Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

Originally published 1981; this edition 2000, 2004 printing

Publisher: Gollancz

MA15+

(V, S, N, D, H)

Violence

Sex scenes (including off-screen sexual violence)

Nudity

Drug Use

Supernatural themes

Representations

Gender:

Once again, first-person male protagonist. Little or no interaction between female characters, very few female characters. Very gender-essentialist depiction.

Sex:

The narrator is homophobic and sexist, with no indication these values aren't shared by the world at large.

Race & Ethnicity:

There may have been some racial variety, but the only indications I received for specific characters is that they are white; whiteness as a sign of aristocracy. Similarly, the most ethnic divisions presented took the form of social castes. Some other species present which may or may not be human-derived, some brief presence of alien non-humans.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

The highest aristocratic caste are distinguished by their great height, and the narrator often claims to possess an absolute or perhaps merely eidetic memory. One character is a cyborg.

Awards

Winner: SF Chronicle Award, novel

Nominee: Ditmar Award, best long fiction

Nominee: Hugo Award, best novel

1st Place: Locus Poll Award, best fantasy novel

Nominee: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award

Winner: Nebula Award, novel

Nominee: World Fantasy Award, best novel

I nearly quit this book at the point where the protagonist became a rapist, especially as the atmosphere of homophobia and essentialist sexism in the text were already suffocating. But I wasn't certain he did what I thought he did, as the actual rape happened off-screen, so after a while I picked it up again to continue, hoping to be proved wrong. Also I still tend to be a bit bloody-minded about finishing the books I start. Since the only other story I've read by Wolfe (The Ziggurat, from Year's Best SF) was also mired in sexism, I'm now dreading any further of his stories. Shall see how that goes.

Presumably I am not literate or perceptive enough for this sort of thing anyway, since while I noticed plenty of symbolism, allusion, etc. going on, all the parts I 'got' seemed either shallow or hollow, and the plot ordinary. Well, at some point I shall read the other two books in this quartet and find out, but so far it looks that either I am inadequate to appreciate this work, or his reputation is overstated.

Might not be another of these ratings for a while - despite repeatedly forgetting to write these up and post them, I've now caught up with where I am in my fiction reading since I started. The last two books I read were non-fiction - The Rough Guide to The Beatles and Classical Literary Criticism - so I won't be rating those. May have to do a detour sometime and build up a different sort of backlog.