Table of Contents

Part 1 Initiations: "Silhouette" - an introduction to Gene Wolfe; "Trip Trap" - psychology and thematic coherence; "In the House of Gingerbread" - interpretative games and the psychology of reader response; "the God and His Man" - critical responses to The Urth Cycle. Part 2 Investigations - The Urth Cycle: "The Toy Theatre" - uncovering thre story of The Urth Cycle; "The Last Thrilling Wonder Story"? - intergeneric operations; "How the Whip Came Back" - directing reader response; "Cues" - the function of unfamiliar diction; "There are doors" - memory and textual structure; "A Solar Labyrinth" - metafictional devices and textual complexity. Part 3 Conclusions: "The Map" - the multi-volume novels and metafictional cartography.