Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe

Hailed for literary style and range, SFWA Grand Master Wolfe (Home Fires) is paid tribute with 17 eclectic stories written in imitation or in answer to his own work, plus two original stories by Wolfe himself. Wolfe’s breakout Book of the New Sun series is the basis of William C. Dietz’s “In the Shadow of the Gate” and Jody Lynn Nye’s “The Dreams of the Sea.” Michael Swanwick recasts the early “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” with women, as “The She-Wolf’s Hidden Grin.” Joe Haldeman mashes up new and old Wolfe characters, along with the author himself, in “The Island of the Death Doctor.” Contributors also provide Wolfean delights like sensitive reworking of pulp fiction (Jack Dann’s “The Island of Time”) and wordplay (Neil Gaiman’s “A Lunar Labyrinth” or Aaron Allston’s “Epistoleros”). These and many other top-notch writers have brought all their skills to bear on making this homage worthy of Wolfe’s prodigious talents, and it shows. (Sept.)