Gene Wolfe

[Eldritch]

Presume some of you have read him. Often incredibly difficult & allusive but someone who writes so beautifully. I just got Endangered Species, The Urth of the New Sun & Castle of Days in the last couple of days; wonderful (and maddening) all.

I highly recommend his Book of the New Sun and Peace among his many great works.

[TordelBack]

Really enjoyed his earlier New Sun stuff(as a lad I always (incorrectly, as it happens) associated Severian with the character in VU's Venus in Furs), but sorry to say never enjoyed his short fiction - Endangered Species in particular bored me badly.

[Eldritch]

But no, good fellow! Endangered Species - though not so far of the calibre of The Island of Doctor Death & Other Stories and Other Stories is quite accessible (for Wolfe) and to be treasured.

[TordelBack]

It's a funny one alright, since short stories are by far my favourite form of SF writing, but I just don't care for Wolfe at short lengths. I have the same problem with China Mieville - love his novels, find his short stories a bit dull.  I have the opposite reaction to (for example) Orson Scott Card, Alastair Reynolds and Ian McDonald, where I love their short stories, but can't really warm to (many of) their novels.  No idea why.

[Eldritch]

As you say, funny, so I raise you with George RR Martin, equally adept with short stories, novellas & novels.