Soldier of the Mist

Gene Wolfe does not write fluff pieces. He draws you in to his world and presents it to you little by little. This fantasy novel is the first of three in the series. It takes place in ancient Greece and presents gods and people, werewolves and succubi as if they were part of your world.

Latro is a soldier, with a head injury that heals, though he continues to suffer from memory loss. He carries a scroll with him in which he writes his daily activities, so that he can have a semblance of memory. In fact that is the device in which Gene Wolfe manages to tell this tale.

This is an old device in which the author tells the story through the character's written word. The only draw back in my eyes is that for a soldier, Latro is quite the thesaurian. His vocabulary is immense. The book ends not with a denouement but with a bang and a sudden curtain call. So, it won't be long before I pick up the second in the series.