Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 09:13:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Michael Straight 
Subject: Re: (urth) Wash Post article

On Thu, 11 Apr 2002, Kevin J. Maroney wrote:
> I agree with this, and have been using it as such for the last 15 years. It 
> is neither Wolfe's best nor worst, nor his "most typical" (is there such a 
> thing for Wolfe?), but if someone reads and enjoys _Fifth Head_, that 
> person is likely to enjoy other Wolfe, and if not, they are unlikely to 
> enjoy other Wolfe much more. 

My introduction to Wolfe was the New Sun books, followed by the Soldier
books, all of which I loved.  Then I read 5HC and didn't like it very
much.  If that had been my introduction to Wolfe, I doubt I would have
gone out of my way to read more of his stuff.

I re-read 5HC recently, after having read a whole bunch more Wolfe, and
enjoyed it much more.  I like Wolfe's writing in 5HC and he does some very
interesting things with the story, but I don't find St. Anne/St. Croix and
the abos themselves all that interesting compared with Urth, the Whorl,
Silk, Severian, Latro, the inhumi, etc.

-Rostrum


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