false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg 845501 13 A brothel keeper's sons discuss genocide and plot murder; a young alien wanderer is pursued by his shadow double; and a political prisoner tries to prove his identity, not least to himself. Gene Wolfe's first novel consists of three linked sections, all of them elegant broodings on identity, sameness, and strangeness, and all of them set on the vividly evoked colony worlds of Ste. Croix and Ste. Anne, twin planets delicately poised in mutual orbit. <p>Marsch, the victim in the third story, is the apparent author of the second and a casual visitor whose naïve questions precipitate tragedy in the first. The sections dance around one another like the planets of their settings. Clones, downloaded personalities inhabiting robots, aliens that perhaps mimicked humans so successfully that they forgot who they were, a French culture adopted by its ruthless oppressors--there are lots of ways to lose yourself, and perhaps the worst is to think that freedom consists of owning other people, that identity is won at the expense of others. <p>It is easy to be impressed by the intellectual games of Wolfe's stunning book and forget that he is, and always has been, the most intensely moral of SF writers. <I>--Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk</I> 831027 book 1972 The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas total:308|5:133|4:107|3:44|2:19|1:5| 308 1268 439 26 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 2 false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 05:43:51 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 05:45:02 -0700 2007 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 4 1 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 22:22:25 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 29 22:13:10 -0700 2007 The Fifth Head of Cerberus that brought Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa to mind, though the two books are otherwise quite dissimilar. There's none of Potocki's fascination with the occult here, and, as another reviewer a...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 2 0 false Fri May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jan 11 18:07:21 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 18:10:46 -0800 2009 1 The Fifth Head of Cerberus consists of three stories. None of them could stand alone; they're meant to be puzzles which illuminate each other. Wolfe explores species identity and individual identity manipulated from without and within. It's a very clever use of sci-fi staples such as shapeshifti...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 1 false Sat Jun 28 18:59:18 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 28 19:02:54 -0700 2008 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Fri Nov 13 10:31:13 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 10:34:51 -0800 2009 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Sun Nov 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Oct 25 09:05:23 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 08 19:49:37 -0800 2009 -Number Five

...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Wed Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 12 17:36:36 -0700 2008 Thu Nov 26 07:58:01 -0800 2009 3 Sep '09: i discovered a bunch of my What Do I Read Next? reviews from the mid-90s when i was on a serious SF-canon reading tear (and, apparently, averse to capital letters).
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set on the twin planets of Sainte Anne and Sainte Croix (colonies ...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 4 0 false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 14:24:04 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 10:49:31 -0700 2008
The first story, morbid, distasteful, but otherwise likely. A boy grows up carefully sheltered with a mad scientist father figure and robot tutor/nanny, only to eventually discover his own dark...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Wed Jul 29 07:59:17 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 08:04:16 -0700 2009
I've tried several other of his novels and haven't enjoyed them, but this will stay on my bookshelf as a re...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Oct 10 08:58:19 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 09:01:42 -0700 2007 Five stars might be a bit much at the moment because I'm still processing the book and don't understand it all, but I'd rather err on the side of totally awesome rather than tear it down because I didn't get it all. It was challenging in a good way, and will remain challenging every time I r...more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Fri Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 20:57:20 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 20:07:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 03:07:18 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 04:23:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 1 0 false Fri Nov 21 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Aug 27 12:17:21 -0700 2008 Wed Jan 21 05:32:52 -0800 2009 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 0 0 false Sun May 10 21:37:29 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 21:38:28 -0700 2009 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 4 0 false Mon Apr 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Feb 01 07:47:15 -0800 2009 Mon Apr 13 20:36:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Wed Aug 29 21:56:12 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 30 09:00:56 -0700 2007 more...]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Thu Jul 17 20:12:23 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 20:13:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 271575 1857988175 9781857988178 24 1 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173309076m/271575.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271575.The_Fifth_Head_Of_Cerberus 4 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue May 29 07:03:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 29 07:06:40 -0700 2007
As Neil Gaiman commented, "Reading Gene Wolfe is dangerous work. It's a knife-throwing act, and like all good knife-throwing acts, you may lose fingers, toes, earlobes or eyes in the process."

Eek!]]> 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1992 Wed Jul 25 09:11:50 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 09:13:00 -0700 2007 845501 0312890206 9780312890209 273 25 4.12 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178847431m/845501.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/845501.The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_Three_Novellas 5 0 false Wed Sep 03 17:10:26 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 17:10:26 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=845501