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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
I have heard the term "picturesque" attributed to Gene Wolfe's writing multiple times recently - first from the "Shelved by Genre" podcast with respect to "Shadow of the Torturer", and most recently by the lovely Ursula K. Le Guin regarding "The Fifth Head of Cerberus." I now believe that no other term can best describe Wolfe's writing, and that is a big part of why I will continually visit his work.
"The Fifth Head of Cerberus" includes three novellas that are connected in...ways. I enjoyed all three, and the ways in which they're connected. Wolfe wrote them all beautifully and crafted this weird, awful world to explore mature themes. It doesn't all land, and there are some confusing bits, but that comes with the picturesque.
"The Fifth Head of Cerberus" includes three novellas that are connected in...ways. I enjoyed all three, and the ways in which they're connected. Wolfe wrote them all beautifully and crafted this weird, awful world to explore mature themes. It doesn't all land, and there are some confusing bits, but that comes with the picturesque.
This is a book that takes 'show don't tell' to extremes. This is an inventive, well written book, but it was a difficult read. There are some arresting images and ideas, but the fragmentary, dream-like style required a lot of hard work. I'm glad I read it, but I can't say I enjoyed it.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Fifth Head of Cerberus is three novellas Frankenstein-ed together, it lacks the cohesiveness that Wolfe's Book of the New Sun has. It feels like a prototype of what Gene Wolfe would go on to write.
Unless you're a super fan of Wolfe's work, I don't think these novellas are worth reading. Even if you are a fan of his work, some parts of these novellas will be torture to read. Definitely not my cup of tea.
Unless you're a super fan of Wolfe's work, I don't think these novellas are worth reading. Even if you are a fan of his work, some parts of these novellas will be torture to read. Definitely not my cup of tea.
This book has taken me completely by surprise.
An extremely deep, challenging and layered work of fiction with references to classic literature and puzzles that reward the reader. The world building is realistic, dense and keeps you wanting to explore it more.
In a way this is exactly what I've come to expect from a science-fiction novel, but I feel that after reading "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" it's the first time that a novel reached that level of expectation.
I have to admit that listening to the Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast has helped immensely to understand all the themes and references woven throughout the three connected novellas.
It's the first work I've read by Wolfe and I can't wait to dig into more of his work.
An extremely deep, challenging and layered work of fiction with references to classic literature and puzzles that reward the reader. The world building is realistic, dense and keeps you wanting to explore it more.
In a way this is exactly what I've come to expect from a science-fiction novel, but I feel that after reading "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" it's the first time that a novel reached that level of expectation.
I have to admit that listening to the Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast has helped immensely to understand all the themes and references woven throughout the three connected novellas.
It's the first work I've read by Wolfe and I can't wait to dig into more of his work.
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, Gene Wolfe's first book-length work of note, is a collection of three seemingly unrelated novellas that are, at the close of the third, shown to be cunningly interlinked. The first novella, "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", was published in one of Damon Knight's Orbit anthologies in 1974, while the latter two were written and published together to expand the themes and plot of the first. The setting of it all is Sainte Anne and Saint Croix, two sister planets revolving around a common center of gravity in a far-away solar system, colonized first by Frenchmen and later occupied (in a brutal fashion, it is hinted) by later waves of English-speaking colonists. Before men arrived, legend goes, Sainte Anne was inhabited by an indigenous race of shapeshifters, which humans wiped out. Or did the aboriginals wipe out the colonists, imitating them so faithfully that they forgot their own origins? The novellas touch upon many themes of post-colonial theory.
In the first novella, a young man grows up in a strangely sheltered environment on Saint Croix, discovering at last the secrets of his scientist father's work. Here, the aboriginal inhabitants of the sister planet are only briefly mentioned, but the plot has much more local concerns. The second novella "'A Story' by John V. Marsch" is inevitably confusing to first-time readers, and initially seems unrelated to the first. It is the story of an adolescent's initiation to manhood in a primitive society, a dreamquest that brings him across a bizarre landscape and introducing him to various tribes espousing peculiar religious beliefs. In the third novella, "V.R.T." a bureaucrat on Saint Croix goes over the diaries of an imprisoned anthropologist. Again, it seems a complete change of direction with little to link it to the first two, but by the end a story arc spanning the three novellas is revealed. THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS is an excellent example of Wolfe's love for mysteries, some revealed so casually the reader might easily miss it, and others so deeply buried that it may take several tries for the author to find the key. This all gives the book excellent re-read value. And here one can see the genesis of the techniques that Wolfe used in later works, such as his masterpiece The Book of the New Sun.
The narrative here is so ingeniously constructed that I would recommend THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS to any lover of literature, even those that are usually wary of anything called science-fiction. Wolfe's novel PEACE, published a year later, continues this strong writing and is also highly recommend, and its plot might be attractive to a more general audience.
In the first novella, a young man grows up in a strangely sheltered environment on Saint Croix, discovering at last the secrets of his scientist father's work. Here, the aboriginal inhabitants of the sister planet are only briefly mentioned, but the plot has much more local concerns. The second novella "'A Story' by John V. Marsch" is inevitably confusing to first-time readers, and initially seems unrelated to the first. It is the story of an adolescent's initiation to manhood in a primitive society, a dreamquest that brings him across a bizarre landscape and introducing him to various tribes espousing peculiar religious beliefs. In the third novella, "V.R.T." a bureaucrat on Saint Croix goes over the diaries of an imprisoned anthropologist. Again, it seems a complete change of direction with little to link it to the first two, but by the end a story arc spanning the three novellas is revealed. THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS is an excellent example of Wolfe's love for mysteries, some revealed so casually the reader might easily miss it, and others so deeply buried that it may take several tries for the author to find the key. This all gives the book excellent re-read value. And here one can see the genesis of the techniques that Wolfe used in later works, such as his masterpiece The Book of the New Sun.
The narrative here is so ingeniously constructed that I would recommend THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS to any lover of literature, even those that are usually wary of anything called science-fiction. Wolfe's novel PEACE, published a year later, continues this strong writing and is also highly recommend, and its plot might be attractive to a more general audience.
this one was very satisfying to put together!! even though the second novella was slow, and the third slower. HOWEVER i need whoever wrote (and whoever approved!) the spoiler-filled introduction to the sf masterworks edition to answer for their crimes >:( i would've had way more fun if i hadn't cracked open the intro, and immediately gotten clubbed over the head by someone explaining every one of the novel's mysteries... genuinely disappointing.
good novel though! wolfe is the real deal
good novel though! wolfe is the real deal
The first time I read this I was like "okay, weird". Now, the second time I've read this, I think it's probably one of the best things I've ever read? Uncanny and eerie and frightening, and so deft that you don't even realize what's happening until after it's over. How the hell did this guy do this. Pisses me off.
Definitely one that needs a few read throughs to really grasp. The beauty in this book is that the stories themselves aren't necessarily interesting, but together they paint a complex world that has tons of "aha" moments.