Customer Reviews

Innocents Aboard: New Fantasy Stories

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Everything that needs to be said about Gene Wolfe has already been said, and said often. He's the best writer we have, and his work will endure.

*Innocents Aboard: new fantasy stories* is his sixth collection. I'd like to comment on two of the twenty-two stories herein.

"Houston, 1943" is the oldest, from 1988; "The Lost Pilgrim" is the newest, from 2004. For me, these are the highlights of a memorable collection.

I read "Houston, 1943" when it was first published in an anthology called *Tropical Chills*, then I promptly lost the paperback. In the intervening years I've never forgotten it. Rereading it last week was like reliving a particularly memorable nightmare.

Roddy, a boy, wakes in the middle of a sweltering night; a voice beckons from beyond the window: "Come." Roddy, who might still be dreaming, climbs out of bed. Out on the lawn stands another boy, one he's never seen before, who tells him his name is Jim. Roddy climbs out. The boy, silent, grips him by the arm and points toward the crawlspace under the house. "His grasp was cold and damp," Wolfe writes, "as if he had been groping after something lost in water." The boy points again, this time to a tarantula on the lawn. On five legs it runs swiftly toward Roddy, and climbs his pajama bottoms to his chest. "He grasped it, felt its stiff hair and gouging nails, and knew he held a human hand." Shaking it off, Roddy returns indoors. But he finds another figure -- himself -- asleep in the bed. He decides to follow Jim out onto the dark, silent streets. "They saw a single car on Old Spanish Trail, a black de Soto that hummed past them meditating upon secrets."

Such period detail strengthens the many strangenesses of the horrific, surreal night-journey that follows; one that, with its vivid evocation of childhood, seems part of an informal series of stories Wolfe has written throughout his career, including "The Island of Doctor Death and other stories," "And When They Appear," "Fifth Head of Cerberus," "The Death of Doctor Island," "The Man in the Paper Mill," and others, all of which feature a boy protagonist, and (apparently) elements of autobiography. Perhaps not by accident, these stories also happen also to be some of Wolfe's greatest.

"The Lost Pilgrim" shows Wolfe at the top of his game. Though included in a collection subtitled 'new fantasy stories', it's the best sort of science fiction.

A time traveler intending to land in early America arrives instead on the shore of ancient Greece. His adversary, it seems, is Chronos.

The traveler is equipped with an internal diary, and an internal camera which captures images (pukz). The narrative, and accompanying pukz (implied yet not seen), are therefore his report to posterity. A boat soon arrives by sea -- not the Mayflower, as he had expected, but the Argos. He doesn't recognize Jason (Eeasawn, in the text), or Hercules (Hahraklahs), though soon joins their voyage. He is equally confused about his own mission, and himself; and the confusion grows: it seems the mind cannot hold onto memories that do not yet exist. All of which sets us up for a masterfully enigmatic and yet entirely precise narrative, a hallmark of Wolfe's style. Here, as in his Soldier novels, he presents the ancient world in a way that is surely closer to the truth of things; it's a wonderful corrective to most historical fiction or cinema.

*Innocents Aboard* is worth your money.

The stories in 'Innocents Aboard' are very well written, as has been all of Gene Wolfe's work that I have read so far. What I like most about this collection is how closely each of the stories tie together - not by plot or characters, but by the type of stories they are. Most of the stories deal with some kind of supernatural presence, whether it be a god, deity, element, or just the area in which one of these was worshipped. Whether it be an indigenous god of an island people or the holographic projections of an automated house, every motion, thought, and action relates back to the reader.

As a fan of Wolfe's New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun sagas, as well as a good chunk of his other work, I was happy to see some familiar characters make it into this collection. There is a story called 'The Night Chough' that relates back to Oreb of the Book of the Long Sun, and there was a story that reminded me of Latro in the Mist. I think these stories stand on their own quite nicely, too.

All in all, this is collection was extremely satisfying, and I think I will be visiting it again very soon.

This short story collection has given Gene Wolfe a break from the gigantic sweeping epics of his more famous volumes, so he can explore some less portentous and more whimsical ideas. The stories here include everything from typical fantasy and hard science, to time travel and semi-autobiography. One reoccurring concept in these stories is the fine line between magic and reality, which is Wolfe's forte. Winners here include the disturbing xenophobia tale "The Waif," a bizarre mix of Arthurian chivalry and alternate history in "Under Hill," an exploration of the true purpose of people who share the author's last name in "Wolfer," and a strangely disconcerting tale of twisted time travel to ancient Greece in "The Lost Pilgrim." A slight weakness of this collection is the inclusion of several short stories that appear to be simple exercises in exploratory writing based on old fairy tales and legends. Such stories are fun to read but tend to not really go anywhere, such as "The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun," "A Fish Story," or "The Eleventh City" - though one exception is the intriguing stylized lullaby "The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun," which was created for Wolfe's granddaughter. But overall this is a very engaging, if sometimes underwhelming, collection of tales from one of the true masters of speculative fiction. [~doomsdayer520~]

One cannot, of course, write a review of a collection of short stories the same way on writes a review of a novel. A novel is one piece, a collection many. But enough chains run through "Innocents Aboard" to deal with it as a whole. This is not because Wolfe specifically picked out works that would function well together. But here's an amazing thing about Wolfe's career: that although it has spanned three decades, twenty plus novels and hundreds of smaller tales covering a rather mind-blowing variety of settings, set-ups, and deliveries, he has managed to clutch tightly to common threads throughout.

Thread number one, perhaps, is the slipperiness of the narrator. A well-known critic has remarked that Wolfe's career goal may be to prove that there is no reliable narrator. He's covered all possible types one by one, showing us the dangers of trusting a person who has perfect memory or no memory at all, high intelligence or complete immaturity, and so forth. In "Innocents Aboard" many stories open with problems of reliability. Of necessity, as this book contains only fantasy and dark fantasy/horror tales, everything that takes place must be somewhat strange. As such, the narrators know that their listeners may be skeptical of what they hear. Often times they say as much outright, and are reassured that the listeners are at least willing to listen.

For instance "The Monday Man" begins when an average Joe asks his policeman friend to go fishing. But the policeman friend always refuses invitations to fishing trips, and eventually decides to explain why. His story, a delicious twist on a standard police tale, features a blue-jeans thief who defies expectations by turning out to be less than what he seems, and wraps with a quite comepelling reason to avoid the sport of angling. But the point, in Wolfe's view, is how to reconcile the huge intrusion of the supernatural into reasonably normal human existence. He does it with style, as always.

The other stories in "Innocents Aboard" range everywhere, from the mythological tale "The Old Woman whose Roling Pin is the Sun" to the historical horror fest "The Desert Traveler". True to form, not everything is as simple as "The Monday Man"; some, such as "The Tree is My Hat" and "Houston, 1943" will require devoted rereads to ferret out their meaning. But again true to form, they're mainly worth the effort.

For decades Gene Wolfe has received lavish praise from fellow writers and fans of science fiction and fantasy as the finest writer currently at work in both genres. He merely reaffirms such praise in his latest collection of short stories, "Innocents Aboard", which contains some of the best writing I've seen from him in years. It is a riveting collection of 22 fantasy and horror tales, with some loose elements from science fiction thrown here and there for good measure, and elements which could be described as "Magical Realism". My favorite tale is "Houston, 1943", which is sort of a bizarre twist from "Peter Pan" and other classic tales of childhood, along with sections which Wolfe claims is autobiographical. The final tale in the collection "The Lost Pilgrim", about a time traveler who stumbles upon the truth behind certain ancient Greek legends, is another classic. Those unfamiliar with Gene Wolfe's influential body of work may find this a minor introduction, but one which shows him still crafting great literary art in his 70's; others more familiar with his work will undoubtedly embrace it as much as I have.

These are stories for people who love to read, and to reread, and to think about what they've read -- for people who love the feeling that they're playing a game with the author as they read -- and for people who don't mind losing that game b/c they realize that just *playing* against an adversary this good is better than winning any number of games against normal players ...

A terrific collection which contains:

The Tree Is my Hat
The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun
The Friendship Light
Slow Children At Play
Under Hill
The Monday Man
The Waif
The Legend of Xi Cygnus
The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun
How the Bishop Sailed to Inniskeen
Houston, 1943
A Fish Story
Wolfer
The Eleventh City
The Night Chough
The Wrapper
A Traveller in Desert Lands
The Walking Sticks
Queen
Pocketsful of Diamonds
Copperhead
The Lost Pilgrim

Some notes:
"The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun" is NOT connected to the Long Sun cycle. However, "The Night Chough" is (linked to the Long Sun/Short Sun series).

"Slow Children At Play" is linked to, and evidently happens *after*, Wolfe's story "The Arimaspian Legacy," which can be found in his _Starwater Strains_.

Wolfe's talent for horror (not graphic or disgusting, but chilling and terrifying) is on display here in several stories, including (but not limited to) "The Friendship Light" "The Monday Man, "Fish Story" "Walking Sticks" and "The Eleventh City."

It often helps me to find a context for a Wolfe story. For instance, if you haven't read _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ recently, reread it after you read "Walking Sticks".

In the same vein, "Pocketsful of Diamonds" feels to me like Wolfe doing a P.L. Travers story. Read PL Travers' Mary Poppins Books, esp. "Full Moon," "Evening Out" "High Tide" "Happy Ever After" and "Hallowe'en". Then reread "Pocketsful" and see if you agree.

of some fairly unpleasant stories. Not bad by any stretch: Mr Wolfe is too much the artist (and his editors too wise) to allow a stinker to dwell here, but the subject matter and overall tone together conspire to make this collection something other than 'lite summer fare'.

An absolute must for the thoughtful reader of Mr Wolfe, and highly reccomended as a cross-genre introduction to his writings.

Simply put, Gene Wolfe uses the written English language better than any other writer alive today.

Read anything of his that you can.

My favorite story is the religious allegory 'Queen' & the time travel/Greek gods adventure 'The Lost Pilgrim' but 'The Tree Is My Hat' is pretty darn cool also. 19 more stories that are all worth reading and worth buying. So go do it! You're going to enjoy this book.