This special Gene Wolfe issue leads off with an SF story which confirms just how good Wolfe can be. On the surface it's a story of a well-established type : a curmudgeonly longer out in the solar system is investigating some very strange artefacts which prove to be qutie dangerous, and has to use his cunning to survive.
But it's must more complex than that, which some very well observed and well-rounded characters, and the underlying shifting sands on which the story is based - with Wolfe there's always another dimension, or some subtle effects of which to be aware.
The setting is an intriguing one. March Wildspring is exploring, and filming for a documentary he plans to pitch to the studios, memorials placed in space. Not mere gravestones, these are complex structures, some of which threaten those who explore them, seeking to honour those whose memory they mark with further souls.
The story begins with Wildspring, aka Windy, aka Marchy, managing to extricate himself from a near-fatal memorial, and receiving a message from Kit, a front-of-camera TV personality, with whom Windy is madly in love, but feels that his lack of looks and rough and ready charms are a barrier to a partnership. She is en route to him, with a female friend, Robin Redd, who is running from her violent partner. However, when the pair turn up it transpires that Robin Redd is a name now being used by Windy's ex-wife, Sue, with whom he had a tempestuous relationship and a vicious divorce.
To make matters worse, Robin's current husbant, James Redd, turns up, looking for her. Amongst the complex interpersonal interplay, the drama unfolds as Robin flees to a neighbouring memorial, and the others follow in pursuit. They find themselves in a very large environment, peopled with hundreds of acolytes who are labouring under a VR misapprehension that they are living in a paradise, when the reality is altogether different.
In fleeing the habitat, Kit is killed, and Windy is left with the option of leaving Robin/Sue behind, or risking all to go back to save her. All is revealed in the closing credits.
It's an engrossing story, with the complex swirl of current and ex-relationships, personalities, and motivations all swirling around each other. Windy loses the love of his life, but mysoginist that he appears to be, he is able to refocus his attentions on his ex-wife, choosing what to believe in and what to see being part of the underlying elements of the story.
