Review: The Sorcerer's House

Title: The Sorcerer's House

Author: Gene Wolfe

Genre: Fantasy

Publication: 2010

Summary: In a contemporary town in the American Midwest where he has no connections, an educated man recently released from prison is staying in a motel. He writes letters to his brother and to others, including a friend still in jail. When he meets a real estate agent who tells him he is the heir to a huge old house, long empty, he moves in, though he is too broke to even buy furniture, and is immediately confronted by supernatural and fantastic creatures and events.

His life is utterly transformed and we read on, because we must know more. We revise our opinions of him, and of others, with each letter. We learn things about magic, and another world, and about the sorcerer Mr. Black, who originally inhabited the house. And then perhaps we read it again.

My Thoughts: (I normally try to stay away from writing anything that may give away important information concerning the story, but I've never read anything like this before so I find it hard to review. I'll do my best.)


This was not at all what I was expecting. I really liked it! However, in the end I was left a bit confused. Sadly, I am not very good at "reading between the lines" thus the reason for my being confused, because this is the kind of book that you read and realize that there is a lot more being said here than that is being shown. Just the same, I really enjoyed the narrative and the surface story of this book enough that I was deeply intrigued and captivated.

The book is written in a series of letters all written by, or written to, an ex-convict named Baxter Dunn who has inherited an unusual old house by a mysterious man and in turn writes about his experiences, more or less. Bax writes to three people, his brother George, Millie (George's wife), and his friend Shell. Within these letters is where I've learned the most of his personality, and have come to believe that even though he writes to his brother (and Millie) with pleasantries and good intentions, I couldn't shake the feeling that he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. However, I could be wrong. That's what I mean about the story being more than what it appears. A person can read this and later think up multiple theories on what really took place, if there was indeed anything else at all. This story being told by Bax is either deceptive (my impression), or a very extraordinary flat out truth (because it is a fantasy after all). All this is another reason I really enjoyed this book even though I'm not exactly intelligent enough to piece it all together. I will most likely some day reread this and try and discover more.

Now, putting aside all of that, the story being told is definitely interesting. There's talk about sorcerer's, magic, werewolves, facefoxes (the reverse effect of a werewolf - a fox who turns into human), ghosts, and other fantastical creatures that will fascinate or turn off. If you believe what the narrator is saying is true then you'd have to admit that his story is definitely remarkable because it's [expletive deleted] crazy. Although some of the twists were predictable, the general mystery of the story remained strong enough to keep me entertained.

All in all, the story was really well written. It had me from the very beginning and I was captivated by it the whole way through.

My Rating: 4/5

Recommend It For: Adults and fantasy readers.