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swansm4's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
bryce_is_a_librarian's review against another edition
5.0
I legitimately have no idea how Gene Wolfe does it. How do you create such compelling work simply by demanding your reader's pay attention? There simply isn't a writer who gets such careful reading from me as Wolfe, and all without any obvious tricks. The language is the simple straightforward prose of a midwestern engineer, the plots don't seem to purposefully obfuscate themselves and yet I end up reading and rereading passages closely as anything just because I can never be sure if what I've read is actually what I've read.
Anyway, a fantastic piece of historical fiction with some scenes that are as genuinely disturbing as anything I've ever read and others that are touching in their loveliness all set amid a landscape both brutal and prosaic!! Pretty dang good, I guess! Pretty sure it was written by a wizard.
Anyway, a fantastic piece of historical fiction with some scenes that are as genuinely disturbing as anything I've ever read and others that are touching in their loveliness all set amid a landscape both brutal and prosaic!! Pretty dang good, I guess! Pretty sure it was written by a wizard.
archergal's review against another edition
5.0
I confess I've always been afraid that Gene Wolfe would be a little beyond me. I'm not a subtle reader, and symbolism and various other literary devices are mostly closed books to me. But I've decided not to worry about that anymore, and just to read and enjoy his books in any way I can. Because there's a lot to enjoy here. And I can look up reviews and analyses to fill in the bits I missed.
First, the writing is gorgeous. Reading prose like this is just so satisfying. It's the story of Latro, the Roman mercenary who fought for Xerxes. Latro received a head injury that affected his memory. He doesn't remember his past, and his short-term memory is about 24 hours long. He carries a scroll with him, and writes down the events of each day. He also sees and interacts with pagan gods and mythological creatures.
Latro is on a journey to find his home and friends. He meets an interesting assortment of people along the way. It's interesting and compelling reading. Be warned though - starting this book is a little like hitting the first volume of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. There are lots of words and terms that aren't familiar to most modern readers. Carry on through, looking up words as needed.
Good stuff.
First, the writing is gorgeous. Reading prose like this is just so satisfying. It's the story of Latro, the Roman mercenary who fought for Xerxes. Latro received a head injury that affected his memory. He doesn't remember his past, and his short-term memory is about 24 hours long. He carries a scroll with him, and writes down the events of each day. He also sees and interacts with pagan gods and mythological creatures.
Latro is on a journey to find his home and friends. He meets an interesting assortment of people along the way. It's interesting and compelling reading. Be warned though - starting this book is a little like hitting the first volume of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. There are lots of words and terms that aren't familiar to most modern readers. Carry on through, looking up words as needed.
Good stuff.
rebeccacider's review against another edition
2.0
Considering that it's been two months since I started that book (and it's not long), I think it's safe to assume that I'm not going to finish that one.
Soldier of the Mist wasn't dreadful - it has a great premise, a narrator who has anterograde amnesia (a la Memento), blundering through a Persian War-era Greece and becoming increasingly in touch with the Greek otherworld of gods and monsters. Wolfe is a fine stylist and historical writer, and I initially enjoyed reading this.
I lost interest because, as with his much later book The Sorceror's House, most of the characters felt unreal to me. The complex mechanism of Wolfe's plot drives everything, which could work if only I sympathized with any of the characters. The dialogue is usually okay, but the characters have shallow motivations and flat personalities, and their interactions sometimes feel unnatural. Our protagonist is understandably passive and mysterious - as an amnesiac, he doesn't know who he is or what exactly is happening to him - but he doesn't seem to have normal motivations or desires and often has weirdly unemotional reactions. In one striking and bizarre scene, a prepubescent girl who has attached herself to his entourage tells him that she and an older woman have both been raped while imprisoned. The narrator doesn't seem to understand what she's saying and doesn't show concern. I'm not sure if this WTF moment was an intentional attempt to alienate us from the narrator, but it read as unbelievable.
Since The Sorceror's House had an identical problem - unlikable, unreal characters - I got the feeling that this wasn't just the tone that Wolfe had chosen for his book, it's the way he writes, with books full of people who aren't people. I drifted away from the book and don't think I'll be returning.
Soldier of the Mist wasn't dreadful - it has a great premise, a narrator who has anterograde amnesia (a la Memento), blundering through a Persian War-era Greece and becoming increasingly in touch with the Greek otherworld of gods and monsters. Wolfe is a fine stylist and historical writer, and I initially enjoyed reading this.
I lost interest because, as with his much later book The Sorceror's House, most of the characters felt unreal to me. The complex mechanism of Wolfe's plot drives everything, which could work if only I sympathized with any of the characters. The dialogue is usually okay, but the characters have shallow motivations and flat personalities, and their interactions sometimes feel unnatural. Our protagonist is understandably passive and mysterious - as an amnesiac, he doesn't know who he is or what exactly is happening to him - but he doesn't seem to have normal motivations or desires and often has weirdly unemotional reactions. In one striking and bizarre scene, a prepubescent girl who has attached herself to his entourage tells him that she and an older woman have both been raped while imprisoned. The narrator doesn't seem to understand what she's saying and doesn't show concern. I'm not sure if this WTF moment was an intentional attempt to alienate us from the narrator, but it read as unbelievable.
Since The Sorceror's House had an identical problem - unlikable, unreal characters - I got the feeling that this wasn't just the tone that Wolfe had chosen for his book, it's the way he writes, with books full of people who aren't people. I drifted away from the book and don't think I'll be returning.
shoba's review against another edition
3.0
"What a terrible thing it must be to have memory-although I wish it."
"Why, if it is so terrible?"
"Because not having memory, I lose myself; and that is worse.
This day is like a stone taken from a palace and carried far away to lands where no one knows what a wall may be. And I think every other day has been so for me as well."
She said, "Then you must enjoy each as it comes, because each day is all you have."
shirah's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
owen_cummings's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sleepyboi2988's review against another edition
4.0
Really impressed by this title, Wolfe excellently blends Historical Fiction with Mythology. I enjoyed how the Gods/Goddesses were handled here, perhaps almost like the ancients perceived them. Mainly in the periphery, mysterious, and always with their own machinations and desires.
The story itself beyond that is well done with the characters being interesting and developed nicely.
The story itself beyond that is well done with the characters being interesting and developed nicely.
danielmbensen's review against another edition
4.0
Adrian Tchaikovsky calls Wolfe "the master of the first person." He's right.
Latro is a book supposedly translated by Wolfe from a diary kept by a 5th-century-BC Roman mercenary in Greece who received a wound to the head and can't remember much earlier than twelve hours ago. It's a delightful conceit, as the main point of view from the book (some chapters are written by other people) doesn't speak Greek perfectly, doesn't have the context to understand most of what's going on, and is prone to hallucinations.
There are quite a lot of gods popping up in the story, lots of magic and ghosts, characters disappear, reappear, change sex, and swirl around the main character, who, because he can't remember anything anyway, just tries to respond to whatever's happening at the moment. There's a very charming sense of trying to do the right thing in impossible situations.
It's also nice that there are no villains. Certainly there are people whose actions run counter to Latro's quest, or who behave badly. Very badly in some cases. But we're never left in doubt that everyone Latro meets is a person, with their own internal story -- usually one that doesn't make any more sense than his. The book has moments of piercing compassion, even for tiny bit-characters. There's the foreigner who tried to speak Greek once, was made fun of, and now only communicates with hand signs. The general who has mastered his emotions so thoroughly that he isn't aware of it when he's angry. The god who hopes his wife will teach him mercy.
The book does drag on a bit. Like other Wolfe stories I've read, it has a tendency to wander across the map, searching for itself. And there's the weird way characters speak, although with Latro, it's easier to interpret that as awkward translation from Greek to Latin to English. You (or at least I) also have to read this book with wikipedia on your other tab (who the heck is "the King of Nyssa"? Oh, okay. And where is Nyssa? Uh huh. And who were his parents? And so on.) But that's part of the fun, isn't it?
Latro is a book supposedly translated by Wolfe from a diary kept by a 5th-century-BC Roman mercenary in Greece who received a wound to the head and can't remember much earlier than twelve hours ago. It's a delightful conceit, as the main point of view from the book (some chapters are written by other people) doesn't speak Greek perfectly, doesn't have the context to understand most of what's going on, and is prone to hallucinations.
There are quite a lot of gods popping up in the story, lots of magic and ghosts, characters disappear, reappear, change sex, and swirl around the main character, who, because he can't remember anything anyway, just tries to respond to whatever's happening at the moment. There's a very charming sense of trying to do the right thing in impossible situations.
It's also nice that there are no villains. Certainly there are people whose actions run counter to Latro's quest, or who behave badly. Very badly in some cases. But we're never left in doubt that everyone Latro meets is a person, with their own internal story -- usually one that doesn't make any more sense than his. The book has moments of piercing compassion, even for tiny bit-characters. There's the foreigner who tried to speak Greek once, was made fun of, and now only communicates with hand signs. The general who has mastered his emotions so thoroughly that he isn't aware of it when he's angry. The god who hopes his wife will teach him mercy.
The book does drag on a bit. Like other Wolfe stories I've read, it has a tendency to wander across the map, searching for itself. And there's the weird way characters speak, although with Latro, it's easier to interpret that as awkward translation from Greek to Latin to English. You (or at least I) also have to read this book with wikipedia on your other tab (who the heck is "the King of Nyssa"? Oh, okay. And where is Nyssa? Uh huh. And who were his parents? And so on.) But that's part of the fun, isn't it?