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Title: On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun' (Book of the Short Sun) |
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Review of On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun' (Book of the Short Sun)
- On Blue's Waters is the start of a major new work by Gene Wolfe, the first of three volumes that comprise The Book of the Short Sun, which takes place in the years after Wolfe's four-volume Book of the Long Sun. Horn, the narrator of the earlier work, now tells his own story. Though life is hard on the newly settled planet of Blue, Horn and his family have made a decent life for themselves. But Horn is the only one who can locate the great leader Silk, and convince him to return to Blue and lead them all to prosperity. So Horn sets sail in a small boat, on a long and difficult quest across the planet Blue in search of the now legendary Patera Silk. The story continues in In Green's Jungles and Return to the Whorl.
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Comments for On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun' (Book of the Short Sun)
- Posted on 2008-05-12
Different shades of azure dovetail in the mind
While the Book of the Long Sun ended on a satisfactory note to those who didn't want to read further, it also allowed itself plenty of room to continue the stories of those who were involved in it. At the end of that long work, we found that the Whorl was apparently a giant spaceship and that the actual plan was to get everyone to two planets that it was near, Blue and Green. And thus, everyone did. Sort of. We pick up the tale a few decades later on Blue where Horn (who "wrote" Book of the Long Sun) finds that everything seems to be falling apart, civilization isn't what it used to be and the colonists are being attacked by inhumi, flying, shapeshifting vampiric creatures. Thus he decides to go on a quest to find the one man who can put it all back together, Patera Silk, who has been AWOL since we last saw him (and had an awesomely understated exit at the close of that last tetraology) and while he fully intends on doing it alone, it doesn't quite work out that way.
Wolfe is never going to an action packed writer, his prose is dense and things tend to unfold slowly, interlocking and branching until it all comes together. This is probably his most accessible book, at least on the surface, told in a first person style by Horn that is straightforward, although still heavy on ruminations from time to time. Horn has personality, although he lacks Silk's razor sharp and almost casual insights and his singularity of purpose. But as a straight-up quest, events are much easier to follow this time out. At first. Then things get deceptive.
The early part of this book, for all its accessibility, can be rough going for those who never read "Book of the Long Sun" because there are a lot of references to that previous series, to the point where I wondered when the actual plot was going to start or if we'd just be rehashing events from "Long Sun" in greater detail and a first-person viewpoint. Then it changes and I can remember almost the exact point where all the first-personness condensed and became something far sharper and harder than I expected. It comes as suddenly the narrative starts to reference events that have occurred after our current point of view, a future Horn writing about events from his relative youth.
The sequence is brief, but it ends with the lyrically eloquent: "But know this: the best and happiest of my hours you know nothing about. I have seen days like gold." From that point on the book seems to gain focus, especially once Krait the inhumi comes on board, inserting these very alien but seemingly human creatures into the story adds another level to it. Meanwhile, the narrative itself splits and simultaneously becomes about Horn's life years from now after the book's events are over and what is happening now and what gets him to Green. He manages to do both without becoming confusing and still allowing mysteries to linger for future novels and does it so easily that you don't realize how difficult this is to pull off. Which is what makes it deceptive, he pulls you right into the complex and you never realize how much of a fractal you've entered.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-03-28
A great book
Gene Wolfe at his best as he weaves the whorl and Horn in an enigmatic manner that exemplifies his style. I am always just short of being frustrated with Wolfe. You wait and wait, read and read, hoping for something significant to happen yet never seems to, only to discover that it has already happen but you didn't know. The frustration and mystification will only increase with subsequent books in the series as Horn devolves into
a multi-dimensional confusion of characters and space-time reality. I fell in love with the siren Seawrack and feel pity for Krait the alien vampire...or is he a manifestation of Horn's son Sinew? Wolfe will tease and tempt you but never really answer any of your questions while seducing you with effortless, gorgeous prose. I miss Silk.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2006-05-23
Wolfe Blindness: a minority report
..
I've never much cared for the Wolfe I've read (which isn't all that
much), but he gets so much praise from people whose opinions
I respect that, every few years, I try him again [note 1]. This time,
I tried On Blue's Waters (1999), since I recalled seeing some comments
that the Short Sun 'series' (which appears to be one long novel) is
unusually accessible. Plus, I saw a blurb by Michael Swanwick
praising Wolfe as the world's greatest working novelist, in *any*
genre....
Anyway, Blue's does have clear prose and an unambiguously sfnal
setting -- Blue is a pleasantly Earthlike planet that has recently been
settled by colonists from the Long Sun generation-ship, which is a
VERY large spaceship indeed. This is good, because I recall being put
off in both the New Sun and Long Sun books by the fantasy-that's-
really-SF tomfoolery [note 2].
Blue's also has a broken-back plot structure that got in the way of
Wolfe's story (IMO), but there was enough going on to lure me into
finishing the thing, even after it became obvious that this wasn't a
stand-alone book (another annoyance). Anyway, Wolfe's conceit
here is that On Blue's Waters is the memoir of the viewpoint
character (with complications noted in the reviews cited below).
Fine, except that it's a *first draft* memoir (written with a quill pen
on handmade paper....), and the narrator is constantly jumping around
from story-present to various times in his past, which I found both
confusing and annoying. Plus the bridge-bits (which make it a
'memoir' rather than flashbacks) are meandering and rather dull.
And there are all these carried-over characters from the Long Sun
books, that I'm supposed to recognize, I guess... Faugh.
So here I am again, wondering how Wolfe has acquired such a
stellar reputation from books that I find, at best, annoyingly 'literary'
and at worst unreadable. Why would Wolfe structure Blue's as a
confusing, meandering and dullish pseudo-memoir? How is this
better than using a conventional first-person with flashbacks plot-
structure? Why does Wolfe deliberately fracture and obscure what's
basically a fine travel-adventure yarn? His choice, of course, and he
clearly knows what he's doing, but it sure doesn't agree with me.
Sigh.
I'm guessing that the Short Sun is as straightforward as Wolfe is
likey to get, at novel-length anyway, and I liked On Blue's Waters
well enough that I may continue into Green's Jungles sometime --
but I'm afraid that most of the glittering jewels that others see in
Wolfe's work look like dusty pebbles to me.
___________________
Note 1). I vividly recall a long-ago weekend in some godforsaken
mining camp when for some reason all I had to read was Free Live
Free. And it rained. It was a VERY long weekend, and it was years
before I touched another Wolfe.
2). I abandoned both series (after about 1.5 of each), not because of
this, but because I Didn't Care What Happened to Those People.
I have had better luck with his short stories -- I've liked maybe 1/3 of
those that I've read, as opposed to, basically, none of the novels.
I believe that I've sampled most of what Wolfe's fans think is
his best work....
Review copyright 2002 by Peter D. Tillman
First published at Infinity Plus, with links and discussion:
infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/blueh2o2.htm
Score: 3
- Posted on 2004-12-22
"A Voyage to Green"
Reading this brilliant first portion of "Short Sun," I repeatedly wondered if Wolfe had not decided to pay homage to David Lindsay's woefully unknown masterpiece, "A Voyage to Arcturus." In many ways, Horn seems much like Lindsay's character, Maskull, metamorphosizing to meet the demands of each situation, using and abusing those who offer him aid while trying to overcome his base urges and rise to the status of savior.
Wolfe is never content to simply tell a story, though, and his narrative complexities often scare off readers...Severian's memoir in The Book of the New Sun is, sadly, seen as overly long-winded by some; the progression of intrigues in Long Sun is considered, by many, the book's greatest weakness, along with its treasury of characters. Short Sun is no different: Horn's meditations are deeply personal, more of a confessional than anything. It is fitting that Horn, like Severian, narrates in the first person. Where Severian is distinctly amoral, relating his actions, ranging from murder to rape and worse, with no hint of regret, or even the notion that he should feel regret, Horn relates his actions with perfect honesty and marked shame...his memoir is a plea for mercy, while Severian's is simply a chance to allow others to remember.
Wolfe's characterization is at its peak, here, and I do not believe he has ever written more human characters. I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of the next two volumes in my mailbox!
Score: 5 - Posted on 2004-08-23
Challenging--but as brilliant as it gets
(...)
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 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.
(...)
Score: 5
