On Blue's Waters

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. Gene Wolfe has been called the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced by The Washington Post. A former engineer, he has written numerous books and won a variety of awards for his SF writing, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Prix Apollo. On Blue's Waters is the start of a major new work by Gene Wolfe.It is 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 us 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 planet's great leader, Silk, and the only one who can convince Silk 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 with In Green's Jungles and Return to the Whorl. On Blue's Waters is a rich enough work to stand on its own merits and is further evidence that Wolfe is the finest living writer in his field., The Seattle TimesBy any standard, Wolfe's beautifully composed, meditative, thrilling, and tricky-beyond-belief 'science fantasy' is a work of the highest art., The Washington Post Book WorldSentence by sentence, Mr. Wolfe writes as well as anyone in science fiction today., The New York TimesIf all you care about in speculative fiction is delightfully inventive ideas, then Gene Wolfe should be one of your favorite writers. If all you care about is deft, witty, dead-on writing, then you must already be reading Wolfe., Orson Scott CardGene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today . . . There is nobody who can even approach Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning., Michael Swanwick