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by brobinson 884 days ago
This is the second reference to BotLS I've seen today on HN. The other was here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38938981

I've read the four BotNS books. Is BotLS worth it if I had mixed feelings about those?

2 comments

Depends on why you didn't like New Sun. Long Sun is a rather different beast.

I loved New Sun for the intricate writing and picaresque SF dying earth, time loops, meta-fiction, cosmology and so on; but Long Sun is written in a much flatter 'late Wolfe' style, is more straightforward and introspective, more of an extended meditation on religion (even false ones) & leadership & personal integrity.

You can like both, but I don't think I've seen many people claiming to like them equally. (And Short Sun is even less popular - it's just a bit too weird in delving into Wolfe's subtle fixation on insects/vampires and memory loss/personal identity, and you have to get through Long Sun first which is almost as different from Short Sun as Long Sun was from New Sun... I'm not sure if anyone really likes Short Sun.)

I enjoyed New Sun, but Long Sun was such a drag. I stopped on the third book in the middle, just couldn't push myself anymore.