I was remiss not to read this sooner.

I finally finished Gene Wolfe's Short Sun series. I read the vast majority of it last year, but ended up having to return the final book to the library unread. Then, somehow, -inexplicably- I forgot to check it out again and finish it. So I've finally finished my Return to the Whorl. Gene Wolfe is not only the best SF writers around, but he's one of the best writers I've read in a long time, full stop.

If you haven't read any of his books before, this will certainly not be the one you want to start with. This is the concluding book in a trilogy that comes after another series (Long Sun) and relies heavily on the reader being familiar with characters that were introduced six books previously. Not only that, but he ties it in with his New Sun series which is either 3 or 5 books depending on how you count them. (Initially written as a series of four (short by today's standards) novels, these were later combined into a pair of longer novels and then he wrote another book that kinda is tacked on at the end.)

You should run right out and find these books and read them with alacrity. Wolfe writes of worlds as fully realised as those of Tolkien, though perhaps not as imaginative and original since he limits himself more to the conventions of SF rather than Fantasy. I don't want to imply that Wolfe lacks imagination or originality, merely that he does not quite achieve the great heights reached by the beloved Professor.

Wolfe's books ring true in remarkable ways. Despite writing about people, places and things far removed from this world, the people in them almost never strike a false note. The people are distinct, memorable and run the gamut of personalities. Villains, heroes, commoners, nobles, holy men, soldiers, deities, doctors, scientists, sailors, you name it, he can write it and well.

Though this extensive series of connected books has (justly) made Wolfe's reputation, my favourites of his are the books about Latro. When I first read these I could hardly put the books down and blew through the 640 pages of the omnibus of the first two books in just a couple days. And that included going to work and sleeping (a little)!

Anyway, if you don't mind a few spoilers, this particular book wraps up the story of Horn searching for Silk. Wolfe is as cagey as ever about whether or not Horn realises that in some not-so-insignificant ways he now is Silk, but Horn has certainly transformed over the course of the tale into a confident, wise old man. The ending isn't quite what one would expect. It's not a purely happy or sad ending, but it is certainly fitting. It has a feeling of rightness and fitness that is difficult to quantify or describe, but that appears in almost all of Wolfe's tales. Long may he live and write.