Straw (story)

"Straw" is an alternate history short story by Gene Wolfe, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1975.

Synopsis

In a world where hot-air balloons were invented a thousand years earlier than in reality, an elderly mercenary reminisces about his adolescence.

Reception

The Internet Review of Science Fiction considered it to be "well written", with "rounded characters";[1] Publishers Weekly, however, felt that the story's premise was "more provocative and interesting than" the actual story, which "goes nowhere".[2] The story has been cited as an example of "manipulative systems" in Wolfe's work, in that the mercenaries are lured into landing in a castle on the pretext that they will be provided with straw for fuel, only to be told that they must first defend the castle from attackers;[3] Thomas D. Clareson observed that despite the story ending with an imminent attack by raiders, no detail of battle are provided.[4]

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References
  1. Decoding the Wolfe, by Robert Bee, at the Internet Review of Science Fiction; published January 2010; retrieved March 21, 2018
  2. Storeys from the Old Hotel, reviewed at Publishers Weekly; published March 30, 1992; retrieved March 21, 2018
  3. Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader, by Peter Wright; published 2003 by Liverpool University Press
  4. Voices for the Future: Essays on Major Science Fiction Writers, Volume 3: Chapter 1, Variations and Design: the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, by Thomas D. Clareson; published 1983 by the Popular Press
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