Gene Wolfe's _The Knight_ was my favorite book of last year. I've been looking foward to second half of the story but figured it'd be awhile before it came out. re: the Subject - Switching gears (but staying on-topic), these are the words of a young man who has lipped off to a knight-in-training and received an appropriate physical reprimand for his trouble. Translated, it means "I didn't see a cat". It goes without saying that he also didn't anticipate the butt of a lance to the face, but these aren't cuddly Knights we're dealing with, here. Yes, folks, I was walking through the local Waldenbooks on Saturday looking for a new chapterbook for my son (he's just finished his first book, a book based in the Warcraft universe, and I couldn't be more proud). I was looking for the next Thursday Next book and walked past the new hardcover racks when my eyes went as wide as plates and I performed the patented DoubleTake manuever. I reversed my steps and found myself holding a hardcover copy of Gene Wolfe's _The Wizard_, the second part of the story he began with _The Knight_. I knew it was upcoming but didn't know it was released! http://tinyurl.com/5hb7r "The teenage boy who wandered into another set of realities in Wolfe's The Knight has attained his ambition of knighthood. Now, as Sir Able of the High Heart, he returns in this sequel riding a steed that's not a horse, wielding his magic sword and bound by oath not to use his new otherworldly powers. Such a summary is like saying a spoonful of tap water constitutes the whole of all oceans. Wolfe's words wash over the reader with transparent grace and charming playfulness as he spins his profoundly imaginative, metaphysically complex, yet ever-entertaining tale with astonishing naturalness. In trademark Wolfian fashion, the memory-altered protagonist acts as narrator, telling the truth whenever possible and to the full extent of his own understanding. This second volume satisfactorily supplies many answers to the riddles and allusions of its tantalizing predecessor, but posits new mysteries as well. The novel stands alone and might even be best if read before The Knight, but will surely drive readers to the first as well. The conclusion hints at possible further adventures. Outstanding fantasy these days is often convincingly and compellingly anti-Tolkien, but Wolfe proves one can tell an epic, myth-based story of honor, loyalty, courage and faith relevant to our own dark times. This is fantasy at its best: revelatory and inspirational." I'm just going to sit here and shiver with delight and bemoan the fact that I must work instead of reading this book Right Here and Now. (btw, the SKZB blurb quote from _The Knight_ was carried over for this book, too, as was the Gaiman quote.) -- johne cook | johne.cook at gmail.com | http://www.phywriter.com |