I have many enemies. And now none of them will even think about reading Wolfe. I'm looking at you Buck and Cetacean Man-Child.

I also appreciate being left out the general back room talent. Genius does stand out from the crowd even if it is unappreciated. Le sigh.

I need to read more.

Let's discuss this after you finish The U.

Nor shall I read Tom Wolfe. I shall also forget everything I read in Call of the Wild. Hell, I'm even going to make sure I never see Coyote Ugly! Curse Irishcrusader!!!

I had to wait 3 weeks for the library to get these books.

I echo PapaNovember with regards to Wolfe and the Book of the New Sun. I was aware that what I was reading was on a level that I couldn't fully appreciate, but it doesn't necessarily mean the story engrossed me in a fashion that others could. Reading Wolfe was a job which I'm glad I did but I'm not anxious to dive back in.

Wholly engrossing, but still quite deep especially Wizard Knight.

Also check out the short stories. Moat definitely not a slog for the most part and you can skip the ones that bore you. But I still think about Tracking Song and the Island series and The Eyeflash Miracles (sic?) Pretty often.

I'm sure you'll still be here

You'll be here as well? I doubt I'll be here though. I have plans to become a pirate on my 35th birthday. I assume it's like being Amish and I won't have access to the internets.

I have to stick around for Brian Kelly's 7th national championship

I don't quite understand what's going on in these books, but they have staying power. I plan, upon retirement, to reread them. My memory is not like Severian's. Heck, Severian's memory isn't like Severian's.

Just one of those things. I think I started it around the same time I started The Name of the Wind, and one was just way more engaging than the other.

I'll read it sooner or later, I'm sure.

Don't think I've read Free Live Free.

Which is only not on this list because it's recent enough that it's always been available as an e-book.

Pirate Freedom on its own is a pretty good book. Pirate Freedom read alongside Wizard Knight is a GREAT book. Both Christopher [last name obscured] and "Able" are transported into different, clearly imperfect worlds. "Able" immediately decides to be the best kind of man that world has -- a noble knight. Christopher...makes another choice.

Able decides to be a noble knight who owns slaves and isn't afraid to display overwhelming force when met with even the smallest bit of resistance. The whole talking dog thing does enhance his nobility though, I'll admit.

he's the best kind of person in his Savage Sword of Conan kind of world.

That's still not a very good person -- in fact, he vacillates between swaggering bully and self-righteous prig -- but Christopher would've been an Osterling cannibal or the High Priest of Setr.

Responding to Didi...that's just weird...or exactly what Wolfe wants: for the reader to associate those books with each other.

thanks for the reco

isn't fit to wipe Gene Wolfe's backside. Enjoy.

He knows everybody. I've enjoyed a few of his novels (The Anansi Boys was fun), but I subscribe to his blog because of his relations with other writers. He stops in to see Wolfe whenever he's in Chicago. He posted a wonderful recollection of his time with Diane Wynne Jones. He had a nice article on Tolkien. You may not like his work, but he likes good work, and good writers like him.

I just think he's overhyped a bit, perhaps consistent with what CE mentions about his networking. I think he's got well above average creativity, and about average writing skills.

He's a gifted mimic and as such he's done some really great pastiches.

I love Sandman, but I think it's overhyped as well. It routinely places first on lists of the best comic runs ever, which IMHO greatly overstates it. Also, the average Sandman fan thinks Season of the Mist is the best Sandman story arc, when it's like, fourth out of seven or eight actual arcs, making it really just average Sandman fare (behind Brief Lives, A Game of You, and The Kindly Ones).

While Morrison was doing drugs and partying as a young, wealthy, successful writer -- and while Alan Moore was throwing elbows and making enemies -- Gaiman was schmoozing, making friends, and generally building a network.

This is why Gaiman is now wildly more wealthy and well-known than Morrison or Moore.