From: "cilluff1@optonline.net" 
Subject: RE: (urth) How would you rate Wolfe as a short story writer?
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 13:37:36 -0400

Anthony, we've had this debate before on the list and I agree with you (as=

did a few other listers, Alga I think began the discussion)=2E  I think Wo=
lfe
is a superb novelist, particularly when he is writing a multi-volume work=2E=
=20
But his short stories IMHO have been good certainly but not up to the high=

standard set by his longer fiction=2E  Perhaps he is a victim of his own
success: his novels set the bar so high that anything less seems rather
ordinary=2E  Very few of Wolfe's short stories grab me the way, say, Ted
Chiang's do=2E =20

But in fairness to Mr=2E Wolfe I must admit I have not read The Island of
Doctor Death and Other Stories (and Other Stories), which is generally
considered to be his best work in the genre=2E I'm smack dab in the middle=
 of
Alastair Reynold's "Chasm City" and Norman Spinrad's "The Void Captain's
Tale" right now, each of which is excellent in its own way=2E  TVCT strike=
s
me, actually, as rather Woflean in style, perhaps because it is baroque an=
d
lyrical and filled with metaphors (although slightly more obvious than
Wolfe) a la TBOTNS=2E  Chasm City, on the other hand, although it certainl=
y
can be read on multiple levels is really just more of an excellent and ver=
y
well written page turner=2E

- Joe

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