The Wizard Knight - by Gene Wolfe (Paperback)

About the Book

"The wizard: the wizard begins with Able's return to Mythgathr on his steed Cloud, a great mare the color of her name. Able is filled with new knowledge of the ways of the seven-fold world and possessed of great magical secrets. His knighthood now beyond question, Able works to fulfill his vows to his king, his lover, his friends, his gods, and even his enemies. Able must set his world right, restoring the proper order among the denizens of all the seven worlds"--Publisher's description.

Book Synopsis

"Gene Wolfe is the smartest, subtlest, most dangerous writer alive today, in genre or out of it. This book [is] important and wonderful." --Neil Gaiman on The Knight

A novel in two volumes, The Wizard Knight is in the rare company of works of fantasy like The Once and Future King, or The Wizard of Earthsea, that drink directly from the wellspring of myth. Now it appears in a single-volume edition for the first time.

A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm consisting of seven levels of reality. Transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Sir Able of the High Heart and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, the blade that will help him fulfill his ambition to become a true hero--a true knight.

Inside, however, Sir Able remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive what lies ahead...

"[Wolfe] should enjoy the same rapt attention we afford to Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy." --The Washington Post on The Knight

"Wolfe's version of Faerie is both allusive and elusive, beautiful and fatally glamorous." --Tad Williams on The Knight

With a new introduction by Yves Meynard, acclaimed author of The Book of Knights.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Knight

"A fine, carefully crafted novel, filled with mythic adventure and populated by fantastic creatures. I can't wait to read the next book."--Brian Herbert

"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. Wolfe's version of Faerie is both allusive and elusive, beautiful and fatally glamorous."--Tad Williams

Praise for The Wizard

"Wofe's words was over the reader with transparent grace and charming playfulness as he spins his profoundly imaginative, metaphysically complex, yet ever-entertaining tale with astonishing naturalness."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Arising from the same sources as Lord of the Rings, the Wizard Knight is one of the few fantasies that can justly be compared with it."--Booklist

About the Author

GENE WOLFE (1931-2019) was a winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, as well as two Nebula Awards, three World Fantasy Awards (most recently for Soldier of Sidon), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Prix Apollo. In 2007, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. In 2013, he received the SFWA Grand Master Award.