Combination of two books: Book of ays and Castle of Otter + extra material. Both fiction and non-fiction part of this book is worth every penny you payed for it. Fiction part consists of short Wolfeish crazy and high quality speculative prose from Wolfes 70-ies opus (mainly). Non-fiction part give us rare look in maestros mind while he was writing The Book of the New Sun and his comments on others work. ( )

Castle of Days is an odd book, though that goes without saying for Wolfe. It's actually an omnibus consisting of "Gene Wolfe's Book of Days," which is a collection of short stories; "The Castle of the Otter," which is a collection of essays written about the Book of the New Sun; and some letters and other writings which are unique to the book. Some of the short stories, such as "How I Lost the Second World War," "Forlesen," and "La Befana," are among Wolfe's finest, and several of the essays are enjoyable, but in general Mr. Wolfe isn't as good at writing about writing as some others. (Stephen King, for example.) It's worth reading, but it's not my favorite Wolfe. ( )

+ for hit, - for miss:

- How the whip came back (1970)
A tempting throwback.
+ Of relays and roses (1970)
+ Paul's treehouse (1969)
+ St. Brandon (1975)
Irish folk tale, with swans.
- Beautyland (1973)
- Car sinister (1970)
An untrustworthy motor vehicle.
+ The blue mouse (1971)
A thin line for a blue helmet.
+ How I lost the Second World War and helped turn back the German invasion (1973)
- The adopted father (1980)
+ Forlesen (1974)
The apprenticeship of an office worker.
- An article about hunting (1973)
+ The Changeling (1968)
- Many mansions (1977)
+ Against the Lafayette Escadrille (1972)
+ Three million square miles (1971)
All that empty space is got to be somewhere.
+ The war beneath the tree (1979)
+ La Befana (1973)
An Italian legend, with aliens.
- Melting (1974)

The remaining are essays; they are mostly +. ( )