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A review by christopherc
The Wizard by Gene Wolfe
2.0
THE WIZARD is the second half of "The Wizard Knight", Gene Wolfe's fantasy novel in two volumes. I read THE KNIGHT when it came out and was deeply disappointed by it, enough so that I stopped following Wolfe's work. But as I recently came across a copy of the work's completion, I decided to press on nevertheless.
As THE WIZARD opens, Sir Able returns to Mythgarthr from Skai. 20 years have passed for him in that higher sphere, but only a couple of days for the embassy to the Giants. Most of the novel is dedicated to the adventures of Able, Lord Beel, Idnn and company in Jotunland, and this proved to drag horribly. If you're a Wolfe fan and you thought the tunnels scene in "The Book of the Long Sun" or the whole of SOLDIER OF ARETE went on far longer than necessary, then you'll have the same feeling of wading through a literary mire here. My biggest complaint about THE KNIGHT was that Wolfe's love of the unreliable narrator seemed increasingly a limitation. In this second half of the story, Able's narration is rather more solid, but the pacing is horrible.
That said, THE WIZARD does pick up in its last 200 pages, most of the mysteries raised during the novel are given solutions, and the ending is pretty touching. However, as a whole "The Wizard Knight" is certainly third-rate Wolfe, and though I continue to cherish classic works like "The Book of the New Sun" (much of "The Wizard Knight" retreads) and THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, I detect the start of a precipitous decline in Wolfe's powers here.
As THE WIZARD opens, Sir Able returns to Mythgarthr from Skai. 20 years have passed for him in that higher sphere, but only a couple of days for the embassy to the Giants. Most of the novel is dedicated to the adventures of Able, Lord Beel, Idnn and company in Jotunland, and this proved to drag horribly. If you're a Wolfe fan and you thought the tunnels scene in "The Book of the Long Sun" or the whole of SOLDIER OF ARETE went on far longer than necessary, then you'll have the same feeling of wading through a literary mire here. My biggest complaint about THE KNIGHT was that Wolfe's love of the unreliable narrator seemed increasingly a limitation. In this second half of the story, Able's narration is rather more solid, but the pacing is horrible.
That said, THE WIZARD does pick up in its last 200 pages, most of the mysteries raised during the novel are given solutions, and the ending is pretty touching. However, as a whole "The Wizard Knight" is certainly third-rate Wolfe, and though I continue to cherish classic works like "The Book of the New Sun" (much of "The Wizard Knight" retreads) and THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, I detect the start of a precipitous decline in Wolfe's powers here.