[1] In 1998, Locus magazine ranked it the third-best fantasy novel published before 1990 based on a poll of subscribers that considered it and several other series as single entries.

[15] Wolfe lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, with his wife Rosemary where they raised four children.

Wolfe's wife, Rosemary, died on December 14, 2013, after a series of illnesses[17][18] including Alzheimer's disease.

[19][20] Wolfe's first published book was the paperback original novel Operation Ares (Berkley Medallion, 1970).

[11] He first received critical attention for The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Scribner's, 1972) that examined a "colonial mentality within an orthodox science fiction framework".

Set in a bleak, distant future influenced by Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, the story details the life of Severian, a journeyman torturer, exiled from his guild for showing compassion to one of the condemned.

The first is the seemingly-rambling narrative of Alden Dennis Weer, a man of many secrets who reviews his life under mysterious circumstances.

The Fifth Head of Cerberus is either a collection of three novellas or a novel in three parts, dealing with colonialism, memory, and the nature of personal identity.

In the appendix to The Shadow of the Torturer, he says: In rendering this book—originally composed in a tongue that has not achieved existence—into English, I might easily have saved myself a great deal of labor by having recourse to invented terms; in no case have I done so.

[24]This character of the fictional "translator" of his novel provides a certain insight into Wolfe's writing: all of his terms—fuligin, carnifex, thaumaturge, and so on—are real words.

In 2003, award-winning science fiction author Michael Swanwick said: "Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today.

Shakespeare was a better stylist, Melville was more important to American letters, and Charles Dickens had a defter hand at creating characters.

But among living writers, there is nobody who can even approach Gene Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning.

"[26] O'Leary also wrote an extensive essay concerning the nature of Wolfe's artistry, entitled "If Ever A Wiz There Was",[27] originally published in his collection Other Voices, Other Doors.

Harlan Ellison, reviewing The Shadow of the Torturer, wrote: "Gene Wolfe is engaged in the holy chore of writing every other author under the table.

The Shadow of the Torturer breaks new ground in American literature and, as the first novel of a tetralogy, casts a fierce light on what will certainly be a lodestone landmark, his most stunning work to date.

When asked the "Most overrated" and "Most underrated" authors, Thomas M. Disch identified Isaac Asimov and Gene Wolfe, respectively, writing: "...all too many have already gone into a decline after carrying home some trophies.

The one exception is Gene Wolfe...Between 1980 and 1982 he published The Book of the New Sun, a tetralogy of couth, intelligence, and suavity that is also written in VistaVision with Dolby Sound.

"[30] Michael Dirda included Wolfe's Book of the New Sun in his "Science Fiction Reading List", writing: "If Proust, while listening to late Beethoven string quartets, wrote I, Claudius and set it in the future, the result might resemble this measured, autumnal masterpiece.

He's just turned 80, looks after his wife Rosemary, and is still writing deep, complex, brilliant fiction that slips between genres.

[38] Wolfe was the first Fuller Award recipient to be inducted; and though he was part of the 2019 class, the ceremony to honor him did not occur until 2021.