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