Publication Order of The Book of the New Sun Books
The Shadow of the Torturer
1980
The Claw of the Conciliator
1981
The Sword of the Lictor
1982
The Citadel of the Autarch
1983
The Urth of the New Sun
1987
Publication Order of The Book of the Long Sun Books
Nightside the Long Sun
1993
Lake of the Long Sun
1994
Caldé of the Long Sun
1994
Exodus from the Long Sun
1996
Publication Order of The Book of the Short Sun Books
On Blue’s Waters
1999
In Green’s Jungles
2000
Return to the Whorl
2001
Publication Order of Soldier (Latro) Books
Soldier of the Mist
1986
Soldier of Arete
1989
Soldier of Sidon
2006
Publication Order of The Wizard Knight Books
The Knight
2004
The Wizard
2004
Publication Order of A Borrowed Man Books
A Borrowed Man
2015
Interlibrary Loan
2020
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Operation Ares
1970
The Fifth Head of Cerberus
1972
Peace
1975
The Devil in a Forest
1976
Free Live Free
1984
There Are Doors
1988
Castleview
1990
Pandora by Holly Hollander
1990
Pirate Freedom
2007
An Evil Guest
2008
The Sorcerer’s House
2010
Home Fires
2011
The Land Across
2013
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
The Boy Who Hooked the Sun
1985
Empires of Foliage and Flower
1987
At the Point of Capricorn
1987
The Arimaspian Legacy
1987
Slow Children at Play
1989
The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin Is the Sun
1991
The Case of the Vanishing Ghost
1991
The Grave Secret
1991
The Hero as Werwolf
1991
A Walking Tour of the Shambles (With: Neil Gaiman)
2002
Talk of Mandrakes
2003
Christmas Inn
2005
Strange Birds
2006
Memorare
2008
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories
1980
Gene Wolfe’s Book of Days
1981
The Wolfe Archipelago
1983
Bibliomen
1984
Plan[e]t Engineering
1984
Storeys from the Old Hotel
1988
Endangered Species
1989
Young Wolfe
1992
Strange Travelers
2000
Innocents Aboard
2004
Starwater Strains
2005
The Best of Gene Wolfe
2009
The Dead Man and Other Horror Stories
2023
The Wolfe at the Door
2023
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
The Castle of the Otter
1982
Letters Home
1991
About Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe (1931 to 2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, best known for “The Book of the New Sun”, a four-volume novel published between 1980 and 1983. He was noted for dense, allusive prose and unreliable narrators, and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Wolfe was born in New York City on 7 May 1931 and grew up in Houston, Texas. He had polio as a small child. He left Texas A&M University in his junior year, was drafted and served in the Korean War, then took a degree at the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He contributed to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps and was for many years a senior editor on the trade journal Plant Engineering, a job he left in 1984 to write full time.
His first book was the paperback novel “Operation Ares” (1970). Critical attention came with “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” (1972), three linked novellas about colonialism, memory and identity, and with “Peace” (1975), the seemingly rambling life story of Alden Dennis Weer, a man of many secrets.
“The Book of the New Sun” is set in a distant future and narrated by Severian, a journeyman torturer exiled from his guild for showing compassion to a prisoner. It comprises “The Shadow of the Torturer”, “The Claw of the Conciliator”, “The Sword of the Lictor” and “The Citadel of the Autarch”, with “The Urth of the New Sun” (1987) as a coda. Wolfe returned to the same universe in “The Book of the Long Sun”, about a priest drawn into revolution in his city-state, and its sequel “The Book of the Short Sun”. The three works together are often called the Solar Cycle.
His other series include the Soldier novels, narrated by the amnesiac mercenary Latro, and “The Wizard Knight”. The individual volumes of “The Book of the New Sun” won the World Fantasy, British Science Fiction, Nebula, Locus and John W. Campbell Memorial awards, and “Soldier of Sidon” won the World Fantasy Award in 2007. Wolfe received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1996 and entered the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007.
Wolfe lived for many years in Barrington, Illinois, and died in Peoria on 14 April 2019, aged 87. His last novel, “Interlibrary Loan”, a sequel to “A Borrowed Man”, was published in 2020, and two collections of his short fiction followed in 2023.
