The Knight - Gene Wolfe

Our mind, in the mind of a child, in the body of a Knight...

I found this impossible to put down, now this is strange as very little happens in this first of two books from Gene Wolfe. The author is a living breathing legend, a winner of many awards, including a World fantasy Award for Shadow of the Torturer, the first in the Book of the New Sun quartet, and a Nebula for Claw of the Conciliator the second book.

The Knight at first had me confused. This confusion arose from what I was meant to be reading next. After reading what I thought was the first book and then hunting around for the second, I found what appeared to be the Wizard Knight. Mightily confused I was, yet I found clarity, it appeared I read the first of this two part series, which has been published individually as both volumes, and separately with the book I'm reviewing and the second, called The Wizard.

Right then, so with that little re-telling of my own acute slowness over, onward with the review.

Told in a first person narrative, this book hooked me in a bizarre horrible way. Several things came quickly my attention, for one, the narrative structure irritated me, it's a confusing beginning Wolfe throws at us. A young boy stumbles into a world of seven magical levels or worlds (very much similar to the ancient Nordic outlook on Reality), where he assumes the mantle of a Knight, and the name Abel. The book is written from the view of Abel, as he pens his thoughts back to his brother, its very unclear how, when and where he is doing this, and as such Abel really isn't the most reliable of narrators, leaving out details, and ostensibly wafting over important events, such as battles of vital encounters, preferring to recount in his words what happened.

As such precious little happens, the content sees Wolfe pressing into the fore the trials and tribulations of Abel as he seeks to adapt as a fully grown man. It's refreshing in how there is no straight faced plunge into a full blown warrior, Abel takes sword lessons, begins to learn what it means to be a Knight. Abel is a well drawn character, and the world Wolfe creates is an effortless creation, though it felt very insubstantial, a creation from the words of Abel, yet in this purposeful sense it fits in incredibly well. It's a facet of Wolf's writing that you really get into the character, he did it with Severian from the Book's of the New Sun, and he's done it with Abel.

I liked how he does this, because you really get into Abel's head, it's the whole point of the book obviously; it's how it's written. The first person narrative grew on me, and the adventures I was reading became ever more readable as Abel embarked on a quest to find a magic sword, and so become a Knight.

Standard content you may think, but Gene Wolfe imbues the writing with a deep sense of enchantment and beauty. While it's certainly not the most riveting or action packed book, it certainly has a brilliant cast of secondary characters, and most assuredly the prose of a master.

The Knight - 8.5/10