#gene wolf

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

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[gamesthatdontexist]

Art by @rinth444. An interpretation of 20 characters from the first four books in The Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolf. Done in the style of a 90s CRPG.

[jessebyron]

2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Big annual reading wrap up post!!! Here's my 2023 in reading:

I’ve attempted reading 50 books a few times since graduating college, but this year was the first time it actually stuck. In fact, I actually completed 53 titles! Since this is a tad longer than my previous wrap up posts, I’ll have the full list at the end up of this after some commentary.

Here’s some of the most impactful titles from 2023:

The first book I read this year gets a special mention. I read a good handful of sequential fiction this year, but Seance Tea Party was the most impactful. It might be the most impactful growing up story I’ve ever read.

Kings of Wyld: I think this is the most fun I’ve had with ‘high’ fantasy in a long time. A classic fantasy adventure delivered via the thinnest metaphor for an 80s hair metal band that ends up being one of the most heartfelt meditations on family, aging, legacy, and fatherhood that you’ll ever come across. Dirty, crass, hilarious, violent, and beautiful.

Veniss Underground: Yet another masterful fever dream from the man that, for me personally, defines the concepts of weird and experimental. Predating Vandermeer’s Annihilation, Veniss Underground is consuming exploration of story and form and while pushing us to the very edges of what makes a novel and what makes a person.

Hyperion: As anyone who knows me knows, I am a slut for stories about stories. I think this book was one of the smartest written science fiction books in my library. To read Hyperion is to begin exploring a few particular trailheads leading into literature, technology, conflict, and the human condition. I’ll definitely be exploring the rest of the Cantos in the years to come. (Be careful researching Simmons himself though. You will be disappointed.)

Shadow of the Torturer & The Claw of the Conciliator (the first two volumes of Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun): This was the most intellectually challenging of the things I read this year. It’s the first time I read something and then immediately watched multiple YouTube video essays just to grasp fully grasp. But, like a lot of the more challenging texts this year, it is so worth it. Will have to come back to these many times.

The Left Hand of Darkness: beautiful and challenging and enriching as well, this will also take multiple readings to begin to grok it.

The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction: necessary for any Neil Gaiman fan to read. It was awesome diving into how Neil sees the world, the stories he’s encountered, the experiences he’s had, and the insane amount interesting famous people he’s friends with.

The Fragile Threads of Power: less impactful and more just plain ol’ exciting, this was a brilliant return to world first introduced by Schwab’s Darker Shades.

Nostalgia Reads:

So You Want to be a Wizard: maybe the best alternative to Harry Potter. Beautiful and consistent world building that makes sense with stories and characters that invite us to explore who we are in the context of the greater world (and worlds!) around us. Reading the Young Wizards series in elementary school had a deep effect on me that still resonates to this day.

City of Bones: held up surprisingly well? Fun mythology and delightfully angsty characters.

A Wizard of Earthsea: hadn’t read this since senior year when I bought it with the money I won in a micro fiction writing contest, and it was so wonderful to revisit the archipelago.

The Collobaration: a powerful play that now contains one of my dream roles.

Certainly not the first time I’ve consumed The Sandman epic, but the audible versions were exquisite and brought the story to mw in a whole new way. Same thing with full cast audio version American Gods.

Most disturbing: Amygdalatropolis. Don’t read this. No, I’m serious. Not reading this book is an act of self care. You’ll only hurt your own feelings (and body and brain) if you read this book.

Second most disturbing: Tender is the Flesh. Reading this one is also harmful, but you should it.

Most disappointing: Paradise-1 by David Wellington. An interesting premise with a couple of fun bits of world building, it was ultimately defeated by a lack of internal unity and subpar editing.

The full list:

1. *Seance Tea Party by Reimina Yee

2. *Crushed by Don Zolidis

3. *Wiley and the Hairy Man by Susan Zeder

4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (full cast audiobook)

5. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

6. *The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty

7. *Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

8. *The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

9. *Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

10. *Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

11. *Paradise-1 by David Wellington

12. The Sandman: Act 1 (audible original)

13. The Homecoming by Harold Pinter

14. *Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer

15. *Hyperion by Dan Simmons

16. *The Stranger by Albert Camus

17. *Treasure Island: The Adventures of Jim Hawkins adapted by James DeVita

18. The Sandman: Act 1 (audible original)

19. The Sandman: Act 2 (audible original)

20. The Sandman: Act 3 (audible original)

21. *Hellblazer: Rise + Fall by Taylor, Robertson, and Rodriguez

22. *Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 1: The Tarantula by Matt Wagner, Guy Favis, and John Costanza

23. The Supernaturalist: The Graphic Novel

24. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

25. *Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

26. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

27. *Amygdalatropolis by B. R. Yeager

28. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan*Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McQuire

29. *Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McQuire

30. *Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McQuire

31. *Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

32. *The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman

33. *Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

34. *Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

35. *Peter Pan adapted by Douglas Irvine

36. Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

37. So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane

38. *Tender is the Flesh by Augustine Bazterrica

39. *The Collaboration by Anthony McCarten

40. *The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

41. *The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

42. *Catch Me if You Can by Robert Thomas, adapted by Weinstock and Gilbert

43. City of Bones by Cassandra Claire

44. Jennifer scales and the ancient furnace by Mary Janice Davidson

45. *Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels

46. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

47. *Bunny by Mona Awad

48. *Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

49. *Goblin Market and other Poems by Christina Rosetti

50. The Sandman: Endless Nights

51. *Dada Woof Papa Hot by Peter Parnell

52. *The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord by Scott Carter

53. *The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm by Christopher Paolini

Addendum for business: I will no longer be posting on the other three blogs (food, books, and tv/film) related) as it's too much for me to have it all divided up. This will now be my main/only blog

[room-temperature-meatbag]

This weekend I set out to finish the last ~200 pages of Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney (1979)...and I succeeded! Got home on Friday around 1500 and read until I fell asleep, then woke up around 0530 on Saturday and didn't stop reading until I was done.

I'm still unpacking a lot of it since there's a whole lot going on, but I very much enjoyed it. It's in a 3-way tie with Moby Dick by Herman Melville and Piranesi by b Susannah Clarke for Best Book I've Ever Read.

One thing that really stood out was the focus on how easy it is to end up so tangled up by other peoples' narratives to the point that you end up feeling like you live in multiple realities at once. It really dovetails with thoughts I've been having lately about how much of who we are as "individuals" comes from us accepting or rejecting the perception of others. The feeling of realizing you're being forced into a role in society's narrative against your will is all too familiar.

I also respect the way Dhalgren's story doesn't just avoid easy answers but constantly burns bridges to sense. I could almost imagine Delaney chuckling as he found ways to answer a reader's questions in a way that only left more questions. I do feel like I came away finally understanding what people mean when they discuss postmodern literature.

Next up is Beloved by Toni Morrison, then Book of The New Sun by Gene Wolf, and after that I'll probably read Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delaney, or maybe The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera.

[torpublishinggroup]

TOR WRAPPED 2023

Books for every Spotify Wrapped listener class! 

VAMPIRE

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Mordew by Alex Pheby

HYPNOTIST

The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow

ALCHEMIST

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

SHAPESHIFTER

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Warden by Daniel M. Ford

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

FANATIC

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

TIME TRAVELER

Kinning by Nisi Shawl

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

MASTERMIND

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow

Exadelic by Jon Evans

COLLECTOR

The Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe

Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

[lig-tu]

FNAF SB X KISS 

heh, boobs. 

[ohotnig]

SKETCHBOOK OF FULIGIN is live! ohotnig.itch.io/fuligin ohotnig.gumroad.com/l/fuligin Here's something nice for you, especially if you're a Gene Wolfe fan: brand new digital fanzine, containing 44 pages of my Book of the New Sun-inspired drawings (originally done as personal sketchbook project for one of my most committed patrons). This little book could also be considered an unofficial companion piece for Book of Fuligin (www.kickstarter.com/projects/715611068/book-of-fuligin-honoring-the-legacy-of-gene-wolfe)

You can grab it for free (as usual) or get an extended edition for $3+ donation! Cheers!

[lil-tachyon]

"I have seen the eyes of many of these creatures that are supposed to have come from beyond the margin of the world ... but their eyes are the eyes of beasts only. The red orbs of the alzabo were something more, holding neither the intelligence of humankind nor the innocence of the brutes" - Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor

Oldie from nearly two years ago done for The Book of Fuligin.

[slowthinkingreader]

Also I'm crossposting these Japanese variant covers of the first four books by Yoshitaka Amano— before I forget to talk about them on here. Struggling to think of an artist whose aesthetics are better suited to these books!

[retroscifiart]

Bruce Pennington for The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe, 1980)

[laz-kay]

“You guys can breathe in there, right? I don’t want to be the mom who suffocated her kids in a giant snail” 🎃🍫👻

The Belcher kids and their Halloween costumes 2012-2022

[teratocrat]

His grip on my shoulder tightened. "We have books here bound in the hides of echidnas, krakens, and beasts so long extinct that those whose studies they are, are for the most part of the opinion that no trace of them survives unfossilized. We have books bound wholly in metals of unknown alloy, and books whose bindings are covered with thickset gems. We have books cased in perfumed woods shipped across the inconceivable gulf between creations - books doubly precious because no one on Urth can read them. "We have books whose papers are matted of plants from which spring curious alkaloids, so that the reader, in turning their pages, is taken unaware by bizarre fantasies and chimeric dreams. Books whose pages are not paper at all, but delicate wafers of white jade, ivory, and shell; books too whose leaves are the desiccated leaves of unknown plants. Books we have also that are not books at all to the eye: scrolls and tablets and recordings on a hundred different substances. There is a cube of crystal here - though I can no longer tell you where - no larger than the ball of your thumb that contains more books than the library itself does. Though a harlot might dangle it from one ear for an ornament, there are not volumes enough in the world to counterweight the other. All these I came to know, and I made safeguarding them my life's devotion."

Gene Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer (1980)

[villainanders]

Oh my god you hate the pop culture references and humor in the locked tomb?? You think it’s stupid and memey? Should we throw a party? Should we invite Gene Wolf?

[snartha]

I can't believe Severian really says this to Master Ultan. Like imagine if you went to the Oxford University library and asked them where all the Dungeons & Dragons books are. Incredible

[room-temperature-meatbag]

Looks like I'm going to have to learn some Thieve's Cant for Book of the Long Sun, by Gene Wolfe.

I also already created a document to keep track of character names, as well as the names, dominions, and parentage of any deities mentioned.

[ewingstan]

I brought it up as a joke, but now I can't stop noticing similarities between Victoria Dallon and Severian the Torturer from Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. You've got:

Protagonist raised from birth to be a Deliverer of Justice as a matter of both profession and community

Backed their way somewhat accidentally into an immensely powerful position

Continual references to the memory of a now-dead lover they've put on a pedestal, with occasional jarring glimpses given of darker parts of their relationship that they seem determined not to acknowledge afterwards

Self-conceptualizes as being obedient while also casually breaking promises and oaths all the time

Would be a category error to refer to as a singular entity, having another consciousness tied to a traumatic event always present in the back of their head

Ship-of-Theseus'd body

Has a close friend with a largely inorganic body

Friendgroup in general tends to have strained relationships with "continuity of self"

Enemies include giant scheming monsters, armies of enthralled servants, and a scarcity of resources that comes from living in world that's undergone fantastical catastrophies

Purposefully framed as being cruel and disproportionate in pursuing justice, despite giving long explanations for why their actions are actually necessary,

And sometimes framed as not believing in the righteousness of their own actions, instead behaving out of an inability to imagine another way society could function,

But occasionally framed as if their actions, while cruel, really are necessary in a way that makes you worry about the author's worldview.