Strange Travelers: New Selected Stories (Hardcover)

by Gene Wolfe (Author) "SITTING ON THE HOOD AND thrumming the strings of his chevycap, Aldo watched the sun rise over the black semi in the slow lane..." (more)
Key Phrases: somewhat soiled man, new national anchor, yellow helicopter, Father Eddi, Beautiful Ones, Santa Claus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Strange Travelers is a rich and exciting tapestry of eclectic tales sure to please, whether this is your first foray into the worlds of Gene Wolfe or a return journey. The story lines run the gamut from traditional science fiction with a twist to a delightful retelling of a Russian folk tale.

"To the Seventh" is a classic science fiction story about a chess game between God and the Devil. The pieces on the cosmic chessboard are represented by beings scattered across the universe. The hero of the story, Mack Chance, is asked by God, in the guise of a tactical war computer, to undertake a suicidal mission. His ship has the capability and fuel to jump 300,000 parsecs in two jumps of 150,000 parsecs each, but God asks him to accept an assignment 900,000 parsecs away, in the heart of enemy territory on the belief that miracles can happen:

"You answered without reflection. This time I want you to reflect, Captain Chance. Do you believe in miracles?"

Mack reflected, tussling with successive layers deceptively labeled "soul," "core," and "innermost being"--tearing each to bits and throwing each aside, only to find that it kept creeping back. At length he said, "Where you're concerned, yes sir. I do, sir. I mean--"

Those six jumps equate to the six moves a chess pawn would have to move forward to arrive at the last row of a chessboard and be subsequently "Queened." If you're familiar with chess and know the difficulty of queening a pawn you can almost guess the outcome of the story. But the path Chance takes, which meanders through the universe with a stop near Portland, Oregon, is one that will delight and titillate.

"And When They Appear" is a tale of a young boy who is being cared for by his parents' computerized house in a post-apocalypse world. Sherby, too young really to understand the evil in the world, is kept entertained by computer-generated holograms while a roving band of looters steadily approaches the house. With the power to override the house program, Sherby innocently creates a situation in which the house is destroyed and Sherby himself is "rescued" by a rather seedy and degenerate character. Thankfully, Wolfe spares the reader most of the details of Sherby's future.

The other strange tales in Wolfe's collection include a thought-provoking campfire horror story set in the far future; the story of the "mother" of intelligent robots being pursued by one of the beings she unwittingly helped create; and the adventures of three female time travelers, castaways on the shores of Earth. There's another horror yarn about a human boy who runs with ghouls and a tale about a boy who gets trapped in his sister's dollhouse each time he sleeps.

Strange Travelers is a broad and deep book by a master wordsmith. Like Wolfe's Castle of Days, Strange Travelers contains a few unclassifiable stories. This only enhances the rich landscape of this collection. Strange Travelers reaffirms Wolfe's adroitness and mastery in the short story genre. It's well worth losing a little sleep over. --Robert Gately

From Publishers Weekly
Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, this collection of Wolfe's stories published in the 1990s contains death by overdose, suicide, Armageddon, cruelty to animals, abuse of children, children willing to falsely accuse fathers of sexual abuse and a plethora of vampiric female figures eager to suck the life out of men. Opening with "Bluesberry Jam," Wolfe (The Book of the Long Sun series, etc.) creates an intriguing speculative future in which an entire culture arises from people who have been stuck in a traffic jam for decades. This conceit is ultimately negated, however, by the most tired of clich?s in the closing story, "Ain't You 'Most Done," which is set in the same world. Also included are two Christmas stories: "No Planets Strike," a relatively sweet tale in which genetically modified animals aid the next Christ child, and "And When They Appear," which is less sweet, involving wonderful, mythic figures who visit, but cannot save, a small boy from a world gone mad. While Wolfe's prose is exceptional and there are a few gems here, such as "Useful Phrases," which delights in how words lead us to and reveal mysteries, there are also several tasteless and misogynistic entries. Chief among them is "The Ziggurat," in which a mother coaches her daughters in the art of false accusation and the father--whose wife leaves him broke-eventually regains all by finding a woman he can dominate and a technology he can steal. All too frequently in this volume, even when women show men "the pleasures of Hell," biting them till they bleed, men emerge loutish and triumphant. (Jan.) FYI: Wolfe is a recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312872275
• ISBN-13: 978-0312872274
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,981,833 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous collection, January 7, 2000

By	Patrick O'Leary (Bloomfield Hills, Mi. USA) - See all my reviews

Readers familiar with Wolfe's short fiction will be most impressed by this major new collection. Readers who only know his superb "New/Long/Short Sun" novels will be amazed by the breadth and variety of these dark tales.Everyone else will be dazzled. "STRANGE TRAVELERS reads like an artifact of magic--something hidden, stumbled upon, irresistible and dangerous. A book of nightmares too beautiful to be true, too real to be denied, too vivid to be forgotten. Why doesn't everyone know Gene Wolfe is the best writer alive?

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sampler Box of Bon-Bons With All of Wolfe's Flavors, February 23, 2000

By	James T. Heeney (Montclair, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

You really ought to heed Patrick O'Leary's review below because he is a fine author in his own right. This collection demonstrates the incredibly broad range Wolfe is capable of; the New York Times reviewer commented that the underlying theme throughout is a sense of entropy in the universe. I would not oversimplify to that extent, but will state that each story will delight in its evocation of mood, atmosphere, and its portrayal of fascinating characters engaged in brilliantly bizarre activities. Read this book and then read The Book of the New Sun and all of Wolfe's other magical wonderful books.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great style, January 8, 2002

By	Glenn McDorman (Denver) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Strange Travelers: New Selected Stories (Paperback)

The stories in Strange Travelers are a wonderful display of Wolfe's broad and varied style. Each story is told in an entirely different voice, making it impossible to get tired of reading them. There was more variety in this collection than there often is in multi-author collections.