Soldier of Sidon, by Gene Wolfe
Soldier of Sidon is the third and last volume in Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist series. It was published in 2006, some time after the previous two, which date from the early-mid Eighties.
I confess I read Soldier of the Mist so long ago that I've forgotten almost everything about it; but perhaps that's a nice reader's tribute to the series, which tells the tale of a soldier of the ancient world who forgets everything from the day before, and so relies on what his supposed friends tell him and also on what he writes in these scrolls, which in the shape of 'translations' forms the substance of these books.
Many other writers have written stories set in the ancient world; and Wolfe is certainly not the first to use the device of a 'translated' ancient text (in Soldier of Sidon a papyrus scroll found in a sealed jar under the waters of Lake Nasser). But there's something distinct about Wolfe's writing which produces a sense of originality. While he doesn't attempt to invent a sort of 'historical' style of speech, such as is all too familar from bad dramas, the characters he creates are very human and at the same time eerily alien.
Furthermore, for Latro the central character almost everything is alien, from the moment he wakes up each day. At the start he is identified as a mercenary soldier, joined with his family in Sidon, after long journeys through Greece and Asia Minor as described in the earlier books. His reason for uprooting himself and journeying down the Nile is the suggestion of a cure for his affliction, his inability to make memories. He has survived what ought to have made him extremely vulnerable thanks to his fighting skills, and a convincingly portrayed moral core, which inspires devotion, friendship and love in many around him, and grudging respect from his foes. In addition, and crucially, despite his forgetting even people he is close to, he reads people well and while this sense is not infallible, he is more right than wrong in judging who he can trust. To make a comparison which might seem a bit of a stretch, Latro is something of a Jack Reacher of the ancient world.
There's something else, which readers new to Wolfe might have difficulty with. He sees and can interact with gods and other creatures of the spirit world. In Egypt these are Egyptian gods; at the beginning of the day he sees the boat which draws the sun across the heavens. His encounters are strange but also matter of fact; Latro simply accepts these often horrific beings as part of the natural world and is usually surprised when he finds others cannot see them. Except that in this third volume, they sometimes do. There's a shocking moment at one point when he sees a demon tormenting a young girl and then attacks it: grappling with it makes it suddenly visible to everyone around. Elsewhere there are at least two important characters who interact with humans who are disturbingly not human themselves. I don't remember gods and spirits and demons interacting directly with humans quite so blatantly in the first two books.
Ones acceptance of all the weirdness is really enabled by Latro's loss of memory. He accepts any situation he is confronted with until shown otherwise; perhaps when someone persuades him to read his scroll. The thing is, and here's a reality which is better used in this book than the others, he's rarely able to read much of the scroll. So he's often misled or missing a crucial piece of knowledge, because he's not read back far enough.
I can't spoil the ending, naturally. But I can see it's one many readers will find hard, for not offering the clear conclusion they likely want. However I guess if we've got that far, we can sit back and appreciate that it was simply the end of the scroll. We can regard our relationship with Latro like that with many people who cross our paths in life, and sometimes pass beyond our view: we don't know how their story ended. Unfortunately Gene Wolfe himself did pass on last year. There'll be no more scrolls. Now it's sunk in, I'm content with the ending and glad we did get this last volume, Soldier of Sidon.
If you want my verdict, Soldier of Arete was my favourite volume of the series, containing some memorable events, and powerful and affecting relationships, never more so when he experiences love, in that fragmented and detached way only Latro can, when he has to reacquaint himself with even loved ones each day. But Soldier of Sidon was a lovely conclusion to his saga, beautifully written and poignant.
Many other writers have written stories set in the ancient world; and Wolfe is certainly not the first to use the device of a 'translated' ancient text (in Soldier of Sidon a papyrus scroll found in a sealed jar under the waters of Lake Nasser). But there's something distinct about Wolfe's writing which produces a sense of originality. While he doesn't attempt to invent a sort of 'historical' style of speech, such as is all too familar from bad dramas, the characters he creates are very human and at the same time eerily alien.
Furthermore, for Latro the central character almost everything is alien, from the moment he wakes up each day. At the start he is identified as a mercenary soldier, joined with his family in Sidon, after long journeys through Greece and Asia Minor as described in the earlier books. His reason for uprooting himself and journeying down the Nile is the suggestion of a cure for his affliction, his inability to make memories. He has survived what ought to have made him extremely vulnerable thanks to his fighting skills, and a convincingly portrayed moral core, which inspires devotion, friendship and love in many around him, and grudging respect from his foes. In addition, and crucially, despite his forgetting even people he is close to, he reads people well and while this sense is not infallible, he is more right than wrong in judging who he can trust. To make a comparison which might seem a bit of a stretch, Latro is something of a Jack Reacher of the ancient world.
There's something else, which readers new to Wolfe might have difficulty with. He sees and can interact with gods and other creatures of the spirit world. In Egypt these are Egyptian gods; at the beginning of the day he sees the boat which draws the sun across the heavens. His encounters are strange but also matter of fact; Latro simply accepts these often horrific beings as part of the natural world and is usually surprised when he finds others cannot see them. Except that in this third volume, they sometimes do. There's a shocking moment at one point when he sees a demon tormenting a young girl and then attacks it: grappling with it makes it suddenly visible to everyone around. Elsewhere there are at least two important characters who interact with humans who are disturbingly not human themselves. I don't remember gods and spirits and demons interacting directly with humans quite so blatantly in the first two books.
Ones acceptance of all the weirdness is really enabled by Latro's loss of memory. He accepts any situation he is confronted with until shown otherwise; perhaps when someone persuades him to read his scroll. The thing is, and here's a reality which is better used in this book than the others, he's rarely able to read much of the scroll. So he's often misled or missing a crucial piece of knowledge, because he's not read back far enough.
I can't spoil the ending, naturally. But I can see it's one many readers will find hard, for not offering the clear conclusion they likely want. However I guess if we've got that far, we can sit back and appreciate that it was simply the end of the scroll. We can regard our relationship with Latro like that with many people who cross our paths in life, and sometimes pass beyond our view: we don't know how their story ended. Unfortunately Gene Wolfe himself did pass on last year. There'll be no more scrolls. Now it's sunk in, I'm content with the ending and glad we did get this last volume, Soldier of Sidon.
If you want my verdict, Soldier of Arete was my favourite volume of the series, containing some memorable events, and powerful and affecting relationships, never more so when he experiences love, in that fragmented and detached way only Latro can, when he has to reacquaint himself with even loved ones each day. But Soldier of Sidon was a lovely conclusion to his saga, beautifully written and poignant.
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