Quote:
Originally Posted by curtw
If you made it all of the way through the first volume and part of the second, without realizing thatThe Book of the New Sun is science fiction, not fantasy, than you are probably not cut out to read and enjoy Gene Wolfe. His writing demands your attention to be understood, and he is not going to hand out enlightenment like Halloween candy. For most attentive readers, recognizing the photograph of Buzz Aldrin in the Library is the "aha!" moment.
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Wow, Wolfe as a bad writer? The man is phenomenal. I can eat his prose with a spoon. Before the "Book of the New Sun" he was mostly known as a "writer's writer", with a good reputation among other writers but not a lot of public projection. Try "Soldier in the Mist", which is set in ancient Greece, using the amnesia plot device later used in Memento. Or, short stories. Anything. The writing in Shadow is riveting, elegant, eliptical. Sure, there is an aspect of mysogyny to the text, but I can overlook that for something that good.
Edit: OOPS! I see that there is a separate thread for sci-fi authors. Now this comment makes even more sense.