Overview
In a future North America at once familiar and utterly strange, a young man and woman, Skip and Chelle, fall in love and marry. But Chelle is enlisted in the military, there is a war on, and she must serve her tour of duty before they can settle down. Earth is fighting a war with aliens in distant star systems, and Chelle's months in the service will be years in relative time on Earth. She returns to recuperate from severe injuries, still a young woman but not necessarily the same person—while Skip is now a wealthy businessman in his forties. Still in love, they go on a Caribbean cruise that rapidly goes awry with spies, aliens, and battles with pirates who capture the ship for ransom. There is no writer in SF like Gene Wolfe and no SF novel like Home Fires.
Editorials
From the Publisher
“Gene Wolfe remains a hero to me. He's just turned eighty…and is still writing deep, complex, brilliant fiction that slips between genres…. He's the finest living male American writer of SF and fantasy—possibly the finest living American writer.” —Neil Gaiman“With complications involving spies, murderers, cyborgs and pirates…compelling work from one of the genre's grandmasters.” —Kirkus Review (starred review)
“The purest SF novel from Wolfe in something like a decade…. Amazingly, Wolfe’s approach to SF themes that we thought we knew all about is as innovative and elegant as ever.” —Locus
"[Readers] will be pleased by this latest display of all of the gifts of one of SF’s authentic all-time masters, including original and balanced characterization, masterly world-building, and an ethical sensibility of the highest degree.” —Booklist
“Wolfe still has a few surprises up his sleeve, and Home Fires is one of them… The book is fast-paced and quite accessible, and shows that Gene Wolfe is as much at home writing adventure as he is writing epics.” —Analog
“The action is interspersed with Skip's reflections...and it's all rendered in a voice that might remind you of a more poignant Robert Heinlein from an alternate dimension. On one level, it's an adventure story and a romance—but this is Gene Wolfe, so expect it to set off some subtle but serious perturbations in your brain and soul, too.” —i09.com
Publishers Weekly
Against a backdrop of science fictional elements such as time dilation through space travel, cyborgs, and brain downloads, Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee Wolfe (The Sorcerer's House) builds a romance and a mystery. Successful lawyer Skip Grison wants to find a wonderful gift for his contracted paramour, Chelle Blue, now 20 years his junior after an interstellar military tour. After reuniting Chelle with her estranged mother, Vanessa, whose consciousness has been downloaded into a new body, Skip takes Chelle on a round-the-world cruise that turns into an almost screwball comedy of hijackings and chaos as shadowy people may be trying to get to Skip, Chelle, Vanessa, or someone else entirely. Red herrings and unknown, mistaken, or confused identities saturate the novel, making this well suited for readers, especially mystery readers, who don't often read science fiction. (Jan.)Library Journal
Now a successful defense attorney, Skip eagerly awaits the return of his wife, Chelle, from her tour of duty fighting a war in space against hostile aliens—and realizes that the months of service have translated into years. While Skip is now in his forties, his wife is still in her twenties, and their attempts to re-create a life together devolve rapidly into a series of ever more bizarre confrontations that hint at dark doings beneath the surface of normality. Though known primarily for his groundbreaking "Book of the New Sun" series and its spin-offs, Wolfe also excels at infusing seemingly everyday stories with layers of complexity while never losing track of his characters' individual dramas. VERDICT Part cyber-thriller, part love story, part sf adventure, Wolfe's latest novel should appeal to his many fans as well as to general readers.Kirkus Reviews
Complex, enigmatic science fiction about war and the damage it inflicts, both visible and invisible, from the celebrated author.
In this future, Earth is so energy-depleted that natural forces and the power of human muscle must be used to accomplish work; simultaneously—a paradox Wolfe never explicates—starships prospect the galaxy for desirable real estate, bringing humanity into conflict with the alien Os, who have similar designs. Thanks to highly detailed brain scans, personalities can be downloaded and stored electronically. Students Skip Grison and Chelle ("shell") Blue met in college and married, but soldier Chelle soon departed to fight the Os on distant planets. Due to time-dilation effects, when Chelle returns she's only a few months older, while Skip is now a hugely successful middle-aged lawyer. They are still in love, or so it seems, and arrange to go on a leisurely Caribbean cruise aboard a colossal wind-powered liner. But Chelle's body and perhaps brain were severely injured—her hands are now different sizes, Skip observes. She tends to jump into bed with practically anybody (after Skip's long affair with his secretary, he's in no position to censure or complain) and leaves a cryptic note claiming to be another person altogether. With complications involving spies, murderers, cyborgs and pirates, Wolfe cross-examines his characters with a subtle, intelligent series of psychological and logical challenges.
A somber, almost brooding tone permeates this compelling work from one of the genre's grandmasters.