A Borrowed Man

by Gene Wolfe

Overview

A Borrowed Man: a new science fiction novel from Gene Wolfe, the celebrated author of the Book of the New Sun series.

It is perhaps a hundred years in the future, our civilization is gone, and another is in place in North America, but it retains many familiar things and structures. Although the population is now small, there is advanced technology, there are robots, and there are clones.

E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person. He is a clone who lives on a third-tier shelf in a public library, and his personality is an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human.

A wealthy patron, Colette Coldbrook, takes him from the library because he is the surviving personality of the author of Murder on Mars. A physical copy of that book was in the possession of her murdered father, and it contains an important secret, the key to immense family wealth. It is lost, and Colette is afraid of the police. She borrows Smithe to help her find the book and to find out what the secret is. And then the plot gets complicated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765381156
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Series:	Borrowed Man Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	550,339
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

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.

Editorial Reviews

Gene Wolfe novels are often like those ingenious Japanese puzzle boxes—familiar, elegant surfaces that slide apart in unexpected ways.” –The Chicago Tribune

“Intriguing and rewarding novel, fast paced and lively.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“Gene Wolfe has always been one of the most inventive and literary science fiction writers of our day.” —SFRevu

“Wolfe (The Land Across) builds this SF noir into a strange, unsettling story, deceptively simple and old-fashioned in style and plot, but full of disturbing details that are intensified by the deadpan humor and matter-of-fact flatness of Smithe’s narrative voice.” —Publishers Weekly

“Best known for his four-volume Book of the New Sun series, Wolfe is often regarded as one of speculative fiction’s most literary craftsmen, infusing his works with multiple layers of meaning. Without relinquishing his superlative skill at creating interesting characters while spinning a good story, Wolfe offers a refreshing change of pace here with a futuristic mystery novel featuring an unusual first-person narrator.” —Booklist

“The best thing about A Borrowed Man is the way its not-human hero grips your sympathy … Don’t ask what happens if he’s returned overdue. Librarians hate when that happens.”—Tom Shippey of the Wallstreet Journal

“What initially seems an oddball murder mystery that is, almost inevitably with Wolfe, a good deal more than it initially seems to be.” – Locus

“Wolfe is a grand master of the genre, and this is an absorbing tale, full of noirish elements and fun sf flourishes.” –Library Journal

From the Publisher

08/24/2015
Ern A. Smithe lives “on a Level Three shelf in the Spice Grove Public Library,” from which—as a “reclone” of the novelist whose name he bears—he may be borrowed at any time. Heiress Colette Coldbrook checks him out to help solve the mystery of her brother’s murder, the key to which involves a Smithe novel from the library of Colette’s late father. Reclone Smithe soon learns that he and Colette are in danger, and that her father’s secret is stranger than he could have imagined. Smithe lives in an exhausted, decadent near future where the world’s population has dwindled to a billion, library reclones like Smithe have no rights and are destined for incineration if no one consults them or checks them out, and a “defective” mute woman risks being arrested by the state. Wolfe (The Land Across) builds this SF noir into a strange, unsettling story, deceptively simple and old-fashioned in style and plot, but full of disturbing details that are intensified by the deadpan humor and matter-of-fact flatness of Smithe’s narrative voice. Agent: Vaughne Hansen, Virginia Kidd Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/15/2015
In the future of Wolfe's novel, cloned humans are kept at local public libraries, waiting to be checked out by patrons needing their expertise. E.A. Smithe is one such resource, the clone of an author of pulp novels, who is borrowed by Colette Coldbrook in the hopes that he can help her solve the mystery of a book found in her father's safe at the time of his death. Murder on Mars was written by Smithe, and he might be able to explain its value. But soon after they begin working together, the book is lost and Smithe and Coldwater are on the run. VERDICT Wolfe ("The Book of the New Sun" series) is a grand master of the genre, and this is an absorbing tale, full of noirish elements and fun sf flourishes. The variations in tone between rough gumshoe and stuffy academic (explained within the story but still jarring), and the habit of addressing the reader directly are thought provoking if not always effective narrative choices. This isn't Wolfe's best, but it will still be of great interest to the author's many fans.—MM

Library Journal