In comparison to many OSR bloggers, my
Appendix N cred is probably quite low -- I've still never read any Howard, or Leiber, or Moorcock, for example. But next week I'm taking advantage of a loooong series of plane trips to repair one major chink in my fantasy/sci-fi literature armor: I'm bringing all 4 books of Gene Wolfe's
Book of the New Sun with me on a business trip to Australia. I've heard great things about Wolfe, and about this series in particular.
Heck, it's been called "Science fiction's
Ulysses," which is good enough for me. :-)
In my travels, I often try to read books that are related to my destination. I loved
Nadja in Paris, and
The Name of the Rose in northern Italy. But it doesn't always work out...
The Fountainhead was my companion in Kyoto, and the cognitive dissonance wasn't
too crazy. We'll see the result of having Gene Wolfe at my side in Melbourne!
FYI, I'm now back from Down Under. I'm still digesting these books, but I've just got one preliminary thing to say:
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who has read these books in the time since The Princess Bride was made into a movie: Could it be possible to avoid the impulse to visualize Baldanders as Andre the Giant's Fezzik (and, to a lesser extent, Doctor Talos as Wallace Shawn's Vizzini)? Once these associations pop into your head, it seems, um, inconceivable to see them otherwise! :-)
Just finished the 4th book. Wow -- I wonder if anyone else's mind was blown when the word "Yesod" appeared. (That can't be a spoiler...)
ReplyDeleteI picked up the one-off sequel Urth of the New Sun and am looking forward to it, but I'm not sure if I'll keep going through the Long Sun and Short Sun series...