Fantasy Aficionados discussion

RIP Gene Wolfe (1931-2019)

I found out last night that author Gene Wolfe had died over the weekend. Wolfe has been considered by many in the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Community to be its greatest writer. Many in that community believed his body of work deserved to be mentioned in the same breath with America’s greatest writers: Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and Toni Morrison. However, Wolfe never received the crossover success like fellow science-fiction and fantasy greats Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S, Lewis or even George R.R. Martin.

Wolfe was a writer’s writer and his ability to use the unreliable narrator and dense prose had been well chronicled throughout his career. I will admit that Gene Wolfe is not my favorite writer, but I have read and reviewed two of his standalone novels, Pirate Freedom and The Land Across for my blog. My plan was to read other standalone works like Peace and The Sorcerer's House to view at his career outside of his magnum opus, The Book of the New Sun. However, I recently bought of The Knight, the first book of The Wizard Knight Duology, his take on epic fantasy because I’m planning to do a deep dive into the fantasy genre for the rest of the year.

Gene Wolfe lived a long and productive life as a writer and I hope his body of work gets more recognition and his legacy as one of America’s greatest writers gets cemented. RIP Gene Wolfe.

Great tribute, Marion.

Nice summary. I never particularly got into Wolfe.

I've actually never tried him.

I haven't either. Whenever he's brought up there's talk of "many layers of meaning" and "unreliable narrator" and I get intimidated.

Beth wrote: "I haven't either. Whenever he's brought up there's talk of "many layers of meaning" and "unreliable narrator" and I get intimidated."

Me, too.

lol

Also, I really hate unreliable narrators and I have since Faulkner.

Thanks Marc.

carol. wrote: "Nice summary. I never particularly got into Wolfe."

Thanks Carol. I'm not a huge Wolfe fan. However, I do find after reading Pirate Freedom and The Land Across he is a much more accessible writer than his reputation had suggested. I'm really enjoying The Knight.

I tried a few of his books once I saw some readers thought him evocative of Jack Vance, one of my favorites. Didn’t work for me.