In Green's Jungles (Book of the Short Sun, Book 2) (Paperback)

by Gene Wolfe (Author) "I have paper again, and there is still a lot of ink in the little bottle..." (more)
Key Phrases: slug gun, black sword, interior person, Vanished People, Duko Rigoglio, Long Sun Whorl (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Gene Wolfe has stymied and delighted smart science fiction readers for years. His complex, multilayered narratives, untrustworthy narrators, and puzzle-box characters send those of us who like that sort of thing into paroxysms of thrilling speculation, re-reading, and just plain guessing what it all means. In Green's Jungles is the middle book of Wolfe's opus trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun (the first is On Blue's Waters). It is by no means necessary to start with his other series, The Book of the New Sun and The Book of the Long Sun, in order to enjoy what is most likely the final examination of the universe Wolfe has created. But critics and fans are mostly in agreement that they are best read in order, and that the Short Sun series is the best of an astonishing bunch.

In Green's Jungles follows narrator Horn as he voyages to the planet Green (Blue's companion) and to the abandoned generational starship known as the Whorl in search of the godlike Patera Silk. As Horn recounts his adventures, his own identity becomes muddled, and we find out his interactions with the vampiric inhumi of Green and the strange alien Neighbors were deeper than we knew. In fact, Horn may not be himself at all anymore. Tantalizing story details drip slowly from Wolfe's pen:

Through the ring a Neighbor saw him, and she came to him in his agony.... she said, "I cannot make you well again, and if I could you would still be in this place. I can do this for you, however, if you desire it. I can send your spirit into someone else, into someone whose own spirit is dying."

So who is Horn? Has he become Patera Silk--it seems so, for people begin mistaking him for the heroic leader. Is he the warrior king Rajan, or is he something entirely new, formed by the strange places and people around him into a savior of worlds? Identity, love, and faith weave through the themes of In Green's Jungles, and Wolfe has added another masterpiece to a shelf full of them. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
In 1980, Wolfe published The Shadow of the Torturer, the first volume in his now classic Book of the New Sun, which was eventually followed by his much-praised Book of the Long Sun sequence. Whereas the former series was set on the decadent planet Urth, the latter took place within the Whorl, a hollowed-out asteroid whose inhabitants knew nothing of the universe outside their failing world. At the end of the second series, the charismatic Cald Silk led his people to the planets called Green and Blue and then disappeared. For years it had been rumored that the two novel sequences were somehow connectedDand here the rumor is substantiated. In this second volume in The Book of the Short Sun (after On Blue's Waters), Horn, the narrator of the Long Sun books, is on a quest for the lost Silk. Although he engages in numerous adventuresDleading an army, slogging through a monster-inhabited jungle, touring several exotic societiesDthe specifics of the plot are almost inconsequential. What counts is Wolfe's gorgeous prose, the brilliant dialogue and the dazzling way that reality shifts from one paragraph to the next. Horn soon discovers that he has the seemingly magical power to travel instantaneously between Green and Blue, though his body and those of his compatriots undergo strange changes with each shift. Eventually, they visit a world with a dying red sun that may be long-lost Urth. Oddly, Horn also discovers that he has begun to physically resemble Silk. Like any middle volume in a series, this novel leaves mysteries unsolved and plot threads hanging, but that really doesn't matter. It's the sheer strangeness of this masterful tale that counts, and the glorious sense of unknown wonders to come.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (May 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312873638
• ISBN-13: 978-0312873639
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,007 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 2 in The Book of the Short Sun Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The compelling tour de force continues, August 4, 2000

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

This review is from: In Green's Jungles: The Second Volume of 'The Book of the Short Sun' (Hardcover)

For those of us who have been reading Wolfe avidly for years now, it is stunning to think that ten additional volumes have now been released in this wondrous series since the debut of The Shadow of the Torturer in the early '80s. Wolfe is the unrecognized genius of modern fiction, and the appearance of In Green's Jungles cannot be compared with the latest releases of our Jordans, our O'Brians, or our Rowlings. For this work is not merely another installment in an ongoing series of independent picaresque adventures. Rather, it represents a deepening and a refinement of Wolfe's epic exploration of the human condition.

And the universal condition as well. The series follows the spiritual journies of its three protagonists: Severian, Silk, and Horn, but no less than the Mahabarata or Faust celebrates the beauty of the universe, human frailty, and the elusiveness of the divine. These themes and others meet and diverge throughout the great work, playing themselves out with complexity and profundity. Yet at no time does Wolfe lose momentum, cohesion, or dramatic force: the varying strains combine in a symphony of metaphysics and human character, and a passionate and beautiful symphony it is.

In Green's Jungles encompasses a continuation of the travel journals of Horn as he wanders through war torn settlements on the hostile worlds of Blue and Green, upon which are scattered the last shipwrecked remnants of human civilization. Horn pursues a forlorn quest: to find Patera Silk, the priest, teacher and revolutionary whom many believe may be the only person capable of saving mankind from self-destruction or destruction at the hands (and teeth) of Green's vampire race of Inhumu.

In Green's Jungles is rich in plot, language, and surprises for the reader; any attempt to summarize the plot would do the work material violence. If you have been keeping up with the series right along, you won't need me to urge you buy this book. If you have not, do NOT buy it, yet. Rather, start at the beginning with the Shadow of the Torturer and delve into one of the most unusual and majestic stories ever put to paper. I envy you: you have ahead of you all of the joys of reading Wolfe for the first time.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short Sun Continues Brilliantly, July 20, 2000

By	Alex D. Groce (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: In Green's Jungles: The Second Volume of 'The Book of the Short Sun' (Hardcover)

The Short Sun series is shaping up to be the best thing Wolfe has written since THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN. This second volume continues the narration of the quest to recover Silk.

Lupine surprises and unanswered(?) questions abound, and to discuss the events relayed in this middle volume would be to spoil the joy of discovery for other readers--besides, until the final volume is published and we've reread the whole thing a few times, we probably won't fully know the story. Wolfe's work, like life and unlike so much fiction, grows richer with each return; like old friends, his novels reward attention and familliarity breeds delight rather than contempt (born out of boredom).

The manner in which the story is presented is, as in ON BLUE'S WATERS, complex even for Wolfe--multiple time frames and threads of narrative are blended expertly. The way Wolfe works his magic through the guise of a "rambling" and "unskilled" narrator is truly beautiful. One of the best things about this book is its extended use of a device employed with great skill in THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH: Wolfe transforms what might be an artifical narrative technique into a moving commmentary on that most fundamental of human activities, the telling of a story.

For, in the end, it isn't the brilliant prose or the narrative genius that makes this a great work. Rather, it is the moving, wise, and loving exploration of what it means to live and love, to feel the immense pain of consciousness and to do good and evil that justifies the elaborate machinery--to tell a lie beautifully is unfortunate, but to tell the truth with skill and beauty is to achieve greatness.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book of the Short Sun continues brilliantly, February 1, 2001

By	Christopher Culver - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: In Green's Jungles: The Second Volume of 'The Book of the Short Sun' (Hardcover)

IN GREEN'S JUNGLES is the second volume of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun, which is (to put it briefly) the story of Horn's return to the Whorl to bring Silk to Blue.

The narrator's identity is again a mystery. He believes himself to be Horn, but remembers things falsely and is constantly identified as Silk. Having escaped from Gaon, where the throne was forced upon him in virtual imprisonment, the narrator comes to the town of Blanko, whose citizens believe him a magician and seek his council in their war. Thus, he is drawn into yet another bloody conflict, underscoring the need of Silk on Blue, in order to save its colonists from their fighting (and their original sin).

Unlike ON BLUE'S WATERS, where the narrator reflected happily on the first leg of his voyage to the Long Sun Whorl, Horn's remembrances here, of terrifying Green, are told shakily. Horn's death on Green, spoken of in the first book, is but the last of a series of crushing experiences on that dangerous whorl, and Horn cannot face them outright.

Other surprises await the reader. Our narrator discovers that he can astrally project himself to other worlds in his dreams. This sort of mysticism evokes fond memories of THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN. And in a tear-inducingly beautiful passage, Wolfe's Christian allusions manifest themselves with an inadvertent Eucharist, which may be the most moving thing Wolfe has ever written.

More readable then ON BLUE'S WATERS due to its gripping plot machinations and surprising developments, IN GREEN'S JUNGLES continues the satisfying trend of the Book of the Short Sun.