Synopses & Reviews
Gene Wolfe's
In Green's Jungles is the second volume, after
On Blue's Waters, of his ambitious SF trilogy,
The Book of the Short Sun. It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Now Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present to past. Horn recalls visiting the Whorl, the enormous spacecraft in orbit that brought the settlers from Urth, and going thence to the planet Green, home of the blood-drinking alien inhumi. There, he led a band of mercenary soldiers, answered to the name of Rajan, and later became the ruler of a city state. He has also encountered the mysterious aliens, the Neighbors, who once inhabited both Blue and Green. He remembers a visit to Nessus, on Urth. At some point, he died. His personality now seemingly inhabits a different body, so that even his sons do not recognize him. And people mistake him for Silk, to whom he now bears a remarkable resemblance.
In Green's Jungles is Wolfe's major new fiction,
The Book of the Short Sun, building toward a strange and seductive climax.
Review
"Wolfe continues his stunning masterpiece with this second volume....This complex, challenging work of science fiction is an example of intricate world-building on a grand scale." VOYA
Review
"By any standard, Wolfe's beautifully composed, meditative, thrilling, and tricky-beyond belief 'science fantasy' is a work of the highest art." Washington Post Book World
Review
"Vance comes to mind in the poetic exuberance of his alien worlds, and there are echoes of Borges in the series' puzzle of identity, and of Melville in its somber, penetrating tone. But in this deepening of his masterwork, the voice is Wolfe's own, always deft and dazzling, leading the reader through his wonderfully inventive and evocative narrative maze." Lucius Shepard
Review
"Reading Gene Wolfe is akin to Dorothy stepping out of her spun house into Oz for the first time. The world has gone from black and white to the most vivid color you've ever seen in a blink; you quickly discover there are wonders every step of the way. You will gladly give up the ruby slippers because Wolfe's worlds, again and again, are so much better than home." Jonathan Carroll
Synopsis
In Green's Jungles is the second volume, after On Blue's Waters, of Wolfe's ambitious SF trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun. It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk.
Synopsis
Gene Wolfe's In Green's Jungles is the second volume, after On Blue's Waters, of his ambitious SF trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun. It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Now Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present to past. Horn recalls visiting the Whorl, the enormous spacecraft in orbit that brought the settlers from Urth, and going thence to the planet Green, home of the blood-drinking alien inhumi. There, he led a band of mercenary soldiers, answered to the name of Rajan, and later became the ruler of a city state. He has also encountered the mysterious aliens, the Neighbors, who once inhabited both Blue and Green. He remembers a visit to Nessus, on Urth. At some point, he died. His personality now seemingly inhabits a different body, so that even his sons do not recognize him. And people mistake him for Silk, to whom he now bears a remarkable resemblance. In Green's Jungles is Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun, building toward a strange and seductive climax.
About the Author
Gene Wolfe has been called "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" by
The Washington Post. A former engineer, he has written numerous books and won a variety of awards for his SF writing.