Soldier of Arete

Latro #2

by Gene Wolfe

The second volume of Gene Wolfe's powerful story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who, while fighting in Greece, received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory. In return it gave him the ability to converse with supernatural creatures, gods and goddesses who invisibly inhabit the ancient landscape.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Science Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Novels

354 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1989

About the author

Gene Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying a Catholic. He was a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the field.

The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.

While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Latro continues his journey across ancient Greece in search of his memory in Gene Wolfe’s second entry in the “Soldier” series _Soldier of Arete_. As implied in my review of Soldier of the Mist I am finding this series to be the easiest for me to ‘get into’ of all of Gene Wolfe’s work that I’ve read thus far. I think it’s because many of the elements Wolfe employs in nearly all of his fiction really seem to make sense here. Latro is naïve and ‘unreliable’ as a narrator, but he’s suffering from memory loss due to brain trauma…I can accept that a lot easier than I can the apparent naïvete of characters like Severian (an apprentice torturer and would-be saviour), Silk (an annoying man-child saint)or Able (a young boy transported to a fantasy world, but a boy who seems to have grown up in some kind of very sheltered ‘Leave it to Beaver’ childhood…he certainly never seemed to have the experience I would expect of even a ten-year-old from the modern era). When those characters ‘leave something out’ of the tale they are telling it seems willful to me, Wolfe purposely obfuscating the narrative via his narrative tool, but when Latro does it I can accept it as a natural part of the story due to the fact that he just can’t help it, he really does try to be the best reporter of the events going on around him that he can. Of course this is all really just smoke and mirrors: Latro is just as much the ‘narrative tool’ of Wolfe as the others and giving me a ‘plausible’ excuse for accepting unreliability from him as a character perhaps doesn’t really mean that he has any significant difference from Wolfe’s other protagonists, he is still performing the same ‘sleight of hand’, but somehow it does make a difference to me. I'm willing to accept Latro for who he is and I find that much more difficult with Wolfe's other protagonists.

Wolfe’s ever-present erudition is also on full display in this volume (as in the previous) and we are immersed into the world of ancient Greece at the time of the Graeco-Persian wars. As is usual with Wolfe he pulls no punches and much is left for the reader to make sense of on their own, though Latro’s own need to explain some things to himself in his scrolls, as well as my own interest in the civilizations of this era, made the often frustrating obfuscation and explanation-by-way-of-implication endemic to Wolfe less of an issue for me here. Be warned that spoilers for Soldier of the Mist follow.

The previous volume ended in a cliffhanger: upon leaving the besieged city of Sestos Latro was tricked into a battle that seemed likely to kill him. Although he managed to survive (he is touched by the gods after all) and met a dying soldier who seemed to recognize him, calling out the name “Lucius” only to expire before he could enlighten him beyond this, Latro seems to be no closer to finding his home and identity than he was before. Latro is once again thrown into companionship with some old friends (and enemies) and this time journeys across Thrace, through Athens, and finally to Sparta guided both by the hands of the gods and those in whose company he finds himself. It becomes even more obvious here that Latro is a pawn, both of the gods and the other people with whom he must live. I’m still not sure what the end game of the former group is, or why they view Latro as such an important tool. The human players are much easier to read as they jockey for political and personal power and see Latro’s abilities (both as a soldier and as one who can see the invisible world) as useful tools for reaching their objectives.

It is interesting to see that a character like Latro, one who loses the memory of each day as it recedes into the past, is actually still capable of growth. I would definitely say that the Latro of Arete is a slightly different man from the Latro of Mist and the sorrow and perplexity of his condition are truly beginning to weigh on him. It is also touching to see the way in which many of the people around him truly care for this man (though he would be, and is, horrified at their pity of him) and much of the manipulation of Latro is done with the best of intentions, “for his own good”. Deep down in his heart, though, Latro appears to know better what it is that he needs and how he ought to live and thus, in the end, he makes his own decisions about what he shall do and where he shall go…perhaps to his own detriment, but even a man with no memory wants to feel that he has made his own choices, however well-intentioned the choices made on his behalf by others.

The ending of this volume is an even bigger cliffhanger than the one in Mist and the last chapter is even told in slightly confusing poetic prose by a character other than Latro…a flourish of Wolfe’s that no doubt left the readers at the time of publication thoroughly frustrated (these readers would be forced to wait 17 years for the final volume of the series, a volume that they perhaps never even expected to appear). While this could be validly considered a typically Wolfean ending to a series loaded with ambiguity I am glad that I have the third volume at hand and can see where Latro finds himself in the final fragment of his story without further delay.

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up because the prose is beguiling.

Masterful storytelling and a layered plot steeped in myth and Greek etiquette, played out by interesting characters. Fun and thought-provoking.

I hold by my drugs theory though.

it seems to me that no poet can be greater than the one who announces to a man that freedom is his right.

The gods own this world, not we. We are but landless men, even the most powerful king. The gods permit us to till their fields, then take our crop. We meet and love, someone builds a tomb for us, perhaps. It does not matter—someone else will rob it, and the winds puff away our dust; then we shall be forgotten. For me it is no different, only faster;

[Panagiotis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Συνεχίζονται οι περιπέτεις του Λάτρο (μτφ. μισθοφόρος), του οποίου το αληθινό όνομα ο Γουλφ έχοντας κρύψει έως τώρα με τα γνώριμα τεχνάσματά του, αποκαλύπτεται. Είναι, όμως, αυτό που αναφέρει ο βραχυμνήμων ήρωας; Ο μυημένος αναγνώστης (που σημαίνει αναπόδραστα, αυτός που λατρεύει τον Γουλφ), γνωρίζει πως ο Γουλφ δεν αφήνει σε ησυχία αυτόν που διαβάζει, παίζει με τις προσδοκίες του και συνεχώς δοκιμάζει την υπομονή του.

Και σ' αυτόν τον τόμο, λοιπόν, χρειάζεται η πλήρης προσοχή του αναγνώστη. Η πολιορκία της αρχαία Σηστού έχει έλθει στο τέλος της και ο πρωταγωνιστής πηγαίνει βαθύτερα στην Θράκη. Θα συναντηθεί και θα πορευθεί μαζί με τις Αμαζόνες, μαζί με άλλους ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες, για να καταλήξει πάλι νότια, στους Ολυμπιακούς αγώνες.

Ο άνθρωπος αυτός είναι ένα πιόνι των θεοτήτων, οι οποίες μέσα από μια πολυδαίδαλη διήγηση, συνθέτουν ένα παράλογο παιχνίδι. Ο Γουλφ, όπως πάντα, γράφει αφαιρετικά. Αυτό του το ύφος εδω φαίνεται να επιστρατεύεται για να πει πως, όπως και οι τότε ανυποψίαστοι πολίτες, έτσι και τώρα ο μοντέρνος αναγνώστης, δεν θα μπορεσει να συλλάβει τις σκοπιμότητες των θεών που μας βλέπουν σαν άλλοτε ενοχλητικά, άλλοτε λειτουργικά για τους σκοπούς του πλάσματα.

Πέντε αστέρια για άλλο ένα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο, που δείχνει πως μπορεί να γραφτεί ένα ιστορικό μυθιστόρημα, δίχως τις πληκτικές συμβάσεις και τα επαναλαμβανόμενα δημιουργικά μοτίβα του εμπορίου.

[Jendy Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I will set it down here because I must write something. (I am afraid that if I cease to write, I may throw myself upon my sword. There is a spirit in me that longs for it, and my hand strays to the hilt whenever I lay the stylus down.)”

This is my 20th Gene Wolfe novel I’ve read and I really loved this one. Idk if it really was that much of an improvement from SotM objectively but this was an excellent sequel to me, already being familiar with the situation and some chapters stuck with me a lot on this read. Coming off the brilliant ending from the first installment, this one was off to a good start and we see Latro having lapses in memory loss where he’s remembering more and more at times or in certain situation which I found odd and certainly want to look into more on discussion about this series.

We see Latro going through a series of adventures, with people around him taking advantage of his memory problems and also aiding him because of it or trying to help him actively restore it. There are some beautiful moments and I love how Wolfe uses the historical aspect of this and how that gets corrupted over time to his advantage.

“As for this face of mine, I can't do a thing about it. But in time to come, I'll be judged not by my face but by my picture, which is perfectly beautiful. Fifty years from now everybody will say I was the leading figure of the age.”


My favorite chapters have to be the ones filled with small asides or short stories such as Hubrias’ story and when Latro spoke with Gaea. With the former, I just enjoyed the tale coming from Hegesistratus, having to believe it for the truth since he’s attesting to his character. Latro goes through this on an every day basis, having to read his own journals to gain information and also having to trust his nearby sources (Io, Hege, Elata , etc).

Wolfe uses an excellent story telling technique and also allows for us to question Latro in his writings of the events of each day, as there are times where he explicitly says he is taking liberties from time to time and not recording everything or only what he feels is important. We also see several times people commenting on the truthfulness to storytelling or just how things get blown out of proportion for storytelling’s sake as stories get passed on.

“I did," Hegesistratus told him, "and it was as large as they are saying now. However, it was not as large as they will say it was when we reach Thought.”

With the latter, Latro speaking with Gaea, we see an amazing conversation for an entire chapter based on a famous riddle and Latro’s answers honestly hit me. To not quote too much, I’ll just add this quote because I was stuck reading it and had to reread it a couple times.

“It is that a young man such as I am undertakes the journey of life as if on horseback, ever hurrying forward. As he grows older he comes to realize that it is but a pilgrimage to the grave and walks more slowly, looking about him. When he is old, he may take up his stylus and begin to write of what he has seen; if so, unlike other men, he is not devoured by the earth in which his body lies when life's journey is done, for though dead he still speaks to the living, just as it seemed the shade of Simonides still spoke to me outside that vast building in the desert.”

I’m not sure how Soldier of Sidon is going to go, especially since it was written over a decade after this book, but I’m interested to see where this story goes, especially with the way this book ended, not something I enjoyed as I did the rest of the novel.

[Daniel Polansky]

Frequent readers (Surely there must be some better use of your...that is to say, one might learn Spanish or perhaps do a puzzle...well, you're here already, might as well stay) will know that I have a complicated relationship with Gene Wolfe. For The Book of the New Sun, his marvelous short fiction, and the truly masterful Peace, I would argue that Wolfe is one of and probably the foremost living writer of speculative fiction, that is to say, fiction. And yet the rest of his work I confess to finding generally impenetrable, even viewed with the most positive possible spin. (I feel comfortable writing bad things about a beloved literary hero of mine because a) he will never, ever read this and b) Wolfe is of that class of writer who deserves to be discussed not simply with enthusiasm but with serious, studious contemplation, contemplation which may led to criticism.) Soldiers of the Mist and Soldiers of Arete are the story of the falsely-named Latro, who suffers a wound during the Persian Wars which renders him lose his memory each evening but which also allows him to see the ways in which the gods interact directly with humanity. He wanders about Greece and Asia Minor, trying to find a way to restore his memory and interacting with the heroes and gods of classical Greece. The clever conceit with Latro's memory allows Wolfe to indulge in a late period tic he developed, that of roughly ending a chapter and using the bulk of the next to explain, in his loose way, to the degree that Wolfe ever explains anything, what exactly happened in the preceding entry. In Book of The Long Sun this tendency drove me absolutely apeshit, but here it works much better, and Wolfe does (as he always does) some clever things with Latro's memory and observations. Wolfe is an intentionally frustrating writer, and when that works, it works to great effect. But often it comes off as over coy, his refusal to describe any character in useful detail, or shoving a critical but not particularly clever clue into a dull front half of a paragraph. Here also, in true Wolfe fashion, we have his predilection for long digressions about what are clearly specific interests of his, sword fighting or siege craft, that drag down the narrative and just generally seem unacceptable in a book which often refuses to provide basic information on far more relevant concerns. Finally and most critically, Wolfe's characters here seem terribly thin, really the faintest of possible sketches. One gets the sense that he is not really interested in them, nor for that matter in the prose itself, but only in the skeleton beneath it, in his own love of riddle.

But of course, it goes without saying that he has a genius for said riddles, a genius which few other writers, certainly no one who is considered a direct competitor, can honestly claim. When one of the more significant puzzles does work, and when you are clever enough to understand it, the sensation can be quite thrilling. Which is, I suppose, to say that this is another book which I did not like particularly but reconfirms (needlessly) my faith in Gene Wolfe's unique powers.

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. It's more interesting to me rather than a really great book. The tales of Latro, the warrior in ancient Greece and Rome, continue as he loses his memory daily and must log his adventures in a scroll that the reader reads.

I really enjoyed all of the references to mythology, various legends, the Amazons, werewolves, creatures, ghosts, and training for the Olympics. I liked having to figure out what was going on along with him.

However, the story just sort of plods along with no apparent direction, the characters feel two-dimensional, and women are objectified.

I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy historical fiction with a little fantasy element and unreliable narrators and themes of memory loss.

TW: women/girls are objects to the narrator, the one black character is merely called "the black man" throughout the entire two books, despite learning his name early on while every other character is referenced by their names. 🙄

[Brok3n · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arete and psychology

I have already written a review of the entire series, which I posted as a review of the paperback edition. I just reread this book, and this will be a paragraph or two about Soldier of Arete specifically.

The first question that arises is "What is arete"? Here's how Gene Wolfe defines it in the glossary

arete—The virtues of a soldier, ranging from cleanliness and love of order to courage in the face of death.

It derives from the name of Ares, the God of War. I remember being a bit taken aback by this when I first read the book some thirty years ago. Being essentially a pacific person, it was not obvious to me that there is anything good about war. Also, the main thing I remembered about Ares was his adultery with Aphrodite, followed by his being shamed by Hephaestus. Thus the idea of Ares as a model of any sort of virtue was a bit hard to swallow. But this, of course, is almost ubiquitous in history. From the samurai to the knights of chivalry, we find that soldiers, because they can beat everyone else up, can use their perception of virtue (i.e., those qualities that make one most effective at beating other people up) to help themselves feel superior to the farmers they eat to live.

Latro does as good a job as any character could do of making arete look attractive. He is both strong and kind, and is loved by those whose lives he shares.

The story of Soldier of Arete continues from Latro's escape from the siege of Sestos at the end of Soldier of the Mist, where he finally met up with friends from Rome, who were killed almost immediately in the battle. Typical bad bargain with the gods! In Soldier of Arete Latro and his companions travel to Thrace, where things happen that I won't spoil -- the same general sorts of things that happened in Soldier of the Mist, gods and battles, etc. From there they travel to Sparta again, and Latro suffers a psychological malady that I also will not specify.

It's a good story, almost as good as Soldier of the Mist. Really, I say "almost" only because we now know the score, and the creative backstory is no longer news.

[Euan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gene Wolfe never disappoints. Excellent and fascinating journey through Ancient Greece, well researched and made more fascinating by Wolfe's decision of how to translate ancient Greek terms and ideas, and made extremely interesting through the conceit- Wolfe's claim to be translating an ancient scroll isn't just empty words, but feeds into the story structure and how characters interact.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soldier of Arete is the continued quest of Latro, the perfect soldier, as he travels across ancient Greece to regain his lost memory and his distant, unknown home.

His condition has also rendered him highly manipulable, an ideal missionary for the Athenians to send out after the engineer who manufactured the cables used by Xerxes to cross the Hellespont via a bridge of boats, and as a pawn in an unfathomable game of one-upmanship by the Olympian gods.

Latro can literally see the gods, they appear to him in many guises, both humble and awe inspiring, as real as any other person to him. He may even at times be possessed by them, or at least imbued by their attributes - certainly the Thracians believe him to be an incarnation of their war god, Pleistorus, who closely resembles the Greek god Ares, also known as a god of war (or more specifically, as the god of soldiers).

Latro journeys from Sestos through Thrace, then across some of the largest cities on the Greek mainland. Along the way he receives a crash-course in Athenian democracy from Cimon and Themistocles, partakes in the Spartan's uniquely twisted ceremony of manumission, and competes in the Delphic games at the antiquarian world's own version of MMA fighting, 'pankration'.

He is at turns abused, loved, duped, misunderstood and revered, and though he has to deal with the catastrophic impediment of losing all memory between the rising and setting of the sun, he is possessed with the 'arete' of the perfect soldier, and that quality alone helps him to remain sane and purposeful.

Wolfe, an imaginative and canny writer if ever there was one, ensures that Latro's sightings of the gods leads to some eerie encounters and magical moments, such as when he speculates as to the true composition of the earth after he sees Helios and his chariot charge past the horizon, rather than decelerate towards it.

Latro can also see the shades of the recent dead, or encounter figures of myth, such as Sisyphus, who has a memorable cameo along the way,one of the many instances where Wolfe successfully projects the mind of a 20th century writer into the mind of a pre-monotheistic individual.

Imagination alone would ensure that I was predisposed towards this book, but in addition to that, like everything by Wolfe in his heyday, the writing is supreme, both plain and dense at the same time - a confluence rejected in his later work, which is sparse and shallow.

This book is Wolfe at his brilliant best though.

[Andrew Herbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh. The first book in this series is so interesting, different and excellent. I found the second one harder going. Gene Wolfe enjoys being obtuse, to alluding to different historical events and groups, but what worked for me in the first book didn't work in this one. There are stretches where it's a great read, although a puzzle all the time, and other times I was just confused. Perhaps reading before bed isn't the ideal time for this book? Anyway, I strongly recommend 'Soldier of the Mist', but this second book leaves me wondering if I'll go on to the third one.

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente segunda parte, casi tan buena como su antecesora. Se logra hilvanar más la historia, aunque en un comienzo al mezclar personajes antiguos que no aparecen en el glosario, tuve que releer casi toda la segunda parte de Soldado de Niebla para hallarme. Tiene escenas de acción memorables, en especial las batallas en Tracia y esas apariciones de animales que no sabes si los ven todos o solo Latro. El final es abrupto, te deja colgado en la mejor parte de los Juegos, pero por suerte existe una tercera parte (traducida).

Me gusta la mezcla de historia, mitología, violencia y erotismo que Wolfe propone en esta saga, no hay fantasía que se le parezca.

Por último, pegué un mapa de Grecia antigua en el interior de la tapa, quedó perfecto.

[Kieran · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish it, because for me the pacing slowed down around the middle and lost me for a bit, but it pulls it out the bag by the end which was really good; I'm glad I persisted.
I still like seeing things through Latro's daily amnesia perspective, because you get to piece together little fragments of each character from what he sees each chapter. I particularly liked how Gene Wolfe handles Io with that.
I've seen some other reviews say that it feels like this book wraps things up and the third must be superfluous, but I feel like there's still a lot from Latro's past that hasn't been explored yet, so I'm looking forward to it.

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second novel of Gene Wolfe's trilogy of Latro, the wandering warrior with no memory. Be prepared to be dazzled with Mr. Wolfe's prose and I must admit, be a bit baffled as well. Mr. Wolfe is not a breezy read. He throws ancient Greek names around like they are common knowledge. Still his story-telling is top-notch and you will come away caring for his characters.

[Ryan Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I think this volume is just as well written and detailed as the first, it did lose a bit of its magic for me. You get a bit exhausted by the narrative after a while. It’s hard to keep up with all the minucia.
Still worth the read and a fun ride through the Greek/Roman world.
Lateo’s “run in” with Sisyphus was particularly memorable.

[Daniel Bensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the sequel to Soldier of the Mist, a Roman mercenary with no long-term memory stumbles through the Second Persian Invasion of Greece, beset by friends and enemies (mortal and immortal), just trying to do the right thing. I especially like Latro's attempts to repair his memory, which somewhat work, and of course I'm a sucker for Thracians. As with the previous book, it's not always clear what actually happened, but that just means I can enjoy rereading this book later.

[Sarah Balstrup]

Why I read this:
I quite liked Book #1 in this series.

My Impression:
The comments in my review for Book #1 still stand (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) but by the 3/4 mark of Book #2, the lack of plot progression began to wear my patience. I listened to this as an audiobook, and often tuned out, feeling like I was sitting in a room where people were discussing matters that were not my concern. Certain descriptions still caught my attention, but I had no sense of the overall trajectory of the story, where it was going and why. I hoped to know more about Latro's true identity by this point.

Despite losing interest in this series, I still admire Wolfe's writing style and will try The Fifth Head of Cerberus as my next read.

Craft Related Notes:
-The formal 'record keeping' style bleeds all intensity out of battle scenes so there is no sense of peril.
-The lapping tide of forgetfulness begins to erode the narrative path. We wander, we encounter, we forget, we continue on.
-Sex scenes are economical but get the essentials across. Again, the restrained record keeping style, so not quite in the body. The sole image that sticks in my mind from this book is the appearance of the rabbit that notices the nymph Elata and cries her name.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some day I'm going to figure out how I can enjoy reading a book this much and still not really have a clear idea of what actually HAPPENED in it.

We're back wandering Greece and its environs with Latro, the soldier whose head injury means he forgets overnight whatever happened in the days before. He writes events down at night and reads them in the morning so he can remember what's going on.

Latro also sees gods, goddesses, dead people, etc. that may or may not actually be there.

It's fascinating stuff, and you find yourself rooting for Latro even while you try to figure out what's going on. I need a reader's guide or a wiki, or maybe more time than I have left to read ancient Greet and Persian history. But Wolfe's prose pulls you onward. It makes me think a little of reading Patrick O'Brian. After a while, you stop worrying about which are the stunsails, where the backstays are, what luffing is, what the weather-gage is, and you just read on to enjoy the characters and setting. And you try not to feel too dumb doing it. :D

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Gene Wolfe book I read I am humbled by. His lyrical and challenging prose demands so much from a reader but if you devote the time and attention to it, it's so very rewarding. This second volume in the "Latro" series is no exception.

Soldier of Arete continues the story of Latro, a mercenary in classical Greece who can't make new memories and must write down his thoughts each day lest he forget them. His injury also allows him to have encounters with the various gods/goddesses which makes for some very mystical and interesting scenes.

The narrative in this volume is a little more reliable than the first as there aren't obvious and intentional "gaps" in the structure--so it's a little easier to follow. But it's still a wonderful journey as Latro encounters Amazons, Spartans, Thracians, and the Olympiad. A multi-layered, complex, and very rewarding tale.

[Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Travels with the Amnesiac Mercenary Latro

In Soldier of Arete (1989), Latro continues narrating his picaresque, amnesiac travels (“like a vessel lost in the fog”) around the Mediterranean world circa 479 BC. A Latin mercenary, Latro was fighting for the invading army of the Great King (Xerxes) when it was routed by the Greek allies led by Rope (i.e., Sparta) and Thought (i.e., Athens), and a head wound (and Demeter’s curse) has robbed him of most of his memories and made him forget when he wakes up in the morning everything that happened to him the previous day. Hence, when Latro has the time before going to sleep at night, he writes down everything important that happened to him during that day.

The head wound (and curse) has also made Latro able to see and interact with a host of gods, demigods, ghosts, and monsters that pass unseen by everyone else—unless he happens to touch one of the supernatural beings, which then enables his companions to see them also.

Whew. Gene Wolfe sure likes tricky narrators!

The story begun in Soldier of the Mist (1986) continues here, with Latro visiting Thought and Rope again, as well as “barbarian” Thrace, as he tries to stay alive, regain his memory, find out where he’s from, and meet his original friends. In the first novel he was also vaguely trying to get to a temple to apologize to Demeter (?), while in this one he’s foggily trying to locate and rescue from one of the many petty kings of Thrace a Mede engineer called Oeobazus, who defected from the Persian empire and is being headhunted by Thought.

As in the first book, Latro is accompanied on many of his travels by his loyal “slave” girl Io and his resourceful friend “the black man” (Seven Lions). He also meets many interesting fictional or historical figures, like Hegesistratus the wise mantis (seer) with a wooden foot and a special understanding of the divine, Elata the lovely dryad-nymph with a special affinity for men, Paullus the eager boy with a special affinity for horses, Diokles the grizzled pankration trainer, Pasicrates the proud Spartan (now one-handed) who hates and admires Latro, and the ghost of a young Persian prince who’d been stoned to death.

As in the first book, as he goes about Latro is often a rather passive observer, though he is capable of initiating heroic (reckless) feats on behalf of companions. Again, Latro experiences sublime encounters with the divine and supernatural, and Wolfe weaves in plenty of Greek mythology, like when a character tells the story of Philomela and Procne and Idas. Again, it’s unsettling and moving when Latro forgets people who love him, though we remember them quite well from reading his book.

This novel has more than the first about the political situations of and cultural contrasts between Athens (Thought) and Sparta (Rope), as well as much on the political situation and “barbarian” culture of Thrace.

And it features a band of Amazons! Of course, one of them takes a liking to Latro and he to her. This may be a problem with some of Gene Wolfe's novels: the main character often tends to be a little too tall and strong and handsome and appealing to women, from courtesans to goddesses.

A neat development in this novel occurs when the (historical) Greek poet Simonides teaches Latro how to make a Memory Palace as a mnemonic strategy against his amnesia. The scene where the older man guides Latro through the construction of the Palace is wonderful (and almost makes me want to take the trouble and time and imagination to build one of my own), though I think that after all the buildup, Latro doesn’t use the thing enough to warrant all the time spent constructing it (cool though it is). This book does explore the connections between knowledge, memory, and identity.

Another interesting feature of this novel is that, after experiencing so many things (including what he wrote in his first “scroll,” Soldier of the Mist), in this second “scroll” it becomes harder and harder for him to read things that have happened that he’s written down, because he can’t remember when/where they happened and has no index for his scrolls.

Like the first novel, this one has plenty of vivid or numinous or humorous writing.

--“A memory came to me as though a singing bird had perched upon my hand.”

--“Are you … aware that divinity can be transmitted like a disease?”

--“A boy can look up to a hero, but if a hero looks up to himself, he’s a monster.”

Gregory Connors effectively reads the audiobook, simulating the mixture of foreign cultures by giving Latro an American accent and the other characters various other accents.

Everything leads to a climax at the Pythian Games (held every four years at Delphi), but in typically elliptical Wolfe fashion, Latro details Pasicrates’ preparations for the foot races as well as his own for the chariot race and the pankration, only to skip ahead in his narration till after the games are over, briefly telling us their results and letting slip that someone stole the prizes won by Latro for the Spartan regent Pausanias.

That kind of thing can be frustrating, but such is the pleasure of reading Wolfe's writing and such is the attraction of his characters and such is the eerie sublime feeling when his hero encounters the supernatural and such is the verisimilitude with which life in the ancient world is evoked (in a siege, a funeral, a boar hunt, a diplomatic mission, a play, a chariot race, a visit to the oracle, and more), that I do enjoy reading these novels.

Like the first one, this book ends inconclusively, so I’ll need to start the last one in the trilogy, Soldier of Sidon (2006), to find out what finally happens to Latro (and to see what, if any, effects result in the seventeen-year gap between the third and second books).

[Csenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I burned through the first book and moved right on to the second. This one is just as good, even though the final chapters got more than a little bit confusing, and I had to read some of them twice to get what was happening. Latro is still awesome, and everyone wants a piece of him. Definitely an enjoyable read, goes right to the favorites.

[Sonky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this before; trying to figure out--the hard way, I guess--which of the three in this sequence I have read. It must be the third I haven't read. So far, they're excellent.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like its predecessor, brilliant, though at times I find this one a bit too obscure, particularly the last chapter.

[VitalT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stuff.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist of this literary fantasy series is Latro, a former mercenary living in the world of ancient Greece (though he's seemingly from Italy himself). As in the first book, he and his companions travel from place to place, visiting different parts of the Grecosphere, meeting important figures of the day, and having encounters with gods and other supernatural beings, the latter facilitated by Latro's unique ability to perceive them. Of course, the good-natured, matter-of-fact Latro continues to forget most things that happen to him within a day, and to chronicle his experiences in scrolls that he carries with him. This being Gene Wolfe, you can bet your sandals that having an unreliable narrator will be taken advantage of by the author.

As with other works Wolfe has written, don't expect anything in the story to be quite what it seems to be at face value. There are layers of meaning, events and players clearly imbued with symbolic meaning. However, Joycian analysis wasn't something I had in me for this reading. Mostly, I found myself relating strongly to poor Latro and his malady, unable to remember much of what had happened in Book One, or even exactly what had taken place in earlier chapters of this book (my reading was much interrupted by various crises at work or in my personal life). So, a lot of deeper meanings, the Gene Wolfe stuff you're supposed to read between the lines for, undoubtedly went straight past me. At times, I wasn't even sure who the fuck this latest character in the story was supposed to be, if they'd been introduced before at some point.

Still, you don't always need to fully grasp a work of fiction to enjoy it, and Wolfe's compelling prose kept me involved. I found that I did actually enjoy Latro's continuing journey, the travels of he and his friends through a well-drawn world in which the realistic and magical elements are reconciled through the tilted lens of a mind that lacks the context to really tell the difference. There was something poignant to me about experiencing all the meaningful moments in the life of a character fated not to remember them, through his perpetually fresh eyes. His observations seemed both of another time and timeless. I also enjoyed many of the side characters, such as Latro's young slave girl, Io, who's technically under his care, but is arguably his main caretaker, resisting his attempts to set her free and serving him as kind of a living Rolodex. The relationships between different factions and societies in this world, their different customs, and the exchanges of philosophical ideas the characters have were all worthwhile to me. Probably, it would take a second read through the series to make sense of the hallucinatory scenes in which different supernatural beings appear, but I might give it another go at some point.

All in all, while this series seems to slip under the radar next to Wolfe's most towering work, the Book of the New Sun cycle, it's just as unlike most works of fantasy as that series was, subverting the mythical tropes of the hero's journey in its own way. It does so with a world and a protagonist that stand completely apart from Book of the New Sun's, and might even be more accessible. Wolfe is said to have been a genius, and while I wouldn't apply that term to myself, I still find it a pleasure to spend time in the light of his singular mind.

[Brok3n · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a clever premise!

Roman soldier Latro (not his real name -- it is Latin for "thief") sustains a head injury in 492 BC in one of the many battles of the Greco-Persian Wars. As a result of this injury, he is unable to remember events more than day in the past. Even his own name is lost, although he still remembers how to write and fight. (This, by the way, is plausible -- factual memories and memories of skills are stored differently in the brain, a neurological detail Gene Wolfe obviously knows.) An Egyptian healer gives Latro a lead stylus and a papyrus scroll bearing the words "Read This Each Day". He tells Latro that he must write down the events of every day in the scroll, and read it. This papyrus scroll turns up unexpectedly in a basement of the British Museum and makes its way into the hands of a collector, who, discovering the writing, asks Wolfe to translate it. Soldier of the Mist is Wolfe's translation of the first scroll, Soldier of Arete the second, and Soldier of Sidon the third.

I probably read each of the three books shortly after they were published (Mist in 1986, Arete in 1989, and Sidon in 2006). After The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe was on my must-read authors list. They are perhaps my favorite of Wolfe's works, partly because they are lighter than usual for him -- fun and not hard work to read. I have read them several times (Mist and Arete more times than Sidon, for the obvious reason), and therefore remember them quite well. Indeed, I think feel a re-read coming on now...

Yesterday I wrote a review of Mary Renault's The King Must Die, another historical novel of ancient Greece, and was reminded of the Latro series by the very different ways that Renault and Wolfe handle the fantastic elements of mythology. Renault airbrushes them out -- every historically incredible event is rationalized. For instance, Renault's Minotaur is not a bull-headed man, but rather the large, brutal son of Queen Pasiphaë.

Latro, in contrast, sees and speak with gods and spirits. If he touches them, his companions can also see them. Gods, nymphs, and ghosts are characters of Soldier of the Mist. Now, you're probably thinking "Unreliable narrator, yadda yadda yadda", but I don't believe that is Wolfe's intention. Latro, despite his name, is an honest, educated, yet down-to-Earth soldier, and there is no reason to believe he is less than 100% sane. Soldier of the Mist is his diary, written solely for his own use in a language none of his companions can read, and is useless to him unless it is honest. His companions also become aware of the gods and spirits whom Latro makes visible. Indeed, one chapter is written in Greek by one of Latro's companions and is consistent with the story Latro tells. I believe Wolfe means us to understand Latro's stories as true stories of what actually happened.

In his Foreword, Wolfe writes

In ancient Greece, skeptics were those who thought, not those who scoffed. Modern skeptics should note that Latro reports Greece as it was reported by the Greeks themselves. The runner sent from Athens to ask Spartan help before the battle of Marathon met the god Pan on the road and conscientiously recounted their conversation to the Athenian Assembly when he returned. (The Spartans, who well knew who ruled their land, refused to march before the full of the moon.)

To be clear, when I say, "Wolfe means us to understand Latro's stories as true stories of what actually happened," I do not of course mean that Wolfe wants you to believe that, objectively and physically, ghosts rose and walked and Diana's hounds appeared in 492 BC. I mean only that it should be taken to be true in the story. I suspect Wolfe would say something a bit stronger than this -- that these are true reports of the world as the Greeks themselves saw and would have reported it.

Soldier of the Mist, Soldier of Arete may be the best of Gene Wolfe's many novels. I am less certain about Soldier of Sidon -- I need to re-read it.

Blog review.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gene Wolfe is an acquired taste, and one that some people may simply never acquire. I'm obviously one who is a fan, and I think Soldier of Arete is among his best novels.

So this is the follow up to Solider of the Mist. In this one, Latro travels to several points throughout ancient Greece, getting wrapped up in several plots and machinations between warring political factions and several Greek gods. He's used as a highly skilled (if memory challenged) pawn in large-scale maneuvers between Spartans, Athenians, and other Greek regions. He's also sent by Gaea to steal the prized horses of Apollo, along with a few other dangerous adventures. Along the way, he makes friends and enemies of various types, including fortune-tellers, priests and priestesses, centaurs, Amazon warriors, and more. There's plenty of excitement, as well as a nice amount of touching character study.

The description gives you some idea of the basic story, but it simply cannot even begin to explain what makes Wolfe's storytelling style and prose so unique (and for many, frustrating). In his "Soldier" series, part of it is that the first-person narrator has short-term memory loss. Since we are in his head, seeing things as he sees them, we have to read extremely closely to keep up with the many connections and details that our narrator is either missing or simply does not include because he takes them as matters of course. I completely undestand why this would annoy many readers who would prefer a straighforward, clear narrative. I, however, enjoy and appreciate the discoveries one makes when reading beyond the words on the page in a Wolfe story like this. It not only serves as a fun reading challenge, but I feel that it also does offer a lot of indirect insight into the narrator's personality. If you feel that you can tell as much about a person by what they don't or can't say as what they do say, then you might become enamored of Wolfe's approach to first-person narration.

For those who've never tackled Wolfe or have tried, failed, and wish to try again, I would just offer two pieces of advice:

(1) Read the book in relatively large chunks at a time (I try to do 40 or 50 pages, at least), and don't let much time pass between reading sessions. It's insanely easy to forget important little points or details. This has happened to me when I've read other Wolfe books, if I don't read enough or I let too many days pass between sessions.

(2) Be patient and ready to read very carefully. Nearly all of the answers to your questions are there, but they are intentionally obscured by the limitations of the narrator.

For those who lock into a book like this, it is extremely rewarding. While I understand why his style isn't for everyone, I love going back to some of Wolfe's best work. This is one of them.

[Nathan Trachta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago and re-read it from time to time; it was time again. I’ll open by saying I love the series and the thought put into this series, truly a 5 star series. That said this is the weaker story. The freshness of Latro isn’t with his memory anymore or seeing and interacting with gods. Instead now it’s the story and while it’s a good and interesting story there’s more confusion in the telling (Mr Wolfe losing a little interest or trying to figure out how to end the story or is Latro becoming confused by everything).
That said the front half is a great romp with all the highlights of the first book. Now we have Latro and company going through Thrace and meeting Amazons and I love Mr Wolfe’s look here (or is it Latro’s). There’s so much good story telling going on and I love Latro’s perception of the world; relearning things and getting his story from his scroll and the people around him. What lost me was the latter half when Latro is in Rope (Sparta) and at Peace (the games). I honestly feel that Mr. Wolfe didn’t know how to end the book. What really hurt was portraying Io as betraying Latro.
Overall this was solid and left me wanting more of Latro and his story despite being weaker than Soldier in the Mist. I’ll call this particular book 4 stars (a weaker one though) with the two books being 5 stars (4.5+).

[Dannica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so-so on Soldier of the Mist, but went on to read Soldier of Arete bc the copy I got out from the library had both novels in a single volume. Soldier of Arete... well, it's worse. The plot has become wrapped up in various groups sending Latro here and there to do this and that, little of it related to Latro's own goals. The ending is too confusing for me to follow. And the romantic/sexual element is more emphasized, but not really in a good way--Latro may or may not be having a romance with Io, who's way younger than him (at one point he thinks she's eleven or twelve, though her real age is never revealed) and he sleeps with so many other women that it's impossible to tell which, if any, he has feelings for. Also the characters are just worse. Hegeistratos and the Amazons are decent, but they aren't as fun as Pindaros or Drakaina, who are basically gone in this book. There are still gods around, but unlike in Soldier of the Mist, there's not so much a sense of awe about them, and they don't do anything really that interesting.
Anyways. Idk if I'll ever read another Gene Wolfe, but I didn't hate it. It was okay.

[James Proctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine effort, ranking with the author's best efforts. Which is basically everything I've read by Gene Wolfe. He's consistently excellent and may very well be the greatest living writer of fantastic literature. Part of his success comes down, I think, to sex appeal. When you read Wolfe, you can expect the protagonist to be satisfied by just about every woman they encounter. Never crude or unseemly, sensuality is sensibly if somewhat regularly part of our hero's journey, almost a running gag. I read the Soldier sequence (of which this book is the last) paying close attention to this aspect, waiting for a single woman to appear who did not sleep with the hero. I waited in vain. Well, there was one queen who or may not have gone to bed with him, but I'd bet the house it probably happened between chapters.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be quite honest, I have not unraveled all the puzzles that Gene Wolfe has created for this book and it is definitely not the author's fault. While Gene Wolfe is my favorite author, I could not get into this multilayered story.

It is actually confusing intentionally. This story is supposedly the translation of old greek scrolls found in the present and they contain a diary of a mercenary who loses his memory after a day. It is the second book of the trilogy. If you feel disoriented, don't worry, remember that Gene Wolfe wrote it as a diary, not as a fictional book which raises a paradox because after all, it is a fictional work.

Read as it is, I give it 3 stars, a nice historical fantasy book. But I know that it is not just that.

I am not compelled to read it again unlike most Gene Wolfe books.