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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
horribly unlikable self serving main character, confusing time skips, long boring story, no plot, hundreds of forgettable characters, trash book.
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The 2-book series wasn't necessarily the most satisfying read ever, but Gene Wolfe has an intriguing/refreshing writing style that carried the story. There were times where you had no idea what was going on or you thought "that conversation made no sense" but in the end it still worked and I think a second read of the books would raise the appreciation for everything. Overall, long but enjoyable and a nice world.
I love Gene Wolfe and found "The Knight" excellent but The Wizard didn't do it for me. Usually the author is able to hide the puzzles and secrets under an enjoyable surface. For whatever reason this didn't happen here and the "let me tell you this very important thing but don't interrupt me" style with massive references that might or might not play a role in the book drove me nuts. The main story advances extremely slowly and after 150 pages I had enough.
I checked a couple of reviews and obviously it gets better but not very soon. I may finish the book in the future and revise the review, in the mean time I rather read something else.
I checked a couple of reviews and obviously it gets better but not very soon. I may finish the book in the future and revise the review, in the mean time I rather read something else.
So very great. Incredibly impressed by this, and it's crazy different from the first book. While The Knight is extremely episodic, tied together mostly by character and setting. At times it felt like a serialised novel, in that there were links between chapters, but those didn't seem as important to the chapter you're reading. This, of course, is used to great effect. All the details return and compile and so on.
Anyrate, the Wizard, the second book, is almost the exact opposite. It's more narratively driven and follows everything rather sequentially without time jumps or moving too much around the world. It feels very different, too, and the only thing that holds it to the first is character and setting, but all those details from the beginning continue to play a role. The world gets richer and we discover more, now that Able knows so much more and can do so much more. Moving from the episodic nature of the first, it becomes a grand epic in the second.
Still, the book is about hiding and so much is hiding what characters actually think but showing them doing. Able himself is an extremely simple character who moves in very complex ways. It's one of the most remarkable things about the novel. Able just does things, even when they seem at odds with what he tells you about himself, despite how honest he is. He also does things that seem completely senseless at times.
I think this is actually one of the most true to life renditions of what humans are actually like. We lie to ourselves and each other, but the things we do show everyone exactly who we are. What's interesting about this, too, is how these actions people take are never challenged. They're simply accepted, and they're run across a morality that's purely hierarchical, no matter how absurd. Without ever challenging the medieval worldview [which it's embedded in] it shows all of its deficiencies, but also accepts them as the way things are. It's very peculiar but quite interesting, to see things done this way, since we're trained that books make value judgments about its characters and the world.
I've always thought that was stupid.
But, yeah, such a great novel and so much I could say about it. But I'll leave it here and just say to read it.
Anyrate, the Wizard, the second book, is almost the exact opposite. It's more narratively driven and follows everything rather sequentially without time jumps or moving too much around the world. It feels very different, too, and the only thing that holds it to the first is character and setting, but all those details from the beginning continue to play a role. The world gets richer and we discover more, now that Able knows so much more and can do so much more. Moving from the episodic nature of the first, it becomes a grand epic in the second.
Still, the book is about hiding and so much is hiding what characters actually think but showing them doing. Able himself is an extremely simple character who moves in very complex ways. It's one of the most remarkable things about the novel. Able just does things, even when they seem at odds with what he tells you about himself, despite how honest he is. He also does things that seem completely senseless at times.
I think this is actually one of the most true to life renditions of what humans are actually like. We lie to ourselves and each other, but the things we do show everyone exactly who we are. What's interesting about this, too, is how these actions people take are never challenged. They're simply accepted, and they're run across a morality that's purely hierarchical, no matter how absurd. Without ever challenging the medieval worldview [which it's embedded in] it shows all of its deficiencies, but also accepts them as the way things are. It's very peculiar but quite interesting, to see things done this way, since we're trained that books make value judgments about its characters and the world.
I've always thought that was stupid.
But, yeah, such a great novel and so much I could say about it. But I'll leave it here and just say to read it.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The continuation of Gene Wolfe's "The Knight" has all the promise and flaws of the first book, but the entire middle of the book where they are in the kingdom of the giants is a chore to get through. It's slow moving, dull, and feels like filler to extend the length of the book. It picks back up in the last act of the book, but slogging through the middle act was just painful.
Sometimes frustrating, what with all the jumping around, but you get most of the whole story eventually.
Just really big, and really good.
Just really big, and really good.
Stirring, challenging, fantastic, unnerving: classic Wolfe.