The sorcerer's house

World Fantasy Award-winning novelist Wolfe (An Evil Guest) spins a complex, spellbinding web of otherworldly sorcery and hauntings. When scholar and ex-con Baxter Dunn arrives in the Midwest town of Medicine Man, he learns that a mysterious benefactor has deeded him a rambling old house. As the building grows around him, Bax encounters a number of wonders and terrors, including family secrets, windows into Faerie, and a murderous animal dubbed the Hound of Horror. However, the greatest challenge Bax faces may be his twin brother's jealousy and rage. Both terrifying and touching, this book of wonders speaks eloquently about the nature of responsibility and family, but Wolfe's unforgettable world is marred by stereotypes-a flighty and submissive Japanese woman, a scandalmongering journalist, a rapacious and sadistic dwarf-and a rushed, incoherent ending. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Recently released from prison, Bax arrives in a small Midwestern town seeking to start a new life. A real estate agent informs him that he has inherited an abandoned house. As he sets up residence and forms ties with the townsfolk, Bax encounters mythological and fantastical creatures. His continuing discoveries about the house's and his own history form a complex, multilayered story that challenges the definitions of real and imaginary. VERDICT Always surprising in his mastery of language and storytelling, multiaward winner and Science Fiction Hall of Fame author Wolfe reimagines the epistolary novel in this deceptively simple tale of one man's redemption. His latest should please his many fans. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Number 1   YOUR OLD CELLMATE Dear Shell: I promised I would write you after I got out, and I like to keep my word. I am in Medicine Man, at a motel too cheap to supply stationery. Envelopes and this notebook filler from Wal-Mart will have to do. God knows I do not miss the screws or Building 19, but I do miss my friends. You most of all. You and Lou. No job yet and none in sight. I would try somewhere else, but I cannot afford a bus ticket until my allowance comes. Not that I am flat. Not yet. I am going to try to get my brother to front me some money if I can. He owes me not one damned thing, but he has plenty, and three or four hundred right now would mean the world to me. Still, I may be able to score some cigarettes if you need them. Anything like that. Let me know. Riverman Inn, 15 Riverpath Road Room 12. I do not know the zip. Yours, Bax Excerpted from The Sorcerer's House by . Copyright (c) 2010 by Gene Wolfe. Published in March 2010 by A Tom Doherty Associates Book. All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher. Excerpted from The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.