"When Gene Wolfe wrote what will probably stand as his single greatest (multi-volume) work, he did something extraordinarily sly: Where most science fiction writers invent strange-looking words to indicate exotic things, people, creatures, and concepts, he employed what looked like invented words but were actually legitimate terms taken from the dustier reaches of the dictionary. Heptarchs, margays, naviscaputs, and other heteroclite beings abound."

-- Michael Swanwick