Gene Wolfe

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Phoebe H

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My favorite novel of his was Peace which was marketed, I believe, as mainstream, and so can be hard to find if you stick to the sf section. It was about a person suffering from (probably) Alzheimers who was wandering around his house and his life at the same time. Wolfe is at his best when he is dealing with the nature of memory and how that relates to reality.

He is best know for his series "The Book of the New Sun" which is four books -- The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch. That's probably a good place to start.

His prose is very dense, and some days I absolutely adore it, and other days I can't stand it. So if you have a hard time getting into him, just set it aside for a bit and give it another try later.
 

Sarita

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His prose is very dense, and some days I absolutely adore it, and other days I can't stand it. So if you have a hard time getting into him, just set it aside for a bit and give it another try later.
This is so true. I read the first two in the New Sun series so fast and thoroughly enjoyed them. But I haven't made it past chapter 2 of the third book. I can't bring myself to finish it... One of these days the mood is going to strike me and I'll tear through the last two just like I did the first two.
 

badducky

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I'd actually suggest starting with "Innocents Aboard", one of his short fiction collections.

"The Tree is my Hat" is one of the best sf/horror stories we've got, and the collection is full of other gems.

After that, the Long Sun series is excellent for people who prefer Sci-Fi and Fantasy deep in genre, while his Soldier of Sidon series is best for folk who lean towards realism.

Peace is, also, an excellent choice.

Among many excellent choices.
 

sunandshadow

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The new sun/long sun is on the serious end of the spectrum for his stuff, along with the Soldier series. If you wanted something more fun There Are Doors and Free Live Free are delightful romps.
 

AMCrenshaw

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Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. The Latro series is one of his trickiest, even while the prose is more pleasant (compared to his earlier oozey opaque prose).

AMC
 

batgirl

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I started reading him with shorter novels like The Fifth Head of Cerberus, but I understand that not everyone finds those accessible.
His short stories in The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (yes, that's the title) are probably a good introduction, and have quite a bit of variety.
-Barbara
 

eyeblink

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There's a Best of Gene Wolfe out now. I can't say I've read loads of his work, but what I have tends to be quite oblique - what is described is clear enough, but you have to reassemble the story in your head to some extent to get at what it "means". He doesn't spell things out more than he absolutely has to, and small clues are often very significant.

The only novel of his I've read is The Fifth Head of Cerberus, which is really three novellas joined together - involving clones and shapeshifting aliens to get at questions of identity. The final section involves a man who doesn't know if he is who he thinks he is, or if he is really one of those shapeshifting aliens...and he never finds out, though there are clues for the reader to work it out.

The Book of the New Sun is one of those huge Great Books I've been meaning to read for years. Here in the UK you can get it either as two paperback omnibus editions in Gollancz's Fantasy Masterworks series or one huge paperback edition (called Severian of the Guild) with all four parts in one volume.
 
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