http://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-knowComments on "The need to know" - Faerye Net2008-08-20T21:56:28+00:00http://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2345re: Books2008-08-20T21:56:28+00:002008-08-20T21:56:28+00:00<p>Heh! If mine HAD gone home from college with you, it would have been an entirely unexpected answer to the puzzle.</p>Felicityhttp://faerye.nethttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2342re: Books2008-08-20T16:47:24+00:002008-08-20T16:47:24+00:00<p>Oops! I was unclear. I have the exact same copy (trade paperbacks with nice covers) of the Torturer series, but I’m sure that they weren’t originally yours. I blame the thesis. It scrambles my brain.</p>Amandahttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2338re: I did the same thing2008-08-20T11:41:08+00:002008-08-20T11:41:08+00:00<p>They are spiritually the same volumes, but my TPBs were the previous edition. For some reason they were out of print for a few years before the versions you linked replaced them. Those, of course, were the years I was looking, trying to replace my copies without letting my dad know I’d lost his rather beautiful gift! I’d still like my own copies, since they were from Dad, but the process of moving always seems to slip a few things into an unknowable interdimensional space. And I’ve moved a lot.</p>Felicityhttp://faerye.nethttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2337I did the same thing2008-08-19T23:54:07+00:002008-08-19T23:54:07+00:00<p>I filled several pages of a Moleskine with words and definitions. It trailed off when I was about half way through the first book. I think it was a combination of making peace with the ambiguity, reaching critical mass (and so being more able to divine the meaning of odd words from their context), and laziness.</p>
<p>Recently, I was reading <em>Castle of Days</em> and discovered that there’s a bit in the middle where he defines several select terms. I wish I’d gone into the book with those few pages of glossary. I might photocopy them for whoever I force Wolfe upon next.</p>
<p>Wolfe’s short stories are quite good, by the way. <em>The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories</em> and <em>Endangered Species</em> are particularly good collections.</p>
<p>He’s not quite Zelazny (as far as the short stories go), but damn good.</p>
<p>I assume you’re not refering to <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780312890179-2" rel="nofollow">these</a> <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780312890186-0" rel="nofollow">volumes</a>, as they don’t seem hard to find.</p>
<p>The two volume printing seems to be the most recent. They’re what I picked up like a year ago. The titles are odd (Shadow and the Claw for the first double-volume instead of Shadow of the Torture…), which may explain EMeta’s trouble finding them.</p>Kalkinhttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2336re: Books2008-08-19T18:59:13+00:002008-08-19T18:59:13+00:00<p>Well, in theory my very own copies should exist in a box (unlikely, as I seem to recall their being lost by or around Phase 3 of life-boxing c. 2004) or in the hands of someone I know. But probably not you, because I don’t feel like I finished them during the school-year (which would have made them eligible for life-boxing phase 2) which would have made lending them to you feasible :p</p>Felicityhttp://faerye.nethttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2335re: Ah, Wolfe2008-08-19T18:56:18+00:002008-08-19T18:56:18+00:00<p>Book 5? What now? I thought there were only the four…unless he is pulling a Douglas Adams.</p>
<p>It’s funny, because someone cited Wolfe as a YA author recently (in the point/counterpoint about YA spec-fic over on io9) and I did a double-take, because while I know he writes YA (my dad is reading some) this is all I’ve read by him. It was good, and difficult, and brutal in parts, and often challenging on the level of plot as well as vocabulary…so hearing someone say “You can keep your [adult author], I’ll take Gene Wolfe anyday!” just seemed…odd.</p>
<p>As to why he isn’t more in print, I could not tell you. He’s known among writers and aficionados (obv.), but I don’t know why he doesn’t receive more mainstream recognition.</p>Felicityhttp://faerye.nethttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2333Books2008-08-18T15:06:15+00:002008-08-18T15:06:15+00:00<p>I actually have those books (I think). If they didn’t get sold to Frugal Muse, you can have them once I unpack my book boxes (late September).</p>Amandahttp://faerye.net/post/the-need-to-know#comment-2331Ah, Wolfe2008-08-18T11:43:34+00:002008-08-18T11:43:34+00:00<p>I just found Wolfe a couple months ago, and while I found Soldier of the Mist just pretty good (I felt so betrayed by the ending) The Wizard Knight gave him his rightful status next to Gaiman and De Lint. But I cant find any more of his books! All the libraries around seem only to have the 4th and 5th books of New Sun, which seems rather odd to me. And the library that had Soldier of the Mist didn’t have its sequel. And bookstores don’t even try.</p>
<p>My real question being, why isn’t this guy everywhere? He’s phenomenal, with a great feel for real characters—both main and supporting—and his prose is better than anyone else’s I read in sci-fi or fantasy. So why doesn’t everyone know?</p>EMeta