ON BLUE'S WATERS

First of a new trilogy and sequel to Wolfe’s heavyweight Book of the Long Sun tetralogy (culminating in Exodus from the Long Sun, 1996). Narrator Horn, who previously related the story of a multigeneration starship, the Whorl, and its eventual ruler, Patera Silk, has now settled with his family in the city of New Viron on the planet Blue beneath the Short Sun. But the settlers still need a dynamic, skilled leader—and who better than Silk? So Horn sets sail in a small boat, ready to cross all Blue’s oceans to find him. Problem is, Silk was last seen 16 years ago, aboard the Whorl, and by now he might well be dead. You don’t have to be acquainted with the Long Sun tetralogy, but it helps considerably, and though Wolfe’s teasing list of “Proper Names in the Text” is of small benefit to newcomers, fans of the previous should not be disappointed.