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Gene Wolfe

There simply isn't another writer who can produce fantasy stories of the quality of Gene Wolfe's. He is utterly superb.

Don't look here for swords and sorcery (though there is one quasi-Arthurian story) - although Wolfe's most successful books probably are the ones that stray towards this genre, his greatest fantasy (and in this case some subtle horror too) relies on taking a largely real world situation and giving it an unnerving twist.

It's fair to say that Wolfe has taken the torch of sophisticated fantasy and horror from Ray Bradbury and is holding it high. While he has none of Bradbury's whimsy, he has all the genius. Interestingly, several of the stories in this book have a Bradburyesque feel - but it is Bradbury with a steel edge buried inside. One of them must, surely, be an intentional homage to Bradbury - no one can write American fantasy horror that takes children to a strange night time carnival with freakish characters without thinking of Bradbury. But it isn't in any way pastiche.

One or two of the stories are quite simple and straightforward. Most, though, in classic Wolfe fashion, expect a little work from the reader. It's not uncommon to finish a story and think "what happened there?" Its necessary to need read slowly, appreciating all the nuances. Most importantly these are stories of the mind. Few could be successfully put on the screen, because they depend so much on your filling in the gaps, interpreting, surprising yourself. One story, for instance, could be about the Virgin Mary - but equally might be something totally different. Another seems at first sight a classic, Poe-like story of possessed walking sticks (Poe, like Bradbury, flits through book - and this is explicitly intentional.) - but do the sticks even exist in the way they are initially described?

If you think short stories (or for that matter fantasy) is for children, think again. This is simply superb fiction, entirely deserving of winning one of the great literary prizes, if only the judges could get over their distaste for the F[antasy] word. Without doubt this is one of the best books of the year.

Also in paperback from March 2005:

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