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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
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.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
This is a little puzzle. you are supposed to sit down and theorize. Has things to say about real-colonialism, but is a bit more interested in questions of individual identity.
very well done, capturing a certain mystique and foreboding atmosphere that does for me peak in the first story (the second and third did leave my head spinning at times)
goes from holding your hand quite firmly in the first half to leaving you in the deep end rather swiftly, and i did get lost
goes from holding your hand quite firmly in the first half to leaving you in the deep end rather swiftly, and i did get lost
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe SF Masterworks #8 1972 4
• I need a reread
I The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
• Number 5, "My aunt, on the first occasion I had ever spoken to her, had referred to (Dr Veil's) theory that we might in fact be the natives of Sainte Anne, having murdered the original Terrestrial colonists and displaced them so thoroughly as to forget our own past."
• "This dream pursued me even when I tried to think of Phaedria, and when a maid brought me hot water—for I now shaved twice a week—I found that I was already holding my razor in my hand, and had in fact cut myself with it so that the blood had streaked my nightclothes and run down on to the sheets."
Coming of age 'male mensruation'?
• luminary- 1 a very famous person 2 a source of light; esp : a celestial body
• Last line, "I heard her at the library door. I opened it and she had the child with her. Someday they’ll want us."
Number five is like father, like father. He is given a number not a name like cattle or chattel so the cruelty is seemingly less cruel. chattel- 1 an item of tangible property other than real estate 2 slave, bondman.
II “A STORY,” by John V. Marsch
• Marsch/marsh/meadowmere
• Sandwalker, "“Because I never thought of Shadow children having names. I only thought of them as the Shadow children.”"
III V.R.T.
sophistry- subtlely deceptive reasoning or argument
• Q: On Sainte Anne every man of French descent is the bitter enemy of the government, with the result that Sainte Anne has become a camp armed against itself, where a colossal military establishment threatens citizens of every class. Here on Sainte Croix the French community is not hostile to the government—its leaders are a part of that government. A:Possibly my views are influenced by the fact that that government is holding me a prisoner. Q:It is a dilemma, is it not? You are hostile to us because you are a prisoner. But if you were no longer hostile, if you were willing to tender your full cooperation, you would be a prisoner no longer."
'Do only as we say (for if we say it, then it's true), then you are 'free' to go.' Fascist 'freedom' by giving up your freedom.
• Marsch, "I believe you were telling me that it was better to be a slave on Sainte Croix than free on Sainte Anne."
• Officer, "and pretend you do not understand that it is only by possessing slaves that any man can be truly free."
• fakir- 1 a Muslim mendicant : dervish 2 a wandering Hindu ascetic
eolith- a very crudely chipped flint
• I need a reread
I The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
• Number 5, "My aunt, on the first occasion I had ever spoken to her, had referred to (Dr Veil's) theory that we might in fact be the natives of Sainte Anne, having murdered the original Terrestrial colonists and displaced them so thoroughly as to forget our own past."
• "This dream pursued me even when I tried to think of Phaedria, and when a maid brought me hot water—for I now shaved twice a week—I found that I was already holding my razor in my hand, and had in fact cut myself with it so that the blood had streaked my nightclothes and run down on to the sheets."
Coming of age 'male mensruation'?
• luminary- 1 a very famous person 2 a source of light; esp : a celestial body
• Last line, "I heard her at the library door. I opened it and she had the child with her. Someday they’ll want us."
Number five is like father, like father. He is given a number not a name like cattle or chattel so the cruelty is seemingly less cruel. chattel- 1 an item of tangible property other than real estate 2 slave, bondman.
II “A STORY,” by John V. Marsch
• Marsch/marsh/meadowmere
• Sandwalker, "“Because I never thought of Shadow children having names. I only thought of them as the Shadow children.”"
III V.R.T.
sophistry- subtlely deceptive reasoning or argument
• Q: On Sainte Anne every man of French descent is the bitter enemy of the government, with the result that Sainte Anne has become a camp armed against itself, where a colossal military establishment threatens citizens of every class. Here on Sainte Croix the French community is not hostile to the government—its leaders are a part of that government. A:Possibly my views are influenced by the fact that that government is holding me a prisoner. Q:It is a dilemma, is it not? You are hostile to us because you are a prisoner. But if you were no longer hostile, if you were willing to tender your full cooperation, you would be a prisoner no longer."
'Do only as we say (for if we say it, then it's true), then you are 'free' to go.' Fascist 'freedom' by giving up your freedom.
• Marsch, "I believe you were telling me that it was better to be a slave on Sainte Croix than free on Sainte Anne."
• Officer, "and pretend you do not understand that it is only by possessing slaves that any man can be truly free."
• fakir- 1 a Muslim mendicant : dervish 2 a wandering Hindu ascetic
eolith- a very crudely chipped flint
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
This book is so well crafted. I do truly see why it's a masterwork. I just also didn't particularly enjoy reading it haha.
This was just Wolfe's second novel and it's a rich and strange work that evokes its science fiction worlds obliquely and is more a meditation on personal identity than anything else. Highly recommended.