It doesn't really live up to the title though it is quite an interesting historical novel set in the middle ages. Quite well depicted in a lot of ways but begs some real questions such as how could such an isolated community continue to exist after being robbed of the passing pilgrimage trade.

Also it is billed on the cover as a fantasy novel and supposed to have a supernatural element but there is nothing at all to substantiate this - people imagine things based on lingering traces of pre Christian religion - but nothing at all happens in the book that cannot be explained scientifically , psychologically and naturally. ( )

I enjoy a good fantastical forest novel as much as the next guy. Gene Wolfe's dependably polished writing delivers thrills and chills in this relatively early work. Set alongside Fifth Head of Cerberus, and Peace, The Devil in a Forest reads almost like children's literature. That is not to say that it is not well-conceived and substantial. However, it is pretty straightforward in its plot and characters. It conveys many traditional storytelling devices through effective dialogue and complex motivations, and is reminiscent of Robin Hood. (Just don't go walking into a forest alone if you live in Dark Ages Europe).

Truth is an elusive specter in this murder-filled adventure. The perspective is skewed by narrative distance and enhanced by precise description. Historically accurate weapons and surgery places these events some time in the remote past, more pagan than Christian. This is a time for alchemy and witches to hold sway over superstitious townsfolk. Wolfe peppers the dialogue with subtle variance - not a real language barrier by any means, but just enough archaism to flavor and flesh-out the characters.

For a pulp s-f, pseudo-obscure adventure tale the prose is too heady. For canon Gene Wolfe readers, this is definitely a minor work, reading more like the aborigine section of Fifth Head of Cerberus than otherwise. I was nonetheless intrigued and enthused by the quick pace, the mysterious atmosphere and the careful world-building. I become a bigger Wolfe fan with every foray into his oeuvre , but this is not the place to start if you are new.

The Barrow Man and lady Cloot were enjoyable versions of medieval legends/ folktale elements. Without them, this book would have bordered on pedestrian. It needed an infusion of magical realism, to undercut the vicious backwoods mentality of its characters. Make it a point not to miss this delightful novel. ( )

En la profundidad de un bosque solitario y escabroso se asienta un pueblo tan humilde e insignificante que sólo un puñado de hombres conoce su existencia, y es allí precisamente donde va a tener lugar un nuevo episodio de la eterna lucha entre el Bien y el Mal.

Arrastrados por el ciego Destino, los habitantes del bosque se verán inmersos en la ineludible batalla: WAT, el salvaje y encantador salteador de caminos... LA MADRE CLOOT, la astuta y cruel poseedora de misteriosos poderes... EL HOMBRE DE LA SEPULTURA, el espectro terrible de un guerrero muerto tiempo atrás... MARK, un joven aprendiz todavía no seducido por el Mal, pero no convencido totalmente por el Bien.

El diablo en un bosque es un sorprendente y encantador cuento de la Edad Media, magníficamente narrado por Gene Wolfe, ganador de dos World Fantasy y dos Nebula, y autor de culto en el mundo de la fantasía, donde destaca su quinteto: The Book of the New Sun. ( )

A very early forest based medieval fantasy from Gene Wolfe, don't expect anything groundbreaking like the Books of the New Sun.

Still, it has a certain charm, and was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

Okay but not more. ( )

This novel is a pretty quick read. The "science fiction" imprint and the "fantasy" label are both misleading; there's nothing supernatural or counterfactual in the setting or the plot. It's just a straightforward adventure story set in a medieval village and its environs. The protagonist is a savvy but ignorant fifteen-year-old weaver's apprentice.

The interaction between Catholicism and the vestiges of indigenous European religion is a major subtext of the story, and it's no Wiccanish glamorization of the latter. Wolfe's own Catholicism often informs his fiction, and it may do so here, but in any case, the result is a more realistic treatment of the material than one usually encounters in a novel with this sort of historical setting.

There's a significant plot-twist that seemed a little obvious to me, but the whole thing was so lucidly written and well-paced that I didn't mind a bit.