Gene Wolfe’s Book of Days (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Gene Wolfe
- First Published: 1981
- Type of Work: Stories
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—New Wave
- Time of Work: Various times between 1938 and the near future
- Setting: Various locations on Earth and on unspecified other planets
- Genres: Short fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Future, Other worlds, 1930’s, Holidays
- Locales: Earth, Fictional planets
The Plot
Gene Wolfe’s Book of Days includes stories related, sometimes loosely, to each of eighteen major and minor holidays celebrated in the United States. Lincoln’s birthday, for example, is commemorated with the short story “How the Whip Came Back.” Set in the near future, the story describes the reintroduction of slavery as a means of controlling overcrowding in prisons. “Of Relays and Roses,” a Valentines Day story, concerns the development of a supereffective computer dating ser-vice. Earth Day is marked by “Beautyland,” about a man who becomes a...
[The entire page is 988 words long]
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