The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction - Hardcover

Wolfe, Gene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765321351 ISBN 13: 9780765321350

Publisher: Tor Books, 2009

Synopsis

From a literary perspective, this will certainly be the best collection of the year in science fiction and fantasy. Gene Wolfe, of whom The Washington Post said, Of all SF writers currently active none is held in higher esteem, has selected the short fiction he considers his finest into one volume. There are many award winners and many that have been selected for various Year s Best anthologies among the thirty-one stories, which include: Petting Zoo, The Tree Is My Hat, The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories, The Hero as Werewolf, Seven American Nights, The Fifth Head of Cerberus, The Detective of Dreams, and A Cabin on the Coast. Gene Wolfe has produced possibly the finest and most significant body of short fiction in the SF and fantasy field in the last fifty years, and is certainly among the greatest living writers to emerge from the genres

About this title

About the Author

Gene Wolfe is winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and many other awards. In 2007, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. He lives in Barrington, Illinois.

Reviews

Thirty-one stories by the most distinguished creator of literary sf makes for a pretty indispensable volume. Of course, “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” and “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories”—recognized as classics for many years now—are here. So are such objects of amused contemplation (on account of their titles) well before they are read (and as amusedly enjoyed) as “The Hero as Werewolf,” “The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton” (steampunk with more than one difference), “Seven American Nights” (an account of archaeology of the future), and “Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?” written in homage to the witty Catholic sf (and historical) novelist R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002). Each of those and the rest of these stories characteristically begin at a point from which Wolfe diverges in a number of different directions—with just how many depending, surprisingly enough, on the particular reader. By the time one has, preferably slowly, digested Wolfe’s creativity, one could be humming Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Things Are Seldom What They Seem” and rejoicingly remarking, “with Wolfe, too.” --Roland Green

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765321351
• ISBN 13: 9780765321350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480