The Wizard Knight
Published in the US in two parts: The Knight (2004) and The Wizard (2004). This UK edition published in 2005.
World Fantasy Award nominee 2005, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award nominee 2005, Locus Award nominee 2005, Nebula Award nominee 2004.
A young man, a teenager, is transported from our world to the magical realm of Mythgathr, the middle of seven fantastic worlds. Transformed into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Able and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, a sword he must get from a dragon. This one very special blade will help him fulfill his ambition to become a knight and a true hero.
Not only does the boy get a new name, but he gains a new brother, an Aelf queen lover and a supernatural hound – and the desire to prove his honour.
The Wizard Knight is full of magic swords, giants, monsters, faery, quests, love and honour: all trappings of fantasy are here, but in the hands of a master storyteller they are spun into a yarn of pure gold. If you read just one book this year, let it be The Wizard Knight, one of the greatest fantasy stories ever told.
"If you don't read this book, you'll have missed out on something important and wonderful and all the cool people will laugh at you." – Neil Gaiman
"Another triumph from the greatest writer in the English language alive today." – Michael Swanwick
"Sir Able of the High Heart is unlike any other hero, part Candide and part Conan the Barbarian, and the worlds in which he travels are also appropriately unique. Most writers of the fantastic do their best to create magical lands. Gene Wolfe actually knows how to cross over and – luckily for us – invites us to come along with him. Wolfe's version of Faerie is both allusive and elusive, beautiful and fatally glamorous." – Tad Williams
"An absorbing meditation on honor and manhood that's not only Wolfe at his literate best, but romantic, charming, and exciting to boot." – Delia Sherman
Gene Wolfe
Gene Rodman Wolfe (1931-2019) 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. He was a prolific short-story writer and novelist and won many science fiction and fantasy literary awards.
Wolfe is best known for his Book of the New Sun series (four volumes, 1980–83), the first part of his "Solar Cycle". In 1998, Locus magazine ranked it the third-best fantasy novel published before 1990 based on a poll of subscribers that considered it and several other series as single entries.
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