Gene Wolfe's Book of Days
1981 short story collection by Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe's Book of Days is a short story collection by American science fiction author Gene Wolfe published in 1981 by Doubleday.
The stories within the collection are each paired with a holiday within the calendar year that is thematically linked to the content of the story. Thus, a story about the resurgence of slavery ("How the Whip Came Back") is dedicated to Lincoln's Birthday.
The material here was combined with The Castle of the Otter to make the volume Castle of Days.
The stories (and their respective holidays)
- Date Due (No holiday assigned)
- A story hidden in the introduction about a University student who steals books from his University Library.
- "How the Whip Came Back" (Lincoln's Birthday)
- "Of Relays and Roses" (Valentine's Day)
- "Paul's Treehouse" (Arbor Day)
- "St. Brandon" (St. Patrick's Day)
- "Beautyland" (Earth Day)
- "Car Sinister" (Mother's Day)
- "The Blue Mouse" (Armed Forces Day)
- "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion" (Memorial Day)
- "The Adopted Father" (Father's Day)
- "Forlesen" (Labor Day)
- "An Article About Hunting" (the first day of hunting season)
- "The Changeling" (Homecoming Day)
- "Many Mansions" (Halloween)
- "Against the Lafayette Escadrille" (Armistice Day)
- "Three Million Square Miles" (Thanksgiving)
- "The War Beneath the Tree" (Christmas Eve)
- "La Befana" (Christmas Day)
- "Melting" (New Year's Eve)
Reception
Dave Langford reviewed Gene Wolfe's Book of Days for White Dwarf #72, and stated that "Unclassifiable . . . some straight-forward, some worrying, some enigmatic and elusive, but all beautifully written."[1]
Reviews
- Review by Tom Easton (1981) in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, October 12, 1981[2]
- Review by James J. J. Wilson (1981) in Science Fiction Review, Winter 1981
- Review by John Clute (1982) in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1982
- Review by K. V. Bailey (1986) in Paperback Inferno, #58
References
- ^ Langford, Dave (December 1985). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf. No. 72. Games Workshop. p. 8.
- ^ "Title: Gene Wolfe's Book of Days".
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Works by Gene Wolfe
- The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)
- The Claw of the Conciliator (1981)
- The Sword of the Lictor (1981)
- The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)
- The Urth of the New Sun (1987)
- Nightside of the Long Sun (1993)
- Lake of the Long Sun (1994)
- Caldé of the Long Sun (1994)
- Exodus from the Long Sun (1996)
- On Blue's Waters (1999)
- In Green's Jungles (2000)
- Return to the Whorl (2001)
- Soldier of the Mist (1986)
- Soldier of Arete (1989)
- Soldier of Sidon (2006)
- The Knight (2004)
- The Wizard (2004)
- Operation Ares (1970)
- The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972)
- Peace (1975)
- The Devil in a Forest (1976)
- Free Live Free (1984)
- There Are Doors (1988)
- Castleview (1990)
- Pandora, By Holly Hollander (1990)
- Pirate Freedom (2007)
- An Evil Guest (2008)
- The Sorcerer's House (2010)
- Home Fires (2011)
- The Land Across (2013)
- A Borrowed Man (2015)
- Interlibrary Loan (2020)
- The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (1980)
- Gene Wolfe's Book of Days (1981)
- The Wolfe Archipelago (1983)
- Plan(e)t Engineering (1984)
- Bibliomen (1984)
- Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988)
- Endangered Species (1989)
- Castle of Days (1992)
- The Young Wolfe (1992)
- Strange Travelers (2000)
- Innocents Aboard (2004)
- Starwater Strains (2005)
- The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
- "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion" (1973)
- "The Death of Doctor Island" (1973)
- "Straw" (1975)
- "The Woman the Unicorn Loved" (1981)
- "A Cabin on the Coast" (1984)
- A Walking Tour of the Shambles (2002)
- "Memorare" (2007)
- Severian
- Ascian language
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