Carole King Album

The mention of Gene Wolfe in my last post wasn't an idle one. I have just read The Knight. The plot structure of Wolfe's work is fascinating. There is only one thread but it could never be called linear. The story loops and swirls all over the place. Just when you start getting used to one direction, off the story goes in another direction, or to another place or time or whatever. I suppose it is possible for a weaver to make cloth with a single strand. You would have to keep making sharp turns with the thread though to keep crossing it over itself. Wolfe's writing is a bit like that.

I have to confess to being a bit disappointed by the Book of the Short Sun series. To carry the above analogy further, the big loops became knots that were too hard to unravel. The Knight gets it just right though. I enjoyed it a great deal. My only concern is that there is a sequel and Wolfe is one of those writers who always seem to do their best work in the first volume. Time will tell.