Return to the Whorl (Book of the Short Sun Series #3) Book

Well, I think this one took me longer than any of the others in my year of (re)reading Gene Wolfe. I have to admit that my enthusiasm was waning when I finally got to this volume, but having made it through all of the previous eleven volumes of the solar cycle I couldn't let flagging interest stop me from completing the series. I think this book is better than my slow track record in finishing it would imply and that it actually might be the best of the three volumes of the Short Sun series, but I don't know that I can fully express why, or say that on this reading I fully appreciated that. I left the book feeling as though I ought to read it again when it doesn't feel like the end of a marathon and perhaps see it with fresher, and more balanced, eyes.

We finally get some resolutions to the myriad mysteries that have been surrounding our narrator, and his identity, and he finally manages to end his odyssean wanderings and return home to New Viron, perhaps having achieved everything he had promised, even if he doesn't believe this to be the case. Of course Gene Wolfe is never straightforward, even when he is presenting resolutions, and so we have some new complications to deal with. To add to the time and place jumps that have kept even the attentive reader on his/her toes throughout these volumes we now have the additional issue of new narrators being introduced, sometimes in ways that are not immediately obvious aside from a subtle shift in pronouns. This obviously calls into question the 'truth' of the story being told in these sections as they are apparently not coming directly from the (admittedly confused) person directly experiencing them. How can we take anything we find here at face value? Oh Gene Wolfe, you tricky, tricky fellow!

As far as plot goes we have some further repetitions of the cycle of revolution and reform in the settlements that Silkhorn (the spoilerific name usually given to our erstwhile narrator by Wolfe fans on the interwebs…but if you've read this far this identity reveal shouldn't be a spoiler for you) visits, this time the town of Dorp where he is held for trial by a cabal of corrupt judges that have been squeezing the town for their own benefit and are due for some Patera Silk-style justice. We also see Silkhorn continuing to wrestle with the implications of the symbiotic relationship that exists between the humans on Blue and the Inhumi that prey upon them. These elements of the corrupt nature of the human settlements on Blue and the true nature of the Inhumi are subtly intertwined and speak to Wolfe's examination of the foundations of human nature and the problem of good and evil. Add to this the constant ruminations on the nature of godhood, the role that gods (both 'real' and not-so-real) play in human society & morality, and the whole mess of politics, religion, and ethics that all of this drags up and you have a very complex and weighty story.

Ultimately I came away from this book most noticebly with a sense of sadness. There is such an air of strange tragedy around the story of Patera Silk (in both the Long Sun and Short Sun books), and of Horn whose life becomes inextricably intertwined with that of his hero...to his own doom. This set of books is perhaps, then, more than anything a rumination on the pitfalls of the role of 'hero', especially when that role involves both a moral and a political angle. Patera Silk, as we know from the first lines of the Long Sun series, was enlightened on the ball court and granted something few humans can boast of, an intimate connection with the Divine. Yet this turns out to be as much (or more?) a curse as a blessing. Silk's insight into the true nature of reality, and humanity's inability to live up to it, tied with his inherent love and pity for those around him, leave Silk in a tragic place of near-despair for much of his life. And what of Horn, the boy then man who idolized this figure as a hero and, in his attempts to emulate him and bring salvation to his world, ends up losing himself? Perhaps, given Wolfe's well-known position as a Catholic writer, he has simply expressed the biblical statement of Jesus that "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39) Is it then perhaps a comedy (in the classic sense) and not a tragedy? I guess that depends ultimately on your point of view.

Overall I'd have to say that I've come away from the solar cycle with the impression that the Long Sun-Short Sun parts (which really need to be read together to fully appreciate them) are perhaps the most complex, nuanced, and deep-delving books of the series, but I side with the apparent consensus that the New Sun part of the cycle is really Wolfe's masterwork and is, in some ways at least, more satisfying. Both 'sets', though, definitely leave you with a lot to chew on after you've closed the final pages.