The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Wow. This must be one of the most original, intelligent and mind-bogglingly confusing books I have read lately. Its three novellas loosely interconnect to form a puzzle whose pieces don't always fit together, or maybe it's just me who's not clever enough to realise how they're supposed to fit.

But I'm okay with that, honestly. I'm fine with not getting a completely coherent narrative or anything even remotely close to proper answers to all the questions raised here. Because whether I understand this book or not, reading it has been one hell of a ride.

I've been told that second and third readings of Wolfe's stories allow you to find layers of interesting meaning; my intent with reading this for a book club was to do two readings, but I'm not sure I'm up for a second reading of it–we'll see.

I get it. He's a genius. I just think he's not my flavor of genius. Interesting themes here, a puzzle-that-maybe-isn't-meant-to-be-solved sort of structure. Deep examination of colonizers becoming colonized (and vice versa!), of identity, of how stories are told. This is the kind of thing that sci-fi is made for, in my mind. And yet.

And yet, I like my stories interesting on the surface first, with all of the deep stuff there as well; instead, these stories aren't particularly interesting on the surface, with one-dimensional characters and some 40-year old sci-fi tropes that feel 140 here (ooooooh! cloning! it's so weird!). Yes, yes, yes, the deeper themes are explored in a wonderful way, but only if you dig pretty deeply in the text. Sure, that can be fun, but I'd rather read something like The Left Hand of Darkness, which explores similar themes in a deep way, but which can also/instead be read for its plot alone. I'd even rather read Dhalgren, which has a crazy, non-linear structure but at least is a wild ride, even if you set the themes to the side.

Maybe my thoughts will shift on a second reading? We'll see...

This is my first Wolfe novel outside of Book of the New Sun (which I loved). I was warned that rest of his works are mostly “crazier”.

I'm not sure what I've just read, though to be honest after the second part of the “novel” I expected even something more experimental.

The “novel” (Is it really a novel? I don't think so.) is split into three stories that are vaguely tied together. The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a story about a boy who discovers he's a clone of his father. ‘A Story' by John V. Marsch (this is the whole title) is about an alien? A human among aliens? Alien adopting human identity? In a desert. Talking to human spirit. Or the spirit thinks it used to be a human. It's full of dreams. I don't know... Don't make me read it again.

The third story is called V.R.T. and it's the longest and probably the most standard one of them all, written mostly in diary entries of a political prisoner, and frankly what saved the book from getting worse rating. I actually enjoyed this one. With the other two I got lost sometimes, in ‘A Story' I was lost basically all the time.

I think there was some criticism of colonialism, exploration of identity and I guess satire of big government though with this one I'm not so sure because it wasn't as much satirization as accurate depiction of socialist government in Eastern Europe. Plumber one day, horseshoe maker another, high government security official the next. Prisoner rotting in a cell because both execution and release would be politically inconvenient. Seems about right.

I'm sure Alzabo Soup Podcast will explain “everything”. My favorite quote from The Sword of the Lictor comes to mind: “Think well on all the things we have not told you, and remember what you have not been shown.”

I will.

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.