Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for Helleophiles
Review: A brilliant concept, finely executed. A powerful vehicle with which to tempt readers into the classics.
Rating:
Summary: gifted
Review: A brilliant concept, finely executed. A powerful vehicle with which to tempt readers into the classics.
Rating:
Summary: A correction
Review: Another reviewer thinks that Latro is a legionaire. Tain't necessarily so. Read the book yourself, the history lessons of ancient Greece and the Romans, Latins and Etruscans you can work out at for yourself. For now, just know that the army of the Great King had conscripts from kingdoms near and far.
Rating:
Summary: The Limitations Of One's Own Perceptions
Review: From the start, Gene Wolfe has consistently maintained his image as a classically educated writer, with a hugely gifted imagination, and an ability to use language which is far beyond what most writers today (or yesterday, for that matter) will ever aspire to. He's a brilliant short story writer *and* a fully developed novelist. The fact that he just *happens* to be writing what is probably best called "science fantasy" is a secondary issue. With "The Book Of The New Sun" series, he carved out a lasting legacy for more than a few generations of readers yet to come.We're doubly fortunate, though, that he hasn't limited himself to *only* the many books in the various "Sun" collections he's most famous for. While it's hard to say I could like *anything* better than THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER---SOLDIER OF THE MIST is easily one of my *favorite* Wolfe novels. The setting is Greece in 479 B.C. Soldier Latro has a head injury. Because of this, his memory can only last about 12 hours. So, he writes on a scroll what happens to him each day, and then reads what he's written first thing every morning. A simple premise. But---oh, my! The story that unfolds is one of Wolfe's most unusual and intriguing books. Other reviewers have explained some of the events that Latro experiences. However, there's another aspect of this novel that I find most interesting of all. Because of his memory problem, Latro is very much trapped in "the eternal now." Yet, as the reader, remembering all that has occured from page one, you gradually become aware of a variety of changes in his environment, of which Latro is totally unaware. Wolfe handles this like the Master that he is. It's an example of what I like to call *true* fantasy (as opposed to how most people use that term). It really is a great book. It raises the question, for me, as to what extent *any* of us can completely trust our own perceptions about the world, or even about ourselves. What, I wonder, could *I* be overlooking as I move along, from day to day...things that are totally obvious, not hidden...but which I'm just not able to see? I don't fret about it. But I do wonder, from time to time. READ THIS ONE!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Helleophiles
Review: Gene Wolfe has accomplished what many writers have attempted and almost none accomplished, bring an ancient culture back to life. Soldier of the Mist works best as an illustration of Hellenic life and pantheism as a complex,living, and mulifaceted religon, not simply a collection of antique fairy tales of Gods and Monsters. He returned not just to the scene of golden age greece, but to it's mindset as well. This is not an easy book to read or understand. Only a very experienced and self assured writer would attempt to take liberties with the narrative story telling as Wolfe did. Fortunatly for us, he suceeds. His reexploring of the homeric hero is challenging inasmuch as how much it differs from our modern conceptions of heroism. Altogether, for anyone forever in love with Hellenic culture, this is an enjoyable must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Soldier of the Mist
Review: Latro, a soldier in the army of Xerxes, is wounded in the head at the battle of Plataea. He is now able to see and converse with gods, but can remember things only for a day. Together with an Ethiopean soldier and a slave girl he has somehow acquired, he travels through ancient Greece in the aftermath of the Persian invasion, meeting gods, ghosts, werewolves, sorcerers, poets, generals, merchants, and prostitutes. The novel concludes with a nice Gene Wolfe set piece, a battle after which he awakens in a mist to find one of the men from whom he had been separated just before the beginning of the novel. The sequel, A Soldier of Arete, was slower and a bit disappointing. positives: Nice Gene Wolfe descriptive pieces and mood. negatives: Some of the history is a bit shaky. Latro turns out to be a Roman legionnaire named Lucius who has somehow found his way into the Persian army of Xerxes, an idea which is every bit as nutty as it sounds. The Roman republic was only about 20 years old at the time, and Roman legions didn't exist yet.
Rating:
Summary: The closest thing you'll find to magic realism in English.
Review: Soldier of the Mist and its sequel, Soldier of Arete, are described as a fantasy novels, but, the occasional mystic element notwithstanding, they're really first-rate, at times audacious, historical novels. It does help to know something about ancient Mediterranean history when reading this series, to pick up the references, but for the most part, the material is very accessible. That's not a surprise, since Gene Wolfe is one of the finest prose stylists in English: who else would not only try to create Pindaric prose, but actually succeed in making it sound plausible? Like the best mythologies, Soldier of the Mist works marvelously on multiple levels, but at the very least, it's an engaging adventure story. Keeping Latro's mind a blank slate works surprisingly well; I thought it would become a tiresome device very quickly, but Wolfe keeps introducing elements at just the right pace to keep us interested, without stretching the bounds of credibility.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD FICTION IF NOT GOOD HISTORY
Review: Soldier of the Mist follows the exploits of the (Roman?) mercenary Latro, serving in the Persian army during the invasion of Greece 2400 years ago (give or take a few decades). Wandering under the curse of an offended diety, Latro is doomed to forget all previous days with the arrival of each new sunrise, and his only form of memory is a diary kept on a scroll of papyrus, on which he records each day's activities at the urging of a young girl who has attached herself to him. While each new dawn inflicts amnesia on Latro, his curse brings with it the ability to see and interact with the various Gods, Goddesses, and other mythical creatures of classical mythology that are invisible to the other mortals around him. Other critics on this site have pointed out several flaws in Wolfe's re-creation of history, but whatever mistakes the author makes with history, he makes up for it with sublime, existential prose, albeit, with a sometimes baffling narrative. Definately not for everyone, but if you have a taste for unusual reading, Soldier of the Mist merits consideration.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD FICTION IF NOT GOOD HISTORY
Review: Soldier of the Mist follows the exploits of the (Roman?) mercenary Latro, serving in the Persian army during the invasion of Greece 2400 years ago (give or take a few decades). Wandering under the curse of an offended diety, Latro is doomed to forget all previous days with the arrival of each new sunrise, and his only form of memory is a diary kept on a scroll of papyrus, on which he records each day's activities at the urging of a young girl who has attached herself to him. While each new dawn inflicts amnesia on Latro, his curse brings with it the ability to see and interact with the various Gods, Goddesses, and other mythical creatures of classical mythology that are invisible to the other mortals around him. Other critics on this site have pointed out several flaws in Wolfe's re-creation of history, but whatever mistakes the author makes with history, he makes up for it with sublime, existential prose, albeit, with a sometimes baffling narrative. Definately not for everyone, but if you have a taste for unusual reading, Soldier of the Mist merits consideration.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting idea, deftly rendered.
Review: Someone said elsewhere that this felt like an exercise for Wolfe, and I know what they mean-- using a Memento-like plot (a main character who loses his memory at the end of every day) Wolfe sketches the world of ancient Greece through the eyes of a soldier named Latro. The details are compelling-- I was uninterested in the real historical value (people shouldn't be trying to derive history lessons from fantasy novels anyhow) but Wolfe does a good job, as usual, of creating a realistic and detailed world for Latro to move in. The plot is somewhat less compelling. It is nearly a necessity of the trope that he chose that the plot should get confusing (particularly in times when Latro couldn't write his journal) and I'm sad to say that I often didn't feel any kind of guiding line that was coherent enough to motivate me through the confusion. Interesting for Wolfe completists or real fans of historical fiction, not a place to begin with his work otherwise.
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