In Green's Jungles: The Second Volume of 'The Book of the Short Sun'
Gene Wolfe has stymied and delighted smart science fiction readers for  years. His complex, multilayered narratives, untrustworthy narrators, and  puzzle-box characters send those of us who like that sort of thing into  paroxysms of thrilling speculation, re-reading, and just plain guessing what it  all means.In Green's Junglesis the middle book of Wolfe's opus trilogy,  The Book of the Short Sun (the first isOn Blue's Waters). It is by no  means necessary to start with his other series,The Book of the New SunandThe Book of the Long Sun, in order  to enjoy what is most likely the final examination of the universe Wolfe has  created. But critics and fans are mostly in agreement that they are best read in  order, and that the Short Sun series is the best of an astonishing bunch.In Green's Junglesfollows narrator Horn as he voyages to the planet  Green (Blue's companion) and to the abandoned generational starship known as the  Whorl in search of the godlike Patera Silk. As Horn recounts his adventures, his  own identity becomes muddled, and we find out his interactions with the vampiric  inhumi of Green and the strange alien Neighbors were deeper than we knew. In  fact, Horn may not be himself at all anymore. Tantalizing story details drip  slowly from Wolfe's pen:Through the ring a Neighbor saw him, and she came to him in his  agony.... she said, "I cannot make you well again, and if I could you would  still be in this place. I can do this for you, however, if you desire it. I can  send your spirit into someone else, into someone whose own spirit is  dying."So who is Horn? Has he become Patera Silk--it seems so, for people begin  mistaking him for the heroic leader. Is he the warrior king Rajan, or is he  something entirely new, formed by the strange places and people around him into  a savior of worlds? Identity, love, and faith weave through the themes ofIn  Green's Jungles, and Wolfe has added another masterpiece to a shelf full of  them.--Therese Littleton