The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Gene Wolfe
- First Published: 1972
- Type of Work: Novella
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—cultural exploration
- Time of Work: Several hundred years in the future
- Setting: The planet Sainte Croix
- Genres: Short fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Folkloric or magical people, France or French people, Abused persons, Future, Other worlds, Prostitution or prostitutes, Monsters, Clones or cloning
- Locales: Fictional planets
The Plot
In eighteen sections and about eighty pages, “Number Five,” the nickname assigned to the otherwise anonymous protagonist by his father, composes a memoir of his first thirty years. His account starts at the age of seven, when his comfortably privileged routine is disturbed. He lives with his supposed brother, David, who appears genetically dissimilar, and a robot tutor, Mr. Million. His life is transformed over the next eleven years into a sort of hell, appropriate to the family address of 666 Saltimbanque and the houses portal statue of Cerberus. His emotionally...
[The entire page is 1056 words long]
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