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A review by jdashcastillo
Caldé of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
5.0
“That was the way life was, the way death was. A man lived as long as you hated him and died on you as soon as you began to like him”
This was an interesting book but it moved away from Silk in a lot of moments, more so than any book I’ve read of Wolfe with a prominent main character but also it was also very emotional with the characters throughout. Taking Auk and his mental battles while he Bustard was accompanying him to even Silk being sympathetic towards Musk being killed, Maytera Marble integrating with Rose, this has a lot of grieving and questioning over the dead spread throughout the story. I personally enjoyed that a lot and don’t think of this as just a set up to get us to the end of Long Sun.
We also see Silk in this seeming like a pseudo-Caldé, being crowned as one by everybody else but still feeling a bit hesitant and even wincing at times when he’s called so, to having to embrace and knowing that politics has reached out to him. Silk is also using that leverage as Caldé to get him out or maneuver his way through certain situations, while still sticking to his ideals and his characters which is really cool to see.
Gods in The Whorl show us in this book how powerful people cling to religion and how much that motivates them in order to take action and for their general way of life. Maytera Mint going from a shy chem to leading an army and becoming a General in this fight vs the Ayuntamiento.
Silk’s reunion with Hyacinth was such a cathartic moment, man. I was genuinely happy seeing him actually able to enjoy himself and forget about everything going on for just a second. There’s also some stuff going on with Chenille and Silk that I’m curious to see where it goes but I like Chenille a lot, her character is definitely very layered with her multiple possessions and has shown us that she is one of the more interesting characters.
That’s about all I can think of to say for right now. Wolfe is very great with not giving us all of the info and giving his readers agency and we see that more and more if not through his allusive prose but by omission of certain info or dialogue at times which can make it feel disjointed at points if you’re not paying attention to the characters and their behaviors, etc. Im very ready for Exodus and seeing how this gets wrapped up.
“You’d been raised by your mother, and we could see how you missed her.”
“I still do,” Silk admitted.
“Don’t feel bad about that, Patera. No one should ever be ashamed of love.”
This was an interesting book but it moved away from Silk in a lot of moments, more so than any book I’ve read of Wolfe with a prominent main character but also it was also very emotional with the characters throughout. Taking Auk and his mental battles while he Bustard was accompanying him to even Silk being sympathetic towards Musk being killed, Maytera Marble integrating with Rose, this has a lot of grieving and questioning over the dead spread throughout the story. I personally enjoyed that a lot and don’t think of this as just a set up to get us to the end of Long Sun.
We also see Silk in this seeming like a pseudo-Caldé, being crowned as one by everybody else but still feeling a bit hesitant and even wincing at times when he’s called so, to having to embrace and knowing that politics has reached out to him. Silk is also using that leverage as Caldé to get him out or maneuver his way through certain situations, while still sticking to his ideals and his characters which is really cool to see.
Gods in The Whorl show us in this book how powerful people cling to religion and how much that motivates them in order to take action and for their general way of life. Maytera Mint going from a shy chem to leading an army and becoming a General in this fight vs the Ayuntamiento.
Silk’s reunion with Hyacinth was such a cathartic moment, man. I was genuinely happy seeing him actually able to enjoy himself and forget about everything going on for just a second. There’s also some stuff going on with Chenille and Silk that I’m curious to see where it goes but I like Chenille a lot, her character is definitely very layered with her multiple possessions and has shown us that she is one of the more interesting characters.
That’s about all I can think of to say for right now. Wolfe is very great with not giving us all of the info and giving his readers agency and we see that more and more if not through his allusive prose but by omission of certain info or dialogue at times which can make it feel disjointed at points if you’re not paying attention to the characters and their behaviors, etc. Im very ready for Exodus and seeing how this gets wrapped up.
“You’d been raised by your mother, and we could see how you missed her.”
“I still do,” Silk admitted.
“Don’t feel bad about that, Patera. No one should ever be ashamed of love.”