Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Tor Books (2002), Paperback, 416 pages
Description
Gene Wolfe 's Return to the Whorl is the third volume, after On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles, of his ambitious SF trilogy The Book of the Short Sun . . . It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Horn has traveled from his home on the planet Blue, reached the mysterious planet Green, and visited the great starship, the Whorl and even, somehow, the distant planet Urth. But Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present topast. Perhaps Horn and Silk are now one being. Return to the Whorl brings Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun, to a strange and seductive climax.… (more)
Media reviews
His great achievement is not the complex fictional universe he has shaped over the last two decades but the people who inhabit that universe... Sentence by sentence, Wolfe is as fine a writer as science fiction has produced. He demands a lot from his readers. It is worth meeting him more than
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User reviews
LibraryThing member iayork
Challenging--but as brilliant as it gets: NOTE: This review is for all three books comprising The Book of the Short Sun
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS:
The Book of the Short Sun will be one of the finest reading experiences of your life... if you can get through the thing. The difficulty in extracting
WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:
There is no shame in not reading these books. They are terribly difficult and an exercise in stamina though we feel most people should at least try once. If you have attempted Shakespeare and been turned back because of the language; if you have attempted Moby Dick or novels by Henry James only to be turned away by the lack of progression in the plot; if you have attempted James Joyce's Ulysses but been baffled by the interior monologue, then Short Sun is probably going to daunt you as well. But we feel the rewards of this book are equal to those giants in literature.
(...)
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS:
The Book of the Short Sun will be one of the finest reading experiences of your life... if you can get through the thing. The difficulty in extracting
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those rewards out of the text is considerable and not to be lightly discounted. Reading these books will require supreme effort. Willing readers will have to be intensely interested with how individuals relate to historical and semi-mythical figures, religion, and their own personality as influenced by these themes. These books are about as far as you can get from the popular concept of "space opera" and thrilling, "page-turning" fiction. An analogy to Moby Dick is probably very appropriate as that work due to the very slow pacing, the introspection, and the great literary symbols stomping through the setting reified and alive. Any scholar of literature should be deeply fascinated by these books. WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:
There is no shame in not reading these books. They are terribly difficult and an exercise in stamina though we feel most people should at least try once. If you have attempted Shakespeare and been turned back because of the language; if you have attempted Moby Dick or novels by Henry James only to be turned away by the lack of progression in the plot; if you have attempted James Joyce's Ulysses but been baffled by the interior monologue, then Short Sun is probably going to daunt you as well. But we feel the rewards of this book are equal to those giants in literature.
(...)
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
The Final Volume of the Book of the Short Sun.
This follow-up to On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles continues the saga of the man who calls himself Horn, and his quest to find the political and spiritual leader, Patera Silk, and bring him back to settle political unrest in his hometown.
As in
Although it's not absolutely that a reader be familiar with Wolfe's works The Book of the Long Sun, and The Book of the New Sun to read this (though it wouldn't hurt, either), I would say that one absolutely has to have read the two previous books in this particular series for the story to make any sense whatsoever.
Having read them, I enjoyed this conclusion very much - a few story arcs I wish could have been drawn together in a more dramatic and satisfying way - but, on the other hand, it fits with the style to not wrap everything up into a neat package
This follow-up to On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles continues the saga of the man who calls himself Horn, and his quest to find the political and spiritual leader, Patera Silk, and bring him back to settle political unrest in his hometown.
As in
Show More
the previous two books, Wolfe uses an unreliable narrator, who speaks of things happening in multiple places and times, and whose perspective on events seems to frequently shift and disagree with that of other characters. Philosophical themes include musings on identity, religion, and the various sorts of bonds that there are between people...Although it's not absolutely that a reader be familiar with Wolfe's works The Book of the Long Sun, and The Book of the New Sun to read this (though it wouldn't hurt, either), I would say that one absolutely has to have read the two previous books in this particular series for the story to make any sense whatsoever.
Having read them, I enjoyed this conclusion very much - a few story arcs I wish could have been drawn together in a more dramatic and satisfying way - but, on the other hand, it fits with the style to not wrap everything up into a neat package
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
And so the twelve books of Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle draw to a close with Return to the Whorl. Wolfe's unreliable narrator, Horn (or is it Silk?) continues his quest to bring his mentor, Silk (or is it Horn?) home to the city of New Viron on the colonised world of Blue. I was intrigued to find
This book does actually resolve a few issues. It brings together two narrative strands that the previous two books resolutely refused to clarify. Finally, the overall picture of The Book of the Short Sun is revealed. We make another visit to Urth, and refer back to events and characters in The Shadow of the Torturer. We even get a vague "explanation" of Horn's ability to move seamlessly between worlds, though it's best described as "one hand waving". Even the bird Oreb gets some resolution. The destiny of The Whorl is finally revealed and in the closing pages we are back in solid science fiction territory. You might even find that loose ends are tied up, though some remain unravelled. (Though I have to admit that some of the narrative shifts left me thinking "Is that Wolfe playing with us, or just really bad proofreading or editing?" There are times when it's hard to be sure.)
As ever, the writing is sumptuous and the imagery striking. Like its preceding volumes, this is not an easy read and it demands much more from the reader than the description "a science fiction trilogy" might suggest.
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myself becoming quite taken with the personality of the protagonist, who gains in wisdom and self-knowledge (even if that self-knowledge is misplaced). We meet his sons, and we meet others who join him on his journey back to Viron on board the generation starship The Whorl (I had a massive clue when one of these travellers was described, in the list at the beginning of the book, as "a blind wanderer". My Wagnerian self thought "Oh yes?".)This book does actually resolve a few issues. It brings together two narrative strands that the previous two books resolutely refused to clarify. Finally, the overall picture of The Book of the Short Sun is revealed. We make another visit to Urth, and refer back to events and characters in The Shadow of the Torturer. We even get a vague "explanation" of Horn's ability to move seamlessly between worlds, though it's best described as "one hand waving". Even the bird Oreb gets some resolution. The destiny of The Whorl is finally revealed and in the closing pages we are back in solid science fiction territory. You might even find that loose ends are tied up, though some remain unravelled. (Though I have to admit that some of the narrative shifts left me thinking "Is that Wolfe playing with us, or just really bad proofreading or editing?" There are times when it's hard to be sure.)
As ever, the writing is sumptuous and the imagery striking. Like its preceding volumes, this is not an easy read and it demands much more from the reader than the description "a science fiction trilogy" might suggest.
Show Less
Awards
SF Site Editor's Choice (2001)
Locus Recommended Reading (2001)
Original publication date
2001
Physical description
416 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
0312873646 / 9780312873646