Dragaera

New Gene Wolfe Novel

Wed Jan 14 06:22:30 PST 2004

On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 07:42:18AM -0600, Lawrence Jenab wrote:

> Has anyone read it?  I generally can't afford hardbacks, but when GW is on
> his game, other considerations fall by the wayside.

I just completed it last night.  As is usual with me and a Wolfe novel,
I'll begin my second reading shortly.  My first-pass impression --

Wolfe writes what is, on the surface, one of his most accessible novels.
The plot is relatively straitforward, the story perks along nicely, and
the book has interesting people, milieu, and plot.  It can simply be
read as a good novel of a boy who prematurely becomes a man and is
thrust into knight-errantry.

The book is highly episodic, and has a surface simplicity that combine
to make it very attractive just as story.  As I was reading it, I was
wishing my children were 8 and 10 again so I could read it to them
(with occasional Bowdlerization).

But this is a Gene Wolfe novel.  I won't attempt to dive below the
surface (yet) for two reasons.  First, Wolfe is treading some mythic
ground that I'm not that deeply familiar with.  There are underlying
tensions and history that are probably better understood with a deeper
knowledge of the milieu he uses, and that's going to take some work.
Second, this is just the first half of a two-book story.  The episodes
do tie together, but by the end of the book I had only vague notions
of where the rest of the story was going.  The Arthurian legend is
in there, as are a hatful of Norse and Fairie threads.  Is the Grail
Quest in there?  Maybe.  What role will Able (the central character)
play in the Arthurian story?  Too early to tell.

And there were a few things that jarred.  Wolfe is one of my favorite
prosesmiths, and he works here in a voice and style that's highly
appropriate for the story being told and the narrator.  But... the
occasional use of modern American slang is quite jarring when it happens,
as Able is otherwise speaking the vernacular of the place he's in.  It
just doesn't fit with the rest of his dialog and tale-telling.

And there are several passages where we have abrupt change in the
flow of the story.  It's a fairly common Wolfean thing; but it doesn't
match the naively simple storytelling that Wolfe gives us from Able.
But at this point I'm giving Wolfe the benefit of the doubt; it's
clear that Things Are Happening Behind The Scenes and these may
ultimately explain those lapses.  They were nonetheless jarring,
and just don't jibe with Ables otherwise straitforward narrative.

Nonetheless I enjoyed it, will reread it soon, and am looking
forward to 'The Wizard.'

Steve Simmons
-- 
   "I try not to sound old and cynical, but it's hard to do that when
you're old and cynical."
   -me