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Strange Travelers: New Selected Stories
Gene Wolfe is producing the most significant body of short fiction of any living writer in the SF genre. It has been ten years since the last major Wolfe collection, so Strange Travelers contains a whole decade of achievement. Some of these stories were award nominees, some were controversial, but each is unique and beautifully written.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2000
About the author
Gene Wolfe
514 books3,651 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.
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 was 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 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 was also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
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 was 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 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 was also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 7, 2015
A compilation of some of Wolfe's stories from the 1990's, a decade where he was largely occupied with writing the epic Long Sun and Short Sun series'.
The general word is that Wolfe's short fiction decreased in quality during this time compared to his 70's and 80's work. In the strictest sense of measurement I wouldn't disagree with that, but this is still an outstanding collection.
The stories here are carefully chosen to fit cohesively under the chosen title. They pretty much all feature travelers of different kinds, if not in the literal sense then certainly in the "strange" sense.
Yet the title could just as easily have been "Strange Prisoners", which when you think about it says rather a lot about the tricksy, multi-dimensional nature of Wolfe's keen mind.
The deeper thematic tones of the stories are pretty bleak, both in humanistic and theological terms, yet the mystery, wonder and sheer enjoyment that they contain on the surface left me equally intrigued and entertained throughout.
Each story offered so much even though, unlike with the best Wolfe short story collection, The Doctor of Death Island and Other Stories and Other Stories, most of them are relatively short.
Only The penultimate tale, 'The Ziggurat', could be considered a novella, and a very juicy and disturbing one at that. But I wouldn't call any of them toss-offs, though many were written to order for various magazines and anthologies.
In fact, they were so good I decided to write a short synopsis of each one in turn. I hope I can inspire you to read some of them, though my notes contain barely an inkling of what each contains:
'Blueberry Jam': on the sources and art of folk singing in a future of scarcity and enforced ennui, lived out amongst one almighty traffic jam.
'One-Two-Three For Me': future, AI-assisted humans return to earth to dig for relics and discover a mobile phone, with tragic consequences. A cautionary ghost story.
'Counting Cats in Zanzibar': Promethean cat-and-mouse story between a runaway female scientist and a robot policeman, full of sly quotations and inspired by Asimov's famous laws.
'The Death of Koshchei the Deathless': ridiculous Russian folk tale, a parody of an Andrew Lang fairy story.
'No Planets Strike': a talking bull and donkey tour the solar system as part of a vaudivile act, but are they harbingers of something greater for a captured immigrant population?
'Bed and Breakfast': an unlikely one night stand at an off the track guesthouse three miles from Hell between somebody soon to be condemned and somebody who will possibly soon to be condemned (or is that somebody already condemned?)
'To the Seventh': God and the Devil play chess and as God attempts to queen one of his pawns a single-manned spaceship makes first contact, enlisting the earth in a galactic confrontation where sacrifice is the only possible move for victory.
'Queen of the Night': pitch black medieval fairy story of corpse-eating ghouls and a brave but beguiled boy who trades his innocence to save anothers, at least for a time.
'And When They Appear': an orphan, left alive in an AI-administered house after his father killed himself and the boy's mother, is shown an educational pageant of holographic Christmas characters by the computer, as an angry mob approaches to destroy the place.
'Flash Company': a broken-hearted man buys and restores an old player-piano, but who is really restoring whom?
'The Haunted Boardinghouse': a classics scholar is offered work as a librarian in an esoteric old school housed in a four-fronted building. He falls into a frozen lake on the way and wakes up in a bedroom at the school, which appears to be a labyrinth haunted with ghosts. But did he actually die in the water, or has he escaped death, temporarily at least?
'Useful Phrases': a bookseller discovers a small volume of phrases in an alien language called Tcove. He works at translations but they all seem to be non sequiturs (i.e. "I hunger for taller trees"), yet after he places an advert about it he receives responses...
'The Man in the Pepper Mill': a young boy trying to get over the recent death of his younger sister imagines that he lives inside her dollhouse at night.
'The Ziggurat': the collection's longest piece features a confrontation in a secluded, snowed-in cabin between a man just about to finalise a messy divorce and a trio of time-traveling females from the future, with highly ambiguous consequences.
'Ain't You 'Most Done?': a redux of the first story, but from a different perspective in every way.
I hope some of my short and intentionally vague descriptions whetted a few appetites out there. Believe me, you will not be disappointed if you buy this book.
The general word is that Wolfe's short fiction decreased in quality during this time compared to his 70's and 80's work. In the strictest sense of measurement I wouldn't disagree with that, but this is still an outstanding collection.
The stories here are carefully chosen to fit cohesively under the chosen title. They pretty much all feature travelers of different kinds, if not in the literal sense then certainly in the "strange" sense.
Yet the title could just as easily have been "Strange Prisoners", which when you think about it says rather a lot about the tricksy, multi-dimensional nature of Wolfe's keen mind.
The deeper thematic tones of the stories are pretty bleak, both in humanistic and theological terms, yet the mystery, wonder and sheer enjoyment that they contain on the surface left me equally intrigued and entertained throughout.
Each story offered so much even though, unlike with the best Wolfe short story collection, The Doctor of Death Island and Other Stories and Other Stories, most of them are relatively short.
Only The penultimate tale, 'The Ziggurat', could be considered a novella, and a very juicy and disturbing one at that. But I wouldn't call any of them toss-offs, though many were written to order for various magazines and anthologies.
In fact, they were so good I decided to write a short synopsis of each one in turn. I hope I can inspire you to read some of them, though my notes contain barely an inkling of what each contains:
'Blueberry Jam': on the sources and art of folk singing in a future of scarcity and enforced ennui, lived out amongst one almighty traffic jam.
'One-Two-Three For Me': future, AI-assisted humans return to earth to dig for relics and discover a mobile phone, with tragic consequences. A cautionary ghost story.
'Counting Cats in Zanzibar': Promethean cat-and-mouse story between a runaway female scientist and a robot policeman, full of sly quotations and inspired by Asimov's famous laws.
'The Death of Koshchei the Deathless': ridiculous Russian folk tale, a parody of an Andrew Lang fairy story.
'No Planets Strike': a talking bull and donkey tour the solar system as part of a vaudivile act, but are they harbingers of something greater for a captured immigrant population?
'Bed and Breakfast': an unlikely one night stand at an off the track guesthouse three miles from Hell between somebody soon to be condemned and somebody who will possibly soon to be condemned (or is that somebody already condemned?)
'To the Seventh': God and the Devil play chess and as God attempts to queen one of his pawns a single-manned spaceship makes first contact, enlisting the earth in a galactic confrontation where sacrifice is the only possible move for victory.
'Queen of the Night': pitch black medieval fairy story of corpse-eating ghouls and a brave but beguiled boy who trades his innocence to save anothers, at least for a time.
'And When They Appear': an orphan, left alive in an AI-administered house after his father killed himself and the boy's mother, is shown an educational pageant of holographic Christmas characters by the computer, as an angry mob approaches to destroy the place.
'Flash Company': a broken-hearted man buys and restores an old player-piano, but who is really restoring whom?
'The Haunted Boardinghouse': a classics scholar is offered work as a librarian in an esoteric old school housed in a four-fronted building. He falls into a frozen lake on the way and wakes up in a bedroom at the school, which appears to be a labyrinth haunted with ghosts. But did he actually die in the water, or has he escaped death, temporarily at least?
'Useful Phrases': a bookseller discovers a small volume of phrases in an alien language called Tcove. He works at translations but they all seem to be non sequiturs (i.e. "I hunger for taller trees"), yet after he places an advert about it he receives responses...
'The Man in the Pepper Mill': a young boy trying to get over the recent death of his younger sister imagines that he lives inside her dollhouse at night.
'The Ziggurat': the collection's longest piece features a confrontation in a secluded, snowed-in cabin between a man just about to finalise a messy divorce and a trio of time-traveling females from the future, with highly ambiguous consequences.
'Ain't You 'Most Done?': a redux of the first story, but from a different perspective in every way.
I hope some of my short and intentionally vague descriptions whetted a few appetites out there. Believe me, you will not be disappointed if you buy this book.
June 27, 2020
I started this several years ago, and only finished it this year (2020). Wolfe has a large following, but this collection of stories didn't persuade me to join in. It very well could be that I'm not as amenable to this kind of fantasy anymore.
Of the stories I read years ago, I really only remember one, and that only because how horrific it is. I understand that Wolfe has or had a tradition of writing a Christmas story each year, and And When They Appear is included in this collection as one of them. Mini spoiler: .
Of the three or four that I had left, I didn't think there were any standouts. As I said, I may not be Wolfe's audience. I'd still give one of his novels a try--that may be where his strengths are.
Of the stories I read years ago, I really only remember one, and that only because how horrific it is. I understand that Wolfe has or had a tradition of writing a Christmas story each year, and And When They Appear is included in this collection as one of them. Mini spoiler: .
Of the three or four that I had left, I didn't think there were any standouts. As I said, I may not be Wolfe's audience. I'd still give one of his novels a try--that may be where his strengths are.
March 1, 2021
You don't always know when the journey is over.
This collection Gene Wolfe stories runs from 1990-1997 and, like its title, has some strange travelers contained therein. From traveling bluesmen in a never ending traffic jam to a chess match between God and the Devil where we're given a POV of one of the pawns to a truly frightening story of a boy being "protected by his automated house with a never-ending Christmas party, these stories are weird and wonderful.
Some end just at the right time, some end a little early, and some feel like they are still going even after the last word. I suppose that is the best kind of story, the kind that sticks on your craw longer than than you thought it would or should.
This collection Gene Wolfe stories runs from 1990-1997 and, like its title, has some strange travelers contained therein. From traveling bluesmen in a never ending traffic jam to a chess match between God and the Devil where we're given a POV of one of the pawns to a truly frightening story of a boy being "protected by his automated house with a never-ending Christmas party, these stories are weird and wonderful.
Some end just at the right time, some end a little early, and some feel like they are still going even after the last word. I suppose that is the best kind of story, the kind that sticks on your craw longer than than you thought it would or should.
May 20, 2012
Gene's fiction has once again blown out the walls of my mind, and shown me how little we can ever understand someone, or ourselves, and how far self deception can go. His characters are never to be fully trusted, and their perceptions are definitely not omniscient. Gene deals in uncertainty, and in that way his novels are realistic- because we go through our lives living with uncertainty, hardly ever placing our feet on 'firm ground'. He also deals in the fantastic, and this is also a realistic viewpoint as our lives are fill of unexplainable events, strange coincidences, and unbelievable circumstances.
(In an interview Gene noted that realistic fiction is in itself silting and stale. After all, if you told people the true story or your life, in all its detail, it would sound unbelievable. This is due the the strangeness, the weirdness, the wildness of life as we know it. Irrational, unexplainable, each step we take each day is into something new, and ultimately unknown.)
A master at work, Gene's characters are helpless in his tricksy hands. Watch them weave their way through each of these stories, often as ignorant to what is happening to them as we are, thrown this way and that by the strangeness of life. Highly recommended for those willing to take a plunge into some challenging and beautiful pieces of fiction.
(In an interview Gene noted that realistic fiction is in itself silting and stale. After all, if you told people the true story or your life, in all its detail, it would sound unbelievable. This is due the the strangeness, the weirdness, the wildness of life as we know it. Irrational, unexplainable, each step we take each day is into something new, and ultimately unknown.)
A master at work, Gene's characters are helpless in his tricksy hands. Watch them weave their way through each of these stories, often as ignorant to what is happening to them as we are, thrown this way and that by the strangeness of life. Highly recommended for those willing to take a plunge into some challenging and beautiful pieces of fiction.
December 12, 2011
Gene Wolfe is always a pleasure to read; he requires a bit of work but it's well worth the effort. Any of his collections of short stories are a great introduction to his work, but for the Full Monty you should read the Urth of the New Sun series: Shadow of the Torturer , Sword of the Lictor , etc.
August 2, 2008
Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer alive, and this is probably as good an intro to his work as any other book.
June 14, 2022
Quite a lot of great stories in this one - "Bluesberry Jam", "Counting Cats in Zanzibar", "Bed and Breakfast", "And When They Appear", "Useful Phrases", and "The Ziggurat" are all really excellent, although a few ("And When They Appear" and "The Ziggurat") are undeniably the darkest things Wolfe ever wrote, and I can see them being a little off-putting for that reason.
The rest are all good, with one or two minor exceptions here or there. Not as good as short fiction from earlier on in Wolfe's career but definitely better than the mostly whimsical and fantastical stories you'd see in, say, "Innocents Aboard". Not a good starting place for Wolfe but a nice collection.
The rest are all good, with one or two minor exceptions here or there. Not as good as short fiction from earlier on in Wolfe's career but definitely better than the mostly whimsical and fantastical stories you'd see in, say, "Innocents Aboard". Not a good starting place for Wolfe but a nice collection.
January 18, 2023
These stories were all really well written and engaging. Great stuff. Wolfe writes from a position and mindset that can feel dated, some of his ideas are hard to unravel, or even impossible to fathom. There’s at least one story in here where his attitude towards women is questionable - not in a “This is definitely what he felt” way, but a “Did he feel this?” way. But I knew all this going in.
And I also knew that Wolfe is a wonderful writer, and that’s certainly true here. Every story is written with an idea in mind, with something to remember, and while they’re not always the kindest or most fun to read, they’re always memorable.
And I also knew that Wolfe is a wonderful writer, and that’s certainly true here. Every story is written with an idea in mind, with something to remember, and while they’re not always the kindest or most fun to read, they’re always memorable.
December 23, 2024
Strange imagination in of itself is a gift. Though the stories make you question if you understand anything at all, there’s a deep humbling power to it; many writers only hope to achieve this with any sense of successful coherence — reminiscent of Phillip K. Dick, but entirely its own universe, strange travelers is what we truly wish from collections: a small peek past the doors of strangers’ conscience, into their mad, impossible daydreams.
October 14, 2023
Tough choice between 3 and 4 stars. The first half of the collection was stuck in the 2 and 3 star range, but the second half built momentum into 4-star territory. 'Ziggurat' is a 5-star short story for me. 'The Haunted Boardinghouse' and 'The Man in the Pepper Mill' are solid 4-star shorts.
September 12, 2018
Some classic material in this one.
March 6, 2020
Not as strong a collection as the work from the '80s.
May 20, 2017
Read: The Ziggurat, Counting Cats in Zanzibar, The Death of Koschei the Deathless, No Planets Strike, Bed and Breakfast, To the Seventh, Queen of the Night, Useful Phrases.
Enjoyed The Ziggurat most - propulsive, strong sense of snow and winter that the story can't seem to get away from. The three stranger women are sympathetic; no one else is but the coyote. I'm remember again how Gene Wolfe takes such contagious pleasure in good food.
The other stories I never quite got into stride with. They're shorter; I guess I'm used to Gene Wolfe longer. It's his short stories that are almost novellas that I enjoy most.
Strange Travelers is the right title for the collection.
Enjoyed The Ziggurat most - propulsive, strong sense of snow and winter that the story can't seem to get away from. The three stranger women are sympathetic; no one else is but the coyote. I'm remember again how Gene Wolfe takes such contagious pleasure in good food.
The other stories I never quite got into stride with. They're shorter; I guess I'm used to Gene Wolfe longer. It's his short stories that are almost novellas that I enjoy most.
Strange Travelers is the right title for the collection.
June 29, 2008
All but two or three of the stories in this collection were quite wonderful. Reading these stories were exciting in the same way that reading Salman Rushdie can be exciting - the stories are not exactly presented to you head on, more like you are tailing the story, picking up scraps of information over its shoulder, and piecing together a larger, more fascinating (or, in many cases, more horrifying) whole only by the very end. In particular, The Ziggurat, almost a novella, was one of the most frightening, thrilling, well-paced and well-crafted stories I'd read in a long while.
February 11, 2008
A collection of short stories that deal with the ultimate of "strange travelers": good and evil, God and Devil, Heaven and Hell. Reader be warned-this collection is not for the faint of heart, but then again, Gene Wolfe never is. He is a tricksy writer of stories filled with unreliable narrators and confusing plot twists and jumps. To tell the truth I have to read his stories and novels several times before I "get" them and then I read them again and see something new.
November 6, 2019
The stories included in this compilation are indeed, as implied by the title, strange! Gene Wolfe is really overlooked as a writer of strange/weird stories. The only story that I did not like was the longest one in here entitled "Ziguratt". The theme, the dialogue, the pacing and some stereotypical ideas about genders really put me off. Not his best collection overall but some stories in it are among his best.
March 29, 2009
I love Wolfe, and he's a great writer, but this collection had a bunch of stories that were just so-so. There are a few gems in here, though. I recommend either borrowing this or getting a really cheap copy. And if you're reading it and one of the stories bores you, don't bother finishing it, because it won't get better.
March 20, 2016
On the one hand, it's Gene Wolfe, and the man puts words together brilliantly here as everywhere else. On the other hand, the viewpoint character is creepy as hell, and I don't think he was supposed to be.
February 9, 2021
Re-read this since the boys at the Overdue podcast decided to take it on, and it still creeps me out. Like, did Rosemary get to read this and wonder if it wasn't time to take the kids to their grandparents' for a while, or nah? Even if you take it at face value, it's creepy!
Read
August 7, 2011Short stories by the author of the Book of the New Sun. Good stories. Some are haunting and reminiscent of Bradbury.
August 24, 2016
Maybe I should give this 4 stars. Like most short story collections, hit and miss. But, none were 5 stars.
October 18, 2014
pure joy
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