The Sorcerer's House

by Gene Wolfe

Overview

In a contemporary town in the American Midwest where he has no connections, an educated man recently released from prison is staying in a motel. He writes letters to his brother and to others, including a friend still in jail. When he meets a real estate agent who tells him he is the heir to a huge old house, long empty, he moves in, though he is too broke to even buy furniture, and is immediately confronted by supernatural and fantastic creatures and events.

His life is utterly transformed and we read on, because we must know more. We revise our opinions of him, and of others, with each letter. We learn things about magic, and another world, and about the sorcerer Mr. Black, who originally inhabited the house. And then perhaps we read it again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765324597
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/15/2011
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	415,868
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(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.

Read an Excerpt

Number 1

 

YOUR OLD CELLMATE

Dear Shell:

I promised I would write you after I got out, and I like to keep my word. I am in Medicine Man, at a motel too cheap to supply stationery. Envelopes and this notebook filler from Wal-Mart will have to do. God knows I do not miss the screws or Building 19, but I do miss my friends. You most of all. You and Lou.

No job yet and none in sight. I would try somewhere else, but I cannot afford a bus ticket until my allowance comes. Not that I am flat. Not yet. I am going to try to get my brother to front me some money if I can. He owes me not one damned thing, but he has plenty, and three or four hundred right now would mean the world to me.

Still, I may be able to score some cigarettes if you need them. Anything like that. Let me know. Riverman Inn, 15 Riverpath Road Room 12. I do not know the zip.

Yours,

Bax

Excerpted from The Sorcerer's House by .

Copyright © 2010 by Gene Wolfe.

Published in March 2010 by A Tom Doherty Associates Book.

All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher.

Editorial Reviews

A complex, spellbinding web of otherworldly sorcery and hauntings. Both terrifying and touching, this book of wonders speaks eloquently about the nature of responsibility and family.” —Publishers Weekly

“The Sorcerer's House is, without qualification, a masterpiece. A fascinating novel that repays close reading with a tale of delightful subtlety, wit, and true insight.” —SFRevu.com

“If any writer from within genre fiction ever merited the designation Great Author, it is surely Wolfe.” —The Washington Post Book World on Gene Wolfe

“Gene Wolfe is as good a writer as there is today. I feel a little bit like a musical contemporary attempting to tell people what's good about Mozart.” —The Chicago Sun-Times on Gene Wolfe

From the Publisher

World Fantasy Award–winning novelist Wolfe (An Evil Guest) spins a complex, spellbinding web of otherworldly sorcery and hauntings. When scholar and ex-con Baxter Dunn arrives in the Midwest town of Medicine Man, he learns that a mysterious benefactor has deeded him a rambling old house. As the building grows around him, Bax encounters a number of wonders and terrors, including family secrets, windows into Faerie, and a murderous animal dubbed the Hound of Horror. However, the greatest challenge Bax faces may be his twin brother’s jealousy and rage. Both terrifying and touching, this book of wonders speaks eloquently about the nature of responsibility and family, but Wolfe’s unforgettable world is marred by stereotypes—a flighty and submissive Japanese woman, a scandalmongering journalist, a rapacious and sadistic dwarf—and a rushed, incoherent ending. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Recently released from prison, Bax arrives in a small Midwestern town seeking to start a new life. A real estate agent informs him that he has inherited an abandoned house. As he sets up residence and forms ties with the townsfolk, Bax encounters mythological and fantastical creatures. His continuing discoveries about the house's and his own history form a complex, multilayered story that challenges the definitions of real and imaginary. VERDICT Always surprising in his mastery of language and storytelling, multiaward winner and Science Fiction Hall of Fame author Wolfe reimagines the epistolary novel in this deceptively simple tale of one man's redemption. His latest should please his many fans.

Library Journal