Innocents Aboard: New Fantasy Stories

This is a book of short stories that scan several genres. It touches on Fantasy, Science Fiction, and straight up fiction. This author's strength lies in his ability to make the characters seem like real people; even when placed in other-worldly scenarios. One of my favorite stories involved a group of aliens who have come to Earth to live among the humans. A rather slow man who works on his mother's farm befriends one of the aliens he finds hiding out in the barn. The story takes a rather sly turn towards gay love as the alien and the farm hand become very close. The ending was perfect. I did not find any of the stories to be trite or commonplace. I would highly recommend this book to those folks who love good, off-beat short stories.

Simply put, Gene Wolfe uses the written English language better than any other writer alive today. Read anything of his that you can.

These are stories for people who love to read, and to reread, and to think about what they've read -- for people who love the feeling that they're playing a game with the author as they read -- and for people who don't mind losing that game b/c they realize that just *playing* against an adversary this good is better than winning any number of games against normal players ... A terrific collection which contains: The Tree Is my Hat The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun The Friendship Light Slow Children At Play Under Hill The Monday Man The Waif The Legend of Xi Cygnus The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun How the Bishop Sailed to Inniskeen Houston, 1943 A Fish Story Wolfer The Eleventh City The Night Chough The Wrapper A Traveller in Desert Lands The Walking Sticks Queen Pocketsful of Diamonds Copperhead The Lost Pilgrim Some notes: "The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin is the Sun" is NOT connected to the Long Sun cycle. However, "The Night Chough" is (linked to the Long Sun/Short Sun series). "Slow Children At Play" is linked to, and evidently happens *after*, Wolfe's story "The Arimaspian Legacy," which can be found in his _Starwater Strains_. Wolfe's talent for horror (not graphic or disgusting, but chilling and terrifying) is on display here in several stories, including (but not limited to) "The Friendship Light" "The Monday Man, "Fish Story" "Walking Sticks" and "The Eleventh City." It often helps me to find a context for a Wolfe story. For instance, if you haven't read _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ recently, reread it after you read "Walking Sticks". In the same vein, "Pocketsful of Diamonds" feels to me like Wolfe doing a P.L. Travers story. Read PL Travers' Mary Poppins Books, esp. "Full Moon," "Evening Out" "High Tide" "Happy Ever After" and "Hallowe'en". Then reread "Pocketsful" and see if you agree.

For decades Gene Wolfe has received lavish praise from fellow writers and fans of science fiction and fantasy as the finest writer currently at work in both genres. He merely reaffirms such praise in his latest collection of short stories, "Innocents Aboard", which contains some of the best writing I've seen from him in years. It is a riveting collection of 22 fantasy and horror tales, with some loose elements from science fiction thrown here and there for good measure, and elements which could be described as "Magical Realism". My favorite tale is "Houston, 1943", which is sort of a bizarre twist from "Peter Pan" and other classic tales of childhood, along with sections which Wolfe claims is autobiographical. The final tale in the collection "The Lost Pilgrim", about a time traveler who stumbles upon the truth behind certain ancient Greek legends, is another classic. Those unfamiliar with Gene Wolfe's influential body of work may find this a minor introduction, but one which shows him still crafting great literary art in his 70's; others more familiar with his work will undoubtedly embrace it as much as I have.

The stories in 'Innocents Aboard' are very well written, as has been all of Gene Wolfe's work that I have read so far. What I like most about this collection is how closely each of the stories tie together - not by plot or characters, but by the type of stories they are. Most of the stories deal with some kind of supernatural presence, whether it be a god, deity, element, or just the area in which one of these was worshipped. Whether it be an indigenous god of an island people or the holographic projections of an automated house, every motion, thought, and action relates back to the reader.As a fan of Wolfe's New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun sagas, as well as a good chunk of his other work, I was happy to see some familiar characters make it into this collection. There is a story called 'The Night Chough' that relates back to Oreb of the Book of the Long Sun, and there was a story that reminded me of Latro in the Mist. I think these stories stand on their own quite nicely, too.All in all, this is collection was extremely satisfying, and I think I will be visiting it again very soon.

Everything that needs to be said about Gene Wolfe has already been said, and said often. He's the best writer we have, and his work will endure. *Innocents Aboard: new fantasy stories* is his sixth collection. I'd like to comment on two of the twenty-two stories herein. "Houston, 1943" is the oldest, from 1988; "The Lost Pilgrim" is the newest, from 2004. For me, these are the highlights of a memorable collection.I read "Houston, 1943" when it was first published in an anthology called *Tropical Chills*, then I promptly lost the paperback. In the intervening years I've never forgotten it. Rereading it last week was like reliving a particularly memorable nightmare. Roddy, a boy, wakes in the middle of a sweltering night; a voice beckons from beyond the window: "Come." Roddy, who might still be dreaming, climbs out of bed. Out on the lawn stands another boy, one he's never seen before, who tells him his name is Jim. Roddy climbs out. The boy, silent, grips him by the arm and points toward the crawlspace under the house. "His grasp was cold and damp," Wolfe writes, "as if he had been groping after something lost in water." The boy points again, this time to a tarantula on the lawn. On five legs it runs swiftly toward Roddy, and climbs his pajama bottoms to his chest. "He grasped it, felt its stiff hair and gouging nails, and knew he held a human hand." Shaking it off, Roddy returns indoors. But he finds another figure -- himself -- asleep in the bed. He decides to follow Jim out onto the dark, silent streets. "They saw a single car on Old Spanish Trail, a black de Soto that hummed past them meditating upon secrets." Such period detail strengthens the many strangenesses of the horrific, surreal night-journey that follows; one that, with its vivid evocation of childhood, seems part of an informal series of stories Wolfe has written throughout his career, including "The Island of Doctor Death and other stories," "And When They Appear," "Fifth Head of Cerberus," "The Death of Doctor Island," "The Man in the Paper Mill," and others, all of which feature a boy protagonist, and (apparently) elements of autobiography. Perhaps not by accident, these stories also happen also to be some of Wolfe's greatest. "The Lost Pilgrim" shows Wolfe at the top of his game. Though included in a collection subtitled 'new fantasy stories', it's the best sort of science fiction.A time traveler intending to land in early America arrives instead on the shore of ancient Greece. His adversary, it seems, is Chronos. The traveler is equipped with an internal diary, and an internal camera which captures images (pukz). The narrative, and accompanying pukz (implied yet not seen), are therefore his report to posterity. A boat soon arrives by sea -- not the Mayflower, as he had expected, but the Argos. He doesn't recognize Jason (Eeasawn, in the text), or Hercules (Hahraklahs), though soon joins their voyage. He is equally confused about his own mission, and