The Wizard (Wizard Knight Series #2)

by Gene Wolfe

Overview

A novel in two volumes, The Wizard Knight is in the rare company of those works which move past the surface of fantasy and drink from the wellspring of myth. Magic swords, dragons, giants, quests, love, honor, nobility-all the familiar features of fantasy come to fresh life in this masterful work.

The first half of the journey, The Knight -- which you are advised to read first, to let the whole story engulf you from the beginning -- took a teenage boy from America into Mythgarthr, the middle realm of seven fantastic worlds. Above are the gods of Skai; below are the capricious Aelf, and more dangerous things still. Journeying throughout Mythgarthr, Able gains a new brother, an Aelf queen lover, a supernatural hound, and the desire to prove his honor and become the noble knight he always knew he would be.

Coming into Jotunland, home of the Frost Giants, Able -- now Sir Able of the High Heart --claims the great sword Eterne from the dragon who has it. In reward, he is ushered into the castle of the Valfather, king of all the Gods of Skai.

Thus begins the second part of his quest. The Wizard begins with Able's return to Mythgathr on his steed Cloud, a great mare the color of her name. Able is filled with new knowledge of the ways of the seven-fold world and possessed of great magical secrets. His knighthood now beyond question, Able works to fulfill his vows to his king, his lover, his friends, his gods, and even his enemies. Able must set his world right, restoring the proper order among the denizens of all the seven worlds.

The Wizard is a charming, riveting, emotionally charged tale of wonders, written with all the beauty one would expect from a writer whom Damon Knight called "a national treasure." If you've never sampled the works of the man Michael Swanwick described as "the greatest writer in the English language alive today," the two volumes of The Wizard Knight are the perfect place to start.



At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429915540
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Series:	Wizard Knight Series , #2
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winners The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes as Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Best of Gene Wolfe.



A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and six Locus Awards, among many other honors, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012.

Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winners The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes as Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Best of Gene Wolfe.

A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and six Locus Awards, among many other honors, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
The Wizard, the second and concluding volume of Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight duology, is so much more than an epic fantasy about a boy's transformation into a fearless knight in a realm filled with giants, dragons, and mischievous elves. It's a deeply moving existential tale about the important things in life -- namely one's honor.

When a teenage boy from modern-day America suddenly finds himself in Mythgarthr -- the middle realm of a strange universe that contains seven interconnecting worlds -- and is transformed into a hulking knight by an irresistibly beautiful elf queen, he begins a perilous quest to not only retrieve a legendary sword but also to find out what it means to be a hero. In The Wizard, Sir Able of the High Heart is a much-changed man. The teenager stuck inside the body of an adult warrior has slain dragons, defeated nightmarish foes, led armies, and visited numerous fantastical realms. Accompanied by a unicorn steed, a talking cat, a supernatural demon-dog named Gylf, and a small group of unlikely friends, Able is delayed in his quest to somehow reunite with his beloved elf queen by a strict code of honor that forces him to battle frost giants, seductive sorceresses, and egomaniacal kings.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes Wolfe as "neither the most popular nor the most influential author in the sf field" but concludes that "[he] is today quite possibly the most important." Science fiction, horror, speculative fiction...and now -- after writing the Wizard Knight duology -- Wolfe can add fantasy to his list of genres mastered. Paul Goat Allen

bn.com

The teenage boy who wandered into another set of realities in Wolfe's The Knight has attained his ambition of knighthood. Now, as Sir Able of the High Heart, he returns in this sequel riding a steed that's not a horse, wielding his magic sword and bound by oath not to use his new otherworldly powers. Such a summary is like saying a spoonful of tap water constitutes the whole of all oceans. Wolfe's words wash over the reader with transparent grace and charming playfulness as he spins his profoundly imaginative, metaphysically complex, yet ever-entertaining tale with astonishing naturalness. In trademark Wolfian fashion, the memory-altered protagonist acts as narrator, telling the truth whenever possible and to the full extent of his own understanding. This second volume satisfactorily supplies many answers to the riddles and allusions of its tantalizing predecessor, but posits new mysteries as well. The novel stands alone and might even be best if read before The Knight, but will surely drive readers to the first as well. The conclusion hints at possible further adventures. Outstanding fantasy these days is often convincingly and compellingly anti-Tolkien, but Wolfe proves one can tell an epic, myth-based story of honor, loyalty, courage and faith relevant to our own dark times. This is fantasy at its best: revelatory and inspirational. Agent, the Virginia Kidd Agency. (Nov. 10) Forecast: Wolfe has won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, among many other major awards. Expect this two-book saga (The Knight was published earlier this year) to win him a few more. This is far more accessible than his earlier multivolume masterpiece, The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983). Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The grand conclusion to a fantasy two-parter about a knight with the soul of a teenaged boy. In The Knight (2003), Wolfe sent an American teenager into another world, a multitiered fantasy universe divided into seven different planes of existence. There, he became known as Sir Abel of the High Heart, a powerful knight with a sword, Eterne, that your average hero would kill for. Now, we find Abel having recently come back to the land of Mythgarthr. Although he's aged some 20 years in the realm of Skye, the passing of time there doesn't really seem to follow the standard rules, and, while he doesn't seem very mature, he definitely isn't a kid anymore. A seasoned warrior, Abel is in the midst of a struggle between the realm of King Arnthor against a race of Frost Giants intent on raiding south into the hotter lands to capture human slaves to work their fields. The Wizard's first half allows Abel to tell about his struggles in this conflict, and he's an engaging narrator, though given to the prolix. When Wolfe shifts the action away from Abel, though, and turns to the diplomatic efforts of his squires Svon and Toug (and Mani, the speaking cat: less gimmicky than it sounds) in their effort to stop the giant-human fighting, the action shifts into high gear and the comprehension factor (despite the upfront list of dramatis personae) begins ratcheting dramatically downward. Wolfe likes to spin spiderwebs of plot and counterplot inside his impressively constructed universes, and fortunately his innate sense of humor keeps matters from getting impossibly dense. Even as he trots out the fantasy tropes (elf-like beings, a battle with a dragon, jousting matches, honorable peasants, arrogant royalty),he both undercuts expectations and fulfills them in each and every page. Mordant, thrilling, all tangled up in heavy knots of double-crossing and magic.

Kirkus Reviews

“Wolfe's words wash over the reader with transparent grace and charming playfulness as he spins his profoundly imaginative, metaphysically complex, yet ever-entertaining tale with astonishing naturalness.. . . Wolfe proves one can tell an epic, myth-based story of honor, loyalty, courage and faith relevant to our own dark times. This is fantasy at its best: revelatory and inspirational.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“There is hardly a piece of northern European heroic literature from which Wolfe doesn't borrow with his usual scholarly flare and in his exquisitely turned prose (in Wolfe's hands, even dialect works). Arising from the same sources as I, The Wizard Knight is one of the few fantasies that can justly be compared with it.” —Booklist

“The Wizard is a brilliant Celtic knot of a book. It demands a great deal from the reader, but it repays that investment many times over.” —David Drake

“Wolfe excels at developing a standard fantasy coming-of-age story into something fresh and exciting, a must read for every fan of the genre.” —Romantic Times on The Wizard

“I...emerged from the reading of this book ready to acknowledge Wolfe's immense skills, passion and ambition. Taken together, these two books are a magnificent achievement in the annals of fantasy literature.” —SciFi Weekly on The Wizard Knight

“The grand conclusion to a fantasy two-parter about a knight with the soul of a teenaged boy...Wolfe likes to spin spiderwebs of plot and counterplot inside his impressively constructed universes, and fortunately his innate sense of humor keeps matters from getting impossibly dense. Even as he trots out the fantasy tropes he both undercuts expectations and fulfills them in each and every page…Mordant, thrilling, all tangled up in heavy knots of double-crossing and magic.” —Kirkus

From the Publisher