he would choose to be with Seawrack on their boat. So who knows where the hell he's headed.
In short, it's a book in which a lot happens; some of it confusing, but nearly all of it interesting in some way. In contrast, I did not find much of interest in Blue, and this is what made me dislike it even more than this awful man who acted as my narrator and guide. I wonder, though, if the Horn who narrated Blue is the same man who narrates Green. The Green Horn is the same man insofar as he has memories and feelings relating to the events in Blue. In other words, there is a continuity between these narrators. So he may be the same person--but is he the same *fundamentally*, or the same *superficially*? I'm not sure. I'd argue the latter, if only because I hated the Horn of Blue and appreciated the Horn of Green. My appreciation might stem from the implication that the Horn of Green is channeling, or even embodying, Silk somehow. Oreb calls him Silk, though Horn dismisses this as a symptom of the bird's limited vocabulary. His own son, Hide, didn't recognize him when they reunited outside Blanko. According to Hide, his father did not have as much hair as Horn does (and this may be a sci-fi novel, but even Gene Wolfe hasn't found a believable way to reverse male pattern baldness). Others, including some inhumi, also address Horn as Silk or Caldé. He protests, but not too much.
The sequence that really hit home for me, however, came near the end. To explain how it affected me, I must first discuss the middle of the book, which concerns the battle between the towns of Blanko and Soldo. As I was reading this section of the book, I was enjoying it well enough but kept thinking about how often Gene Wolfe's novels are about war (or, at least, all the books of his that I've read seem to be about war). I began to wonder if he wrote about war so much because he enjoyed it, or because he felt compelled to for some larger reason. In the three Sun series (New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun), Wolfe has invented a handful of amazing, alien, unique worlds, and yet war is a nearly constant factor in all of them. Knowing that I was reading the work of a thoughtful author, I had to believe there was a reason.
And then he provided that reason at the end of Green: Horn, Hide, and Jahlee have a conversation about the relationships among the humans and inhumi in the Short Sun star system. Horn's belief, which Hide echoes, is that the humans will ultimately triumph over the inhumi if only for mathematical reasons: because when the humans kill inhumi they only benefit, whereas when the inhumi kill humans they also harm themselves because humans are their foodsource. But Jahlee disagrees. Humans fight among each other more than they fight against the inhumi. They betray each other to the inhumi constantly. Humans are cruel and violent, she says, and the more of them there are, the crueler and the more violent they become. Jahlee reminds Hide that he had asked Horn why the humans of a particular settlement had bothered to construct a wall around their town since the inhumi can fly. Her implied answer is that inhumi aren't the only ones that humans need to keep out of their settlements. I am reminded of Ripley's equivalent line in Aliens: "You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them f***ing each other over for a goddamn percentage."
I honestly don't know where this series, as a whole, is headed. Our narrator seems content to ramble aimlessly around as many whorls as Gene Wolfe will let him. But I enjoyed Green enough that I'm plunging right into the third and final book, Return to the Whorl, without taking a breath. Let's see where we end up!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2025
At last, another Gene Wolfe reading experience. Do I enjoy reading books that I can neither summarize nor explain to another person in any sensible manner? Yes.
July 20, 2018
This is an absolute masterpiece.
June 22, 2025
"Better to be good without reason than to be evil for a hundred good reasons."
Gene Wolfe is known as a "puzzle" author. Many people read his work to figure out the puzzles, and that certainly is part of the enjoyment of Wolfe's work. Far more enjoyable though is the thought through underpinnings of his writings. There is love without being sappy. Hope without naivety.
He is one of only a few authors I have read that is able to tell stories about authentic people, without defaulting to the debasement of most human existence. Rather acknowledging our deep faults and seeing more than just our failings without minimizing them.
Gene Wolfe is known as a "puzzle" author. Many people read his work to figure out the puzzles, and that certainly is part of the enjoyment of Wolfe's work. Far more enjoyable though is the thought through underpinnings of his writings. There is love without being sappy. Hope without naivety.
He is one of only a few authors I have read that is able to tell stories about authentic people, without defaulting to the debasement of most human existence. Rather acknowledging our deep faults and seeing more than just our failings without minimizing them.
January 3, 2026
This is an absolutely beautiful novel. From the bloody battles of Blanko to the lush yet deadly jungles of Green, I just couldn’t stop turning the pages. Not to mention (spoiler warning) some explicit connections to Book of the New Sun. It made me feel like a giddy fan-boy hearing about Nessus again.
December 7, 2023
While reading In Green's Jungles was enjoyable, I found it without the magic last book possessed.
I may reconsider its rating after finishing the series.
I may reconsider its rating after finishing the series.
March 5, 2018
After escaping the effects of war in Gaon, our confused narrator finds himself in a similar situation in a new town, where his inherent leadership qualities again draw him reluctantly into a conflict.
He tries, as always, to do the thing that will create the least harm, advising with an equal mixture of wisdom and humility in beautifully measured sentences, albeit with more than the occasional instance of pedantry (indeed, there is a general trend towards the pedantic in latter-day Wolfe).
The planet Green itself is clearly a representation of Hell, a place so horrid that Wolfe avoids directly describing it, instead visiting it through some of his favourite narrative devices, such as dreamlike sequences or a "story within a story".
In many ways much of this book does in fact resemble a waking dream - or rather a nightmare - as the narrator tries to come to terms both with the things he has seen and with the person he has become.
The middle book in a trilogy can often be a difficult proposition, where a plot needs to be advanced but cannot be completed, characters needs to be developed without achieving their destiny. This constant sense of irresolution can stifle the flow of a story, weigh it down.
With Wolfe, however, it's rarely a problem because he weaves such a bewildering, deliberately obscure narrative, where even his endings rarely reveal a fraction of all the secrets, so In Green's Jungles never feels like a stop-gap.
Through both the mysteries of his story (e.g. how does Horn become Silk? or how does Horn/Silk transport himself and others to Green) and of his themes (i.e. how to communicate with and understand God?), Wolfe likes to withhold information with one hand whilst scattering it strategically with the other.
Wolfe is capable of stuff so above and beyond the usual fantasy writer that he can do all this, can obfuscate at every turn, yet still entertain and delight.
Masterful, philosophical and deeply strange.
He tries, as always, to do the thing that will create the least harm, advising with an equal mixture of wisdom and humility in beautifully measured sentences, albeit with more than the occasional instance of pedantry (indeed, there is a general trend towards the pedantic in latter-day Wolfe).
The planet Green itself is clearly a representation of Hell, a place so horrid that Wolfe avoids directly describing it, instead visiting it through some of his favourite narrative devices, such as dreamlike sequences or a "story within a story".
In many ways much of this book does in fact resemble a waking dream - or rather a nightmare - as the narrator tries to come to terms both with the things he has seen and with the person he has become.
The middle book in a trilogy can often be a difficult proposition, where a plot needs to be advanced but cannot be completed, characters needs to be developed without achieving their destiny. This constant sense of irresolution can stifle the flow of a story, weigh it down.
With Wolfe, however, it's rarely a problem because he weaves such a bewildering, deliberately obscure narrative, where even his endings rarely reveal a fraction of all the secrets, so In Green's Jungles never feels like a stop-gap.
Through both the mysteries of his story (e.g. how does Horn become Silk? or how does Horn/Silk transport himself and others to Green) and of his themes (i.e. how to communicate with and understand God?), Wolfe likes to withhold information with one hand whilst scattering it strategically with the other.
Wolfe is capable of stuff so above and beyond the usual fantasy writer that he can do all this, can obfuscate at every turn, yet still entertain and delight.
Masterful, philosophical and deeply strange.
June 28, 2014
I struggled, and struggled, and struggled to get into this trilogy, and have concluded that it's just not for me. I had to put this book down for lack of interest, something I almost never do.
My impression is that Wolfe fell into a rut here, in which he could not avoid having all of his characters speak with the same rhythm and voice. Wolfe's no amateur and I suspect the fans of these novels are right that he had a distinct literary purpose for doing things this way, the unreliable narrator and all that. But the narrator isn't compelling, so onto the shelf this one goes.
My impression is that Wolfe fell into a rut here, in which he could not avoid having all of his characters speak with the same rhythm and voice. Wolfe's no amateur and I suspect the fans of these novels are right that he had a distinct literary purpose for doing things this way, the unreliable narrator and all that. But the narrator isn't compelling, so onto the shelf this one goes.
January 9, 2024
In Green’s Jungles is Book 2 of "The Book of the Short Sun" Trilogy. Our protagonist, Horn has managed to escape from Gaon and is now in the the city of Blanko, the guest of the local "Duko" or Duke - Inclito. There is an impending war with the neighbouring kingdom of Soldo and Horn - now going by the name of Incanto - must protect Blanko from the bigger, better prepared Soldo while preserving as much of human life and his values as he can. In between the story of the ongoing conflict - Horn/ Incanto is still looking for Silk and must come to terms with the fact that he may never find him. The story moves between the past and the present - detailing Horn’s experiences on the Planet Green and his fights against the Inhumi - these brief asides being delivered as allegorical stories, half drawn memories and third person narratives that obscure as much as they reveal about this terrifying planet.
Wolfe’s imagination is beautiful and deathly - and the horrors of Green are effective only when seen through this blurred second hand lens. It is the mark of a masterful author that he knows how much to conceal and reveals only blurred dreamlike images of the truth. The portions of the book set in Blanko - especially in the second half where Horn performs all the mundanities of leading an army suffer from repetition and pacing. I am not a Wolfe veteran by any means but I am aware that these portions probably hide a lot more than what appears on the surface but they failed to intrigue me or hold my attention making these the weakest portions in the book.
The best portion of the book, however comes close to the beginning. Inclito’s house has a tradition of telling stories at every meal - a storytelling competition - echoing works of classical literature like The Canterbury tales and The Arabian Nights. It is in these sections that he accomplishes subtle feats of character development and world-building. This section also holds one of the most devastating and heart rending revelations ever made in a book - it brought me to tears. This is rare for me - but there is a delicate vein of sadness that runs through this book as well amplified by all that has come before in "Long Sun" as well as in "Blue’s Waters" - and this is the moment when that vein surges through the narrative, giving it power and soul.
Perhaps that is my issue with the latter portion of the book - the revelation having been made in the first half robs much of the second half of the book of its power and capacity to awe the reader. The final third of the book, however picks up pace - a rather poignant episode at an altar leads us back to ruminations about God and his place in the universe.
Horn is our guide through these books but as was made evident towards the ending of "Blue’s Waters" and as becomes even more apparent in this instalment, Horn is charismatic, perceptive and seems to have first hand knowledge of a lot of Silk’s actions and thoughts. So is Horn Silk? How is this possible? What is the secret of the Inhumi that they fear revealing? Why is Seawrack’s voice still tormenting Horn? To state that these questions are answered in this book would be to mislead the reader of this review. They aren’t and we are faced with new questions that become even more difficult to answer.
In "Book of the New Sun" significant space was devoted to exploring ideas of good and evil and accepting that it is never a simple binary. Good can lead to evil, evil acts can have good consequences. There is a scene in this book where Horn/ Incanto - while talking to Mora, Inclito’s distraught daughter speaks eloquently about victimhood and rising above one’s circumstances in life. It is a wise and beautiful conversation that I hope more people get to read and which underscores the fact that simple binary lazy definitions of good and bad are eschewed in this book. Wolfe’s stories really manage to evoke the layered complexity of life itself which is always a hallmark of great literature.
This is also the book in which Wolfe’s themes and obsession for this trilogy slowly start to become clear. These are deep and beautiful themes - the deathless soul, moral ambiguity and faith in an invisible God. The theme he explores in greatest detail in this book is Man’s capacity for cruelty towards his own race. Wolfe seems to state rather conclusively that war is inevitable among humans - that he manages to do this without cynicism and imbues this narrative with hope is a true testament to his capacities as one of the greatest writers of our time.
I have written that I was frustrated by this book - but the act of writing a review is always one of clarification - there is so much I want to talk about, its ideas and themes live rent free in my head and I feel there is a lot to be gained from re reading this excellent book. When I read it again, the pacing will, I am sure, feel a lot more deliberate - the mysteries less obscure and Wolfe’s brilliance as a writer will shine brighter.
I will reserve updating my rating for a future read however - at this moment it feels prudent to say that if you have come this far while reading this book - read on. Read deeply, read with passion - Wolfe will reward you in equal measure.
Wolfe’s imagination is beautiful and deathly - and the horrors of Green are effective only when seen through this blurred second hand lens. It is the mark of a masterful author that he knows how much to conceal and reveals only blurred dreamlike images of the truth. The portions of the book set in Blanko - especially in the second half where Horn performs all the mundanities of leading an army suffer from repetition and pacing. I am not a Wolfe veteran by any means but I am aware that these portions probably hide a lot more than what appears on the surface but they failed to intrigue me or hold my attention making these the weakest portions in the book.
The best portion of the book, however comes close to the beginning. Inclito’s house has a tradition of telling stories at every meal - a storytelling competition - echoing works of classical literature like The Canterbury tales and The Arabian Nights. It is in these sections that he accomplishes subtle feats of character development and world-building. This section also holds one of the most devastating and heart rending revelations ever made in a book - it brought me to tears. This is rare for me - but there is a delicate vein of sadness that runs through this book as well amplified by all that has come before in "Long Sun" as well as in "Blue’s Waters" - and this is the moment when that vein surges through the narrative, giving it power and soul.
Perhaps that is my issue with the latter portion of the book - the revelation having been made in the first half robs much of the second half of the book of its power and capacity to awe the reader. The final third of the book, however picks up pace - a rather poignant episode at an altar leads us back to ruminations about God and his place in the universe.
Horn is our guide through these books but as was made evident towards the ending of "Blue’s Waters" and as becomes even more apparent in this instalment, Horn is charismatic, perceptive and seems to have first hand knowledge of a lot of Silk’s actions and thoughts. So is Horn Silk? How is this possible? What is the secret of the Inhumi that they fear revealing? Why is Seawrack’s voice still tormenting Horn? To state that these questions are answered in this book would be to mislead the reader of this review. They aren’t and we are faced with new questions that become even more difficult to answer.
In "Book of the New Sun" significant space was devoted to exploring ideas of good and evil and accepting that it is never a simple binary. Good can lead to evil, evil acts can have good consequences. There is a scene in this book where Horn/ Incanto - while talking to Mora, Inclito’s distraught daughter speaks eloquently about victimhood and rising above one’s circumstances in life. It is a wise and beautiful conversation that I hope more people get to read and which underscores the fact that simple binary lazy definitions of good and bad are eschewed in this book. Wolfe’s stories really manage to evoke the layered complexity of life itself which is always a hallmark of great literature.
This is also the book in which Wolfe’s themes and obsession for this trilogy slowly start to become clear. These are deep and beautiful themes - the deathless soul, moral ambiguity and faith in an invisible God. The theme he explores in greatest detail in this book is Man’s capacity for cruelty towards his own race. Wolfe seems to state rather conclusively that war is inevitable among humans - that he manages to do this without cynicism and imbues this narrative with hope is a true testament to his capacities as one of the greatest writers of our time.
I have written that I was frustrated by this book - but the act of writing a review is always one of clarification - there is so much I want to talk about, its ideas and themes live rent free in my head and I feel there is a lot to be gained from re reading this excellent book. When I read it again, the pacing will, I am sure, feel a lot more deliberate - the mysteries less obscure and Wolfe’s brilliance as a writer will shine brighter.
I will reserve updating my rating for a future read however - at this moment it feels prudent to say that if you have come this far while reading this book - read on. Read deeply, read with passion - Wolfe will reward you in equal measure.
August 6, 2009
Gene Wolfe is simply one of the best novelists we have -- read the entire series, as there are layers within layers, and a subtle, haunting quality that grows and develops, especially in this book.
May 20, 2019
Another mysterious, elliptical entry in the final block of Wolfe's Solar Cycle. The book mirrors the structure of On Blue's Waters -- some of the entries are flashbacks to Horn/Incanto/pseudoSilk's journey through the treacherous, overgrown world of Green toward the Long Sun Whorl, while others describe his efforts on the colonized planet of Blue to assist a small city-state in a war of defense. There are many vintage Wolfe tricks here, including a contest of storytelling, an exciting battle to defend the city-state Blanko, travels through two (!) different abandoned cities, lots of strange and mysterious magic, gratuitously naked women, difficult father-son relationships, etc. He keeps us on the hook to learn two mysteries: what is the secret of the inhumi as revealed to Horn by Krait (although you can make some kind of vague inference here that it relates to people treating one another more kindly), and what happened with Horn's quest to find Silk after he was reincarnated in the Long Sun in a dying old man's body.
The most exciting addition to this volume over the previous volume is the connection that it makes with The Book of The New Sun. Previously the Long Sun books had only made very slender, oblique references to the Short Sun Whorl (aka Red Sun Whorl here, I believe). The antagonist in Horn's second war on Blue (the previous being the fight between Gaon and Han) is Duko Rigoglio. Whereas the Man of Han was not an important character in On Blue's Waters, here the Duko provides an astonishing link to the previous two series. We learn that Rigoglio (aka Roger) was one of the sleepers on the Long Sun, that he was taken by force from Nessus and placed on the Long Sun (which is a hollow asteroid), that the "gods" Scylla, Sphigx, etc. were all lords and ladies of Urth, that some of the Long Sun dwellers were engineered to give birth to livestock (I can't recall if this bit is revealed in the Long Sun books) and so on.
In On Blue's Waters the narrator develops some magical ability to see and understand things very clearly, which is not mentioned very often but seems attached to the sea goddess mother of Seawrack, or possibly the Vanished People of Blue. Here the narrator develops an even more impressive ability, which allows him to project his and others' consciousness onto other planets. This is first seen in the kitchen in Blanko, where he sends everyone to the world of Green subconsciously. He also enters into the story of an inhuma named Fava and alters it. This ability is linked to the Neighbors and also the inhumi, although in classic Wolfe fashion its precise mechanism is never really spelled out. This allows him to travel to Green two times, once with a band of mercenaries to purge the city of the inhumi, and once with his younger son to meet his elder son. On the second trip to Green he briefly meets some characters from the Long Sun, who presumably will figure more into the final volume. He also uses this ability to pester the Duko during the war between Blanko and Soldo, helping to lead to its victory. But the most important instance is the trip that he takes with Rigoglio/Roger, his son Cuoio/Hide, the inhuma Jahlee, and a few others back to the city of Nessus on Urth. Those who have read the Book of the New Sun will recognize a great many of the landmarks here - the Torturers' Matachin Tower, the Bear Tower where people are savagely killed, the river Nessus whose lower banks are plagued by cannibals, etc. The important thing seems to be that the Red Sun is quite large, and that over a thousand years seem to have passed since Roger was conscripted to travel on the Long Sun. This could be due to some relativistic effects, although it's left unclear.
I really hope that the final volume includes some indication of the secret of the inhumi, as well as how Patera Quetzal made it onto the Long Sun. (It seems like there were no landers/spacecraft available, and it's not possible that he could have traveled through the great vacuum between Green and the Long Sun).
All in all a great volume, Vintage Wolfe, can't wait to read the other. Obviously if you're reading this book you're more or less sold on Wolfe, and probably the series. Liked this one better than the first.
The most exciting addition to this volume over the previous volume is the connection that it makes with The Book of The New Sun. Previously the Long Sun books had only made very slender, oblique references to the Short Sun Whorl (aka Red Sun Whorl here, I believe). The antagonist in Horn's second war on Blue (the previous being the fight between Gaon and Han) is Duko Rigoglio. Whereas the Man of Han was not an important character in On Blue's Waters, here the Duko provides an astonishing link to the previous two series. We learn that Rigoglio (aka Roger) was one of the sleepers on the Long Sun, that he was taken by force from Nessus and placed on the Long Sun (which is a hollow asteroid), that the "gods" Scylla, Sphigx, etc. were all lords and ladies of Urth, that some of the Long Sun dwellers were engineered to give birth to livestock (I can't recall if this bit is revealed in the Long Sun books) and so on.
In On Blue's Waters the narrator develops some magical ability to see and understand things very clearly, which is not mentioned very often but seems attached to the sea goddess mother of Seawrack, or possibly the Vanished People of Blue. Here the narrator develops an even more impressive ability, which allows him to project his and others' consciousness onto other planets. This is first seen in the kitchen in Blanko, where he sends everyone to the world of Green subconsciously. He also enters into the story of an inhuma named Fava and alters it. This ability is linked to the Neighbors and also the inhumi, although in classic Wolfe fashion its precise mechanism is never really spelled out. This allows him to travel to Green two times, once with a band of mercenaries to purge the city of the inhumi, and once with his younger son to meet his elder son. On the second trip to Green he briefly meets some characters from the Long Sun, who presumably will figure more into the final volume. He also uses this ability to pester the Duko during the war between Blanko and Soldo, helping to lead to its victory. But the most important instance is the trip that he takes with Rigoglio/Roger, his son Cuoio/Hide, the inhuma Jahlee, and a few others back to the city of Nessus on Urth. Those who have read the Book of the New Sun will recognize a great many of the landmarks here - the Torturers' Matachin Tower, the Bear Tower where people are savagely killed, the river Nessus whose lower banks are plagued by cannibals, etc. The important thing seems to be that the Red Sun is quite large, and that over a thousand years seem to have passed since Roger was conscripted to travel on the Long Sun. This could be due to some relativistic effects, although it's left unclear.
I really hope that the final volume includes some indication of the secret of the inhumi, as well as how Patera Quetzal made it onto the Long Sun. (It seems like there were no landers/spacecraft available, and it's not possible that he could have traveled through the great vacuum between Green and the Long Sun).
All in all a great volume, Vintage Wolfe, can't wait to read the other. Obviously if you're reading this book you're more or less sold on Wolfe, and probably the series. Liked this one better than the first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2022
Si alguien viera mis puntajes de los últimos libros de Wolfe se preguntaría por qué sigo insistiendo...
Este libro arranca como lo que yo llamo fantasía "de viejo". Un protagonista maduro, o viejo, recorre las tierras de Green, donde encuentra alguna cosa fantástica y desarrolla ciertas relaciones amables con unos lugareños. Capaz lo que más disfruté es lo que arranca en el capítulo 2, "Stories before dinner", donde cada uno de los personajes (Fava, Mora, Inclito y el protagonista) cuenta una historia, y esas historias tenían suficientes complejidades internas y sugestión como para hacerme flashear significados, y además me sirvieron para entender mejor ese universo.
Así como en el Libro del sol nuevo hay una linda metáfora con identidades donde el protagonista mágicamente absorbe la personalidad de su amada después de morir, acá hay otra donde el protagonista parece también absorber la personalidad de Silk, su ídolo y objeto de estudio, que también acaba de morir.
Pero los juegos con indentidades desgraciadamente no terminan ahí, sino que siguen afectando a todos los personajes y haciendo que todo sea ambiguo al punto de que me pudrí. Para ser un libro donde el protagonista se llama Horn, la verdad es que usa bastante poco ese nombre, ya que la mayoría del tiempo le dicen "Incanto", supuestamente alguien que confuden con él, pero donde el lector tiene que sacar sus propias conclusiones sobre si es uno o el otro. Después están las chicas Mora y Fava, que el lector no sabe si son lo que parecen o son "inhumi" (unos vampiros metamorfos) disfrazados de ellas. Después aparece el hijo... aunque con el nombre cambiado, y sin poder reconocerlo del todo. Es un inhumi? Lo es también el protagonista? Yo no sé, en un momento es como que se ponen de acuerdo en que son padre e hijo y eso queda así. A todo esto la gente a veces se confunde al protagonista con Silk y lo llaman así. Después aparece Jahlee, que podría ser la novia de Hide (el supuesto hijo), o bien un ser místico o bien una inhumi. Entre todas estas ambigüedades y que la parte bélica me pareció aburrida y abstracta, llegué al final arrastrándome por las últimas páginas... y encontré algo agradable. Estos seres que no saben bien qué son parecen haber formado unos lazos afectuosos... son como una familia. Y además al final tiran una teoría desestabilizante: que el dios "Outsider" podría ser el padre de Pas.
La verdad, no me sorprende que este libro no tenga una sinopsis en la contratapa. Creo que el encargado de hacerla simplemente renunció. Mi personaje favorito de este libro es Oreb. Sí, el pajarraco que tira frases cortas y tontas! Al menos es el que es y puedo imaginarlo.
Este libro arranca como lo que yo llamo fantasía "de viejo". Un protagonista maduro, o viejo, recorre las tierras de Green, donde encuentra alguna cosa fantástica y desarrolla ciertas relaciones amables con unos lugareños. Capaz lo que más disfruté es lo que arranca en el capítulo 2, "Stories before dinner", donde cada uno de los personajes (Fava, Mora, Inclito y el protagonista) cuenta una historia, y esas historias tenían suficientes complejidades internas y sugestión como para hacerme flashear significados, y además me sirvieron para entender mejor ese universo.
Así como en el Libro del sol nuevo hay una linda metáfora con identidades donde el protagonista mágicamente absorbe la personalidad de su amada después de morir, acá hay otra donde el protagonista parece también absorber la personalidad de Silk, su ídolo y objeto de estudio, que también acaba de morir.
Pero los juegos con indentidades desgraciadamente no terminan ahí, sino que siguen afectando a todos los personajes y haciendo que todo sea ambiguo al punto de que me pudrí. Para ser un libro donde el protagonista se llama Horn, la verdad es que usa bastante poco ese nombre, ya que la mayoría del tiempo le dicen "Incanto", supuestamente alguien que confuden con él, pero donde el lector tiene que sacar sus propias conclusiones sobre si es uno o el otro. Después están las chicas Mora y Fava, que el lector no sabe si son lo que parecen o son "inhumi" (unos vampiros metamorfos) disfrazados de ellas. Después aparece el hijo... aunque con el nombre cambiado, y sin poder reconocerlo del todo. Es un inhumi? Lo es también el protagonista? Yo no sé, en un momento es como que se ponen de acuerdo en que son padre e hijo y eso queda así. A todo esto la gente a veces se confunde al protagonista con Silk y lo llaman así. Después aparece Jahlee, que podría ser la novia de Hide (el supuesto hijo), o bien un ser místico o bien una inhumi. Entre todas estas ambigüedades y que la parte bélica me pareció aburrida y abstracta, llegué al final arrastrándome por las últimas páginas... y encontré algo agradable. Estos seres que no saben bien qué son parecen haber formado unos lazos afectuosos... son como una familia. Y además al final tiran una teoría desestabilizante: que el dios "Outsider" podría ser el padre de Pas.
La verdad, no me sorprende que este libro no tenga una sinopsis en la contratapa. Creo que el encargado de hacerla simplemente renunció. Mi personaje favorito de este libro es Oreb. Sí, el pajarraco que tira frases cortas y tontas! Al menos es el que es y puedo imaginarlo.
June 11, 2024
This is some of the best prose that Wolfe wrote in decades and far eclipses most of the works after it. More than being just a good story of its own right this book exceeds that job by also uplifting the far less ambitious Long sun series. Tarkovsky famously said that he made the openings of his films boring on purpose so as to weed out the idiots in the audience. It strikes me that Wolfe was probably attempting something similar when the long-short sun series is considered as a whole. Plot notes that seemed to have gone nowhere before re-emerge in this novel as profound expressions of the human spirit. Characters from the previous novel move and breathe in this continuation without missing a step. This is not to say that Wolfe gives us the sequel that we desire, in fact this book quite purposefully avoids giving us what we want with even the self contained story within itself. The entire volume of on blues water seemed like it was building up to the climactic reveal of what exactly happened on Green, and yet Wolfe refuses to give us any details on it outside of ancillary details to the main story. I could go on forever about this novels virtues: it’s experimental style, completely different than blues waters; it’s fascinating exploration of the nature of reality in relation with the spirit; it’s protagonists wrestling with his own guilt and failure in life. Most appealing of all however, is its fundamental motif of humble love and forgiveness in the midst of human depravity. Horn differs from every other Wolfe character in that his agency is primarily defined by the past and his failure to accomplish any of the ideals he cherishes. People who thought long suns characters too perfect and holy will find a lifetime of meditations to chew on with this entry as its characters bite and scrape there way toward holiness with nothing to guide them but the the unsurpassed love of the divine.
Read this book.
Read this book.
January 31, 2020
This is the final series of Wolfe's Solar Cycle. The overarching theme of the series is the colonization of the planets Blue and Green, and the challenges the colonists face transitioning from the Long Sun Whorl (their generation ship, and the subject of the second series of the Solar Cycle). Disparate peoples inhabited the Long Sun Whorl, and came in waves to the new planets. The darker sides of humanity are on display as the waves meet, and an emissary is sent to find a savior who can bring out the good in humanity.
The action centers around this emissary, who serves as the narrator for most of the series. Like the majority of Wolfe's narrators, he is not exactly reliable. He is an entertaining character, though flawed, and reasonably self-aware of these flaws, though also somewhat narcissistic and confident in how he handles everything. The total number of trials he overcomes in this series is a bit absurd, but it holds to the style that Wolfe introduced in the Book of the New Sun. The writing is strong throughout the book. The storytelling drags a little bit, but caught me up so that I kept going to find out how it resolved. I feel this way about most of Wolfe's books. The story is engaging, the writing is grandly ponderous, and requires more attention from me as a reader than a lot of the entertainment fantasy I read. I think it is important to read through some of where scifi/fantasy came from, and Wolfe was a ground-breaking writer for the genre; may light perpetual shine upon him.
The action centers around this emissary, who serves as the narrator for most of the series. Like the majority of Wolfe's narrators, he is not exactly reliable. He is an entertaining character, though flawed, and reasonably self-aware of these flaws, though also somewhat narcissistic and confident in how he handles everything. The total number of trials he overcomes in this series is a bit absurd, but it holds to the style that Wolfe introduced in the Book of the New Sun. The writing is strong throughout the book. The storytelling drags a little bit, but caught me up so that I kept going to find out how it resolved. I feel this way about most of Wolfe's books. The story is engaging, the writing is grandly ponderous, and requires more attention from me as a reader than a lot of the entertainment fantasy I read. I think it is important to read through some of where scifi/fantasy came from, and Wolfe was a ground-breaking writer for the genre; may light perpetual shine upon him.
August 5, 2021
This volume is a lot more present-focused than the previous one, with only very brief flashbacks to Green's jungles to fill out the big gap at the centre of the story where Horn's identity becomes intertwined with Silk's. Wolfe delights in delaying and compressing moments of revelation or resolution while dwelling on the narrator's day-to-day concerns and activities. It makes sense, given the book is almost a diary, but it also works to string the reader along. Wolfe might enjoy setting up these grand mysteries that require patience to unravel, but his revealed preference in the writing shows that his primary interest is in the nitty-gritty of character development and interaction. The style is relaxed and discursive, to the point where I was wondering where Wolfe's tics end and Horn's began. The most obvious example is how the narrator makes a statement and then immediately qualifies it – which is done every couple of pages and is so repetitive that it could well be a joke on Wolfe's part. When it comes to Wolfe, you never can tell.
April 26, 2022
Gene Wolfe is a great writer, but I didn't enjoy this as much as On Blue's Waters. Wolfe's concern with identity comes through very clearly here. It seems his characters start to physically become other people as the strive to find them. The idea of evil creatures trying to be good people also comes through, as well as creatures having human souls.
Wolfe's spiritualness seems to shine through. He has sympathy even with the most disreputable creatures. As with many of his writings, there is a thinly veiled world of spirits or gods lurking right behind our visible world.
As with On Blue's Waters, this is also a meditation on what it takes to be a great leader, and how to slyly manipulate others while making them thankful at once.
There is a magic in Wolfe's worlds, and he is such a superb writer it never feels put on. The elements of the world are fully realized, as well as the characters. There's always an immense amount left unsaid by the narrator, but in the end that's true of all of us and the stories we tell of our lives.
Wolfe's spiritualness seems to shine through. He has sympathy even with the most disreputable creatures. As with many of his writings, there is a thinly veiled world of spirits or gods lurking right behind our visible world.
As with On Blue's Waters, this is also a meditation on what it takes to be a great leader, and how to slyly manipulate others while making them thankful at once.
There is a magic in Wolfe's worlds, and he is such a superb writer it never feels put on. The elements of the world are fully realized, as well as the characters. There's always an immense amount left unsaid by the narrator, but in the end that's true of all of us and the stories we tell of our lives.
July 24, 2021
Along with "Blue's oceans", a difficult book to read. Consists mostly of dialogue, and jumps all over the place in space and time. I almost gave up. Longtime Wolfe fans on Reddit encouraged me to keep reading. A guide by Michael Andre Druissi, "Gate of Horn, Book of Silk" is very helpful.
3/4 of the way through, once all the war stuff passed, I became enthralled. Both the concepts and characters are unique. Wolfe plays with ideas of time, soul and body, love, forgiveness, consequences, family attachments (especially fathers and sons), and god/gods--all the biggest ideas, asking questions, exploring possibilities. But this hardly reads like a novel. More an exploration of concepts through characters I (eventually!) became deeply attached to. They will open your mind, break your heart, and make it soar.
So--on to the last book in the solar cycle, "Return to the Whorl".
3/4 of the way through, once all the war stuff passed, I became enthralled. Both the concepts and characters are unique. Wolfe plays with ideas of time, soul and body, love, forgiveness, consequences, family attachments (especially fathers and sons), and god/gods--all the biggest ideas, asking questions, exploring possibilities. But this hardly reads like a novel. More an exploration of concepts through characters I (eventually!) became deeply attached to. They will open your mind, break your heart, and make it soar.
So--on to the last book in the solar cycle, "Return to the Whorl".
July 3, 2025
I read Book of the Short Sun last in the Solar Cycle (after New Sun and Long Sun). After everything you've been through in the Solar Cycle, I feel like Book of Short Sun was the most moving out of all of them. It's an incredibly raw and emotional read unlike New Sun (due to Severian's unreliable narration) and Long Sun (Silk's moral perfection leaves little room for internal conflict). That being said, I can't differentiate between On Blue's Waters, In Green's Jungles, and Return to the Whorl as they all tie together as a seamless, beautiful story. That being said, this review is more like a review for the entire Book of the Short Sun. It's hard to compete with New Sun; however, Short Sun felt so intimately personal throughout the entire series that it probably edges out New Sun as my favorite series in the entire Solar Cycle. What a journey.
May 16, 2021
As I clack these words into the internet, a pair of crows harass one another outside my window. Their belching and cawing demonstrates the sophistication of night choughs to their corvid cousins and in much the same way that Gene Wolfe sits in the canon of science fantasy.
As I'm usually inclined, I will forgo a lengthy dissection of the book with all its strengths and weaknesses and just end with a hearty two thumbs to Mainframe. If Goodreads would allow me, I would give this book 4.5 stars, but here we are and none the wiser. In Green's Jungles is a marvel by many measures and I'm already queuing up number 3.
Recommended for those who play fast and loose with hors d'oeuvre ettiquette.
As I'm usually inclined, I will forgo a lengthy dissection of the book with all its strengths and weaknesses and just end with a hearty two thumbs to Mainframe. If Goodreads would allow me, I would give this book 4.5 stars, but here we are and none the wiser. In Green's Jungles is a marvel by many measures and I'm already queuing up number 3.
Recommended for those who play fast and loose with hors d'oeuvre ettiquette.
July 16, 2024
What an interesting novel. This was one of the most challenging reads I have encountered. Challenging because it is never entirely clear what time, what place, or who the protagonist is. And this is because the protagonist, the narrator is not sure about themselves, I think. So many questions remain that I hope get answered in the last volume of The Book of the Short Sun, Return to the Whorl. It is interesting how The Short Sun is circling back to Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. Which makes sense as this is all part of the 12 volume Solar Cycle: it makes sense that the end cycles back to the beginning.
November 22, 2021
I think this might be my all time favorite Gene Wolfe book. He plays all of his delightful and fascinating tricks, but in this work above all others, he wields them to create an absolutely GRIPPING story. I couldn't put it down.
SPOILER ALERT:
The ultimate fate of Auk and Chenille kind of broke my heart. I desperately hope that some of their reunion will be called back to later in Book Three.
ALSO, I really, REALLY want to know what all happened to the group when the went to the Red Sun Whorl. Exactly what is the timeline going from Red Sun, to Ushas, to the times of Long Sun/Blue?
SPOILER ALERT:
The ultimate fate of Auk and Chenille kind of broke my heart. I desperately hope that some of their reunion will be called back to later in Book Three.
ALSO, I really, REALLY want to know what all happened to the group when the went to the Red Sun Whorl. Exactly what is the timeline going from Red Sun, to Ushas, to the times of Long Sun/Blue?
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