A review by ejrathke
The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas by Gene Wolfe

5.0

This is maybe the most Wolfean Wolfe novel I've yet encountered, while also having almost nothing in common with the other books I've read by Wolfe.

It's intensely slippery and treads water in a number of genres and styles, doing each one better than just about anyone. When his prose is highly stylised and dense, it's more satisfying than just about any writer. And then the whole thing is so postmodern, but in ways more satisfying than maybe anyone or anything outside of John Fowles' The Magus.

Each novella is very different but they all play together to create something quite large and perplexing and opaque but also so fun.

It's probably one of the strangest books I've read this year. Not because of the content, but because he does so many things in so many different ways and never manages to even stumble or slip. It's completely satisfying in an almost aggravating way, because no one should be this good at everything.

But this is Gene Wolfe and I don't know if I'll ever be able to accept that he's not the best among us.