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    Soldier of the Mist
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    Soldier of the Mist
    Unavailable
    Soldier of the Mist
    Ebook413 pages6 hours

    Soldier of the Mist

    By Gene Wolfe

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The first volume of Gene Wolfe's powerful story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory. In return it gave him the ability to converse with supernatural creatures, gods and goddesses who invisibly inhabit the ancient landscape.


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

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 15, 1986
    ISBN9781466828513
    Unavailable
    Soldier of the Mist
    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 Soldier of the Mist

    3.5/5

    14 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I felt like I was in as much of a mist as the character who had lost his short term memory. It was hard keeping track of names and places and what was happening, but it did make me want to continue reading. Definitely not as compelling as his science fiction books.
    • 2/5
      I just didn't get engaged with the characters...an intriguing concept, in that a man loses his memory and must write down his experiences so he knows what he is doing, but it made for a disjointed story. And (stupid to say, what with all the Greek gods popping up in the story) a little too deus ex machina
    • 4/5
      I wish it had been the first Wolfe I had read, or that I’d read it instead of The Wizard-Knight, because there is a definite Pattern to Wolfe’s books: a young man doesn’t know (has forgotten) (has lost) his position in Society; the book is dedicated to him finding out what that position is; there is no real plot. Of the two, Soldier of the Mist is better than The Wizard-Knight, though that might be influenced by my own predilection for Greek mythology. Wolfe’s use of the mythology is very good, and he has the appropriate degree of awe before the gods. Still, Wolfe’s formula is wearing, especially due to the lack of plot. Four stars because it's beautifully written, and for the treatment of the gods.
    • 2/5
      Considering that it's been two months since I started that book (and it's not long), I think it's safe to assume that I'm not going to finish that one.

      Soldier of the Mist wasn't dreadful - it has a great premise, a narrator who has anterograde amnesia (a la Memento), blundering through a Persian War-era Greece and becoming increasingly in touch with the Greek otherworld of gods and monsters. Wolfe is a fine stylist and historical writer, and I initially enjoyed reading this.

      I lost interest because, as with his much later book The Sorceror's House, most of the characters felt unreal to me. The complex mechanism of Wolfe's plot drives everything, which could work if only I sympathized with any of the characters. The dialogue is usually okay, but the characters have shallow motivations and flat personalities, and their interactions sometimes feel unnatural. Our protagonist is understandably passive and mysterious - as an amnesiac, he doesn't know who he is or what exactly is happening to him - but he doesn't seem to have normal motivations or desires and often has weirdly unemotional reactions. In one striking and bizarre scene, a prepubescent girl who has attached herself to his entourage tells him that she and an older woman have both been raped while imprisoned. The narrator doesn't seem to understand what she's saying and doesn't show concern. I'm not sure if this WTF moment was an intentional attempt to alienate us from the narrator, but it read as unbelievable.

      Since The Sorceror's House had an identical problem - unlikable, unreal characters - I got the feeling that this wasn't just the tone that Wolfe had chosen for his book, it's the way he writes, with books full of people who aren't people. I drifted away from the book and don't think I'll be returning.
    • 4/5
      Read This Each Day is the title of the first chapter in Soldier of the Mist.Latro has sustained a head injury in battle and now has only short term memory lasting 12 hours at best. Each day begins anew for him, having forgotten the previous day and who he is. The healer gives Latro a scroll on which he is to write the events of each day so that he can remember his name and those of the people around him. Latro's quest is to find the shrine of the earth goddess where he sustained his injury and ask her to heal him. Along the way he gathers an entourage; the black man who communicates through gestures and becomes his best friend, little Io, a slave girl given to him by the golden god, Pendaros, the poet and Hilaeira, the courtesan. Each day they must remind Latro who they are and who he is. It's not long though before we find out that Latro has some very special qualities. And someway down the line he is forced to chose one wish out of three; to have him memory restored, be returned to his friends or returned to his home. Latro's choice is an interesting one. The plot is complex but highly accessible. It is steeped in the traditions of ancient Greece and has the feel of ancient Greek mythology. Wolfe's prose is airy, sparse and lyrical and his humor subtle. It doesn't make you laugh out loud but you find yourself smiling joyfully at times.The story and the characters are captivating. Highly suggested for those readers of literary fiction who might want to branch off into quest fantasy for a bit.
    • 4/5
      Historical fiction is rarely, *rarely* this good. The author often (and understandably) errs by projecting the stuff of the present into the past. Or the research is insufficient. Or the story lacks vitality somehow, because the author doesn't quite raise the story out of its entrenched history -- after all, it has already happened. Not so with Wolfe. He seems as divinely inspired as his protagonist in his portrayal of such a bygone age, which he manages so briskly, with such deftness and unfailing honesty, that my jaw dropped routinely during the reading.Don't expect a Hollywood ending to this one. The protagonist, Latro, founders from beginning to end -- his short and long-term amnesia causes much trouble for the reader, and largely because of Wolfe's deadly accurate narration, one vicariously experiences the mist that Latro wanders through until the very last page. The narrative is brutally honest, and reminded me a bit of the story of Job.Probably deserves 5 stars once I get around to a second read. (Wolfe is one of the very few writers who reads better the second time around.)
    • 4/5
      a little confusing (as i read several other reviews this came up also, phew and here i thought i was dense) all in all good and interesting.
    • 1/5
      completely baffling and impossible with the most disappointing ending I could imagine. Torturous.
    • 5/5
      This came out shortly after I'd taken a couple of Classics papers dealing with the period it covers, and Wolfe's portrayal of it is just genius. Apart from that, it's a great story.