Lord of the Rings — The Blank Page

The Book of the New Sun Vol. 1 by Gene Wolfe

I can’t tell you exactly what drew me to Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. I didn’t start looking up lists of fantasy epics. I know I started from a place of loving Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and remembering how much fun I’d had reading the first four Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin.

Somewhere, in looking up those books online and seeing what other readers had enjoyed, I first stumbled across references to Wolfe’s travelling torturer Severian. Something in the way people talked about these four books appealed to me. Although a lot of people, even fans of the series, did warn any prospective newcomer that they weren’t easy reads. A few of reviews and articles made it very clear that you need to re-read Wolfe’s saga a few times to really see what he’d been building around you. That definitely intrigued me.

Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse

There are certain things you don’t want to see when you’re considering writing a book review. A death threat from the author would be quite high up that list. As would a list of previous reviewers of their work who’ve all disappeared in ‘mysterious circumstances’. Another red flag is when the first page of that book holds a glowing quote from Stephen Fry.

‘What’s the point?’ you find yourself wondering, seeing his eloquent little summation laid out for all the world to see. ‘Fry got here first.’