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Gene Wolfe

Personal Information

Born May 7, 1931
Died April 14, 2019 (87 years old)
New York City, United States
Also known as: Wolfe, Gene., Wolfe, G.
86 books
4.0 (142)
1,535 readers

Description

Gene Wolfe was born in Texas. After dropping out from Texas A&M University, he served in the Korean War, and later graduated from the University of Houston. He worked first as an engineer, notably designing part of the machine that produces Pringles potatoe chips, and later as the editor of a professional engineering magazine, Plant Engineering. Wolfe was a prolific writer, publishing over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories in his life. He was known for the complexity of his narratives and the depth of his characters, frequently using unreliable or fallible narrators to enhance his thematic focus on memory. His work explores topics of morality, often through the lens of his Catholic faith. Primarily recognized for his science fiction and fantasy works, Wolfe received a litany of recognition in those genres including the British Science Fiction, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Locus, Nebula, and Campbell Memorial Awards. In 2012 he was recognized as the 29th Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Information from [Tor Publishing]and [The New Yorker]. :

Books

Newest First

An evil guest

3.5 (2)
6

A tale set a century into the future finds an actress confronting ancient and supernatural forces while struggling to choose between her two lovers, a sorcerer private detective who launches her career and a mysterious man of wealth who appears with her in a play.

Pirate Freedom

3.0 (3)
7

A young priest fresh out of seminary, Father Christopher finds himself inexplicably swept back in time to the Golden Age of Piracy, where he finds himself caught up in the life of a buccaneer and trolling the waters of the Caribbean in search of Spanish gold.

Soldier of Sidon

4.0 (5)
12

"Latro forgets everything when he sleeps. Writing down his experiences every day and reading his journal anew each morning gives him a poignantly tenuous hold on himself, but his story's hold on readers is powerful indeed. The two previous novels, combined in Latro in the Mist (Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete), are generally considered classics of contemporary fantasy. At last we have a new book." "Latro now finds himself in Egypt, a land of singing girls, of spiteful and conniving deities, of mysterious dangers. Without his memory, he is unsure of everything, except for his desire to be free of the curse that causes him to forget." "The visions Gene Wolfe conjures of the wonders of Egypt and of the adventures of Latro as he and his companions journey south up the great Nile into unknown and legendary territory are truly unique and compelling."--BOOK JACKET.

The Knight

3.9 (7)
29

A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm that contains seven levels of reality. Very quickly transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Abel and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, a sword he will get from a dragon, the one very special blade that will help him fulfill his life ambition to become a knight and a true hero. Inside, however, Abel remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive the dangers and delights that lie ahead in encounters with giants, elves, wizards, and dragons. His adventure will conclude next year in the second volume of The Wizard Knight, The Wizard. Gene Wolfe is one of the most widely praised masters of SF and fantasy. He is the winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Nebula Award, twice, the World Fantasy Award, twice, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the British Fantasy Award, and France's Prix Apollo. His popular successes include the four-volume classic The Book of the New Sun. With this new series, Wolfe not only surpasses all the most popular genre writers of the last three decades, he takes on the legends of the past century, in a work that will be favorably compared with the best of J.R.R. Tolkien, E.R. Eddison, Mervyn Peake, and T.H. White. This is a book---and a series---for the ages, from perhaps the greatest living writer in (or outside) the fantasy genre.

The Wizard

3.5 (6)
21

Young teen Able, previously transported to a magical world into the body of an adult hero, returns to Mythgarthr in possession of special powers that he has vowed he will not use in his service to the dragon king Anthor.

Latro in the mist

4.7 (3)
8

This omnibus of two acclaimed novels is the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who was fighting in Greece when he received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory but gave him in return the ability to see and converse with the supernatural creatures, the gods and goddesses, who invisibly inhabit the classical landscape. Latro forgets everything when he sleeps. Writing down his experiences every day and reading his journal anew each morning gives him a poignantly tenuous hold on himself, but his story's hold on readers is powerful indeed.

The Fantasy Hall of Fame [30 stories]

0.0 (0)
39

Trouble with water / H.L. Gold -- Nothing in the rules / L. Sprague de Camp -- Fruit of knowledge / C.L. Moore -- Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius / Jorge Luis Borges -- Compleat werewolf / Anthony Boucher -- Small assassin / Ray Bradbury -- [Lottery]( / Shirley Jackson -- Our fair city / Robert A. Heinlein -- There shall be no darkness / James Blish -- Loom of darkness / Jack Vance -- Man who sold rope to the gnoles / Margaret St. Clair -- Silken-swift / Theodore Sturgeon -- Golem / Avram Davidson -- Operation afreet / Poul Anderson -- That hell-bound train / Robert Bloch -- Bazaar of the bizarre / Fritz Leiber -- Come lady death / Peter S. Beagle -- Drowned giant / J.G. Ballard -- Narrow valley / R.A. Lafferty -- Faith of our fathers / Philip K. Dick -- Ghost of a Model T / Clifford D. Simak -- Demoness / Tanith Lee -- Jeffty is five / Harlan Ellison -- Detective of dreams / Gene Wolfe -- Unicorn variations / Roger Zelazny -- Basileus / Robert Silverberg -- Jaguar Hunter / Lucius Shepard -- Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Bears discover fire / Terry Bisson -- Tower of Babylon / Ted Chiang.

In Green's jungles

4.0 (1)
4

Horn's physique is slowly changing, causing his friends and family to wonder who he really is, so to prove his identity, he reminisces about his many space adventures.

On Blue's waters

4.0 (2)
6

Space hero Horn battles shapeshifting vampires who want to use humans as cattle. It happens on planet Blue where Horn is searching for the planet's missing leader. First volume in a trilogy.

The Fifth Head Of Cerberus

3.7 (3)
38

Bien loin de la Terre, deux planètes soeurs, Sainte-Anne et Sainte-Croix, ont été colonisées par des Français qui ont détruit la population indigène de la seconde. Des décennies plus tard, après que les colons ont été eux-mêmes vaincus et dispersés, un ethnologue consacre sa vie à retrouver les traces de cette culture effacée et oubliée.

Ultimate Egoist: Volume I

0.0 (0)
4

The second volume of short stories by Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985), one of the great figures in science fiction. The title story is on an unusual relationship that forms between a scientist and the microbes he creates in his laboratory.