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    On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun'
    Unavailable
    On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun'
    Unavailable
    On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun'
    Ebook467 pages8 hours

    On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun'

    By Gene Wolfe

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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.

    "By 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 World

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 1, 2007
    ISBN9781429982481
    Unavailable
    On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun'
    Author

    Gene Wolfe

    Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winners The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes as Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Best of Gene Wolfe. A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and six Locus Awards, among many other honors, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012.

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    Reviews for On Blue's Waters

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    • 5/5
      Retro Thursday, you cry? Well, I've studiously avoided anything to do with Blue/Green/Whorl for years, out of a deep-seated but legitimate terror that I'd discover Patera Silk had actually died, either at the end of Long Sun or in the intervening time.

      He might well die in Green or Whorl (though I doubt it for Green, otherwise have a third book?) but at least so far, he appears not to have in Blue, since he's somewhat contactable; I can therefore finish the series.

      Gene Wolfe's writing is, as ever, fluid and thoughtful; it reads less complex than previous narratives which makes me sad (he apparently felt the need to tone this down over time.) However it does suit Horn's style a little better, this being intended as "pure" Horn without Nettle's input, as we had in Long Sun. (One gets the impression that Nettle was extremely clever).

      I am always, as ever, amazed by Wolfe's confidence. He doesn't rush, and has no trace of Authorial Anxiety (a real thing). He doesn't force action out of a fear that readers will get bored. It goes at the pace he sets, in the direction he wants, and no faster or further than that. We are so often accustomed in books to authors chivying us along - look here, follow that, note this - that I think we are increasingly unused to just being allowed to sit back and consider events.
    • 4/5
      I've all of the volumes of Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun," but none of the "Book of the Long Sun," which I believe is really intended to be read before this book (and its sequels).
      I did intend on sometime getting around to the Long Sun. However, this one was on a birthday wishlist, so it got bumped up! And - it is an excellent book.
      The story is science-fantasy - in a far future, humanity has left the artificial world known as the Whorl, and has recolonized two planets, Green and Blue. On the earthlike Blue,
      humanity faces both social disorder and the threat of the vampire-like inhumi, invading from Green. The narrator, a man named Horn, is recruited by some powerful individuals to seek out the missing religious(?) leader Silk, and return him to a place where he may galvanize society as a figurehead. A complex and adventurous journey ensues, but the really interesting aspect of the novel is its structure. It's in the form of a memoir written by Horn. He is not a professional writer, and as he sets down his story, in a rather meandering, prone-to-tangents style, we learn, simultaneously, what happened to him in the past, and what is currently happening to him. It's a book of clues and gradual
      revelations... and a story of character.
      Highly recommended.