Synopses & Reviews
Gene Wolfe's
Return to the Whorl is the third volume, after
On Blue's Waters and
In Green's Jungles, of his ambitious SF trilogy The Book of the Short Sun . . . It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Horn has traveled from his home on the planet Blue, reached the mysterious planet Green, and visited the great starship, the Whorl and even, somehow, the distant planet Urth. But 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. Perhaps Horn and Silk are now one being.
Return to the Whorl brings Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun, to a strange and seductive climax.
Review
"Wolfe continues to provide literary entertainment of a high order....[L]ongtime fans of Wolfe's complex plotting and ornate literary style will find much to cheer." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Wolfe concludes his alternately dreamy and chilling Book of the Short Sun trilogy....Intriguing new characters...happily augment the striking mix of philosophy, humor, and horror that is uniquely Wolfe's stock-in-trade." Booklist
Review
"If by this point you have even a tenuous idea of what the series is all about, you'll certainly enjoy the finale....Wolfe's grace and power evoke gleams of admiration even as we float away on a tide of indifference." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Sentence by sentence, Wolfe is as fine a writer as science fiction has produced. He demands a lot from his readers. It is worth meeting him more than halfway." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Astonishing literary brilliance." Interzone
Review
"The author's attention to style as well as substance mark him as one of the genre's most brilliant contributors." Library Journal
Synopsis
Gene Wolfe's
Return to the Whorl is the third volume, after
On Blue's Waters and
In Green's Jungles, of his ambitious SF trilogy,
The Book of the Short Sun.
It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Horn has traveled from his home on the planet Blue, reached the mysterious planet Green, and visited the great starship, the Whorl and even, somehow, the distant planet Urth. But 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. Perhaps Horn and Silk are now one being. Return to the Whorl brings Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun, to 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.