"Gene Wolfe was a master of the unreliabe narrator, in a class that rightly only contains Shirley Jackson and himself. His character Latro isn't so much unreliabe as limited, though, and so much of the world Wolfe builds is given to us by inference, in the information he elides, or in what Latro can't remember but the reader might. 'Soldier in the Mist' (the first novel in this combined volume) was the first Wolfe I ever read, on my father's recommendation—and it was even better than Dad led me to believe."
Publisher Orb Books
Publication Date 2003-01-01
Section Science Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Story B.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780765302946
A distinguished compilation of two classic fantasy novels, Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Areté, in one volume
This omnibus of two acclaimed novels is the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who while fighting in Greece received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory but gave him in return the ability to see and converse with the supernatural creatures and the gods and goddesses, who invisibly inhabit the ancient landscape. Latro forgets everything when he sleeps. Writing down his experiences every day and reading his journal anew each morning gives him a poignantly tenuous hold on himself, but his story's hold on readers is powerful indeed, and many consider these Wolfe's best books.
