Helpful Score: 2
The Knight - Gene Wolfe
The Wizard - Gene Wolfe
One story, two books.
I expected to LOVE these - I'd really been anticipating reading them.
But - I didn't love them. I tried, but I just didn't.
For one thing, this story uses the exact same gimmick as Wolfe's The Book of the Short Sun trilogy (you are reading book written for an unseen, not-present person). Not only that, I am sorry, but the narrator has the EXACT SAME VOICE as in that other book. It is written as the exact same character, even though superficially, they are supposed to be two very different people. If you've read one of these books, the similiarity will be unavoidable and distracting.
Another distraction is that the main character is an American boy who, wandering in the woods, slips into a complicated hierarchy of seven other worlds altogether. Due to the magic of an Elf-Queen, he is instantly transformed into the shape of an older, big, muscular man.
The shape/age change is used in the book to some degree, mainly for the repeated philosophical observation that most men feel like boys masquerading as men.
But the fact that he is American, or even from our world, is not utilized in the story at all. He forgets most of his life in our world, it hardly ever comes up, and is not essential to the plot in any way. It's just an unnecessary complication. Odd things occur - and it's alomost as if the character just doesn't react - not like an American would react, and really not like the typical inhabitant of the world where he is would react either. It's just sort of odd. And dull.
I hate to say it, but the books are kind of boring. They're slow-moving, and I just didn't feel that Wolfe's usage of classic fantasy elements worked very well. (Not nearly as well as in any of Wolfe's other books that I've read.) His hierarchy-of-worlds had some interesting elements to it, and some of the characters, especially the fire-elf 'sisters' were cool - but I feel it either needed more action or a more-coherent philosophy pulling it all together.
The Wizard - Gene Wolfe
One story, two books.
I expected to LOVE these - I'd really been anticipating reading them.
But - I didn't love them. I tried, but I just didn't.
For one thing, this story uses the exact same gimmick as Wolfe's The Book of the Short Sun trilogy (you are reading book written for an unseen, not-present person). Not only that, I am sorry, but the narrator has the EXACT SAME VOICE as in that other book. It is written as the exact same character, even though superficially, they are supposed to be two very different people. If you've read one of these books, the similiarity will be unavoidable and distracting.
Another distraction is that the main character is an American boy who, wandering in the woods, slips into a complicated hierarchy of seven other worlds altogether. Due to the magic of an Elf-Queen, he is instantly transformed into the shape of an older, big, muscular man.
The shape/age change is used in the book to some degree, mainly for the repeated philosophical observation that most men feel like boys masquerading as men.
But the fact that he is American, or even from our world, is not utilized in the story at all. He forgets most of his life in our world, it hardly ever comes up, and is not essential to the plot in any way. It's just an unnecessary complication. Odd things occur - and it's alomost as if the character just doesn't react - not like an American would react, and really not like the typical inhabitant of the world where he is would react either. It's just sort of odd. And dull.
I hate to say it, but the books are kind of boring. They're slow-moving, and I just didn't feel that Wolfe's usage of classic fantasy elements worked very well. (Not nearly as well as in any of Wolfe's other books that I've read.) His hierarchy-of-worlds had some interesting elements to it, and some of the characters, especially the fire-elf 'sisters' were cool - but I feel it either needed more action or a more-coherent philosophy pulling it all together.
My most common thought while reading this book: "Huh? How did we suddenly get here, and who took out the end of the last scene?" In many places in the book, it felt like a weird dream, where a scene suddenly morphs into another seemingly in the middle of the story. Another thing I found very annoying was not knowing who was talking in conversations where there are more than 2 people; just a bunch of people speaking with rarely anything to indicate who says what. It definitely reduces my enjoyment of a book to have to stop reading and go back through the dialogue trying to figure out which character said what.
Although the mythology was interesting, there was too much repetition as he explains it over and over to various people. Since this was supposed to be a narrative explaining what happened, it should suffice to say something like "And I explained to him about the 7 worlds, our world Mythgarthr and it's relationship to Skai above and Aelfrice below". Or whichever part of the mythology was relevant to that situation.
Many of the characters were so inconsistent as to be baffling. Ironically, the only character I liked was Mani the talking cat, whose personality actually seemed cat-like. I also liked Gylf from the first book and was disappointed at how small a role he played in this one.
I didn't find Able a believable or likable character in this book, which makes it difficult to like the book. The plot simply meanders along and changes often.
Overall, a disappointing sequel to The Knight.
Although the mythology was interesting, there was too much repetition as he explains it over and over to various people. Since this was supposed to be a narrative explaining what happened, it should suffice to say something like "And I explained to him about the 7 worlds, our world Mythgarthr and it's relationship to Skai above and Aelfrice below". Or whichever part of the mythology was relevant to that situation.
Many of the characters were so inconsistent as to be baffling. Ironically, the only character I liked was Mani the talking cat, whose personality actually seemed cat-like. I also liked Gylf from the first book and was disappointed at how small a role he played in this one.
I didn't find Able a believable or likable character in this book, which makes it difficult to like the book. The plot simply meanders along and changes often.
Overall, a disappointing sequel to The Knight.
I did not finish this book. It is too confusing. I could not keep track of who was who.
