Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe(33 Liverpool Science Fiction Texts & Studies)

Gene Wolfe is one of the most important American writers to emerge in the latter half of the twentieth century. The fact that he publishes in the field of fantastic literature (which includes horror, science and speculative fiction) has meant that his significance has been largely unacknowledged beyond and, at times, even within the genre. Nevertheless, he remains the author of some of the most stylistically distinct, structurally complex, and intellectually invigorating imaginative fiction of recent years. This collection of interviews and essays places under one cover an amazing selection of difficult-to-find resources for the avid Gene Wolfe reader and scholar. Essays concern the nature of writing, including character, structure and the profession of the writer. Also included are a series of interviews with Wolfe and the holy grail of ‘New Sun’ aficionados: Books in the Book of the New Sun, previously only available in a rare small-press volume. This collection will inspire fans and scholars alike to commit themselves to debating new interpretations of Wolfe’s fiction.

Table of Contents:
Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: The Trackless Meadows of Old Time 1. Gene Wolfe: An Interview Malcolm Edwards 2. An Interview with Gene Wolfe Joan Gordon 3. An Interview with Gene Wolfe Melissa Mia Hall 4. Interview: Gene Wolfe – ‘The Legerdemain of the Wolfe’ Robert Frazier 5. Riding a Bicycle Backwards: An Interview with Gene Wolfe Colin Greenland 6. A Conversation with Gene Wolfe Nancy Kress and Calvin Rich 7. An Interview with Gene Wolfe Elliott Swanson 8. On Encompassing the Entire Universe: An Interview with Gene Wolfe Larry McCaffery 9. Gene Wolfe Interview James B. Jordan 10. Gene Wolfe Interview Brendan Baber 11. Peter and the Wolfe: Gene Wolfe in Conversation Peter Wright 12. Suns New, Long, and Short: An Interview with Gene Wolfe Lawrence Person 13. A Magus of Many Suns: An Interview with Gene Wolfe Nick Gevers 14. Some Moments with the Magus: An Interview with Gene Wolfe Nick Gevers, Michael Andre-Driussi and James Jordan Part II: The Wild Joy of Strumming 15. Books in The Book of the New Sun 16. Wolfe’s Rules: What You Must Do to Be a Writer 17. Balding, Avuncular Gene’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Creating Memorable Characters 18. Wolfe’s Irreproducible Truths About Novels 19. Nor the Summers as Golden: Writing Multivolume Works 20. What Do They Mean, SF? 21. The Special Problems of Science Fiction 22. How to Be a Writer’s Family 23. Libraries on the Superhighway – Rest Stop or Roadkill? 24. The Handbook of Permissive English 25. More Than Half of You Can’t Read This 26. Wolfe’s Inalienable Truths About Reviewing 27. A Fantasist Reads the Bible and Its Critics Index

About the Author :
Peter Wright is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Film Studies at Edge Hill College in Lancashire, England. He is author of Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader (Liverpool University Press, 0853238286.

Review :
Gene Wolfe is a fascinating and infuriating writer whose oblique style, complexity of tone, playfulness of manner, and insistence that we read more between the lines than in practically any other sf novelist mean that his work demands and repays endless close investigation. The book is, inevitably, going to prove valuable. Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 36, Part 1