Neil Fein's Blog

The Knight
Book One of The Wizard Knight
by Gene Wolfe

Since the second of this two-book series, The Wizard is slated to come out in the US in November 2004, I started in on The Knight, to get it finished and digested well ahead of time.

Gene Wolfe's books do benefit from a bit of time spent ruminating on them, and The Knight is no exception. Chronicling the tale of a boy from our world who is transformed into the strapping warrior Able by Disiri, Queen of the moss Aelf, and his travels in a not-Earth, not-Aelf world called Mythgarthr. This volume does not disappoint. As with most of Mr. Wolfe's fiction, the book is succinct on plot, long on action, description, and introspection.

And long on deeply fascinating characters. Gylf, Able's dog, is a particular case in point, as are the simple Toug, the off-kilter Bold Berthold, his fellow knights and their egos, and the quiet, complex Lady Idnn; as well as the mysterious Disiri. All of them are fellow travelers in one sense or another.

For this story is that of a journey, one by boat or by foot, by horse or by faith, it follows the voyage and transformation of Able into Sir Able of the High Heart, at least for some of the way. The Knight does a credible job of making us believe in its world, and in its sister world of Aelf, a faerie-like realm, where our lives are but shadows to those who used to hold humanity as gods. Other worlds, such as the sinister Muspel and the lofty Skye, are briefly glimpsed or mentioned. Allusions to varied mythologies abound, but do not obscure the journey; Wolfe obviously has a plan for the second book, and I await it avidly. (He's indicated in an interview that the two books are one novel that got chopped up.)

At the beginning of the story, despite his being a teenager, Able reminded me of Severian, Wolfe's antagonist from the Book of the New Sun stories. While Able's transformation into something new and other is only partially complete at the end of the volume, this resemblance to Severian melted away quickly, as Able's heat to find his lover and patroness, Disiri the Mossmaiden, informs more and more of the plot. Able is a new and wonderful creation in the spectrum of Wolfe narrators, and I recommend The Knight most highly. It's nearly as good as previous works such as The Shadow of the Torturer or Soldier of the Mist, and in some ways is, all at once, more sophisticated in setting and simpler in tone.