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The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe

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The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe Read and Download Ebook The Fifth Head of Cerberus... The Fifth Head of Cerberus Gene Wolfe PDF File: The Fifth Head of Cerberus... 1 Read and Download Ebook The Fifth Head of Cerberus... The Fifth Head of Cerberus Gene Wolfe The Fifth Head of Cerberus Gene Wolfe Back in print for the first time in more than a decade, Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a universally acknowledged masterpiece of science fiction by one of the field's most brilliant writers. Far out from Earth, two sister planets, Saint Anne and Saint Croix, circle each other in an eternal dance. It is said a race of shapeshifters once lived here, only to perish when men came. But one man believes they can still be found, somewhere in the back of the beyond. In The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Wolfe skillfully interweaves three bizarre tales to create a mesmerizing pattern: the harrowing account of the son of a mad genius who discovers his hideous heritage; a young man's mythic dreamquest for his darker half; the bizarre chronicle of a scientists' nightmarish imprisonment. Like an intricate, braided knot, the pattern at last unfolds to reveal astonishing truths about this strange and savage alien landscape. The Fifth Head of Cerberus Details Date : Published March 15th 1994 by Orb Books (first published April 1972) ISBN : 9780312890209 Author : Gene Wolfe Format : Paperback 252 pages Genre : Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy Download The Fifth Head of Cerberus ...pdf Read Online The Fifth Head of Cerberus ...pdf Download and Read Free Online The Fifth Head of Cerberus Gene Wolfe PDF File: The Fifth Head of Cerberus... 2 Read and Download Ebook The Fifth Head of Cerberus... From Reader Review The Fifth Head of Cerberus for online ebook LindaJ^ says The Science Fiction Aficionados Group has thread in which a member of the group can add, without repeating ones already there, his or her favorite sci fi book. There were 90 books on it the last time I looked. I am slowly working by way through and am more than half done. I'm not reading in any sort of order. This book is one of the two Wolfe books on the list. It was very challenging - not like any sci fi book I've read before. I cannot say I liked it but I can say I respect the creativity, especially for a book published in 1972. It felt post-modern to me. Rather than try to write a review, I will just refer to Terry's review -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -- which, for me, nailed it. Dan says Fourth time through this masterpiece, the first since 2012. It's a set of three interconnected novellas. The first is flat out one of the best things ever written. A man returns home from prison and recalls his life before prison being raised by his father who was a mad scientist/brothel owner/former slave trader who performs experiments on him. It's set in a city modeled on New Orleans on one half of a set of twin planets that have been colonized by humans some generations before. It is beautiful, heartbreaking and absolutely brutal in its depiction of human capability for cruelty. But it's subtler and more enjoyable than that description would indicate. While I haven't read Proust, the opening is famously modeled on the opening of Swann's Way, and the writing is some of my favorite anywhere. Themes of memory, slavery, colonialism, identity, pedagogy, robotics and genocide are all at play here. Despite all of that, play is a key word because there's a lot of subtle punning around Wolfe's name and shots taken at Academics. The novella is still entertaining, though. Wolfe doesn't forget that he has to tell a good story to carry all that weight. Even his exposition here is handled gracefully. The second novella purports to be written by an anthropologist who is a minor, if significant, character in the first section and a prisoner in the third. It's the most confusing part of the book. It reads like a bumbling colonial anthropologist recounting a myth of the people who were native to the other half of the twin planets. This is complicated by the fact that the identity of the author is ambiguous (though I think he can be identified after reading all three novellas). There's a lot to parse out here and I'm not sure I fully understand it, but I was able to enjoy it immensely. The themes from the first section are at play here as well, but from another angle. The third novella reveals the extent of the cruelty, evil and absurdity of the government of the planet from the first section. It is reminiscent of Kafka. It takes the form of a series of interviews of and conducted by the anthropologist, his prison diary and his diary of his trip where he gathered the material for the second novella seen through the eyes of a government official who reads/listens to them out of order because the labels have fallen off. Here more of the extent of the slavery (including sexual slavery) becomes clear and the horror of the situation is brought home. It ties up the three novellas thematically. I love this type of storytelling, learning about a place through very different perspectives and genres. Wolfe has a subtle touch and there's a lot to consider. I've been meaning to reread this for a while and was prompted to finally do so because The Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast is doing a close reading and discussion of it all fall. PDF File: The Fifth Head of Cerberus... 3 Read and Download Ebook The Fifth Head of Cerberus... Highly recommended. Nikki says Read this for a group read -- the first time I've managed to get myself organised to do that in a long time. I have a backlog as long as my arm of books that were picked for discussion in that group! And they always pick interesting ones. This was my first Gene Wolfe book, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I don't know whether my brain just doesn't work in quite the right way to fully 'get' the story, or if everyone else is equally at sea. I kind of want to nod wisely and pretend I followed every word, but I didn't -- but I liked it a lot anyway, and I know I'm going to be thinking about it for quite a while. It's all about issues of identity, along with colonial issues, which I find interesting, and it's fantastically written: the plot may be puzzling, but the sentences never are. The structure of the book is interesting: three novellas which share themes and come together into a whole. It's a bit difficult to see how they connect at first, other than shared worlds, but don't let that deter you. Normally I'd find it a turn-off, but it's worth just letting the narrative carry you along. I don't know if I'm going to read more of Gene Wolfe's work, oddly enough. I liked this very much, and may even reread it, but it wasn't easy. I find myself gravitating to easy reads, lately -- I spend so much time wrestling with Middle English that when I get to my relaxing time, it's hard to settle down with something as nuanced and complex as The Fifth Head of Cerberus. Milo? Dumbraci says I found the first story very good, but a little boring and not very credible in the mix of 19th century+future (in the New Sun series there are good reasons to make that believable, but here they are not). The second story is utterly uninteresting and unreadable; the third just very boring. I love GW in his Sun series, but this book was a big let-down for me. Derek says The stories address identity, self-identity, and the assumption or appropriation of identity, in a spiraling, fractal path, each one bouncing off the other in unexpected and exhilarating ways. In particular, "A Story", by John V. Marsch can be considered an exploration of identity in itself, but its meaning blooms when paired with the third, V.R.T., providing hints to events in that story. The final profundity is the framing story of V.R.T., where John Marsch's case file and documents--disordered by carelessness and circumstance--are reviewed by an unnamed officer in Sante Croix's police state government. Marsch's--(view spoiler)--situation, and the truth of his supposed revolutionary activities, are a minor footnote in someone else's career. This official, despite his perusal of available material, does not ferret out the truth from the clues. In fact, based on his careless, contemptuous handling of evidence, he is not interested in Marsch or the truth of his crime, only in determining the correct course of action based on political ramifications. Nobody cares who Marsch really is. PDF File: The Fifth Head of Cerberus... 4 Read and Download Ebook The Fifth Head of Cerberus... Terry says Oh Gene Wolfe why can't I quit you?! Constantly frustrated by your boring viewpoint characters (your secondary ones tend to be so much more interesting!), your constant practice of leaving out the 'good bits' of the story (only to refer to them, if at all, obliquely and second-hand later), and your monomaniacal need to make every story a goddamn puzzle! But I keep coming back for more...keep hoping this time it will be different and I'll get the full experience, be completely immersed, not just find a few excellent bits and flounder amongst the rest.
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