The book of the short sun
On blue's waters, in green's jungles, return to the whorl
by Gene Wolfe · first published 2001
75% recommend25% critical
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Gene Wolfe. The whole Solar Cycle (The Book of the New Sun, Urth of The New Sun, The Book of The Long Sun, The Book of The Short Sun), Fifth Head of Cerberus, Peace, There Are Doors, The Sorcerer's House ... . Wolfe is a genius. Before that I also finished Malazan.
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗…New Sun. I've already read it 6-ish times, with a different interpretation every time, and I have every reason to believe that would continue indefinitely. I would say The Book of the Long Sun and The Book of the Short Sun, since I like them better, but there's no way to justify calling them one book when, even in fiction, they're 2 different books. > (Feel free to substitute “the next 10 years“ for “the rest of your life“.)…
on “Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?” ↗The Book of the Short Sun takes unreliable narrators to 11
on “The King in Yellow” ↗…completely figured out. Not to mention some cringeworthy stylistic choices and concerns of the late books, like putting the speech of characters on a distant planet into 20th-century ethnic stereotypes (The Book of the Short Sun) or old-man rants about modern society (Pirate Freedom). As someone who got into Wolfe through the early books and then voraciously read everything he wrote after that, the gradual disappointment was…
on “Ends of the Urth” ↗