The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction

Gene Wolfe

Mar 2009 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

From a literary perspective, this will certainly be the best collection of the year in science fiction and fantasy. Gene Wolfe, of whom The Washington Post said, "Of all SF writers currently active none is held in higher esteem," has selected the short fiction he considers his finest into one volume.

There are many award winners and many that have been selected for various Year's Best anthologies. Gene Wolfe has produced possibly the finest and most significant body of short fiction in the SF and fantasy field in the last fifty years, and is certainly among the greatest living writers to emerge from the genres. This is the first retrospective collection of his entire career.

It is for the ages.


At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I don't understand all the praise for this book. While some stories are genuinely interesting and well written, most are like a writing exercise to come up with Things This Character Would Say. There's a lot of some individual's personal (uninteresting) babble and if they happen to not be American, brace yourself for stereotypes and mixed-up slang that really detracts from whatever the story was supposed to be. Maybe that's considered a good attempt for a book written in the 70's by a guy born in the 30's, but it's not for me. I gave it my best shot, but had to skip a few stories and stopped before the end.

the first time you read it, read it again. There's so much subtly expressed significance and such expansive imagination in his work that it will be too much of a challenge for most people.

About the author

Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winners The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes as Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Best of Gene Wolfe.

A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and six Locus Awards, among many other honors, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012.