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arthurbdd's review
4.0
Compiles a second-tier short story collection, a clutch of essays about The Book of the New Sun, and a brace of bonus essays on a broader range of subjects. Not top tier Wolfe, but fascinating stuff if you've read his essential stuff from his early career. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/__trashed/
iliapop's review
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Three books in one, the majority of which are for Wolfe acolytes only. The short story collection Book of Days is pretty strong, by turns whimsical, unsettling, inscrutable and profound. Different readers will have different favourites (I particularly liked the hardboild narrator in 'Beautyland'), but they all have something to recommend them. The Castle of the Otter collects essays on Wolfe's masterpiece The Book of the New Sun published before the final volume came out, so many questions in the series are not answered (readers are better off looking to the Lexicon Urthus for a guide to its mysteries). I am someone who puts a lot of emphasis on understanding authorial intent when finding meaning in fiction, and the tidbits here, particularly on Wolfe's inspirations and what first set him on the track of writing New Sun, were of some interest. Less useful is the lenthy account of the publication process and some of the early reviews. The final part collects more Wolfe non-fiction (and some fiction), most interesting in revealing how the research into the Byzantine empire for New Sun led to an interest in Greek history and the writing of the Latro books. But a lot of it is ephemera (including dated reflections on science fiction conventions and advice for would-be writers), and I have the sense that a lot of valuable Wolfe non-fiction is still out there and could do with collecting in a new definitive volume – not least his very revealing essay on J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as some of the interviews he has done.
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