Now it's dark...

[18:16] <@Tigger_> I will ask because lamont keeps asking me when you're not around.  have you been to the library?
[18:16] <citaod> personally, I dislike IDE-integrated debuggers because they're always behind the times
[18:17] <citaod> yes. I even found The Book on the second attempt (yesterday). It's not for me.
[18:17] <@Tigger_> so you won't be reading it?
[18:18] <citaod> I tried over almost an hour, hoping for some sort of deeper meaning beyond pure fantasy to emerge, but TBH it seemed like a combination of "Big" and Arthurian legend
[18:19] <@Tigger_> how many pages did you read in that hour?
[18:19] <citaod> I dunno. 50 ish
[18:19] <@Tigger_> ok
[18:19] <@Tigger_> he will not be happy
[18:20] <citaod> I dont understand why he likes that book so much. At 23 he should be getting over America's answer to Harry Potter
[18:21] <citaod> that's what the whole thing felt like - an attempt to cash in on the H.Potter craze with a "boy's own" version
[18:22] <@Tigger_> lamont is a big fan of Harry Potter
[18:22] <citaod> that doesnt come as a huge surprise. My wife would probably enjoy "The Knight" more than I did, seeing as she watches new Potter movies religiously
[18:23] <citaod> I think I also have an inherent dislike for books which preach morality. It's OK for younger people but the world is more grey than that
[18:24] <@Tigger_> what morality did it preach?
[18:26] <citaod> just goodies and baddies stuff. I didn't sense any specific bent towards a particular system of values, but there was a definite bucketization of characters into either "nice" or "not nice"
[18:26] <@Hansard> I stopped reading fiction around grade 10. Not sure why.
[18:26] <citaod> then again perhaps I didn't read far enough
[18:26] <@Hansard> Err or probably grade 9.
[18:27] <citaod> Hansard: me too. I just find it boring to read about things that didn't actually happen, unless there's another reason/point
[18:27] <@Tigger_> if only Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, Tolstoy had the sense to realise this
[18:28] <citaod> quite. They could've written some excellent man pages
[18:29] <citaod> though there was a tolstoy fiction book I hugely enjoyed as a kid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hyperboloid_of_Engineer_Garin
[18:29] <@Tigger_> Kafka could've written a home shopping catalogue instead of The Trial and Metamorphosis
[18:30] <@Tigger_> I wasn't speaking of that Tolstoy
[18:32] <citaod> I never knew there were multiple prominent tolstoys in russian lit. Live and learn. I always assumed "the" tolstoy wrote that book, perhaps because I thought it was the greatest thing evaa at 12

No. No. No.
1) Pay close attention to what little citaod actually says - very vague and ill defined, did he really read it?
2) What occurs in the first 50 pages is not at all what he describes.
3) The Wizard Knight is not cashing in on Potter nor is it an Arthurian retread, it draws upon the oldest sources of fantasy: fairy tales, medieval romances, Lord Dunsany for example. Further more Gene Wolfe is a highly esteemed author of literature.
4) Although it is certainly more straight forward than is usual for Wolfes work, this is by no means a childish text. For example the description of Ables journey to the multi-layered reality and travels between those realities are richly complex. There are also certain other mature events occuring that I wont discuss here.
4) In this day and age what would be wrong with being instructed in morality?

*UPDATE*
citaod has admitted he neither borrowed or read the book.
He now joins Venkman in eternal darkness.
In dreams... I walk with you. In dreams... I talk to you. In dreams, you're mine... all the time. Forever.