The Fifth Head of Cerberus

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The Fifth Head of Cerberus is the title of both a novella and a single-volume collection of three novellas, written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe, published in 1972. The collection is an expansion of the first novella entitled The Fifth Head of Cerberus, originally published in an Orbit anthology edited by Damon Knight in 1972. The following novellas, "A Story" by John V. Marsch and V.R.T. expand on the plot and themes of the first.

These works are set on the colony planets of Sainte Anne and Saint Croix, where the aboriginal inhabitants, shapeshifters, were seemingly wiped out by human colonists. They touch upon many themes of post-colonial theory.

The first of Wolfe's works to earn him significant critical recognition, the collection is generally considered by fans to be one of his best works, alongside the so-called "Solar Cycle" (The Book of the New Sun, The Book of the Long Sun, and The Book of the Short Sun), to which some theorize it is connected.

The title refers to the Cerberus of Greek legend's having had four heads (three actual heads along with her "maidenhead"); this condition is similar to that of the narrator of the first novella, whose four principal family members are analogous to Cerberus' four heads, while he is the non-existent "fifth head".

Gardner Dozois has said that the original novella was the best novella of the 1970s. ^[1]

[edit] The Novellas

The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Focuses on the son of a scientist as he tries to understand his origins in the decadent and repressive society of a colonial planet.
"A Story," by John. V. Marsch - Centers on the dreamquest of a young man named Sandwalker as he journeys across the bizarre landscape of Sainte Anne.
V.R.T. - The story of an anthropologist held in a colonial prison told alongside entries from the journal he kept while attempting to rediscover the aboriginal shapeshifters.