Wolfe's Nightside the Long Sun(1993), the first volume of The Book of the Long Sun(which continued through Lake of the Long Sun(1994), Caldé of the Long Sun(1994) and Exodus from the Long Sun(1996)) not only marked his return to writing multi-volume fiction but also saw him revisit the universe of The Book of the New Sun. In 1999, he continued the series with The Book of the Short Sun(On Blue's Waters(1999), In Green's Jungles(2000) and Return to the Whorl(2001)). Lawrence Person's interview from Nova Express (Fall/Winter 1998) questions Wolfe on the interrelations between the three parts of this ‘solar trilogy’.

LP: I'm given to understand that there are going to be at least two more books in the Long Suncycle. Is this true, and will they take place on Blue, the planet settlers reach at the end of Exodus From the Long Sun?

GW: Actually, I call it The Book of the Short Sun, and it will be three books. It takes up about 20 years from Exodus from the Long Sun. Most of the action takes place on Blue. Some of it takes place on Green, and some of it takes place back in the Long Sun world.

LP: In The Book of the Long Sun, Patera Silk is one of the most wholly good, in the sense of being truly moral, characters in recent science fiction. Do you find such characters are rare in modern science fiction, and did you find it refreshing to use him as your protagonist?

GW: Very much so. The idea of the clergyman hero was very popular back around the 1900s, and has gone completely out of style except for a few clergyman detectives. [Harry Kemelman's] Rabbi Small is the one that comes to mind immediately. G. K. Chesterton did a Catholic priest, Father Brown. But those are exceptions, and I thought to do something with that idea again. We were talking about war in my most recent panel, how easy it is and how dramatic it is. The same thing can be said about evil. A lot of people have the notion that evil is interesting and basically fun, and that good is dull and no fun, and I don't think that's true.