"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"; Publishers Weekly, however, felt that the story's premise was "more provocative and interesting than" the actual story, which "goes nowhere". 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; Thomas D. Clareson observed that despite the story ending with an imminent attack by raiders, no detail of battle are provided.
References
- Decoding the Wolfe, by Robert Bee, at the Internet Review of Science Fiction; published January 2010; retrieved March 21, 2018; via archive.org
- Storeys from the Old Hotel, reviewed at Publishers Weekly; published March 30, 1992; retrieved March 21, 2018
- Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader, by Peter Wright; published 2003 by Liverpool University Press
- 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
External links
- "Straw" at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- "Straw" at WolfeWiki
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