Although Gene Wolfe began writing short stories
in the 1950s, his first professional publication came
in the second half of the 1960s. He would sell
only about a dozen stories during that period, but
would explode creatively beginning in 1970, with
numerous short stories. Of those, “How the Whip
Came Back” and “Eyebem” are both exceptional,
and “The ISLAND OF DR. DEATH AND OTHER
STORIES” was spectacular. There was also a rather
lackluster first novel, Operation Ares, in which an
ailing civilization on Earth is assisted by the descendants of Martian colonists.
The 1970s were Wolfe’s most productive years
at shorter lengths, and the number of excellent
stories is astonishing, including most notably “The
Death of Dr. Island” (1972), which won a Nebula.
Another major story was “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” (1971), which became one-third of a strikingly effective novel under the same title a year
later. The author’s intensely rich prose style and
his avoidance of most traditional genre themes
probably contributed to the fact that he never won
another award for his short fiction, although he
had strong contenders almost every year. Most
striking of the stories from this period are “Against
the Lafayette Escadrille” (1972), “La Befana”
(1973), “Forelesen” (1974), “The EYEFLASH MIRACLES” (1976), “SEVEN AMERICAN NIGHTS” (1978),
and “The Doctor of Death Island” (1978). Four
thematically related stories from this period would
later be collected as The Wolfe Archipelago (1983)
and many others were assembled as The Island of
Dr. Death & Other Stories and Other Stories (1980)
and in Gene Wolfe’s Book of Days (1981).
Wolfe had also written a fantasy novel and a
young adult historical novel during the 1970s, but
it would be The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), first
of the Severian novels, that established his reputation quite securely. The remaining novels in the sequence are The Claw of the Conciliator (1981)—
which won the Hugo Award—The Sword of the
Lictor (1981), and The Citadel of the Autarch
(1984). The Castle of the Otter (1982) contains the
author’s commentaries on the series. The setting is
a future where technology had advanced to the
point where it mimics magic, but society itself has
become corrupt and decadent. Severian is a professional torturer who has begun to have doubts
about his profession and the motives of his superiors. When he shows mercy to one of his charges,
he is dishonored and banished, subsequently wandering the Earth in a series of revelatory adventures. Eventually he decides to determine the truth
about the mysterious figure who rules as dictator of
the Earth, and ultimately takes his place. The Urth
of the New Sun (1987) appeared some time later,
consisting of shorter pieces set against the same
background. The series was clearly influenced by
the Dying Earth stories by Jack VANCE, although
those are more obviously fantasy and make no effort to rationalize the magical elements. It is also
heavy in religious symbolism. Severian is a very obvious Christ figure and the series could be interpreted as an allegorical version of the Second
Coming.
As Wolfe began concentrating on novels, his
output of short stories decreased dramatically,
although those that continued to appear maintained his high quality level. Some of these were
collected in Plan[e]t Engineering (1984)—the title
was a play on words, as Wolfe spent much of his
life as the editor of a magazine called Plant Engineering. Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988) contains
a large selection, as does Endangered Species
(1989). His interest in fantasy had been growing
steadily, and several novels during the 1980s fell
into that category. All of them were quite good,
although they were unconventional and thus
failed to make a major impression in that conservative market.
His next sequence of science fiction novels is
known collectively as The Book of the Long Sun and
includes Nightside the Long Sun (1993), Lake of the
Long Sun (1994), Calde of the Long Sun (1995), and
Exodus from the Long Sun (1996). The setting is a
generation starship, the Whorl, an enclosed habitat
so complete that most of the residents no longer
understand that they are aboard an artificial construction, which they just consider their world.
The central character is Patera Silk, a local priest
who is caught up in the growing turmoil of a society under extraordinary stress. He reluctantly
abandons his parish to descend into the metaphorical bowels of the ship, seeking an answer to the
question of their purpose in existence—a quest
that obviously reverberates on more than one
level. Ancient influences stir to new life as it appears that the Whorl is approaching its destination
at long last, but the revelation that they are expected to abandon everything they have ever
known and risk settling on a natural world, exposed to the stars, causes dissension, terror, and
eventually a civil war.
Wolfe continued their story in The Second
Book of the Long Sun, which consists of On Blue’s
Waters (1999), In Green’s Jungles (2000), and Return to the Whorl (2001). The passengers have now
been disgorged onto their new home, but their society has undergone such incredible upheaval that
it is no longer clear who will exert authority. The
protagonist goes on a personal quest of discovery
across the planet’s dangerous oceans and through
perilous jungles before the protagonist, like Severian, eventually realizes that it is up to him to assume authority, even if the job is a distasteful one.
The seven-book sequence is superficially similar to
many other novels, but what distinguishes Wolfe’s
work is his incredibly complex prose, which is thick
with metaphor and allusion and which paints incredibly detailed word pictures of his settings,
characters, and events.
His most recent collection of science fiction
stories is Strange Travelers (2000), and his fantasy
shorts appear in Innocents Aboard (2004). Young
Wolfe (1992) contains several of his earliest short
stories, including two written during the early
1950s. Wolfe’s fiction rarely contains any marvelous new idea or clever variations on a theme.
He is more likely to take an existing, familiar story
and retell it in a slightly different context, freshening it with sharply drawn characters and conveying
it in his richly embroidered prose. He is at times a
difficult writer to follow, because he demands that
his readers exert some intellectual effort; but he always leaves sufficient clues to his mysteries, and he
invariably delivers a complex and thoughtful tale.