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Smithe #2
Interlibrary Loan
Interlibrary Loan is the brilliant follow-up to A Borrowed Man a new science fiction novel from multi-award winner and national literary treasure Gene Wolfe
Hundreds of years in the future our civilization is shrunk down but we go on. There is advanced technology, there are robots.
And there are clones.
E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person, his personality an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human.
As such, Smithe can be loaned to other branches. Which he is. Along with two fellow reclones, a cookbook and romance writer, they are shipped to Polly's Cove, where Smithe meets a little girl who wants to save her mother, a father who is dead but perhaps not.
And another E.A. Smithe... who definitely is.
Hundreds of years in the future our civilization is shrunk down but we go on. There is advanced technology, there are robots.
And there are clones.
E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person, his personality an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human.
As such, Smithe can be loaned to other branches. Which he is. Along with two fellow reclones, a cookbook and romance writer, they are shipped to Polly's Cove, where Smithe meets a little girl who wants to save her mother, a father who is dead but perhaps not.
And another E.A. Smithe... who definitely is.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published June 30, 2020
105 people are currently reading
1289 people want to read
About the author
Gene Wolfe
507 books3,597 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 165 reviews
November 4, 2020
Sequel to Wolfe's bizarre The Borrowed Man. Both orchestrated typical sleights of hand on my psyche. It is possible to get immersed in the surface-level narrative of a man who gets checked out from the library which is his institution of residence as a re-cloned mystery writer. Adventure ensures. But it is also possible you will fail to care for the seemingly inconsequential universe Wolfe has crafted in this one. However, the subtext, occasionally impenetrable, is strangely lacking in epic scale here. This side effect has occurred in me before, and the only remedy is rereading the book.
When Faulkner was asked what someone should do if they read his book twice and didn't understand it, that author replied they should read it a third time. I would advise most people to practice the same exercise upon Wolfe's books, if they have the patience. Nonetheless, there was a mythic quality to the latter part of the Borrowed Man not quite present here - perhaps merely suggested, like background radiation - and though it is entertaining to follow the quirky characters, the world they inhabit is a tad colder, less infused with the sinister undercurrent of a science fiction mythos. Any addition to the Wolfe canon is invaluable, so I was pleased to read this book, even if it could have gone further and done more. I still recommend it over Pandora. I'm glad Wolfe didn't dabble too much in Noir, though to say he dabbled at all is grossly incorrect. I'm forever an incurable, raving fan of the author. You may want to consider checking this one out (pun intended) instead of buying. Since I have 35 books in my Gene Wolfe collection I'm tempted to get it for closure. Let us all mourn the passing of S-f's grandmaster of dense world building and architecturally stunning storytelling.
When Faulkner was asked what someone should do if they read his book twice and didn't understand it, that author replied they should read it a third time. I would advise most people to practice the same exercise upon Wolfe's books, if they have the patience. Nonetheless, there was a mythic quality to the latter part of the Borrowed Man not quite present here - perhaps merely suggested, like background radiation - and though it is entertaining to follow the quirky characters, the world they inhabit is a tad colder, less infused with the sinister undercurrent of a science fiction mythos. Any addition to the Wolfe canon is invaluable, so I was pleased to read this book, even if it could have gone further and done more. I still recommend it over Pandora. I'm glad Wolfe didn't dabble too much in Noir, though to say he dabbled at all is grossly incorrect. I'm forever an incurable, raving fan of the author. You may want to consider checking this one out (pun intended) instead of buying. Since I have 35 books in my Gene Wolfe collection I'm tempted to get it for closure. Let us all mourn the passing of S-f's grandmaster of dense world building and architecturally stunning storytelling.
July 21, 2020
I enjoyed Wolfe's future version of our world with smaller centres of population where robots and clones are taken for granted.
Ern A. Smithe, introduced in 'The Borrowed Man' is a clone of an author, a writer of murder mysteries, whose personality has been uploaded into his clone. He is not a legal person but belongs to the library and may be borrowed with a library card (and a deposit to make sure he is returned unharmed). When they are not checked out they live on a library shelf and are fed and provided with clean clothes. When Ern and two other clones (Millie and Rose) are requested as an interlibrary loan they are sent by truck to a library in the small coastal town of Polly's Cove. Ern is checked out by Chandra Favre on behalf of her mother Adah Favre who wants Ern's help in finding her missing husband, Dr Barry Fevre.
Wolfe then takes us on a wondrous adventure, on a self-aware sailing boat across the sea, looking for Dr Fevre, where we visit an icy arctic island, ice caves and find a treasure of sorts. However, once back on land the book seems to veer into more of a fantasy with a disjointed feel. It felt unfinished, and maybe Wolfe didn't get to finish editing it before he died, but it could be that I'm just not clever enough to appreciate what Wolfe was trying to show me and may have missed the point. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, the strange world and the places it took me, but I did leave it feeling a little puzzled. 3.5★
With thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for a copy to read
Ern A. Smithe, introduced in 'The Borrowed Man' is a clone of an author, a writer of murder mysteries, whose personality has been uploaded into his clone. He is not a legal person but belongs to the library and may be borrowed with a library card (and a deposit to make sure he is returned unharmed). When they are not checked out they live on a library shelf and are fed and provided with clean clothes. When Ern and two other clones (Millie and Rose) are requested as an interlibrary loan they are sent by truck to a library in the small coastal town of Polly's Cove. Ern is checked out by Chandra Favre on behalf of her mother Adah Favre who wants Ern's help in finding her missing husband, Dr Barry Fevre.
Wolfe then takes us on a wondrous adventure, on a self-aware sailing boat across the sea, looking for Dr Fevre, where we visit an icy arctic island, ice caves and find a treasure of sorts. However, once back on land the book seems to veer into more of a fantasy with a disjointed feel. It felt unfinished, and maybe Wolfe didn't get to finish editing it before he died, but it could be that I'm just not clever enough to appreciate what Wolfe was trying to show me and may have missed the point. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, the strange world and the places it took me, but I did leave it feeling a little puzzled. 3.5★
With thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for a copy to read
September 18, 2021
"Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization."
—Mori Phelps, in Jo Walton's novel Among Others
How could I not love that title, and that dust jacket? Even if Interlibrary Loan had not been Gene Wolfe's final work, published posthumously (he died in 2019), I would have had to pick it up just to see what he'd do with the idea.
In Interlibrary Loan, Wolfe goes Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 one better (and if you somehow haven't read Bradbury's novel despite its being an assigned text in multiple grade school curricula, I hope this isn't a spoiler for you).
Ern A. Smithe is a novelist—although he's never actually written anything, and despite his outsized and engaging personality, Wolfe's affable protagonist is not legally a person at all. The edition of E.A. Smithe we meet in Interlibrary Loan is nothing more than a library resource—a reclone, a walking, talking recreation of a long-deceased 21st-Century author who, centuries earlier, did write quite a few popular books.
Yep, that's right—Ern is library property. He, and his fellow reclones, are shelved in the stacks of a small-town branch library, and they can be checked out, like any other media. The difference is that Ern and his shelfmates actually care whether they get checked out... because reclones that (who) don't circulate get discarded. Like any other disused media.
Interlibrary Loan is a mystery of sorts, or several mysteries. And Smithe's experience (however ersatz) at writing mysteries stands him in good stead when he gets sent—via interlibrary loan—to another small-town library closer to the coast, along with a couple of other reclones from the same branch.
Their opinions were of course not consulted in the matter.
As always with Wolfe, I got the feeling that multiple layers exist, behind—beyond—even the most straightforward of sentences. For example: there's never any overt indication that Smithe (or Wolfe) realizes just how dystopian the very notion of "reclones" is... but even so we know he knows.
What I didn't realize, not at all, was that Interlibrary Loan is actually a sequel to Wolfe's novel A Borrowed Man from 2015—although I strongly suspect that the Ern A. Smithe here is a different copy from the one in that book.
Smithe goes to some really fascinating places, before the novel just... just ends. For all its positive qualities, Interlibrary Loan struck me as woefully incomplete—still well worth reading, as anything by Wolfe is, but perhaps not quite ready for the public. As it were.
Maybe Wolfe's own reclone, centuries hence, will be allowed to work on that.
August 22, 2020
(Disclaimer—Gene Wolfe was a close neighbor and good friend of our family.)
Steganography /stɛɡəˈnɒɡrəfɪ/ NOUN - The practice of concealing messages or information
within other non-secret text or data.
- Oxford English Dictionary
Examples of steganography include a business letter with invisible ink in between the lines, a scarf with a message knitted into it using Morse Code, and, of course, the writings of Gene Wolfe.
Interlibrary Loan is about a library-owned, “re-cloned” mystery writer, who is checked out via a cross-continental loan by a woman and her daughter who want help finding answers.
And there are many questions. Such as, “Where is my husband?”, “What is he doing on an island in the North Atlantic?”, “Is this a treasure map?”, “Why does touching the star on the map make one feel like they dropped some acid?”, and “What is the big, black thing that makes scratchy noises while it crawls into the bedroom at night and says ‘no bite’?”
Over the course of the short novel, recloned mystery writer Ern Smithe (“with an ‘e’”) along with fellow recloned authors Millie (cookbook author), Rose (romance writer), and Audrey (ocean adventurer) find some answers, but uncover more questions.
Questions like, “Who is the big guy wearing a helmet with horns?”, “Who slit the neck of an earlier edition of Ern Smithe?”, “What/where is behind the door?”, and “What that mysterious green box all about?”
Alas, the book ends on page 238 without everything being answered or all plot lines tied together into a neat package. Did Wolfe just run out of steam? Or are the answers encoded in Smithe’s admittedly incomplete account? I suspect a second or even third reading will reveal Wolfe’s steganography.
There is another slightly more obvious level coded into the story. Wolfe riffs on what it means to be fully human vs. person, a theme common to many his stories. The reclone experience—sleeping on a shelf or the floor, cast off clothing, ad hoc meals, disposal when no longer useful—is an allegory for slavery. Gene and I used to have spirited discussions about what constitutes slavery. But that is a story for another time.
Finally, Interlibrary Loan contains many wonderful aphorisms; what I like to call Wolfe-phorisms. Here are some examples:
- The places to dream all begin with B—bed, bar, boudoir, and bathtub. “B” for bemused.
- On e-books: Books…ought to exist. They ought to be actual physical objects you can pick up and put down. We should not have to engage a medium and hold a séance.
- “Nobody laughs at a writer with a check.”
- “Somebody done it once, didn’t they? It’s only weeds and wind that come of themselves.”
I recommend this book along with its companion volume, A Borrowed Man, which should be read first. I suspect they will be reprinted as an omnibus in the future. The two books pair well with Martha Wells’s The Murderbot Diaries: Books 1-4 which has many of the same motifs.
Steganography /stɛɡəˈnɒɡrəfɪ/ NOUN - The practice of concealing messages or information
within other non-secret text or data.
- Oxford English Dictionary
Examples of steganography include a business letter with invisible ink in between the lines, a scarf with a message knitted into it using Morse Code, and, of course, the writings of Gene Wolfe.
Interlibrary Loan is about a library-owned, “re-cloned” mystery writer, who is checked out via a cross-continental loan by a woman and her daughter who want help finding answers.
And there are many questions. Such as, “Where is my husband?”, “What is he doing on an island in the North Atlantic?”, “Is this a treasure map?”, “Why does touching the star on the map make one feel like they dropped some acid?”, and “What is the big, black thing that makes scratchy noises while it crawls into the bedroom at night and says ‘no bite’?”
Over the course of the short novel, recloned mystery writer Ern Smithe (“with an ‘e’”) along with fellow recloned authors Millie (cookbook author), Rose (romance writer), and Audrey (ocean adventurer) find some answers, but uncover more questions.
Questions like, “Who is the big guy wearing a helmet with horns?”, “Who slit the neck of an earlier edition of Ern Smithe?”, “What/where is behind the door?”, and “What that mysterious green box all about?”
Alas, the book ends on page 238 without everything being answered or all plot lines tied together into a neat package. Did Wolfe just run out of steam? Or are the answers encoded in Smithe’s admittedly incomplete account? I suspect a second or even third reading will reveal Wolfe’s steganography.
There is another slightly more obvious level coded into the story. Wolfe riffs on what it means to be fully human vs. person, a theme common to many his stories. The reclone experience—sleeping on a shelf or the floor, cast off clothing, ad hoc meals, disposal when no longer useful—is an allegory for slavery. Gene and I used to have spirited discussions about what constitutes slavery. But that is a story for another time.
Finally, Interlibrary Loan contains many wonderful aphorisms; what I like to call Wolfe-phorisms. Here are some examples:
- The places to dream all begin with B—bed, bar, boudoir, and bathtub. “B” for bemused.
- On e-books: Books…ought to exist. They ought to be actual physical objects you can pick up and put down. We should not have to engage a medium and hold a séance.
- “Nobody laughs at a writer with a check.”
- “Somebody done it once, didn’t they? It’s only weeds and wind that come of themselves.”
I recommend this book along with its companion volume, A Borrowed Man, which should be read first. I suspect they will be reprinted as an omnibus in the future. The two books pair well with Martha Wells’s The Murderbot Diaries: Books 1-4 which has many of the same motifs.
June 16, 2020
Interlibrary Loan is the second book (and last) in the Borrowed Man series by award-winning American author, Gene Wolfe. It’s the twenty-second century, the human population is down to a billion, technology is highly advanced, and ‘bots, sims and clones are part of everyday life.
Ern A. Smithe, a reclone of the 21st Century mystery writer, is puzzled to find himself on the new and luxurious truck with two other reclone resources from Spice Grove Public Library. Ern’s friend, Millie Baumgartner is a renowned cookbook writer, while Rose Romain is a romance writer. They have apparently been requested for interlibrary loan to Polly’s Cove Public Library.
Once there, Ern is checked out by young Chandra Fevre on behalf of her mother, Adah, but on his way out the door, he catches sight of an older, very much dilapidated copy of himself for sale in the lobby. At the Fevre house, Ern is shown what resembles a treasure map and is told a fantastic story of a boat journey and a missing husband: one Dr Barry Fevre, anatomy professor at Spice Grove University. But is Barry really missing? Adah’s story isn’t entirely reliable.
Before long, Ern has enlisted the help of reclone nautical author, Audrey Hopkins, and a journey in an apparently sentient boat with mother and daughter Fevre to an Arctic island, reputed to be the source of cadavers for anatomical dissection, is underway. From there the story manages to include ice caves, angels(?), a self-building, animate house, a Continental cop, and some very tall trees. Ern is checked out to help solve a murder.
It’s difficult to say whether the ending is intended as a cliff-hanger (never to be explained now the author has died) or simply vague because the manuscript was perhaps incomplete. There were some inconsistencies that might have been corrected by a diligent editor. The last fifteen percent is rather disjointed, and the lack of any real resolution gives this sequel an unfinished feel. After the promise of A Borrowed Man, this last novel by Wolfe is, sadly, disappointing.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Tor/Forge
Ern A. Smithe, a reclone of the 21st Century mystery writer, is puzzled to find himself on the new and luxurious truck with two other reclone resources from Spice Grove Public Library. Ern’s friend, Millie Baumgartner is a renowned cookbook writer, while Rose Romain is a romance writer. They have apparently been requested for interlibrary loan to Polly’s Cove Public Library.
Once there, Ern is checked out by young Chandra Fevre on behalf of her mother, Adah, but on his way out the door, he catches sight of an older, very much dilapidated copy of himself for sale in the lobby. At the Fevre house, Ern is shown what resembles a treasure map and is told a fantastic story of a boat journey and a missing husband: one Dr Barry Fevre, anatomy professor at Spice Grove University. But is Barry really missing? Adah’s story isn’t entirely reliable.
Before long, Ern has enlisted the help of reclone nautical author, Audrey Hopkins, and a journey in an apparently sentient boat with mother and daughter Fevre to an Arctic island, reputed to be the source of cadavers for anatomical dissection, is underway. From there the story manages to include ice caves, angels(?), a self-building, animate house, a Continental cop, and some very tall trees. Ern is checked out to help solve a murder.
It’s difficult to say whether the ending is intended as a cliff-hanger (never to be explained now the author has died) or simply vague because the manuscript was perhaps incomplete. There were some inconsistencies that might have been corrected by a diligent editor. The last fifteen percent is rather disjointed, and the lack of any real resolution gives this sequel an unfinished feel. After the promise of A Borrowed Man, this last novel by Wolfe is, sadly, disappointing.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Tor/Forge
March 4, 2023
Strange and lovely last words from Gene Wolfe
July 6, 2020
Oh, good. Gene Wolfe left us with a mystery. This is a placeholder review because it would be a mistake to read a Wolfe novel once and then assume you a) know how you feel about it, b) understood it, c) read it thoroughly. A lot of folks see these points as reasons to trash his works, but I’m a reader and I love reading and there’s few to no authors that wrote for readers.
This book is a science fiction magical realism supernatural murder mystery treasure hunt, and, possibly, a love story. What do I know? Nothing. Yet. It’s possible this entire novel is Gene Wolfe exploring his own motivations and machinations as a writer. It’s possible everything in this book is misdirection and it’s all nonsense except for maybe what we’re told at the end. (And yes you can bet on that much: the final words of the novel are the key to the whole thing.) Did I love this book? No. Did I dislike this book? Certainly not.
So, for now, I’m going to say that this is not a novel for someone who has never read Gene Wolfe or has issues with non-linear and unreliable narration. It is obviously intelligently written, but its purposes and allusions may baffle and inspire indignation more often than it hands the reader anything real or substantial. And that’s what I enjoyed about it. I look forward to reading it again and again so I can know for myself what it is I read, even if that’s not what I was reading.
This book is a science fiction magical realism supernatural murder mystery treasure hunt, and, possibly, a love story. What do I know? Nothing. Yet. It’s possible this entire novel is Gene Wolfe exploring his own motivations and machinations as a writer. It’s possible everything in this book is misdirection and it’s all nonsense except for maybe what we’re told at the end. (And yes you can bet on that much: the final words of the novel are the key to the whole thing.) Did I love this book? No. Did I dislike this book? Certainly not.
So, for now, I’m going to say that this is not a novel for someone who has never read Gene Wolfe or has issues with non-linear and unreliable narration. It is obviously intelligently written, but its purposes and allusions may baffle and inspire indignation more often than it hands the reader anything real or substantial. And that’s what I enjoyed about it. I look forward to reading it again and again so I can know for myself what it is I read, even if that’s not what I was reading.
September 7, 2021
I was doing fine until about 2/3 through the book, it took a turn and stopped making any sense. Now it just makes me mad that I wasted the time and I presume the next book is supposed to make it all right. Or will it? Apparently not, since the author died before this one was published (and more apparently, before it was finished). Now the mistakes, inconsistencies, and the shift in plot make sense. He was having a series of strokes.
The book should have a disclaimer that it is an unfinished work.
The book should have a disclaimer that it is an unfinished work.
September 7, 2021
So, I’m browsing the shelves at the library and one book catches my eye: “Interlibrary Loan”. Hmm, I thought. What does this mean? That couldn’t be the name of the book, could it?
It was. Then I noticed it was by Gene Wolfe, a classic science fiction writer that I’ve never read, but always meant to read.
But I don’t think this was the best Wolfe book to start with. The premise was undoubtedly original and clever – cloned - or “recloned” – humans are created to serve as resources in public libraries. They sleep on library shelves, are provided with minimal food and clothing, and are available for patrons to check out as subject experts. The protagonist of this book is a long-dead mystery writer, E.A. Smythe, who hopes to be checked out often enough that he is not destroyed (“burned”). He is sent on interlibrary loan to another city, where he is checked out in order to help solve a mystery.
Good story, as far as that goes. But, perhaps three-fourths into the book, the story becomes weird.
It was. Then I noticed it was by Gene Wolfe, a classic science fiction writer that I’ve never read, but always meant to read.
But I don’t think this was the best Wolfe book to start with. The premise was undoubtedly original and clever – cloned - or “recloned” – humans are created to serve as resources in public libraries. They sleep on library shelves, are provided with minimal food and clothing, and are available for patrons to check out as subject experts. The protagonist of this book is a long-dead mystery writer, E.A. Smythe, who hopes to be checked out often enough that he is not destroyed (“burned”). He is sent on interlibrary loan to another city, where he is checked out in order to help solve a mystery.
Good story, as far as that goes. But, perhaps three-fourths into the book, the story becomes weird.
November 14, 2020
Oh ...kay. I suspect that the more you know about Wolfe, the more you'll think this is not at all what it appears to be. Sure, it might be a mediocre mystery set in a future world where worldbuilding is just assumed to have happened offstage, and it might have the weak ending of an elderly writer at the end of his career.
But I suspect that Gene's sitting backstage, smiling, because it's just as likely that every word here is carefully crafted, and if we are confused we are supposed to be.
Maybe my viewpoint will be different because I haven't read #1 of this pair, and apparently something there partly explains the green box here. But my interpretation may accommodate that anyway.
So ...
You might, and then you might wrap that up in a Wolfeian story with an unreliable narrator, an unreliable person providing the basis of the plot, a bad guy who might be a good guy, and some people who aren't really people, and some people who were only mostly dead, and AAAARRRGH.
This is why I haven't read more Wolfe books. You have to space them out. He's unique. If we were cloning authors for future borrowing, he should have been among them.
I still liked it.
But I suspect that Gene's sitting backstage, smiling, because it's just as likely that every word here is carefully crafted, and if we are confused we are supposed to be.
Maybe my viewpoint will be different because I haven't read #1 of this pair, and apparently something there partly explains the green box here. But my interpretation may accommodate that anyway.
So ...
You might, and then you might wrap that up in a Wolfeian story with an unreliable narrator, an unreliable person providing the basis of the plot, a bad guy who might be a good guy, and some people who aren't really people, and some people who were only mostly dead, and AAAARRRGH.
This is why I haven't read more Wolfe books. You have to space them out. He's unique. If we were cloning authors for future borrowing, he should have been among them.
I still liked it.
May 30, 2020
Great potential, but was just really confusing.
December 5, 2022
I hate saying this about the final novel written by my favorite author, but it's just not very interesting or engaging to read.
March 17, 2021
So sad to think "Interlibrary Loan" is the last Gene Wolfe novel, ever. :-(
The concept underlying "Interlibrary Loan" and its companion, "A Borrowed Man," is marvelous, allowing Wolfe to obliquely explore slavery in ways totally decoupled from the feverish 'wokism' currently gripping our nation. (For the library "reclones," i.e., resurrected copies of long dead authors, are slaves in every meaningful sense of the word.) One can't help but reach the conclusion that the library reclones of the future are far more richly human than their "fully human" owners and borrowers.
Ern A. Smithe, the reclone protagonist of "Interlibrary Loan," is Gene Wolfe through and through - a total mensch, but disturbingly unreliable as a narrator. In typical Gene Wolfe fashion, the novel ends right in the middle of crucial action, leaving you, gentle reader, hanging. Those who've not read Wolfe before will find this maddening, and, honestly, it's impossible to tell whether the ending is as Mr. Wolfe intended, or the book was simply unfinished at the time of Mr. Wolfe's passing. I am sure only of one thing: Mr. Wolfe, as he looks down on us from heaven, is delighted by the uncertainty. Regardless, it's classic Gene Wolfe, so just deal with it.
I won't delve into the plot (see the Locus review for that), but it does include elements common to Wolfe's oeuvre - first person (unreliable) narrative voice; an admirable protagonist; a tragic love interest; unsolved (and perhaps unsolvable) mysteries; potent (and in some ways admirable) adversaries; doorways into other realities; exploration of what it means to be (a good) human. In this novel, that last includes confrontation of mortality and the ephemerality of existence, explored via Smithe's encounter with another, older, reclone of himself, and his encounter with another reclone copy of his reclone love. One can't escape the notion that Mr. Wolfe was, in some sense, addressing his own mortality, as his health was on the wane well prior to his passing.
As is the case with Wolfe's other later novels, "Interlibrary Loan" lacks the cinematic scale and scope of his masterwork, "The Book of the New Sun." Plot scale and action are restrained; one could easily imagine "Interlibrary Loan" being performed as a play using just a handful of sets. But, as is the case with any of Wolfe's works, the delight is in the details, in the elliptical plot exposition, and the subtle, almost sly character development. You'll never know any of the characters completely, but you'll develop a deep affection for many of them.
Enjoy "Interlibrary Loan." It's the last of a rare and precious vintage.
The concept underlying "Interlibrary Loan" and its companion, "A Borrowed Man," is marvelous, allowing Wolfe to obliquely explore slavery in ways totally decoupled from the feverish 'wokism' currently gripping our nation. (For the library "reclones," i.e., resurrected copies of long dead authors, are slaves in every meaningful sense of the word.) One can't help but reach the conclusion that the library reclones of the future are far more richly human than their "fully human" owners and borrowers.
Ern A. Smithe, the reclone protagonist of "Interlibrary Loan," is Gene Wolfe through and through - a total mensch, but disturbingly unreliable as a narrator. In typical Gene Wolfe fashion, the novel ends right in the middle of crucial action, leaving you, gentle reader, hanging. Those who've not read Wolfe before will find this maddening, and, honestly, it's impossible to tell whether the ending is as Mr. Wolfe intended, or the book was simply unfinished at the time of Mr. Wolfe's passing. I am sure only of one thing: Mr. Wolfe, as he looks down on us from heaven, is delighted by the uncertainty. Regardless, it's classic Gene Wolfe, so just deal with it.
I won't delve into the plot (see the Locus review for that), but it does include elements common to Wolfe's oeuvre - first person (unreliable) narrative voice; an admirable protagonist; a tragic love interest; unsolved (and perhaps unsolvable) mysteries; potent (and in some ways admirable) adversaries; doorways into other realities; exploration of what it means to be (a good) human. In this novel, that last includes confrontation of mortality and the ephemerality of existence, explored via Smithe's encounter with another, older, reclone of himself, and his encounter with another reclone copy of his reclone love. One can't escape the notion that Mr. Wolfe was, in some sense, addressing his own mortality, as his health was on the wane well prior to his passing.
As is the case with Wolfe's other later novels, "Interlibrary Loan" lacks the cinematic scale and scope of his masterwork, "The Book of the New Sun." Plot scale and action are restrained; one could easily imagine "Interlibrary Loan" being performed as a play using just a handful of sets. But, as is the case with any of Wolfe's works, the delight is in the details, in the elliptical plot exposition, and the subtle, almost sly character development. You'll never know any of the characters completely, but you'll develop a deep affection for many of them.
Enjoy "Interlibrary Loan." It's the last of a rare and precious vintage.
October 12, 2020
Having been an Interlibrary Loan Librarian, of course I wanted to listen to a fantasy book entitled "Interlibrary Loan." I was disappointed. A weird blend of misogynistic noir tropes and literary fiction-as-fact a la Jasper Fforde's Tuesday Next series, only not as good AT ALL. I also did not read the first book in this series, so perhaps that would have changed my perception. However, I now have no desire to read that book.
December 30, 2024
Oh, my heart. Reading the final book by my favorite author as the curtain closes on 2024 was a beautiful and sorrowful experience. This book is a very strange detective story full of doors to other dimensions, cloned and recloned humans, resurrection, and intelligent, haunted houses that can build themselves. It is also a sequel to A Borrowed Man, which bears mentioning.
Thematically and stylistically, this novel has all the hallmarks that Wolfe is known for: a curiosity about death and resurrection, the fallibility of memory, gnostic mysticism, unreliable narrators, tight dialogue riddled with implication like a sea of icebergs, and strange creatures that lurk in shadows. Wolfe’s novels NEVER end at the end—they beg rereading to unspool the mystery. While that is always the case, this particular novel, Wolfe’s last, leaves the reader hanging a bit more than usual.
To witness some of Wolfe’s storytelling power diminishing in his ultimate effort made me sad. This one was like a scattering of ashes, threads of an unfinished knitting dangling in the breeze, and yet…at the core of this story are all the things that were most important to Gene—his identity as an author, the idea of living on borrowed time, the importance of love and loyalty in an unfriendly world.
If you’re a huge fan of Wolfe, know his tricks, and want to witness the swansong of science fiction’s greatest literary genius, then I highly recommend Interlibrary Loan 🖤🐺
Thematically and stylistically, this novel has all the hallmarks that Wolfe is known for: a curiosity about death and resurrection, the fallibility of memory, gnostic mysticism, unreliable narrators, tight dialogue riddled with implication like a sea of icebergs, and strange creatures that lurk in shadows. Wolfe’s novels NEVER end at the end—they beg rereading to unspool the mystery. While that is always the case, this particular novel, Wolfe’s last, leaves the reader hanging a bit more than usual.
To witness some of Wolfe’s storytelling power diminishing in his ultimate effort made me sad. This one was like a scattering of ashes, threads of an unfinished knitting dangling in the breeze, and yet…at the core of this story are all the things that were most important to Gene—his identity as an author, the idea of living on borrowed time, the importance of love and loyalty in an unfriendly world.
If you’re a huge fan of Wolfe, know his tricks, and want to witness the swansong of science fiction’s greatest literary genius, then I highly recommend Interlibrary Loan 🖤🐺
November 10, 2023
By no means his finest but hard for me not to get emotional at the last Gene book. A follow-up to A Borrowed Man that winds up borrowing quite a bit from that book. Our narrator, one of many versions of Ern A Smithe (a mystery writer cloned to serve the library patrons of the future), is summoned from his home in Spice Grove to Polly’s Cove. There are many vintage Gene bits: a giant tree, passing through doors to other worlds, buxom women revived from death, evil (misguided, at least) scientists, the sea, boats, weird monsters in the sea, weird conversations where the narrator asks someone if they’ve figured out the answer yet. He keeps the moral core of the book, the inhumane treatment and condition of the cloned library resources, at a low simmer. Once or twice it’s referred to, but everyone basically assumes these clones can be mutilated or killed for the cost of a library fee.
With all his red herrings, elliptical interpretations, and (possibly) multiple narrators, it gets a bit choppy by the end. Don’t mind at all. Ave atque vale, Gene.
With all his red herrings, elliptical interpretations, and (possibly) multiple narrators, it gets a bit choppy by the end. Don’t mind at all. Ave atque vale, Gene.
March 16, 2023
Ern A. Smithe might go down as one of my all-time favorite narrators. This is a science fiction mystery (sci-fi noir?) novel so I don't want to say too much about it - but the basic premise is that the protagonist "lives" in the future as a reclone of a deceased mystery author. He is the property of a library system where, from time to time, he gets checked out in order to help solve mysteries. Cool premise, great narrative voice and excellently written.
August 19, 2021
4.5
This is my first Gene Wolfe and I'm really confused. I liked it, really, but have sooooo many questions. I'm sure I'll re-read it at some point in the future to try and get some more clarity.
In the mean time - Wolfe can write really gorgeous sentences! Wow. His description of the sea, just wow.
This is my first Gene Wolfe and I'm really confused. I liked it, really, but have sooooo many questions. I'm sure I'll re-read it at some point in the future to try and get some more clarity.
In the mean time - Wolfe can write really gorgeous sentences! Wow. His description of the sea, just wow.
March 8, 2022
who am I to say, but 2/3 of this novel is gripping and then it feels like Wolfe ran out of time.
March 31, 2022
3.5/5
March 8, 2024
Huh. I liked it, but I don’t get it. Like…at all.
April 8, 2021
This was a great concept and the mystery was fantastic. I still have no idea what the ending was all about.
May 15, 2020
Wolfe is an acquired taste and I love many of his books. This one was just too obtuse and non linear for me to follow and enjoy
June 14, 2023
Before passing away Gene Wolfe was working on this book and my impression upon reading it is that he had no time to finish it. Some evident continuity errors that the author would have polished and fixed after another draft and a rather inconclusive ending also seem to corroborate this theory.
However, people responsible for his legacy took the best decision: not to edit and not to finish it. So it is a gift to fans to read the farewell of this remarkable author, some say the greatest of all, unpolished, raw, and effervescent with brilliant ideas.
The plot seems to change and deviate but it is centered around a Treasure our beloved Ernest A. Smithe is looking for in the middle of some assassinations he is investigating. He is adamantly clear to say he is forced to speak like his books although it is not how he speaks in his mind and enjoys the fact he is checked out regularly ( in the future where the book takes place authors are cloned and put in libraries so readers can check out them but if they are not often checked out they are burned to oblivion) just as authors rely on readers to continue to read them to remain alive achieving cultural immortality.
Wolfe talks about the three layers of every story in his Book of The New Sun magnum opus and it has never been so clear as in this book:
The author, who conveys the story and certainly has a specific idea of the story.
The book that contains it
The reader who gives his or her interpretation
So, a book that has been not finished and has been written by an author who always thought highly of his readers, a story that allows readers to fill in the lacunae for themselves is indeed a marvelous gift.
However, people responsible for his legacy took the best decision: not to edit and not to finish it. So it is a gift to fans to read the farewell of this remarkable author, some say the greatest of all, unpolished, raw, and effervescent with brilliant ideas.
The plot seems to change and deviate but it is centered around a Treasure our beloved Ernest A. Smithe is looking for in the middle of some assassinations he is investigating. He is adamantly clear to say he is forced to speak like his books although it is not how he speaks in his mind and enjoys the fact he is checked out regularly ( in the future where the book takes place authors are cloned and put in libraries so readers can check out them but if they are not often checked out they are burned to oblivion) just as authors rely on readers to continue to read them to remain alive achieving cultural immortality.
Wolfe talks about the three layers of every story in his Book of The New Sun magnum opus and it has never been so clear as in this book:
The author, who conveys the story and certainly has a specific idea of the story.
The book that contains it
The reader who gives his or her interpretation
So, a book that has been not finished and has been written by an author who always thought highly of his readers, a story that allows readers to fill in the lacunae for themselves is indeed a marvelous gift.
March 25, 2021
Gene Wolfe's weird take on future libraries:
BM01 A Borrowed Man
BM02 Interlibrary Loan
I liked the first one well enough to read the second one - and it was also well written but they're still not happy, and I still want to rescue them...
BM01 A Borrowed Man
BM02 Interlibrary Loan
I liked the first one well enough to read the second one - and it was also well written but they're still not happy, and I still want to rescue them...
July 15, 2020
Wolfe, Gene. Interlibrary Loan. A Borrowed Man No. 2. Tor, 2020.
Interlibrary Loan, a sequel to A Borrowed Man (2015), is science fiction grandmaster Gene Wolfe’s last novel. It was submitted to the publisher shortly before his death in the spring of 2019. The protagonist of both books is the “reclone” of a century-dead mystery writer, Ern A. Smithe. Not accorded human status, reclones are owned by libraries and serve as resource material for readers interested in their work. They must be “checked out” like library books. They hang around together in the library stacks, sleep on shelves, and occasionally have passionless sex. If they are not checked out enough to pay for their upkeep or break enough library rules, they are “burned,” and that is the end for them. The premise is so sadly Kafkaeque that I wish the book were plotted better. There is a deus-ex-I-don’t-want-to-spoil-it climax to the who-done-it plot that just does not work for me. Nevertheless, both novels are worth reading, flaws and all. 3.5 stars.
Interlibrary Loan, a sequel to A Borrowed Man (2015), is science fiction grandmaster Gene Wolfe’s last novel. It was submitted to the publisher shortly before his death in the spring of 2019. The protagonist of both books is the “reclone” of a century-dead mystery writer, Ern A. Smithe. Not accorded human status, reclones are owned by libraries and serve as resource material for readers interested in their work. They must be “checked out” like library books. They hang around together in the library stacks, sleep on shelves, and occasionally have passionless sex. If they are not checked out enough to pay for their upkeep or break enough library rules, they are “burned,” and that is the end for them. The premise is so sadly Kafkaeque that I wish the book were plotted better. There is a deus-ex-I-don’t-want-to-spoil-it climax to the who-done-it plot that just does not work for me. Nevertheless, both novels are worth reading, flaws and all. 3.5 stars.
October 20, 2020
This is a sequel to A Borrowed Man, a book I enjoyed enough to give four stars. I read somewhere that this novel was still a work in progress at the time of Gene Wolfe's death last year. It definitely doesn't seem finished or polished in his usual manner. There are parts that sound like him, particularly in the beginning, others not as much. If he wasn't finished, it does give insight into his writing process. That's how I'd like to view it.
I wouldn't recommend this except to people who are fans of Gene Wolfe who want to read everything he's written. I've been a fan for years. His work intrigued me when I was a teenager. I've been a reader of fantasy and science fiction ever since.
I wouldn't recommend this except to people who are fans of Gene Wolfe who want to read everything he's written. I've been a fan for years. His work intrigued me when I was a teenager. I've been a reader of fantasy and science fiction ever since.
September 30, 2022
As oblique, if not more, as is prequel. Much has been made of Mr Wolfe's tendency to create puzzle boxes of books, and usually I'm in the mood for that. That said, my favourite works of his also have an enjoyable surface level story, which isn't so much the case in this book. It is clearly unfinished, with little errors in continuity and writing that aren't characteristic. The story sounds around a central theme and truth that is never stated outright, in a way that reminds me of negative space. Reading this felt like trying to reconstruct a sculpture from shards of the mold it was poured out of.
As it turns out, I was in the mood for this, and knowing it's the final work of one of my favourite authors adds bittersweet pendency to its themes, so it worked for me.
As it turns out, I was in the mood for this, and knowing it's the final work of one of my favourite authors adds bittersweet pendency to its themes, so it worked for me.
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July 11, 2021Wolfe is, frustratingly, one of those authors I feel like I need to read within the context of a seminar because I never get what he's doing otherwise.
It doesn't help that this is both a sequel (thanks, book jacket, for mentioning that!) and possibly not finished at the time of the author's death.
But I've read other Wolfe and I would not have assumed either of those things.
And also the premise and set pieces and the whole EVERYTHING is just so interesting and strange that I can't help but assume it was on purpose and the disjointedness reflects the characters as much as the book's circumstances.
It doesn't help that this is both a sequel (thanks, book jacket, for mentioning that!) and possibly not finished at the time of the author's death.
But I've read other Wolfe and I would not have assumed either of those things.
And also the premise and set pieces and the whole EVERYTHING is just so interesting and strange that I can't help but assume it was on purpose and the disjointedness reflects the characters as much as the book's circumstances.
July 29, 2020
If this book had a plot or a point, I would have loved to have seen it. I didn’t realize until after I finished it that it was book two in a series. But still, it rambled and nothing fit together.
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