Wolfe, Gene

Wolfe (1931–2019) has always been considered one of the most literary of SFF writers; though he hewed closely to genre tropes, he also sent them in directions no one had imagined. This collection picks up where 2009’s The Best of Gene Wolfe left off and will be appreciated most by readers and scholars of the author’s work.

Wolfe died in 2019 at age 87; this posthumous sequel to A Borrowed Man blends a hard-boiled mystery style with a sf future and is mostly successful. While this can be read as a stand-alone, familiarity with the main character’s background story may bring more clarity for readers.

Wolfe ("The Book of the New Sun" series) is a grand master of the genre, and this is an absorbing tale, full of noirish elements and fun sf flourishes. The variations in tone between rough gumshoe and stuffy academic (explained within the story but still jarring), and the habit of addressing the reader directly are thought provoking if not always effective narrative choices. This isn't Wolfe's best, but it will still be of great interest to the author's many fans.

Mirroring the absurdist novels of Franz Kafka and the surreal stories of Stanislaw Lem and Jorge Luis Borges, Wolfe's latest novel begins quietly and grows stranger and more whimsical by the page. In the end, the author's creative genius brings everything together with twists and turns that are both surprising and immensely satisfying. Each new book by the 2013 Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master is an adventure in creativity and a window on perhaps the genre's most brilliant mind.

Part cyber-thriller, part love story, part sf adventure, Wolfe's latest novel should appeal to his many fans as well as to general readers.