Customer Reviews

Latro in the Mist

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Having haunted used bookstores and libraries for a year or two for copies of SOLDIER IN THE MIST and SOLDIER OF ARETE, my zeal to buy this book the very day it came out was perhaps excessive but, I think, understandable.

I've been a fan of Wolfe's since the fateful summer of 2000, when I first cracked open a copy of his magnum opus, THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, and through the course of sixteen wildly different novels and innumerable short stories he has only rarely disappointed me. That said, the Latro books have immediately jumped, if not to the head of the pack, right to the top two or three.

The main character, Latro, is a mercenary formerly in the employ of the Persian emperor Xerxes during his ill-fated invasion of Greece in 479 BCE. Struck on the head outside the goddess Demeter's temple, Latro loses his short-term memory; like the main character in "Memento", even his recent past is a mystery to him, although Latro's window of memory is twelve hours long rather than five minutes. Captured by the Greeks, he becomes a slave, passed from one master to another and one quest to another in a series of picaresque adventures ranging from the comic to the heroic to the almost unutterably grim. The word "Latro" means both "soldier" and "pawn", and Latro, despite his native cunning and skill at arms, is a pawn indeed, used by gods, men, and monsters to further their own aims; his only saving graces are his innate stoic nobility and the diverse collection of friends he accumulates along the way.

Wolfe deploys his usual stunning array of literary devices and tricks, from the de rigueur unreliable first person narrative to the more subtle possibilities allowed by Latro's illness. Several characters disappear, only to reappear in later chapters with new names and, occasionally, new faces - strangers to Latro, but not to the eagle-eyed reader, who can use the clues scattered throughout the text to discern the wheels within wheels that Wolfe has arrayed to power the plot. The prose is, of course, peerless in its elegance, diction, and intelligence; we know that Wolfe, like a silver-tongued magician, is misdirecting us, but his patter is so charming that we don't care.

A few words about the setting: despite the fantastic elements that Wolfe uses in the book, LATRO IN THE MIST is a solid and powerful piece of historical fiction, and accomplishes what only the best books in that genre can aspire to: it puts us in the mindset of people who lived in that era, lets us see how they probably acted and reacted and thought and lived. We see that Latro's memory loss is merely a reflection or literalization of the times he lives in, where slow communication and inadequate recordkeeping could distort events of even recent history into myth, legend, and hearsay; and we see that the gods and supernatural beings that Latro contends with are also reflections of the times, when people saw divine agency in almost every occurence of their daily lives. Wolfe's depiction of the Greeks feels right, painting them neither as noble towers of intellect nor as superstitious cavemen, and his frank depiction of the ancient world's brutality makes us appreciate their greatest achievements (which, in the book, are still a few decades in coming) all the more.

This is what Latro writes on the outside of his scroll to remind himself to read over his writings every morning. He has to leave himself this note because he cannot form new memories. Sound familiar? Yes, this is very much the same general idea as the film Memento from 2000, but this novel (actually a compilation of two novels, Soldier of the Mist, 1986 and Soldier of Arete, 1989) was written well before then. According to Wikipedia another book in this series, Soldier of Sidon is due out this year (2006), although I felt that the second novel, Soldier of Arete, pretty neatly ended the story.

On to the specifics. On one hand I found it really interesting, well-written, historically engaging, and a real challenge to follow a lengthy novel when the narrator isn't much help. On the other hand, the format was at times frustrating and the whole "I forget everything" got a little tiresome, especially near the beginning when most chapters were consumed by notes from Latro to himself explaining that he can't remember anything. Gene Wolfe seems to enjoy the relationship that the narrator has with the audience, as I've found his narrators are generally unusual in some way. In the New Sun books his narrator couldn't forget a single detail that he had lived through; in the Latro books the narrator can barely remember what happened a handful of hours ago, losing the rest to time, what he describes as the mist. In many ways I found myself enjoying the task of piecing together Latro's experiences into a meaningful narrative, flipping back in the novel over and over again to see if I really remembered hearing that name or that place.

This brings me to the one thing that I think really helped the Latro books be successful, which is true of Memento as well, and that is that the medium of the work inherently causes the reader to suffer the same ailment and fate as the protagonist. Wofle's writing keeps you slightly in the dark, and his method of opening each chapter with what has most recently happened, not what you just finished reading about, before moving back in time and catching up with this new present keeps you on your toes. This is why I like reading post-modern novels and novels that share many characteristics with a post-modern novel, such as this one: the effort that the reader must give to the reading and the ability and responsibility to help create the art.

Lastly, it was interesting to read what could be very loosely constructed as an historical novel. Set in ancient Greece, Wolfe does a fairly good job of helping the reader through difficult geography and cultures without giving away the game too much. He gives us many details which are likely true (I'll admit that I'm nothing close to a Grecian scholar, but what I read of Wolfe is that he likes to bleed history into his fiction) and many rough sketches of life in Greece around the turn of the calendars from BCE to CE. These details never seem to intrude on the story, only to enhance or flush out a given moment.

Overall, I would recommend this novel to others, but keep in mind that it is not a passive read. However, I found it to be pretty rewarding. Yay for Latro.

"Soldier in the Mist" and "Soldier of Arete" feel like an exercise, Wolfe consciously attempting to develop a storyline where the protagonist and setting are as contrary to the "Book of the New Sun" as possible. Here, Latro suffers from daily memory loss, where Severian captures everything, even if he is unaware of it. Latro travels in the dawning world of our distant past, where Man is not yet master of the world; Severian proceeds on a shriveled Urth where Man's great accomplishments are long spoiled and forgotten. The link is Wolfe at his best, weaving his rich, layered, veiled and often startling prose in first-person perspective.

Wolfe's imagination is so rich, and his narrative skills so great that you wonder whether these books can actually be memoirs as they are presented. If you marveled at the "Book of the New Sun", you will enjoy Wolfe effort at switching gears so completely. Latro's terse commentary may also be a welcome change from Severian's verbosity, but there are no creatures as wonderful as Dorcas here. Whether the "Soldier" books end-up as more than just an exercise to Exorcize "Book of the New Sun" really depends; Wolfe owes us two more books before we can make a full comparison.

Soldier in the Mist is the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who fought in Xerxes' army during the Persian War of 479 B.C. As a result of being wounded during the battle of Plataea, Latro cannot remember anything for more than sixteen hours or so. It is only his short-term memory that is affected, as he still remembers how to fight, swim and speak in several languages. The story itself is a journal he keeps in order to be reminded of where he is, how he got there and who his friends are. An interesting aspect of the story is that Latro can speak in Greek but can only write in Latin, so some of the words get mixed up in the translation.

A side effect of Latro's injury, which may or may not be a curse from the goddess Dememter, Latro can interact with gods, goddesses, ghosts and other supernatural beings. Latro may also be a werewolf or he may be a god himself. Or all of the supernatural elements may be hallucinations from his head-injury, the reader is left to decide.

It is a rare author whose work gets better with each reading but such is the case with Gene Wolfe. This book, an omnibus of Wolfe's previously published Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete, is a splendid read on whichever level you choose. If you are looking for a solid adventure, situated in Ancient Greece, you will get that. If you want more insight into the customs, history and mythology held by people of that era then you can get that, but it will require more work. Finally, if you want to examine the very nature of storytelling, religion and how both are shaped by our perceptions of them, than you can get that as well but it will require multiple readings and serious consideration.

The biggest compliment I can give this story is that it made me want to learn more about Ancient Greek history. After I read Wolfe's treatment of Pausanias, Themistocles and Pindaros, it made me want to learn more about their history. This opened the door to Herodotos, Thucydides and Xenophon. I wouldn't be surprised if that was Wolfe's intention all along. Wolfe's vision of Ancient Greece forms a nice counterpoint to writers who have taken a more romantic view of Ancient Greece, like Steven Pressfield and Mary Renault. I enjoy and admire their work but I think Wolfe came closer to the way things truly were. My only criticism is that Wolfe has taken far too long in writing the next installment.

It`s not quite a fantasy or sci-fi novel. Let`s call it culturological novel. Impressed by writings of the Ancient Greek historian Herodotos (Father of the History) Wolfe re-creates internal spiritual world of the ancient people and thier vision of the world around them, there hyerophania (the revealing of the God or the pagan gods) is usual experience of everyday life.
Hero of the novels, soldier Latro, retreats with the defeated Persian army through Greece in 479 B.C. and tries to remember his past and to understand his own life. The worst mistake of all novels about the history - to place modern character in the historic environment and to describe his (or her) adventres as in cinema (a kind of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra). There`s no such a mistake. Wofe tries to re-create heroic and religious aspects of the ancient culture of the Mediterranean world.
Novel "Soldier of the Mist" is among the best novels of the Ancient Greece. It is written as poem in prose, with its own rhythm of narration. Probably Wolfe was impressed also by European Symbolist artists (Klimt etc.) and by their vision of the Antiquity.
By the way, I read this novel before "The Book of the New Sun" and "Soldier of the Mist" impressed me much more than Wolfe`s well-known novels (well, I`m a historian).
"Soldier of Arete" is a kind of "The Urth of the New Sun" here. There`s no solutions and answers to all questions and sometimes it`s hard to understand the plot and the author. And after the first novel you should wait for more... But, sorry... Let`s say: "Thank you!!!" for "The Soldier of the Mist". In 2006 was released the next novel - "Soldier of Sidon" - let`s hope - it would be better.
And you could belive me - though "Soldier of the Mist" is a kind of easy reading book - you could understand it only if you had read "History" by Herodotos.
Don`t be scared. It`s also very interesting book. As one Russian historian once said, Herodotos was not only the first historian-scientist, but also the first historical novel-writer and the first ethnologist (Herodotos described the ancestors of many modern nationalties - even the ancestors of the Slavs; he travelled on the territory of modern Ukraine).
P.S. Epigraph to "Soldier of the Mist" is taken from "History" by Herodotos, book 9, 62-65. If you would read it you would understand, why Latro lost his memory.
While you are reading these novels by Gene Wolfe - why not to listen to authentic music of Ancient Greece?
Try following CDs: Ensemble De Organographia "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks" and "Music of the Ancient Greeks" - authentic ancient music; modern music in Ancient Greek style played on reconstructed ancient instruments - "Melpomen: Ancient Greek Music" by Conrad Steinmann.

As with all of Wolfe's writing, he couldn't possibly care less that people understand him on the first, second, or third reading. This has given him a spirited and fiercely loyal audience but has also hurt his overall appeal. Latro is no exception in this regard. People who call it meandering are right. The plot goes any direction but straight ahead. People call it confusing and they are right. Yet this is the reason we read Wolfe: because finding out about the plot is exactly part of the fun and understanding why the confusion exists is all the importance in the reading. Latro will earn a treasured place in a Wolfe's corpus and we believe it will remain Wolfe's most accessible work that maintains the maximum rewards that reading his novels brings. There is a rumored third installment in the "soldier series" on the horizon and it will be interesting to see if it can match the vlaue of these first novels. In light of the recent cinematic productions of Troy and Alexander along with the popularity of The Gates of Fire and Mary Renault (not to mention the undimmed popularity of Herodotus) we thing there is a huge audience craving for fiction from this era. It could even be said that Latro has opened up this genre for a whole series of authors in this regard.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS:

We can recommend Latro for two audiences: those who've read Wolfe but haven't yet gotten around to Latro and those who are intrigued with the idea of reading Wolfe but don't want to commit to the twelve novels that comprise the solar cycle. Those effete snobs who think that speculative fiction doesn't have any writers operating within it that can match the anointed ones pulling down mainstream awards should definitely read this book: it'll put a stop to those snotty little arguments. There can be no doubt that Wolfe is operating on a level that very, very few authors can match and of those that can, most of them are dead and reside in anthologies of literature to be studied by earnest students in universities.

WHO SHOULD PASS:

However, Wolfe's skill is exactly on of the reasons that people should consider passing on these books. Reading his books is hard. Whenever we're done, we need to take a break and read pulp novels for a while. It takes a lot of time and energy and generally a few false starts. Whenever there's a big gap in new material on Inchoatus you can make a good bet that we're tackling something else that Wolfe wrote. Our point is, we're not being elitist about this: reading great literature is usually very, very hard and demanding--just like polishing the guns down at the gym on a regular basis is hard. You've got to know what you're getting in to: a lot of unfamiliar words, no help from the author regarding plot, and a cast of characters that will often do some astonishingly bewildering things. But the rewards are great. Don't tell us some guy named Jordan or Goodkind or Brooks is the best author around until you've tackled this stuff and given it a try.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

I won't go into plot details (just read the Amazon.com synopsis) however, saying this is complex, even for Mr. Wolfe novel, is saying quite a lot. If you did poorly on the vocabulary section of your SAT or if you've hate the thesaurus then you most likely will not like this...or any other of Mr. Wolfe's books.

It has a simplistic title and cookie cutter fantasy cover--Yet somehow it equals and surpasses many classics of literature, fantasy or otherwise. No one will believe me, yet it's true that Latro and it's follow-up novels are better than any Tolkien, Martin or Jordan (I'm not just guessing, I've read them all). Wolfe's prose may go over many a reader's head on many occasions and his writing style and complexity are on par (for comparison purposes) to that of Philip Pullman, Guy Gavriel Kay, David Foster Wallace or Thomas Pynchon. Plot and pacing are as fast and exciting as any Zelazny (Lord of Light, Amber Chronicles), Gibson, or any of the best pulp fictions. Lord Dunsany, Tolkien and Edmund Spenser are the closest of Wolfe's peers. If you think you're up to the challenge then you should definitely pick this up. Very rewarding novel.

This is of course a work of fiction,of fantasy, but I find that the most compelling element of the novels is it's treatment of the mindset of the Golden age Hellens and other peoples. Wolfe's treatment of Hellenistic religon is important to the novel. Modern day readers may be familiar with the gods and monsters of storybooks. Wolfe though fleshes out their religon into the full blown, complex theology and creed that it was, every bit as real as Christianity, Islam or any other modern religon. This is a facinating way of looking at the ancient world that through their eyes. In a sense, at times, these characters seem alien but familiar to us, like looking into an alternate reality.

Gene Wolfe's unreliable narrator style, although hard to get used to, is very rewarding. After reading these books the first time, I felt like I was actually able to re-read them very soon, something I have never really felt the urge to do before. Don't miss out on these incredible stories.

The prose in this novel is so dense it reads like poetry. While this is a difficult novel to read, the story of Latro, an amnesiac mercenary, alternately directed by a series of slaves, masters, prostitutes and kings, is definitely a worthy one. Despite his memory loss, the things that Latro takes for granted are ones that are wholly out of place to the reader, for despite the triteness of sacrifice in Greek times, I imagine we must flinch a little at each, and at the harshness of living conditions.

Wolfe doesn't let the reader off the hook either, choosing to translate place names in many cases so that the reader has to think back to ancient history to figure out where he is and where he's going. He uses many alternative names for the gods, so this too can't be taken for granted, but must be considered, so that instead of each god being only a name, you come to see the significance and the history behind each one.