There are so many wonderful little details in Wolfe, but they take work to notice and appreciate. E.g. in Shadow of the Torturer, Severin introduces himself to us as having perfect memory, and as he's getting exiled from the guild the guildmaster is giving him advice but >>> https://t.co/vbzuO3Z3WM
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2/ Severin drifts off. Guildmaster yells at him "it was valuable advice! ...but you probably would have forgotten it". Or, 20 pages before that, Severin visits a brothel and there's a discussion with the woman there about is she X, or does she merely look like X, and >>>
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3/ Wolfe is touching on the degree to which lust / infatuation / love are inside our own heads, and how much each of us can truly know others. It's deep stuff, and thought provoking (not just this, but he does this sort of thing constantly).
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4/ Also, there's the language. He doesn't invent words, but he dives deep, and brings up archaic words all the time. Fun to look those up.
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5/ ...plus the worldbuilding! Severian's guild is in a tower...and only slowly do we realize that this ancient ancient city is built of long abandoned spaceships. Why? There's a guild of torturers. Why? Who is the autarch who rules the whole world?
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6/ Plus there are the political and spiritual themes. Urth is so far in the future that there is no Christianity, and yet there seems to be a God shaped hole in Severian's heart. Why is he exiled from the guild? Because he shows mercy. Deep stuff.
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7/ You get something new every time you return to it. ...it's a lot like the writing of John Scalzi or any of the other recent Hugo winners that way.
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