I was lucky enough to know Gene a little, and to serve as a World Fantasy Award judge the year we awarded him the Best Novel award for Soldier of Sidon (which was not my favorite of his books--I loved Shadow and the rest of the New Sun books).
I agree wholly with the choice of The Fifth Head of Cerberus as the best introduction to Wolfe -- perhaps because reading the title novella, first in the book, was MY introduction to him, when it was reprinted in Nebula Award Stories 8 (the first Nebula anthology that I read, during my "Golden Age" (when I was 12 or 13, that is.) (I have a copy of the first edition of The Fifth Head of Cerberus inscribed by Wolfe to the well-known SF editor Jim Turner.)
And of course the short stories -- especially the novellas -- are great. Besides the ones you mention I'd add "Forlesen", "La Befana", "The Ziggurat", "Empires of Foliage and Flower", and, for sheer fun, "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion".
As a (mostly lapsed) Catholic I appreciate Wolfe's weird Catholicism, and it reminds me of other Catholic converts whose work I admire -- Chesterton, Greene, Waugh, and Spark. (Not so much Tolkien, though he too is a Catholic convert.)
I think "Forslesen" may be Wolfe's single best novella. The only competition in my mind is the first of the "Fifth Head" novellas and "Seven American Nights". And it's close! But God is it brilliant.
I neglected this advice and read Book of the New Sun as my first Wolfe last year, without a super deep base in sci-fi. I loved it and think it's one of the best books of all time, even though I know I missed a ton. I'm not really in to puzzle-box narratives (I'm too gullible) but I want to reassure the commenters that you don't have to be super smart or a canon-hawk to enjoy these books. Thanks for the post - I can't wait to read more Wolfe!
BOTNS was my first too and I agree with all that. But I've had some well read friends bounce off it, and enjoy Wolfe when they retry with a shorter work so I like to suggest those. If one is up for a long, complex SFF series though they can certainly give right in to BOTNS
I've read the first book in BotNS and was impressed by it as an achievement of style and setting, but there's one thing about the series that makes me hesitant to go further: the hero is a guy who tortures people for a living. It leads me to wonder why Wolfe chose such a repugnant profession for his protagonist. Was he trying to make a point about people who do jobs that are disgusting yet are considered socially necessary? Is there a moral arc to the whole thing, where Severian renounces torture and resolves to live a better life? (Yes, I know he gets expelled from the guild for showing mercy; does Wolfe build on that?) At any rate I'm not sure I want to spend 4 volumes with a guy like that.
I would say redemption is a major theme in the series. But Wolfe is approaching it in the "weird Catholic" way, and the events that occur don't seem to add up to anything until suddenly they do. Wolfe is also interested in ideas like obedience and autonomy - is it good to be obedient? when? to whom? - which complicate the idea of redemption, since Severian never really seems to know for what he needs to be redeemed. It is relevant that the profession is torturer because it raises the stakes by creating a bigger gulf between Severian's morality and his society (which allows for his profession but hates and fears it) and the reader (who is repulsed by a systematized torturers' guild).
Ok fine! I will read Gene Wolfe! My Substack algorithm has been trying to get me to read Wolfe for a year now. I’m convinced. The Fifth Head of Cerberus sounds intriguing. The only problem is I never see his books secondhand. Gene Wolfe fans keep a tight grip on their collections.
I was lucky enough to grab a copy of the first two-volume omnibus of the BOTNS at a library sale for $0.50. I was so flabbergasted at my luck I immediately went to Alibris and bought the other one, fairly cheap but not THAT cheap, so I would have them ready to read. And now they sit, in my attic, amongst literally thousands of other books, and I have not read them. Strangely though Hyperion suddenly became important to read, so at least there is that.
I recommend the anthology "The Best of Gene Wolfe," which includes a bunch of his best short and long stories, including the original novella "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," from which Wolfe fashioned a 3-headed novel.
Hi there! I”m so glad you wrote this. I’ve had the most extraordinary introduction to Gene Wolfe— I produced his first audiobook editions, when I worked for Audible, decades after the original editions appeared— the SOLE REASON being, because the fans never gave up.
His estate’s longtime agent, the “sin qua non” of SFF agencies, the Virginia Kidd Agency in historic Milford, PA, asked me if I’d like to help Gene’s heirs revive his work on audio.
Why not? It was SO FUN to learn why he was such a big deal.
And we got to create new cover art, which we agonized over —. I hope you like it! [ https://amzn.to/4bkYtQo] .
From the moment they hit the shelves, people went nuts. There has been NO forgetting of Gene Wolfe!
As one of the Wolfe fans who popped up to say why Peace was SFF: thank you! What a great essay! A few random points:
• I think while Peace is SFF for the reason in footnote 3, that's not the entirety of it. First of all, while its setting is mainstream, it is, as you note, made of nested stories, and many of *those stories* are SFF. And secondly, even a reasonably attentive first reading should note (I'll rot13 this to avoid spoilers) Ubj perrcl vg vf, naq ubj znal zheqref ner gbhpurq ba. V'ir arire orra pyrne ubj znal crbcyr Nyna Qraavf Jrre xvyyrq, naq ur zvtug abg unir xvyyrq nal, ohg gur vzcyvpngvbaf chg vg pybfr gb ubeebe, va zl ivrj. How anyone could read it as a light, charming midwest mainstream novel (as, in one edition, Neil Gaiman says in an afterward that he did) is somewhat beyond me.
• Soldier of the Mist might also be a good entry-point for non-SF readers. It has real Gods running around (not a spoiler, it's mentioned in the forward)... but that can be understood as simply historical fiction in the beliefs of the day (people believed in those Gods!), and otherwise it's pretty much realist historical fiction. (Peace is probably the greater work, though, much as I loved Soldier.)
• Another good short story collection is his Best of Gene Wolfe. It has a huge overlap with Islands of Doctor Death And Other Stories And Other Stories, but it adds a bunch of his best stories (Forlesen for one), and drops a few of the weaker ones... as well as, to be sure, some of his best ones (Alien Stones is superb and is dropped). Also, as a bonus, it has the first third of Fifth Head, i.e. the novella version. I often tell people to start with BoGW, and then if they like the novella divert off and read the other two before going back and reading the rest of the stories.
• Finally, on the topic of literarily sophisticated SFF writers, I have to mention two others who I think will appeal to SF fans. First, John Crowley, more of a fantasist than SF writer, but at his best he's as good as Wolfe at his best is. His most famous novel is his fantasy Little, Big, but equally good are his brief, early SF work Engine Summer, his tetralogy of fantasy (but borderline, like Peace in that one sense) with the overall title of Aegypt, and his fantasy novel Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruins of Ymr. You could write a whole post about Crowley recommending him to literature readers along the lines of this one. (Heck, one of his biggest boosters was Harold Bloom—can't get more canonical than that!)
Second, as a recent writer who scratches something like the Wolfe itch (but in a very, very different way) I would heartily recommend Ada Palmer—who, NOT coincidentally, wrote the introductions for the most recent printing of the Book of the New Sun. But her tetralogy is like Wolfe's in a number of ways: mad, unreliable narrator; richly detailed future; gorgeous although often archaic prose; very interested in theology; about rulership; has space-faring but mostly off to the side; like Wolfe a bit of a specialized taste, if only because she's so complex; etc. At the same time, though, the feel is totally different and so is the flow of the works. Still, she is perhaps the SF writer now alive & working (Crowley is alive but retired) who is most worthy to stand beside Wolfe for sheer quality.
You weren't the only one! But you're totally right of course. I was just used to reading Wolfe books that were overflowing with clones, robots, AI Gods, generation ships, eldritch cults, bioengineering, etc. so was surprised that Peace was so so much more grounded in "reality."
Thank you for the recs too. I've been meaning to read Little Big for forever (indeed, since I read Bloom's book in college!). Maybe this is the year I get to it.
And I think I felt Peace's SF-ness strongly because I was told it was "Wolfe's mainstream novel" and went in and it was.... so *weird*. So my expectations were also bent, but in the other direction.
I honestly knew almost nothing about it. A friend (who reads mostly very weird fiction) said it was good and about "an old guy in the midwest." I read an ebook version, since I was flying, so I didn't even read the back cover blurb.
I predict you'll love Little, Big. One warning that is (probably) unnecessary for you, but in case anyone else peeks in: it was written for a different attentional age. It's brilliant, but stately. It takes its time. But oh my God is it brilliant....
My recommendation is not so much a where to start but a how to start. I've seen people recommend consulting companion guides as you read, but I think trying to figure out the puzzle as you go is more rewarding. He has a detective novelist's knack for handing you answers without you noticing.
My feeling is to just dive in and if you are left wondering about something, look it up. (But then dive back in. Don't spend too long on the theories. Unless that's your bag, of course.)
Doing the lord’s work right here. Wolfe is the GOAT. I wish more publishers would develop writers like how Wolfe was. Just let them be them. Alas, that is a whole different conversation.
Incredible prose and wonderful descriptions but very haphazard in his storytelling. I loved the first books of the new sun but I can't remember if I finished them or finally gave up and read a summary of the last one. I remember the first one being absolutely stunning in places but strangely emo, gothic, bleak, and mystifying.
Maybe you can trigger the Gene Wolfe resurgence if you turn all the cool catholic converts onto him, since he was also a weirdo Catholic convert. There's a great interview with him about Soldier of The Mist in the context of his Catholic conversion where he says he believes the Pagan gods were real, and wrote the book in an attempt to take them seriously in a way no one did previously, at least in the modern age. (The interviewer suggests the gods may have been actual fallen angels, which Wolfe does not dispute.) Soldier of The Mist was the first Wolfe I ever read, and still by far my favorite. Can't wait to read Peace now.
I’m curious to see how Nolan will handle the gods in his film adaptation of the Odyssey. Troy, the 2004 Brad Pitt movie about the Trojan War, removed them altogether, yet their presence is suffused throughout Homer’s poems. I loved how Wolfe also made them omnipresent through Latro’s experiences, even though it's possible for the sceptic to read his account as merely the imaginings of a brain damaged soldier. I hope Nolan has the guts to include the gods! .
I got to read an absurd amount of Wolfe's work while researching this essay, and it was absolutely time well-spent. The Island of Doctor Death... is one of the best collections I've ever read, full stop.
I also need to check out Soldier in the Mist. This reminds me that I read the first two Long Sun novels about nine years ago and haven't finished that series; might be time to do so this year.
Gene!! This is the newsletter content I am here for.
I was lucky enough to know Gene a little, and to serve as a World Fantasy Award judge the year we awarded him the Best Novel award for Soldier of Sidon (which was not my favorite of his books--I loved Shadow and the rest of the New Sun books).
I agree wholly with the choice of The Fifth Head of Cerberus as the best introduction to Wolfe -- perhaps because reading the title novella, first in the book, was MY introduction to him, when it was reprinted in Nebula Award Stories 8 (the first Nebula anthology that I read, during my "Golden Age" (when I was 12 or 13, that is.) (I have a copy of the first edition of The Fifth Head of Cerberus inscribed by Wolfe to the well-known SF editor Jim Turner.)
I think the idea of starting with Peace for non-genre readers is a good one too. I reread Peace a couple of years ago (and wrote about it: https://rrhorton.blogspot.com/2024/08/review-peace-by-gene-wolfe.html)
And of course the short stories -- especially the novellas -- are great. Besides the ones you mention I'd add "Forlesen", "La Befana", "The Ziggurat", "Empires of Foliage and Flower", and, for sheer fun, "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion".
As a (mostly lapsed) Catholic I appreciate Wolfe's weird Catholicism, and it reminds me of other Catholic converts whose work I admire -- Chesterton, Greene, Waugh, and Spark. (Not so much Tolkien, though he too is a Catholic convert.)
I think "Forslesen" may be Wolfe's single best novella. The only competition in my mind is the first of the "Fifth Head" novellas and "Seven American Nights". And it's close! But God is it brilliant.
I should return to the stories. I haven't read them in a long time. Thanks for those recs too!
I neglected this advice and read Book of the New Sun as my first Wolfe last year, without a super deep base in sci-fi. I loved it and think it's one of the best books of all time, even though I know I missed a ton. I'm not really in to puzzle-box narratives (I'm too gullible) but I want to reassure the commenters that you don't have to be super smart or a canon-hawk to enjoy these books. Thanks for the post - I can't wait to read more Wolfe!
BOTNS was my first too and I agree with all that. But I've had some well read friends bounce off it, and enjoy Wolfe when they retry with a shorter work so I like to suggest those. If one is up for a long, complex SFF series though they can certainly give right in to BOTNS
I've read the first book in BotNS and was impressed by it as an achievement of style and setting, but there's one thing about the series that makes me hesitant to go further: the hero is a guy who tortures people for a living. It leads me to wonder why Wolfe chose such a repugnant profession for his protagonist. Was he trying to make a point about people who do jobs that are disgusting yet are considered socially necessary? Is there a moral arc to the whole thing, where Severian renounces torture and resolves to live a better life? (Yes, I know he gets expelled from the guild for showing mercy; does Wolfe build on that?) At any rate I'm not sure I want to spend 4 volumes with a guy like that.
I would say redemption is a major theme in the series. But Wolfe is approaching it in the "weird Catholic" way, and the events that occur don't seem to add up to anything until suddenly they do. Wolfe is also interested in ideas like obedience and autonomy - is it good to be obedient? when? to whom? - which complicate the idea of redemption, since Severian never really seems to know for what he needs to be redeemed. It is relevant that the profession is torturer because it raises the stakes by creating a bigger gulf between Severian's morality and his society (which allows for his profession but hates and fears it) and the reader (who is repulsed by a systematized torturers' guild).
Ok fine! I will read Gene Wolfe! My Substack algorithm has been trying to get me to read Wolfe for a year now. I’m convinced. The Fifth Head of Cerberus sounds intriguing. The only problem is I never see his books secondhand. Gene Wolfe fans keep a tight grip on their collections.
I have a feeling you'd love him!
I was lucky enough to grab a copy of the first two-volume omnibus of the BOTNS at a library sale for $0.50. I was so flabbergasted at my luck I immediately went to Alibris and bought the other one, fairly cheap but not THAT cheap, so I would have them ready to read. And now they sit, in my attic, amongst literally thousands of other books, and I have not read them. Strangely though Hyperion suddenly became important to read, so at least there is that.
I recommend the anthology "The Best of Gene Wolfe," which includes a bunch of his best short and long stories, including the original novella "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," from which Wolfe fashioned a 3-headed novel.
He was a remarkably diverse writer whose writings covered many subgenres and essential themes within the universe of speculative fiction.
He really could do it all!
His playing around with the dubious boundary between fact and fiction has made him a major influence on my own fiction writing.
If you two fellows are both fans, I obviously need to check him out.
He’s worth it. But do the short stories before you try doing the longer novel works.
Good suggestion, thanks! I was just about to take the plunge on a giant novel series. It’s clearly great but yeah, I’m not ready for a giant series.
Hi there! I”m so glad you wrote this. I’ve had the most extraordinary introduction to Gene Wolfe— I produced his first audiobook editions, when I worked for Audible, decades after the original editions appeared— the SOLE REASON being, because the fans never gave up.
His estate’s longtime agent, the “sin qua non” of SFF agencies, the Virginia Kidd Agency in historic Milford, PA, asked me if I’d like to help Gene’s heirs revive his work on audio.
Why not? It was SO FUN to learn why he was such a big deal.
And we got to create new cover art, which we agonized over —. I hope you like it! [ https://amzn.to/4bkYtQo] .
From the moment they hit the shelves, people went nuts. There has been NO forgetting of Gene Wolfe!
As one of the Wolfe fans who popped up to say why Peace was SFF: thank you! What a great essay! A few random points:
• I think while Peace is SFF for the reason in footnote 3, that's not the entirety of it. First of all, while its setting is mainstream, it is, as you note, made of nested stories, and many of *those stories* are SFF. And secondly, even a reasonably attentive first reading should note (I'll rot13 this to avoid spoilers) Ubj perrcl vg vf, naq ubj znal zheqref ner gbhpurq ba. V'ir arire orra pyrne ubj znal crbcyr Nyna Qraavf Jrre xvyyrq, naq ur zvtug abg unir xvyyrq nal, ohg gur vzcyvpngvbaf chg vg pybfr gb ubeebe, va zl ivrj. How anyone could read it as a light, charming midwest mainstream novel (as, in one edition, Neil Gaiman says in an afterward that he did) is somewhat beyond me.
• Soldier of the Mist might also be a good entry-point for non-SF readers. It has real Gods running around (not a spoiler, it's mentioned in the forward)... but that can be understood as simply historical fiction in the beliefs of the day (people believed in those Gods!), and otherwise it's pretty much realist historical fiction. (Peace is probably the greater work, though, much as I loved Soldier.)
• Another good short story collection is his Best of Gene Wolfe. It has a huge overlap with Islands of Doctor Death And Other Stories And Other Stories, but it adds a bunch of his best stories (Forlesen for one), and drops a few of the weaker ones... as well as, to be sure, some of his best ones (Alien Stones is superb and is dropped). Also, as a bonus, it has the first third of Fifth Head, i.e. the novella version. I often tell people to start with BoGW, and then if they like the novella divert off and read the other two before going back and reading the rest of the stories.
• Finally, on the topic of literarily sophisticated SFF writers, I have to mention two others who I think will appeal to SF fans. First, John Crowley, more of a fantasist than SF writer, but at his best he's as good as Wolfe at his best is. His most famous novel is his fantasy Little, Big, but equally good are his brief, early SF work Engine Summer, his tetralogy of fantasy (but borderline, like Peace in that one sense) with the overall title of Aegypt, and his fantasy novel Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruins of Ymr. You could write a whole post about Crowley recommending him to literature readers along the lines of this one. (Heck, one of his biggest boosters was Harold Bloom—can't get more canonical than that!)
Second, as a recent writer who scratches something like the Wolfe itch (but in a very, very different way) I would heartily recommend Ada Palmer—who, NOT coincidentally, wrote the introductions for the most recent printing of the Book of the New Sun. But her tetralogy is like Wolfe's in a number of ways: mad, unreliable narrator; richly detailed future; gorgeous although often archaic prose; very interested in theology; about rulership; has space-faring but mostly off to the side; like Wolfe a bit of a specialized taste, if only because she's so complex; etc. At the same time, though, the feel is totally different and so is the flow of the works. Still, she is perhaps the SF writer now alive & working (Crowley is alive but retired) who is most worthy to stand beside Wolfe for sheer quality.
You weren't the only one! But you're totally right of course. I was just used to reading Wolfe books that were overflowing with clones, robots, AI Gods, generation ships, eldritch cults, bioengineering, etc. so was surprised that Peace was so so much more grounded in "reality."
Thank you for the recs too. I've been meaning to read Little Big for forever (indeed, since I read Bloom's book in college!). Maybe this is the year I get to it.
And I think I felt Peace's SF-ness strongly because I was told it was "Wolfe's mainstream novel" and went in and it was.... so *weird*. So my expectations were also bent, but in the other direction.
I honestly knew almost nothing about it. A friend (who reads mostly very weird fiction) said it was good and about "an old guy in the midwest." I read an ebook version, since I was flying, so I didn't even read the back cover blurb.
I predict you'll love Little, Big. One warning that is (probably) unnecessary for you, but in case anyone else peeks in: it was written for a different attentional age. It's brilliant, but stately. It takes its time. But oh my God is it brilliant....
My recommendation is not so much a where to start but a how to start. I've seen people recommend consulting companion guides as you read, but I think trying to figure out the puzzle as you go is more rewarding. He has a detective novelist's knack for handing you answers without you noticing.
My feeling is to just dive in and if you are left wondering about something, look it up. (But then dive back in. Don't spend too long on the theories. Unless that's your bag, of course.)
Doing the lord’s work right here. Wolfe is the GOAT. I wish more publishers would develop writers like how Wolfe was. Just let them be them. Alas, that is a whole different conversation.
Incredible prose and wonderful descriptions but very haphazard in his storytelling. I loved the first books of the new sun but I can't remember if I finished them or finally gave up and read a summary of the last one. I remember the first one being absolutely stunning in places but strangely emo, gothic, bleak, and mystifying.
Maybe you can trigger the Gene Wolfe resurgence if you turn all the cool catholic converts onto him, since he was also a weirdo Catholic convert. There's a great interview with him about Soldier of The Mist in the context of his Catholic conversion where he says he believes the Pagan gods were real, and wrote the book in an attempt to take them seriously in a way no one did previously, at least in the modern age. (The interviewer suggests the gods may have been actual fallen angels, which Wolfe does not dispute.) Soldier of The Mist was the first Wolfe I ever read, and still by far my favorite. Can't wait to read Peace now.
We gotta convert the "trad caths" to "werid caths"! And that's great to hear about Soldier of the Mist. I'm excited for it.
Oh shit, that sounds amazing. I guess I had better bump up Soldier of the Mist in my reading queue.
I’m curious to see how Nolan will handle the gods in his film adaptation of the Odyssey. Troy, the 2004 Brad Pitt movie about the Trojan War, removed them altogether, yet their presence is suffused throughout Homer’s poems. I loved how Wolfe also made them omnipresent through Latro’s experiences, even though it's possible for the sceptic to read his account as merely the imaginings of a brain damaged soldier. I hope Nolan has the guts to include the gods! .
I wonder if this line of yours sums up literary fiction (I mean it kindly) “a novel that’s hard to elevator pitch”
The New Wave SF really isn't completely described without Ellison, Spinrad, and Tiptree being mentioned, surely?
I got to read an absurd amount of Wolfe's work while researching this essay, and it was absolutely time well-spent. The Island of Doctor Death... is one of the best collections I've ever read, full stop.
https://thehobbyhorse.substack.com/p/the-politics-and-poetics-of-gene
I also need to check out Soldier in the Mist. This reminds me that I read the first two Long Sun novels about nine years ago and haven't finished that series; might be time to do so this year.
Let's get misty soldiering!
Heck yeah.
I started with The Wizard Knight, which sounds like silly isekai and is in fact one of the greatest works of fantasy I’ve ever read