In Greens Jungles: The Second Volume of The Book of the Short Sun

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Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention short sun long sun green jungles blue waters gene wolfe book of the short patera silk sun whorl return to the whorl new sun book of the long sun series final volume blue and green red sun world of green planet blue book of the new horn return book even. There was a problem filtering reviews right now.

Please try again later. All the books are tied together see the books of the Long Sun in many ways. Getting past the omni-linear track of the plot for me was the hard part, but becomes very clear at the end and holds your interest. Here is a good Editorial Review that helped me understand the plot better: As Horn recounts his adventures, his own identity becomes muddled very , and we find out his interactions with the vampiric inhumi of Green and the strange alien Neighbors were deeper than we knew and how.

In fact, Horn may not be himself at all anymore. Tantalizing story details drip slowly from Wolfe's pen: Through the ring a Neighbor saw him, and she came to him in his agony I can do this for you, however, if you desire it. I can send your spirit into someone else, into someone whose own spirit is dying. Has he become Patera Silk--it seems so, for people begin mistaking him for the heroic leader. Is he the warrior king Rajan, or is he something entirely new, formed by the strange places and people around him into a savior of worlds? Identity, love, and faith weave through the themes of In Green's Jungles, and Wolfe has added another masterpiece to a shelf full of them.

During the story's narration, we notice a marked change in Horn as his search for Patera Silk continues. The change, gradual at first. Starts little by little, but as each of Horn's recollections become known, we are spotting inconsistencies, and his voice is becoming that of Patera Silk, Horn, Lord Rajan and Master Incanto all in one.

The confusion is known by us the reader , but only sensed or felt by Horn et al. Wolfe's mastery, becomes abundantly clear as you get towards the end of the book. As I mentioned in my earlier reviews, these works bear repeated reading to fully comprehend. The prose and style are 1st rate. One amusing reviewer wrote "Horn would greatly appreciate the quality of the paper in the Hardcover edition.

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The narrator's identity is again a mystery. He believes himself to be Horn, but remembers things falsely and is constantly identified as Silk. Having escaped from Gaon, where the throne was forced upon him in virtual imprisonment, the narrator comes to the town of Blanko, whose citizens believe him a magician and seek his council in their war.

Thus, he is drawn into yet another bloody conflict, underscoring the need of Silk on Blue, in order to save its colonists from their fighting and their original sin. Horn's death on Green, spoken of in the first book, is but the last of a series of crushing experiences on that dangerous whorl, and Horn cannot face them outright.

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Other surprises await the reader. Our narrator discovers that he can astrally project himself to other worlds in his dreams. And in a tear-inducingly beautiful passage, Wolfe's Christian allusions manifest themselves with an inadvertent Eucharist, which may be the most moving thing Wolfe has ever written. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Though written as told by Horn, His jumping around from place to place and even into different bodies leaves the reader guessing about now as well as what happens in the future.

Many don't care for this books style, get over it, you'll be hard pressed to find better stories. Gene Wolfe can be a frustrating writer: He's a master of indirectness: We get crumbling cities, in-human and human monsters and other trappings of, say, a good Burrough's Barsoom tale presented entirely as backstory to the current events in which the lead character has become embroiled. On Blue's Waters the first volume was a beautiful work, marred I thought at the time by the overly obscure ending. But this novel a lot clearer to follow, with a more conventional linear story actually improves the first book.

I can't wait to read the final volume now There is simply too much contained in this book to even begin to sum it up here. Wolfe fans will delight in this tale, bringing them one magnificent step closer to the end of the Solar Cycle. Wolfe takes us on quite a journey here. We travel to the world of Green, help stage a war on Blue, and even travel back to Nessus! Read this as soon as you can! His stories are often about struggle against poverty, adversity, and small scale wars between tribes of colonists.

The line between science and supernatural is very blurry. His prose is beautiful, descriptive and ornate.

The multiple story lines overlap out of sequence so the reader can easily become lost. Only after soldiering on through the story, it all comes together. I actually read the series twice, I enjoyed it so much. No way to describe how superlative this whole series is. See all 23 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Reading it again for the third time Published 9 months ago. Published on December 3, In short, it's a book in which a lot happens; some of it confusing, but nearly all of it interesting in some way.

In contrast, I did not find much of interest in Blue , and this is what made me dislike it even more than this awful man who acted as my narrator and guide.

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I wonder, though, if the Horn who narrated Blue is the same man who narrates Green. The Green Horn is the same man insofar as he has memories and feelings relating to the events in Blue. In other words, there is a continuity between these narrators. My appreciation might stem from the implication that the Horn of Green is channeling, or even embodying, Silk somehow. Oreb calls him Silk, though Horn dismisses this as a symptom of the bird's limited vocabulary. His own son, Hide, didn't recognize him when they reunited outside Blanko.

According to Hide, his father did not have as much hair as Horn does and this may be a sci-fi novel, but even Gene Wolfe hasn't found a believable way to reverse male pattern baldness. He protests, but not too much. The sequence that really hit home for me, however, came near the end.

To explain how it affected me, I must first discuss the middle of the book, which concerns the battle between the towns of Blanko and Soldo. As I was reading this section of the book, I was enjoying it well enough but kept thinking about how often Gene Wolfe's novels are about war or, at least, all the books of his that I've read seem to be about war. I began to wonder if he wrote about war so much because he enjoyed it, or because he felt compelled to for some larger reason.

In the three Sun series New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun , Wolfe has invented a handful of amazing, alien, unique worlds, and yet war is a nearly constant factor in all of them. Knowing that I was reading the work of a thoughtful author, I had to believe there was a reason. And then he provided that reason at the end of Green: Horn, Hide, and Jahlee have a conversation about the relationships among the humans and inhumi in the Short Sun star system. Horn's belief, which Hide echoes, is that the humans will ultimately triumph over the inhumi if only for mathematical reasons: Humans fight among each other more than they fight against the inhumi.

They betray each other to the inhumi constantly. Humans are cruel and violent, she says, and the more of them there are, the crueler and the more violent they become. Jahlee reminds Hide that he had asked Horn why the humans of a particular settlement had bothered to construct a wall around their town since the inhumi can fly. Her implied answer is that inhumi aren't the only ones that humans need to keep out of their settlements. I am reminded of Ripley's equivalent line in Aliens: Our narrator seems content to ramble aimlessly around as many whorls as Gene Wolfe will let him.

But I enjoyed Green enough that I'm plunging right into the third and final book, Return to the Whorl , without taking a breath. Let's see where we end up! Jul 18, Daniel rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is an absolute masterpiece. After escaping the effects of war in Gaon, our confused narrator finds himself in a similar situation in a new town, where his inherent leadership qualities again draw him reluctantly into a conflict.

He tries, as always, to do the thing that will create the least harm, advising with an equal mixture of wisdom and humility in beautifully measured sentences, albeit with more than the occasional instance of pedantry indeed, there is a general trend towards the pedantic in latter-day Wolfe. The p After escaping the effects of war in Gaon, our confused narrator finds himself in a similar situation in a new town, where his inherent leadership qualities again draw him reluctantly into a conflict.

The planet Green itself is clearly a representation of Hell, a place so horrid that Wolfe avoids directly describing it, instead visiting it through some of his favourite narrative devices, such as dreamlike sequences or a "story within a story". In many ways much of this book does in fact resemble a waking dream - or rather a nightmare - as the narrator tries to come to terms both with the things he has seen and with the person he has become.

The middle book in a trilogy can often be a difficult proposition, where a plot needs to be advanced but cannot be completed, characters needs to be developed without achieving their destiny. This constant sense of irresolution can stifle the flow of a story, weigh it down. With Wolfe, however, it's rarely a problem because he weaves such a bewildering, deliberately obscure narrative, where even his endings rarely reveal a fraction of all the secrets, so In Green's Jungles never feels like a stop-gap. Through both the mysteries of his story e. Wolfe is capable of stuff so above and beyond the usual fantasy writer that he can do all this, can obfuscate at every turn, yet still entertain and delight.

Masterful, philosophical and deeply strange. Nov 20, Alex rated it it was ok. I struggled, and struggled, and struggled to get into this trilogy, and have concluded that it's just not for me. I had to put this book down for lack of interest, something I almost never do. My impression is that Wolfe fell into a rut here, in which he could not avoid having all of his characters speak with the same rhythm and voice. Wolfe's no amateur and I suspect the fans of these novels are right that he had a distinct literary purpose for doing things this way, the unreliable narrator and I struggled, and struggled, and struggled to get into this trilogy, and have concluded that it's just not for me.

Wolfe's no amateur and I suspect the fans of these novels are right that he had a distinct literary purpose for doing things this way, the unreliable narrator and all that. But the narrator isn't compelling, so onto the shelf this one goes. Aug 06, Paul Nash rated it it was amazing. Gene Wolfe is simply one of the best novelists we have -- read the entire series, as there are layers within layers, and a subtle, haunting quality that grows and develops, especially in this book.

Every single word of the Short Sun books is phenomenal! I was in the second-to-last chapter when my dad noted, "You're past the climax of your book," which made me realize that these and New Sun and even Long Sun don't really have a climax as such but keep building up and getting twistier and stranger and better until the last page. And that I'm already looking forward to reading it again.

I recently read an old interview with Gene Wolfe where he talked about Silk as the ultimate good guy: The same thing can be said about evil.

In Green's Jungles--The Second Volume of 'The Book of the Short Sun'

A lot of people have the notion that evil is interesting and basically fun, and that good is dull and no fun, and I don't think that's true. If anything, the reverse is true, and I wanted to have a shot at proving that I was right. In that same interview , they bring up two of my other favorite aspects of the series - the huge cultural differences throughout the whorls and the careful speech patterning which also stands out in many of his other novels. In regards to the first and this book, I enjoyed the switch from Gaon to the Italianesque colonies of Grandecitta and especially Duko Rigoglio; as well as the fixation with words and naming and etymologies.

I think in a lot of books I take for granted that the narrator's or principal character's voice echoes the authors but these books are more carefully constructed. Though the fact that they are technically a separate series is now constantly tempting me to recommend them to innocent bystanders as standalone novels just to gauge how confusing they would be. If you've read this far, why don't you make the Short Sun your first Sun? I promise you will love it. Jun 06, Jordan Halsey rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Gene Wolfe is a genius, and this is my favorite of his books.

The one's I've read anyway. The man is a wizard. In this book, the second of a trilogy, with that trilogy a sequel to another series of four books quadrology? And it just occurred to me that I had already read all of the previous books before I read this one, but I still don't believe that you MUST re Gene Wolfe is a genius, and this is my favorite of his books. And it just occurred to me that I had already read all of the previous books before I read this one, but I still don't believe that you MUST read them to understand what happens in this one.

That is the man's genius. Very simply, a man is attempting to return to his family after a long absence, a long journey, but becomes caught up in the troubles of a town he comes to along the way, where he is offered food and shelter, but which is menaced by a nearby rival. To reveal more would be to deny you one of the greatest pleasures in reading Gene Wolfe's work: The book and indeed, the trilogy, are presented as the journal of the traveler, an account to his wife and children of his journey and the various things that have kept him from them for so long.

For whatever reason, things that other authors would state explicitly are only alluded to. For instance, why would a man writing to his family tell them that the planet they live on is not Earth? Presumably, they already know that, since they live there too. So, it is never mentioned, although I don't feel bad saying this as it is very quickly apparent that this planet cannot be Earth.

They call it Blue and they know nothing of Earth.

While you can read this book without reading the others, I don't recommend it. You simply miss out on so much. Start with the Long Sun novels. Then read On Blue's Waters which recounts the first part of Horn's journey. And of course, there is a concluding book set both before and after this one. I told you Gene Wolfe was a wizard. Nov 05, Adam Vine rated it really liked it. Started slower than first Short Sun book - a lot slower, to the point I almost quit. But by the end it proved to be a worthy sequel, with a bevy of GW easter eggs.

I was interested to learn more about the Vanished People, and why they, well, vanished. Also, the scene in the City of the Inhumi where Horn is describing how the jungle reclaimed the towers is my favorite description of that type of thing ever put to paper. I still have a ton of questions about the narrator, and about what actually h Started slower than first Short Sun book - a lot slower, to the point I almost quit. I still have a ton of questions about the narrator, and about what actually happened in the story, which is typical for me of a first read-through of a GW novel.

But I'll save them, and my reread, for after I finish volume three.

In Green's Jungles (The Book of the Short Sun #2) read online free by Gene Wolfe

Overall, the Short Sun Cycle is monumentally different in style and mythic scope than the New Sun and Long Sun books, but is as entertaining and labyrinthine as you expect. My one major complaint is that the end sort of fizzled out, with no real resolution, and the real climax of the story came much earlier, but that's a forgivable sin for the second part of a trilogy.

Sep 16, Anthony rated it liked it. I wanna give this four stars but the truth is at this point in the ongoing saga I'm a little weary. Just one left If you count the books from "Book of the New sun" then this is the 9th! In this case it is the mystery of how the Inhumi aliens ever got onto the starship way back in th Shoot. In this case it is the mystery of how the Inhumi aliens ever got onto the starship way back in the previous series in the first place. If it was chess you would say he plays a very deep game. Another reason I consider Wolfe a top-notch writer: You definitely never quite know what to expect next.

Nov 10, Ted rated it it was amazing. Why has it taken me so many years to make my way through the Short Sun books? I didn't want to play.

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It sounded like work. I left it on the shelf for a year or two. Finally I tried again, gritted my teeth at the feeling of work-for-story, got past it and fell in Why has it taken me so many years to make my way through the Short Sun books? Finally I tried again, gritted my teeth at the feeling of work-for-story, got past it and fell in love with the Short Sun setting.

That doesn't explain the long gap between Blue and Green, caused by other RL factors. I finally re-read Blue earlier this year, and yet still felt sluggish about starting on this book. Imagine my surprise to find it so very different from the preceding volume, each differently magical and intriguing.

I would like to promise that I'll get on the third book soon, but my track record is pretty lousy. Nov 21, Gary rated it it was amazing. OK, I love Wolfe. He is one of the best writers alive or just perhaps one of the best writers period. This book is great because, well, it's all about the world of the inhumus It all takes place way later as Horn is taking care of other troubles on Blue Horn is both a smart guy and incredibly dumb Like Silk, he's a bit disappointing as a Messiah figure, never quite getting with the program as their moral failings keep them shy of real transformation.

We'll see what they can do in return to the whorl which I'm almost done with. Put it this way, the story gets increasingly fragmented -- you keep up with a new main plot every 20 pages or so and it's often a recollection from one plot line that moves another forward.

Aug 29, Scott rated it really liked it. The second volume of the Short Sun trilogy, and the 11th book in Gene Wolfe's massive and mind-blowing "Solar Cycle", is another excellent work. Continuing the story of Horn, a rather bit character in the middle Long Sun series, this one follows Horn between the planets Blue and Green. The real trick is that Horn is narrating two of his own stories - one in the present and one from the past.

On top of this, his physical appearance has shifted somehow, though we don't really know the reason. As w The second volume of the Short Sun trilogy, and the 11th book in Gene Wolfe's massive and mind-blowing "Solar Cycle", is another excellent work. As with nearly all other Wolfe novels, many things are hinted at and incredible revelations are made, but they are only there if the reader is paying VERY close attention.

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