Welcome to Litsy!

So let's peel this narrative onion: Horn, in-universe author of the preceding 4 books about Patera Silk, leaves his family on the ocean planet Blue to search for Silk.

He wrote of this search as an old man, the captive mayor of a city-state at war.

These writings were found by his lost family who provide editorial comments.

Timelines blend in the Gene Wolfiest of ways. Also space vampires. Also maybe Silk and Horn have merged? Or something?

So our narrator Horn is an old man writing of his adventures on the planets of Blue & Green in search of Patera Silk. Horn is the in-universe author of the preceding 4 books about Silk in the series & reveals to us that sometimes he was making things up when he wrote them.

But also we get editor‘s notes from Horn‘s children in this book, about preserving this, their father‘s work, for posterity.

That is some textbook Gene Wolfery right there.

#Starting the first Book of the Short Sun, the trilogy which closes out Gene Wolfe‘s 12-book Solar Cycle.

Full confession: There were some stretches where The Book of the Long Sun felt like work, so I‘m going in a little hesitant.

Also that... that is not a great cover.