Soldier of Arete

Latro, Book 2

By: Gene Wolfe

Narrated by: Gregory Connors

The second volume of Gene Wolfe's powerful story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who, while fighting in Greece, received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory. In return it gave him the ability to converse with supernatural creatures, gods, and goddesses who invisibly inhabit the ancient landscape.

©1989 Gene Wolfe (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Good story

This proved to be a good story, performed well. It might be better read than listened to, as the quantity of names and details was sometimes overwhelming.

I think this could be compared to Homer's Odyssey. It has a man traveling, unable to get home and spends a good deal of time exploring the Greek world. Like Odysseus, he meets gods/ goddesses and the encounters reveal something of their character.

Book cover error

Great story of course but is anyone gonna point out that the cover art of the second novel lists it as the third? And the third novel is listed as the second? This should be fixed

Great story, even better narrating!

Narrator did a great job with pronunciation and the different voices in the book. My favorite was IO. I was reading the paper version also. My recommendation is to read slowly and, as needed, go back and reread certain sections to remind yourself of names mentioned previously; it helps with context. I found it helpful to refer to the glossary as well to clear up some things. If you aren’t familiar with Greek mythology, the book may not have as much meaning. However, even without that knowledge, it’s a good series. Like I said, it is easier to understand if you take your time and return to previous chapters, to reread information about characters and/or events, as you go.

More Travels with the Amnesiac Mercenary Latro

In Soldier of Arete (1989), Latro continues narrating his picaresque, amnesiac travels (“like a vessel lost in the fog”) around the Mediterranean world circa 479 BC. A Latin mercenary, Latro was fighting for the invading army of the Great King (Xerxes) when it was routed by the Greek allies led by Rope (i.e., Sparta) and Thought (i.e., Athens), and a head wound (and Demeter’s curse) has robbed him of most of his memories and made him forget when he wakes up in the morning everything that happened to him the previous day. Hence, when Latro has the time before going to sleep at night, he writes down everything important that happened to him during that day.

The head wound (and curse) has also made Latro able to see and interact with a host of gods, demigods, ghosts, and monsters that pass unseen by everyone else—unless he happens to touch one of the supernatural beings, which then enables his companions to see them also.

Whew. Gene Wolfe sure likes tricky narrators!

The story begun in Soldier of the Mist (1986) continues here, with Latro visiting Thought and Rope again, as well as “barbarian” Thrace, as he tries to stay alive, regain his memory, find out where he’s from, and meet his original friends. In the first novel he was also vaguely trying to get to a temple to apologize to Demeter (?), while in this one he’s foggily trying to locate and rescue from one of the many petty kings of Thrace a Mede engineer called Oeobazus, who defected from the Persian empire and is being headhunted by Thought.

As in the first book, Latro is accompanied on many of his travels by his loyal “slave” girl Io and his resourceful friend “the black man” (Seven Lions). He also meets many interesting fictional or historical figures, like Hegesistratus the wise mantis (seer) with a wooden foot and a special understanding of the divine, Elata the lovely dryad-nymph with a special affinity for men, Paullus the eager boy with a special affinity for horses, Diokles the grizzled pankration trainer, Pasicrates the proud Spartan (now one-handed) who hates and admires Latro, and the ghost of a young Persian prince who’d been stoned to death.

As in the first book, as he goes about Latro is often a rather passive observer, though he is capable of initiating heroic (reckless) feats on behalf of companions. Again, Latro experiences sublime encounters with the divine and supernatural, and Wolfe weaves in plenty of Greek mythology, like when a character tells the story of Philomela and Procne and Idas. Again, it’s unsettling and moving when Latro forgets people who love him, though we remember them quite well from reading his book.

This novel has more than the first about the political situations of and cultural contrasts between Athens (Thought) and Sparta (Rope), as well as much on the political situation and “barbarian” culture of Thrace.

And it features a band of Amazons! Of course, one of them takes a liking to Latro and he to her. This may be a problem with some of Gene Wolfe's novels: the main character often tends to be a little too tall and strong and handsome and appealing to women, from courtesans to goddesses.

A neat development in this novel occurs when the (historical) Greek poet Simonides teaches Latro how to make a Memory Palace as a mnemonic strategy against his amnesia. The scene where the older man guides Latro through the construction of the Palace is wonderful (and almost makes me want to take the trouble and time and imagination to build one of my own), though I think that after all the buildup, Latro doesn’t use the thing enough to warrant all the time spent constructing it (cool though it is). This book does explore the connections between knowledge, memory, and identity.

Another interesting feature of this novel is that, after experiencing so many things (including what he wrote in his first “scroll,” Soldier of the Mist), in this second “scroll” it becomes harder and harder for him to read things that have happened that he’s written down, because he can’t remember when/where they happened and has no index for his scrolls.

Like the first novel, this one has plenty of vivid or numinous or humorous writing.

--“A memory came to me as though a singing bird had perched upon my hand.”

--“Are you … aware that divinity can be transmitted like a disease?”

--“A boy can look up to a hero, but if a hero looks up to himself, he’s a monster.”

Gregory Connors effectively reads the audiobook, simulating the mixture of foreign cultures by giving Latro an American accent and the other characters various other accents.

Everything leads to a climax at the Pythian Games (held every four years at Delphi), but in typically elliptical Wolfe fashion, Latro details Pasicrates’ preparations for the foot races as well as his own for the chariot race and the pankration, only to skip ahead in his narration till after the games are over, briefly telling us their results and letting slip that someone stole the prizes won by Latro for the Spartan regent Pausanias.

That kind of thing can be frustrating, but such is the pleasure of reading Wolfe's writing and such is the attraction of his characters and such is the eerie sublime feeling when his hero encounters the supernatural and such is the verisimilitude with which life in the ancient world is evoked (in a siege, a funeral, a boar hunt, a diplomatic mission, a play, a chariot race, a visit to the oracle, and more), that I do enjoy reading these novels.

Like the first one, this book ends inconclusively, so I’ll need to start the last one in the trilogy, Soldier of Sidon (2006), to find out what finally happens to Latro (and to see what, if any, effects result in the seventeen-year gap between the third and second books).

More of the same

Gene Wolfe’s Soldier of Arete is the second book in the Latro trilogy and follows Soldier of the Mist. Latro is a Greek soldier who has suffered a head injury producing memory issues, but with the added bonus of being able to see gods. Arete is not so much a sequel, rather is more a continuation with Latro and his band experiencing a series of adventures. There is an unknown gap between the two books due to the need for more parchment upon which Latro describes his days events so he can review the next day.

Wolfe doesn’t offer much new, rather just more escapades and adventures. Subsequently, these two books were combined into a single volume, Latro in the Mist. Narration is on par with the first installment with even pacing.