The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' - Sword & Citadel

While I cannot say this book is the best that I have ever read, it definitely ranks in the top 98% or so. Gene Wolfe delivers a stunning narrative of Earth in the far-distant future. Although Shadow and Claw (the first two books in the series) have a strong fantasy/science fiction edge, they surpass the traditional mold of Tolkein and take the genre to a new contemporary level. This is one of the novels that bridges the gap between Science Fiction and legitimate Lichrachure. If you haven't read it, then read it! If you've already read it, then read it again (especially if you don't agree with me).

At first I liked his arcane vocabulary. Then it became annoying. Finally, well, silly. He has no good plot line and appears to have little direction. For reviewers to attempt to put him in the same category as Tolkien is, frankly, an insult to Tolkien, who dealt with complex issues using imagery and metaphor good readers could follow and understand. This author seems too enamored with himself to consider first his readers. We only have a limited time on this planet to read the best stuff. This is not it.

This first half, along with the second half of the New Sun quartet, is so deep that I found myself pausing to absorb things, and on many occasions only realizing the next day in an "Aha!" moment what actually happened, or what it meant in a deeper sense. So much mental energy is spent in decoding the clues imbedded in the unreliable narrator's prose, or in imagining the strange world we are suddenly plunged into, that I was compelled to read the whole series for a second time. And then, instead of scratching my head, I read it with a smile, nodding and grinning at my stupidity ("Oh, how did I miss that! I should have seen that the first time, it's obvious!") All the while, the author throws in hints at how to interpret the work, handy footholds for those observant enough to find them. Truly a masterpiece, this book elevates science- (or speculative-)fiction to the level of literature, without falling into the "look at me, how clever I am" trap that has snared a few established SF authors. And all those words, well, they're real words, even if they are archaic... and that lends an air of authenticity to a work set in a foreign environment (hey, better than something like Dune where the author makes up a new vocabulary out of thin air, at least I can answer more questions on Jeopardy now).

I made it through about 200 pages of this book. There are hints that the story might get interesting. But it just drones on and on. Constantly, new distractions, thoughts, symbolic events occur. The plot does not move at all. I found much of it confused and somewhat rambling. But perhaps it's just over my head since it did receive a lot of accolades. I simply stop caring about the characters and their thoughts. Nothing like Jack Vance, who is just in another league.

This book encompases the second half of the New Sun series, and you should first see the reviews for the first two books (in one volume), "Shadow & Claw". "Sword & Citadel" continues the story from there. Once you start "Shadow & Claw" you will NEED "Sword & Citadel", so buy them together. The story then continues in "Urth of the New Sun", so get that one too. They all comprise an unforgettable story that is so full of wonders and excitement that, after reading the series, was it to come up conversation, you would find yourself unable to stop questioning and puzzling over the mysteries Gene Wolfe has contrived. When it happened to me, I had to go back and reread it. This series is a Rust Mave--that's FIVE WHOLE FIRST-LETTERS PAST A MUST HAVE! Now that's something.

Severian, a journeyman in a guild of torturers - a feared guild on Urth - is ousted when he shows mercy to one of the guild's 'clients.' From there is he bound for Thrax, where he will work as the town's, for lack of a better term, beheader. But on the way he finds himself suddenly in the possession of the Claw of the Concilliator, a thing of magic with the power to heal.

Wolfe is truly a master. When reading I felt as though I was reading a historical account of Urth, rather than a Fantasy Novel. By this I mean that the fantasy elements of the books were understated and tightly woven into the story, rather than being out front. I love the fantasy genre, but it bugs me when writers bring the fantasy elements to the front and try to make those tricks the story, as if the writers themselves are struggling to believe in what they're writing.

It's hard to be both a good storyteller and a good writer. Many writers achieve one or the other, but not both. Wolfe does both with aplomb.

Gene Wolfe has written a classic piece of literature, weaving inventive baroque language and maze-like storytelling to produce a mesmerising tale of the future. Severian is both good and evil, light and dark, cruel and merciful. As he travels across Urth he realizes that he is the Conciliator, the one who can bridge the gap between mankind and the Creator. Christian imagery and symbolism make Severian one of the most memorable characters you will ever come to understand. You will read this book over and over, rewarded each time for your pains by additional richness and depth

"It is no easy road" is the sort of literary dare both these novels end on. Should you take the dare?

I'd say obviously yes if you are a Wolfe fan or like science fantasy. I don't fit in either category. I've often liked the journey of the Wolfe short stories I've come across but always felt let down by the payoff or felt that I couldn't solve some literary puzzle I had been given. As for science fantasy, I don't mind the amalgam, but I don't seek it out either. So, though I've certainly been aware of how much the Book of the New Sun has been lauded since it was first published, I was in no hurry to read it.

Wolfe always intended the Book of the New Sun as a sole volume. Publishing realities - publishers did not routinely publish 800 page fantasies in those days - dictated that book be broken into four volumes, one a year starting in 1980.

This first half, though, despite some wanderings in fables, tales, and a play nested in the main narrative, is pretty engaging. Our hero Severan is a member of the Order of Seekers of Truth and Penitence, and, while he's pretty matter of fact about his apprenticeship and training, we don't get a lot of details but just enough glimpses of his work to know that torturer is not a symbolic title. He's also possessed of an eidetic memory with the narrative leavened with bits of foreshadowings that his story will take some unexpected turns.

We hear of his youth, an orphan left to the guild, his early encounter with Vodalus - a would be revolutionary whom Severan sort of imprints on, and the sin that sends him into exile: allowing Thecla, a noblewoman sentenced to a peculiar torture, to kill herself. Into exile, he takes Terminus Est, " The Line That Divides", his great sword. That's the first quarter of this volume. The rest of it covers his wanderings during exile until he settles into a provincial city as torturer. We get clues as to the past and present of this world, and Wolfe concludes each novel with a brief appendix explaining some, but not all, of his vocabulary and concepts. That part of Wolfe's puzzle, the nature of the world, I didn't mind as much as the story briefly stalling with all those other nested stories. And I liked Severan pausing the narrative to ruminate on the nature of love and other matters. And, as time goes on, we find out that, while Severan may have a photographic memory, that does not make him a reliable narrator in the matter of his relationship to Thecla.

And the characters and scenes largely kept my interest: a mysterious green man and sailor, a giant and his odd doctor companion, a woman of extreme beauty, a woman perhaps retrieved from the dead, cannibalism (this story was written in the 1970s when memory transference via RNA ingestion was an idea that showed up), a prison inhabited by generations who know nothing outside its walls, and the Autarch - leader of this society.

But, having gone the whole journey with Severan, I can tell you it does not end well. Still, this first half was enjoyable.

I bought the first book of this series because of SF awards it received over the years (e.g., Nebula). So, I went in with rather high expectations and still was completely blown away.
The characters are complex beyond imagination (mine, not Wolfe's, clearly). I've spent hours contemplating whether Severian is a moral man or not...
My reason for posting this review, however, is to say that I only fully began to appreciate this series after a close friend read it and we began to discuss it. Wolfe leaves so many gaps in the plot...in his universe...in his philosophy...that the reader can supply a lot of imagination. Hearing my friend's interpretation, and his hearing mine, really brought that point home to each of us.
I think a casual reading would still prove enjoyable. But, this book (at least for me) really came alive after long periods of introspection and discussion. So, get a friend to read it :-)

Author doesn't seem to understand importance of writing to an audience -- maybe he understands what he is writing but I sure don't. Perhaps this might get better if I gave it a chance but there are too many really good books out there to waste my time on this fellow.

I can safely say that I've never read a book like this before. I think if you are a fan of deductive reasoning and you enjoy thinking intensely while you read (this book is quite the puzzle), then these pages will satisfy you on so many levels. As the top review on here by Sean Hanley points out, the narrator and main character Severian has a habit of casually revealing very important information; sometimes 5 or 6 chapters after the original event. Often times, Severian's revelations are expected but it's always nice to receive confirmation of your deductions/suspicions of what is going on in the story. But be prepared to wait; and Wolfe deserves a great deal of credit for his method of revelation through his main character. You are expected to be on your toes while you read this or else too much pertinent information will buzz over your head. I can see why so many critics love this book. On literally every page, there is a sentence (or sometimes an entire paragraph) that you must read 2 or 7 times to appreciate Wolfe's use of language. I experienced several "Oh my God I've never thought of the world that way" moments throughout the first 2 books contained in this edition. It's also very easy to appreciate Severian's philosophical out pours that are so strategically placed in this story. Most of us that have at some point questioned why we're here and what the purpose of this universe is will grasp and hopefully enjoy reading (and watching, thanks to Wolfe's visual writing style) the philosophical musings. For example: pg 47 of the Shadow of the Torturer

"...It is possible, you will agree, since each son may resemble his father, for a face to endure through many generations. That is, if the son resembles the father, and HIS son resembles him, and that son's son resembles him, then the fourth in line, the great-grandson, resembles his great-grandfather.....yet the seed of all of them was contained in a drachm of sticky fluid. If they did not come from there, from where did they come?"

or the witches musings pg 406 (The Claw of the Conciliator)

"If the future does not exist now, how could we journey toward it? If the past does not exist still, how could we leave it behind us?"

The book is loaded with these interesting philosophical propositions. Though the backbone of this tale contains a great adventure story, promiscuous versions of love, and a very enchanting and just plain bad ass world that the reader may inhabit, as I said before, you must be prepared to work for it. All of the rewards of this book are fruitful if you're willing to take the time to digest all of the information presented. Unless you're a philologist, I would recommend keeping a dictionary/thesaurus close at hand though do not be discouraged if you can't find half of the words you search for. All in all, this is an amazing book and as I write this, I'm a quarter of the way through reading 'Sword & Citadel' and it only becomes more enthralling.

Gene Wolfe makes you work. He writes part of the story; you're supposed to tell the rest. Sometimes you don't realize that Wolfe is just constructing for you some components you're supposed to work together into your own story. You can get carried away by his prose and his narrative master-craftsmanship.

But before too long he'll switch to another piece, and you'll realize suddenly that you actually have no idea what was going on in what you just read, and you'll go back and re-read and realize how much was not said, and how important were the things which were said. Eventually, after going back & forth, back & forth over the whole book or series of books, you will have stitched things together with stuff you've made up into your own story, and you'll realize with amazement what a great teller of tales you are.

Along the way he scavenges shamelessly (gleefully?) amongst the legends and myths of our cultures for images, characters, tropes and themes; never simply retelling a story but taking an image from one, a character from another, a stanza from somewhere else and putting them together into an exquisite fragment of story-stuff in which facets of the originals remain visible but subordinate to a new conception.

As he does, so he wants you to do also, with the pieces he provides.

The Book of the New Sun is, I believe, his most popular work, probably because the pieces he gives you are shinier & more beguiling at first sight than is the case in some of his later books. You don't have to work quite so hard to have fun; but IMO the trade-off is that the you don't receive in return quite the same feeling of, well ... awe that the later Long Sun and Short Sun deliver when you burrow deeply into their stories.

You can perhaps read New Sun as a straight narrative, but I am sure you will be upset constantly by the seemingly random actions of the characters form time to time. If you enjoy it enough to keep going, you'll probably find yourself asking, "Why did he or she do that?"; and, "Why didn't he or she do the expected thing?". Which is what Wolfe wants you to do, and the start of building your own story from the story stuff he provides.

A few months ago I finished the first two installments of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, and I must say that I was beyond impressed. The book is simply exquisite. Wolfe's writing style serves to both mesmerize the reader and create a world that is incredibly unique. His approach to the world is also interesting; he never defines any aspect of the world directly, letting the reader simply divine for himself what certain aspects of the world may be. It is, I do admit, occasionally frustrating to be left in the dark, but overall I like the "foreigner" approach that it gives the book.

The characters themselves are thought provoking, and the whole story is told from the point of view of the main character--a character who claims to have a perfect memory and hence perfect diction of his past. This approach gives the story a haunting aspect, for you know the current situation of the protagonist (as he is the narrator) and therefore you know the end of the story. Furthermore, the occupation of the protagonist leads to a certain atmosphere; as a torturer you not only see the work that he carries out, but also the interpretation that others make on his craft, and the effect this has on their treatment towards him.

Now, I feel obligated to mention the following: The male characters are all incredibly interesting, and the female characters are interesting in their own way, BUT--be warned. There is indeed a misogynistic viewpoint towards women in this book. For example, though I do not want to divulge too much plot, there is a woman who, although beautiful at one point in time, dies when that beauty is lost as opposed to living without it. The misogynist view in this book, however, did not take away from the story, and was really more laughable than insulting. It is, however, why I felt slightly hypocritical criticizing Meyer's treatment of Bella in Twilight, but I think there is a very stark difference between both the quality and message of these stories.

I don't want to divulge the plot, as Wolfe's revelation of it is done in such a way as to contribute to the mesmerizing tone of the story. The book is almost dream-like, but as a dream of such sorts that one is loathe to wake. I thoroughly enjoyed this work, and am eager to read the second installment.

Now, don't me wrong on the number... I loved the book... however, it can be a difficult read. I found myself putting it down then picking it up again a week or two later because my brain hurt. Allusions coupled with near stream-of-consiousness writing (in the first person no less), and with a surrealists touch makes for some cryptic reading. All his made up words didn't help either. But it's an intriguing story and worth the work that is put into it. The only reason it didn't get a higher rating is because of the amount of work you have to put into it. Characters seemingly come and go at a whim, almost like a dream. But through it all, it shines through as powerful prose.

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is fantastic--in all senses of the word. Like Tolkien, Wolfe has spun a gripping epic in a mesmerizing world. Like Borges or Kafka, he combines elements of the absurd with ancient myth to unforgettable effect. Like Orson Scott Card, Wolfe uses his fiction to explore religious issues about the nature and purpose of being (strangely, this book has done more to convert me to Christianity than any other). A philosophy professor once told me the best translation of Plato's work that he ever read had all of the central terms--happiness, virtue, etc.--still in Greek, so that the reader had no pre-conceptions of what the word meant and had to puzzle through the meaning of the words solely through their context. Wolfe manages a similar feat through the use of ancient and outdated language--we think we know what a destrier or a wyvern is, but we're never sure. This book is great literature and like works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or C.S. Lewis is truly a must-read.
Raife

Review of The Shadow of the Torturer (Part 1 of Shadow and Claw) Gene Wolfe and the New Sun series appears on a lot of must-read lists. so I got around to reading the first book. I did read this in conjunction with a Goodreads science-fiction and fantasy book club. The responses to The Shadow of the Torturer fell into two camps, broadly speaking.

I fell into the "enjoyed it camp." The book is not an easy read. Why? Wolfe writes in a postmodern vein, which is a way of saying that if you are seeking clarity in plot, characters, and motivations, you won't find it here. That is not saying Wolfe does not provide a plot and whatnot, but he constantly undermines all of it by wordplay, ambiguity, and confusion. Instead, you constantly question yourself, what you know because--at least for me--the essential question of postmodernism is can you anything truly. So the language subverts what we can know, and Wolfe uses a plethora of antique words: carnifex, amphitryon, gyoll, noyade, and on and on. If you don't like using a dictionary (and an excellent dictionary) this book may not be of interest to you. As a part of that, the appendix promotes a postmodern reading of this book. You begin the novel and, if you're like me, pulling out the dictionary to check meanings on many out-of-date terms. The story adds layers upon layers and never allows you to have a settled perception. Then comes the appendix, which throws another layer on it. The "translator" of Severian's tale found proximate words or, in the case of Latin terms, crafted something for unknown words. In other words, a lot of the words you've been hanging onto to allow for comprehension, Wolfe pretty much blows up. What you thought you knew may not be what you thought you knew. Though it could be still.

Sometimes even the characters seem confused by the terminology or events. All of this is subtly told. Plot: Severian, a journeyman in the guild of torturers, is exiled from the city Nessus for a crime against the guild. By the end of the novel, Severian has encountered a number of characters and some exploits, and arrives at a giant wall and gate without much in between--yet it's a hefty 600 some pages (ebook).

Wolfe is a masterful writer with a stunning grasp of English and the multiplicity of meanings (historical and popular) that words have, a way reminiscent of Vladimir Nabokov (a writer I greatly admire). This is a novel that will stand up to multiple readings because the smallest of details, the smallest of perceptions of not only the reader but the characters open up entirely new avenues of meaning. A highly recommended novel.

Someone once wrote of Ulysees that Joyce cannot be read only reread. I think the same is true of Gene Wolfe, and in particular the Book of the New Sun, which like Joyce's work is an intricate narrative labyrinth. Unlike Joyce, however, Wolfe, has a interesting story to tell and tells it superbly. I have read and reread the Book of the New Sun several times and each time I come away with that dreaming sense of the sublime.

I think this is so because the Book of the New Sun is a great work in the genre of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but it also transcends those vague gray boundaries and rises from the level of simple entertainment to touch the realm of art and myth. The character of Severian is as complex and intriguing as any portrait we will find in Stendahl or Tolstoy and the style is as beautiful and elaborate as a Byzantine mosaic. The story moves swiftly full of action and pathos and yet following the convolutions of the narrator's pen draws us into a world of ideas as exciting in their own way as the story itself.

Stories are, I think, gifts that we give to the larger human world. They are gifts which can shape us delight us and create and renew us as persons. This, at any rate, has been my experience of The Book of the New Sun. I can think of no higher praise.

Someone once wrote of Ulysees that Joyce cannot be read only reread. I think the same is true of Gene Wolfe, and in particular the Book of the New Sun, which like Joyce's work is an intricate narrative labyrinth. Unlike Joyce, however, Wolfe, has a interesting story to tell and tells it superbly. I have read and reread the Book of the New Sun several times and each time I come away with that dreaming sense of the sublime.

I think this is so because the Book of the New Sun is a great work in the genre of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but it also transcends those vague gray boundaries and rises from the level of simple entertainment to touch the realm of art and myth. The character of Severian is as complex and intriguing as any portrait we will find in Stendahl or Tolstoy and the style is as beautiful and elaborate as a Byzantine mosaic. The story moves swiftly full of action and pathos and yet following the convolutions of the narrator's pen draws us into a world of ideas as exciting in their own way as the story itself.

Stories are, I think, gifts that we give to the larger human world. They are gifts which can shape us delight us and create and renew us as persons. This, at any rate, has been my experience of The Book of the New Sun. I can think of no higher praise.

Ugh, what a terrible slog to get through. Long-winded with lots of unnecessary and boring side-stories. The plot barely moves and never feels like it is going anywhere in particular. This goes into the category of "I can't believe I actually made it through the whole book." What a waste of time.

So far beyond nearly all speculative fiction in physical, temporal, philosophical and moral scope that this five-book series is truly sui generis. This is the Paradise Lost of the 20th century, and yes, I am comparing Wolfe with Milton, as an updater and explicator of the relevance of Christian though at its most creative and aware. I believe this work will gain stature until it is grouped with the other great classics of English literature.

On my 5th read, I have slowed down further to savior the puzzles, lyricism and humor within the language. Everything in the book fits together in a great puzzle, layered so subtly, yet with such lyrical freedom and wild invention, that one never wants to stop reading, yet is always satisfied. In a novel that seems dreamily opaque at first. everything important is explained, and nothing is what it seems. The author's afterwords, using the conceit of the hard-working translator of a found text. written in an unknown language from the future, is an almost fiendishly witty device that resonates the theme of the book like an obtuse harmonic of a great majestic bell tone.

I could go on, but others have, and the Book Of Gold is waiting. Reader, be prepared to work, and your efforts will be rewarded beyond imagining... but it is no easy road.

I was really excited to read Shadow & Claw, the idea of the story taking place on a super distant future Earth was fascinating to me. The book opened on a world very similar to my expectations and as the story unwound I really enjoyed myself. There were a few asides that I still don't totally understand the purpose of but I enjoyed it.

As I transitioned from the first story, Shadow, to the second, Claw, I found that the writing style changed in a way that I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Where Shadow seemed to make sense as a contiguous narrative with a larger goal and several small interludes, Claw became vingettes that didn't really seem to me like they belonged together, with an overarching goal that seemed irrelevent. The writing style varies and more is done to try and expose the world while adding to the mystery but it didn't feel like it was held together by much. Had I read Claw as a stand alone, as it was originally published, I would have never come back to this author for any future books.

I'm still uncertain on this book. I think the world is interesting, I like most of the main characters. There's a little too much discontinuity for me in the total story to say I would ever encourage another person to read it. I'm totally undecided as to whether I will try to read the second half of the series.

At first I was tempted not to review this book. I wanted to keep it secret, like a dream no one can understand or appreciate except myself. I brushed aside this temptation, though, because each and every person who enjoys reading will cherish this unbelievable tale. An inconceivable plot filled with striking and unforgettable characters, permeated with incomprehensable twists and bends, and the most lush descriptions you will find anywhere. It will actually make you feel the experiences that Severian, the uncommon hero, undergoes. I reccomend this book for everyone who is up for a little challenge and is not scared to experience fantasy at its finest.

There was a time (into the 1980s, at least) when the fantasy genre didn't just exist to entertain, but sometimes aspired to a higher level of artfulness. The Shadow of the Torturer is such a book. Set in a far distant future, when Earth's sun is fading and human society has lost much of its technological aptitude, Wolfe's novel has a haunting, elegaic quality. It's written in a voice reminiscent of 19th century writers like Poe or Dickens, which adds to the melancholy beauty. Fortunately for the squeamish, though torture is part of the story, it's not described in much detail -- just alluded to.

In terms of plot, The Shadow of the Torturer isn't a terribly complex novel. The protagonist grows up under the protection of a strange, cloistered society (this one being particularly disconcerting in how familiar the lives of its members are, when they're not causing people pain), learns a few things about the outside world, betrays his guardians, and is thrown out to seek his own fortune -- familiar fantasy stuff. But what sets the book apart from standard swords-and-sorcery fare is the richness of its language and the great imagination in its details; the difference is like comparing a fine oil painting to a crude computer graphic rendering. It has subtlety that forces the reader to pay attention. Wolfe messes with time and space, contemplates philosophical ideas, writes long exchanges whose import isn't immediately clear, and relies on the audience to make sense of the strange, slightly dreamlike events that unfold in the story, rather than spelling out how they're connected.

Without a doubt, this is a book that will absorb some readers and alienate others. Wolfe's ornate, college-level English, though not difficult, is not for everyone. Nor will everyone relate to the protagonist's detached, clinical voice (though, to be fair, he seems to be narrating his past as a much older man). Basically, if you're looking for a light, Harry Potter-style book with instantly charismatic characters, you're better off going elsewhere. But, for readers who appreciate sophisticated writing and atmospheric, textured imaginary worlds, this is a great read. Be patient, the tale doesn't really become involving until past the halfway mark. And I suggest you get a copy of the sequel, as well. I think that Wolfe intended them both as one book, but divided them on behest of the publisher. As with The Fellowship of the Ring, don't expect much resolution in this one.

The first two volumes of the Book of the New Sun, presented here in a handy omnibus edition, begin one of the finest stories of all time, and in this reviewers opinion, the best work of fiction ever written. As the setting is build, one plunges into the mystery of the decay of Urth and the importance of Severian, apprentice to the Torturers. Such a fine read is never found elsewhere.

Gene Wolfe's style of writing is refreshing and different, a cut above the norm. Severian is a complex and believable character, and his world is magnificently created to baffle and surprise. This book is unpredictable and epochal, two traits I adore. It contains plenty of action and intrigue, but it is Wolfe's moral and spiritual essays that I enjoy the most. Stick with it, folks! Though the language is dificult and it almost is too much at first, the payoff is well worth it. Thank you, Mr. Wolfe!

I had put off reading Gene Wolfe's Urth books for years, even while retaining a desire to someday work my way through them. One of the reasons I had held off was the mixed opinions that I had heard of it. On the one hand, I'd read numerous people who proclaimed it a masterpiece of the first rank; on the other, I read numerous people who insisted that it was terrible and outrageously overrated. Most readers seem to be either fans or critics of the book. My own reaction, at least after THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER and THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR, the two books that comprise SHADOW AND CLAW, is somewhere between these two. I appreciate the care and craft that went into the composition of the books, but I must admit that the two books failed to reach me on any deep level. I liked how rich and detailed it was, the tangibility of the society Wolfe wanted to envision and describe. Even so, I was not moved by either book or by any of the events in the books. I certainly haven't given up and definitely plan on reading the final two books in THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN sequence. Heck, I even plan on reading the sequel and both THE BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN and THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN. Given Wolfe's place in contemporary SF/Fantasy, these are definitely books that fall into the must-read category. To a degree my attitude towards Wolfe at this point is that of a student: I'm reading him simply because he is important in his field. I am not reading him as a fan. Wolfe is not, at this point, someone I would like to read for fun. I hope that changes.

I suppose my problem at this point is that I don't understand what it is in Wolfe that ignites many readers' passion when reading him. I certainly am not hostile to him (the animus that some readers feels perplexes me; do they think he means them harm or that he is evil because they don't like his books?), but I find him verbose. There are far too paragraphs and pages that, at least in my assessment, do not do any real work. He makes endless distinctions that do not seem to me to be very important. And over the course of the four or five hundred pages that I have read so far, surprisingly little happens. But like I said, I'm not giving up. It is entirely possible that the subsequent novels will move me in a way that the first two have not. But I am a tad leery. Why? Because in looking at lists of the great SF and fantasy novels of our time, THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER is always listed more highly than any of his books. Still, things may change. My belief about reading contains the notion that in the case where a lot of very smart people love a book, if I do not, the fault may lie with me. It is only when I have definite ideas about why a book that many people like is in fact awful (say, with the novels of Ayn Rand, which I think utterly atrocious for very specific reasons) that I will insist books are bad. As I said, so far Wolfe has not moved me and I find his books relatively uneventful and wordy, but I am open to the idea that there are things going on that I'm missing (as opposed to Rand, where I think I grasp everything that is going on and just don't find it very impressive).

I'm now about 200 pages into THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR. I'm still not moved, but including it, I have ten more novels in the various sequences to go. Maybe at some point something will click and Gene Wolfe will become an important writer to me. I want him to be. I like that he lives not too far from me, in Barrington, Illinois. So I think of him as a regional author. I'm open. I just hope that things change for me.

I could not have read this five or six years ago. I took everything too literally then. Everything written had to fit into a particular mold or my mind would reject it out of hand. Reading this would have been a real chore and nobody likes that. Since then I've relaxed alittle, it helps with Gene Wolfe's books. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and hope to figure out the big picture later on. Reading it recently has been a pleasure. The world and characters Mr. Wolfe crafts makes you care for them and their plights.

One of the fun things is trying to figure out how far in the future this is truly taking place-which is funny because at the outset the novel appears to be taking place in the past or a wholey different/fantasy universe. Another is finding similarities to some of our present customs (albeit, magnified by the centuries/millenia).

I'm looking forward to reading the last two books...even if not all of the mysteries are resolved.

Since Wolfe's creativity and writing style has been touted by most of the other reviewers, I'll give my more personal reasons for liking this book so much.
First, it's really fun to read. This may seem obvious since it's so highly praised, but in my experience `good' books are not always fun books. This novel, however, is extremely entertaining, in addition to being well-written and carefully crafted.
Second, Wolfe does something that is so vital to good reading and yet so rarely recognized or valued: he does not inject his own perspective of right versus wrong on the events or characters. The narrator, Severian, is credibly `human'; he makes questionable judgments at times, and a reader may find him immoral or moral, without feeling as though she is being guided toward a judgment by the author.
Third, Sword & Citadel is a puzzle. Because of Severian's remarkably `human' nature , the reader should not blindly trust the things he says. For example: often Severian describes his memory as impeccable and photographic; other times, he conveniently `forgets' a detail about his past. These inconsistencies cause the reader to second-guess the narrator's descriptions. In turn, the reader is given the sense that she has found a manuscript from some other world and is critically deciphering it, critically assessing the narrator as much as his descriptions. Who is this person, Severian? What assumptions is he making? What are his reasons for writing, and would he have reason to lie?
Fourth, the novel is infused with subtle philosophical aphorisms. This makes the reading persistently thought-provoking and relatable to one's own life. Severian makes offhand statements that at times almost inspired me to pull out a highlighter so that I could return to the points later. An example (though I don't recall the context) is when Severian states as self-evident that `one always loves those who he destroys' (not an exact quote). I found that intriguing. What did he mean by this? It made me think more deeply about the occurrences in the novel, but also about the way it does (or doesn't) apply to life more broadly.
These are things I really appreciated, but there are countless other great things about this book! As noted by other reviewers, this novel breaks down a common delineation between science fiction/fantasy and literary fiction. This synthesis of genres makes the work innovative for science fiction fans as well as accessible to non-science fiction readers (I generally fall into the latter category). Definitely, a worthwhile read for anyone...

If you have found yourself in the same position as I, were time and again you run into typical cliché formulated fantasy and science fiction. Then I feel you will find this novel and its predecessors truly captivating. The novel tells the story of a Severian, an apprentice of the guild of torturers, who through his own mercy becomes an outcast in a world as alien to him as it is to the reader. The series guides Severian through a long a struggle filled journey filled with characters and locations that range from humorous to out right bizarre. Summing up the depth and elegance of Wolfe's creation is something that can only be achieved by reading the novel itself. The language, the intricate story that weaves its web in subtle ways, the philosophy, the mysteries that uncover the identity of the world all bring something new to the table of fantasy. I was truly captivated by this novel and recommend it to any advanced reader. I say advanced because I will admit the language is difficult and from what I read from other reviewers this seems to bother a few people. This is not romp along cheesy fantasy and if that is your ticket I'll suggest you should avoid. Anyone who is looking for something that provokes the mind, and has a bit of rich texture go no further then this novel and its follow up Sword and Citadel.

These books are among the most stunning achievements in fantasy
and sci-fi. They transcend the limits of "genre" fiction, because
they are so replete with imagination, complexity, playfulness,
foreshadowing and metaphor.

Readers of more accessible fiction will be disappointed to find
the characters emotionally remote and archetypal. Severian, the
narrator is the only character we get to know well and his
attitude is stoic and emotionally distant. Since the story
is told through is perfect memory (at least he claims his memory
is perfect - eidetic and photographic) there is the possibility
that he is an unreliable narrator.

I first tried reading one of these books when I was about 12,
and despite reading at a college level then, it made not much
sense to me. In my late teen, high school I think, I read the
first 4 (the fifth was yet to be published) and experienced
a revelation.

If you like David Eddings's warm, loveable characters you won't
find them here. Lots of fantasy and sci-fi writers copped
Eddings's shtick (not that he invented it, Anne McCaffrey is
another one) to sell lots of books. It's easier, I reckon, to
sell sequels (apparently the multi-book series is where the
profits lie in fantasy/sci-fi genre fiction) driven by
charismatic characters.... but likeable characters do not, in
my opinion, great literature make.

This is, in my opinion, great literature. These books can be
quite a challenge to navigate and comprehend, but they are
rich beyond measure compared to the plot and character-driven
stuff that dominates the industry.

Is Wolfe the greatest English language writer of the 2nd
half of the 20th century as some have claimed? I think he
may be, but I haven't read all the competition. I can tell
you for sure, the man's command of the written medium is
one of a kind. He's a master unknown to most readers but
treasured by connoiseurs and other writers. Your rooting
in sci-fi is incomplete until you've read the man.

I wish I would have known how... gory, demeaning... I tried to like them, I saw he could be a good writer. But torture, of a woman and then a dog within the first chapter.. or so?? Just not my type, and I like dark novels. Might be for others but no thanks for me. Skimmed the other two books I wasted money on. I was so disappointed, instead of giving them to Goodwill, threw then in the trash. There are times when things are not worth sharing. I am a big fantasy fan. They had no redeeming values in my life. No desire to escape to... Really disappointed after the other reviews I readd. And when I tried to give it no stars, kicked me off net.

There are few books in science fiction written in prose that can stand side by side with what is considered the best in today's mainstream literature. (I'm thinking of prose by writers like William Trevor, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike.)

Gene Wolfe's book is one of them. Dark, haunting and lovely. As for the use of "archaic verbiage" which seems to have distressed some of his shallower critics below, it doesn't say much for their reading ability that they couldn't figure out what Wolfe was saying in context, nor does it say much for their imaginations or appreciation of ancient languages.

The plot is intricate, suspenseful and rich in detail.

If Ursula Le Guin's claim that "Wolfe is our Melville" is true, then The Book of the New Sun tetralogy is the Moby Dick of Speculative Fiction. _Shadow & Claw_ is a collection of the first two books of Wolfe's heroic epic (_The Shadow of the Torturer_ and _The Claw of the Conciliator_).

In _The Shadow of the Torturer_, we are introduced to our hero, Severian. He serves as an able apprentice in a torturer's guild where he falls in love with a beautiful aristocratic prisoner named Thecla. Taking pity on her, Severian commits the unpardonable crime of assisting her in suicide, thus breaking the oath of his guild. Instead of his expected punishment of death, Severian is banished from the guild and sent to the distant city of Thrax to serve as a local executioner.

While reading the first two volumes of The Book of the New Sun, we are presented with many layers of a story. On the surface level, we have a hero's journey. Like a Tolkien-style fantasy, Severian faces several obstacles and fantastical creatures on his journey to Thrax.

On a deeper level, we see Severian as an atypical hero and while reading I wondered if he was even a reliable narrator. His haphazard revelation of facts often gave me pause to try and piece together the story. Severian's character is an enigma: at times he portrays a Christ-like figure with the power to heal; other times he is a wandering torturer with no sense of purpose. While his journey is often wayward, we are eventually brought to a marking point at the end of each book.

I would rank Wolfe's New Sun Tetralogy with any of the great works of American literature (and Melville is no exception!). His writing is challenging, not because of difficult language, but because of the order in which the story is revealed. Many reviewers suggest to read _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ before embarking on The New Sun; however, I find both equally approachable.

If you are a fan of great literature and speculative fiction alike, please read Wolfe's New Sun Tetralogy. The journey is rewarding.

Honestly, read it twice. It will take at least two full readings to even start to understand this novel. I wasn't very thrilled with this book on my first reading, but then again it was my literary cherry-popper. Everything I read before this novel is a waste of paper, everything after is measured by it.

I am somewhat embarassed by alot of reviewers that either compare this work to Michael Moorcock or Robert Heinlein or state that Gene Wolfe is their anti-thesis, as neither liking or hating any author will have a bearing on enjoying this novel. I find it strange that no one compared The Dark Tower 4-7 by Stephen King to this series, seeing as how after book 3, basically the entire writing style and plot was explicitly stolen from New Sun. Wizard and Glass was based off of Shadow of the Torturer, Wolves of the Callah after Claw of the Conciliator, Song of Susannah after Sword of the Lictor and The Dark Tower after Citadel of the Autarch. While Michael Moorcock might have had an influence on this book as well, The Elric books are not stolen in any way by Gene Wolfe, merely used as a point of reference.

Someone compared reading a sentence in this book to eating bricks, which is so. Don't give this book to a faux-intellectual, as he/she will think you are poking fun at the supposed meaning of intelligent discourse. What is true and what is an invention of the narrator? When does the novel take place? Do any of the events of the novel even really happen? You can read the last book of the series first and it is as good a starting point as an ending point to this cyclical work. It really is all subjective, but each time you read it, you read it from a different point of view. I respect this work above all others and so of course I'm going to sound subjective, myself. Another similarly subjective question is "Why is Wagner better than Rammstein?": There isn't any real answer and it would just result in the devaluation of both if asked.

Not to say that Wolfe was not inspired by Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, far from it. I think this work and Dying Earth have two completely different messages though. One explores causality, futurism and archaism, while the other explores possibilities of narration, imperfect characters, disregard of standard plot devices and the revisionism inherent in legend.

For an explicit example, Dungeons and Dragons was originally based off Dying Earth. Though this book was inspired by Dying Earth and I Claudius, no writer could base a derivative work off of New Sun and expect to succeed on the level that Wolfe has.

There are alot of books that definitely ARE science fiction, or fantasy or mythological in nature. This book is something else. You really need to be on your second read-through, or be an english-lit major to understand how this novel cannot be anything less than the standard by which all speculative fiction should be judged. Not to say that there aren't other great books, but there's only room for one on the top of the mountain, and you have to climb your way up the slope to be able to read it, and face the harshest climate that the English language has ever found itself in to appreciate the true value of this work.

Before embarking on my reading of The Book of the New Sun, I had only heard of Gene Wolfe in passing. Neil Gaiman's endorsement on the front cover of the book finally proved enough motivation for me to actually pick it up and see what it was about. In short, TBotNS is now ranked among my favorite reads. Wolfe's vocabulary is incredible; whereas many sci-fi authors would invent new words for new objects, concepts, or ideas, Wolfe uses words to evoke implied meaning from the mind of the reader. The story and it's telling are deeply intricate and warrant more than just one reading. I find my thoughts wandering to TBotNS even though it has been more than a year since I have read it. It is probably the most beautifully crafted piece of literature I have had the pleasure to indulge in.

That said, The Book of the New Sun is no light read. It is serious business, and for the reader to truly enjoy the book, he/she needs to devote a considerable amount of grey matter to the reading. One does not speed through TBotNS; one reads it carefully, mulling over what is said by protagonist Severian as well as what is not said (or, as the case very well may be, outright lied about). This book is for readers who want to be challenged.

TL,DR; Brilliant story, gorgeous use of language and imagery, and deeply thought-provoking, even after the reader is finished.

Gene Wolfe has a great writing style that sings when you read it. One of the Start Trek TNG episodes, I have heard, used his style of writing to create a new language. The episode where Picard meets with a Captian of another ship on a planet and they must together battle a common enemy - asemi visible monster. Where Gene Wolfe 's style comes in is in the language of the other captain. He can only communicate in metaphoric phrases like "Romeo and Juliet" when meaning love or passion; or "His Hands Open" when meaning inviting or vulnerable; or "His Eyes Closed" when meaning death.
In Shadow of the Torturer (I read the books individually) you are introduced into our world in the distant future (50000 years) where people and society is somewhat like medieval times with swords and market places but with the occasional laser gun and flying saucer.
The hero of the book grows up to become an executioner. He becomes involved in high society and politics when he must execute a princess. He of course knows nothing of the world outside his school and when he leaves he goes on a journey of discovery that takes 5 books to complete.
Gene Wolfe has excellent ideas and puts many smaller stories into the big picture. The play by Dr Talos and the story of the myth have many points that the reader will look back on and see clearly how it fits into the big picture only later. I read the entire series twice. Very much fun. His ideas on time travel and future science are fantastic. This is a very good blend of fantasy and science fiction - without becoming science fantasy if that makes any sense.
I would love to see this as a movie or series of movies - would blow Star Wars away. I will read this again one of these years and I am sure I will find even more hidden gems inside the story.

The book has already had incalculable impact on the academic community that is already predisposed to ignore works of speculative fiction. Certainly it has had profound influence on authors as well as it has on those people who have managed to read the book. Received with almost universal accolades from the critical community, it has not sold well. It has recently been reprinted in omnibus edition and perhaps will enjoy a resurrection of its own.

WHO SHOUDLD READ THIS:

You cannot go on with your life claiming some affiliation with the community of science fiction and not have read New Sun. It is that important. Do not expect any tropes from prior novels to exist here... you are completely unprepared from your prior reading experience. For any enthusiast of Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, or other authors deeply concerned with the perception of the human mind-its capabilities, its subtleties, its place as an individual in vast community of minds-you will be enlightened by this book. 

WHO SHOULD AVOID:

New Sun is a challenge. For fully the first fifth of the book, the reader will often look up and wonder if we and other people who adore this book are in fact quite insane. The reader will ask to himself about Severian, "Who is this?" with the same bewildered disgust they reserve for inscrutable Saturday Night Live sketches. Gene Wolfe will stretch your mental faculties to their limit and require careful concentration at the most innocuous moments. If you cannot persevere-if you are not looking for works of literary merit in speculative fiction-then seek your pleasure at the altar of Robert Jordan, Orson Scott Card, and the other bestselling sell-outs of the genre.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

I base this review upon the entire collection of Gene Wolfe's New Sun series, and not just upon this collection. The first two books of the series are considerably more simple than the latter books; this is attributed to the narrator's loss of sanity throughout the book. I consider this a great book, the best of it's type I have ever read, and a mandatory read for anyone who considers them selves a sci-fi/fantasy fan. The book takes place in the future, on a planet known as Urth, which is actually our own. It is so far into the future that our own culture is thought of as only a fairy tale, and is known of only through children's fairy tale books. Because of this, the book is not truly hardcore sci-fi, more of an epic/fantasy. Some literary elements contained in the book might make for a less enjoyable read, so I feel obligated to divulge them before you make your purchase: unresolved conflicts - Quite a few, mainly due to Severian's unrealistic encounters, and other's opinions of him, mainly his apparent lack of sanity, lead to a breakdown of communication between Severian and other parties, but neither feels resolved to dispute the issues, and they are left unresolved. non-Anglo words - Wolfe decides to make up words to represent things we don't have words for, and is not always nice enough to leave context clues as to what they might mean. EXTREMELY DIFFICULT READING - in some isolated chapters throught the latter two books of the series, Severian's experiences overwhelm him, and he breaks down. He does not become illiterate, but instead starts peppering his speech with redundancies and superfluos descriptions of events long past, while leaving out minor details. Although magnificent, these unique texts require much rereading and deciphering before meaning arrives, and there is not much help in deciphring them outside of the book (in say, extensive book reviews). I highly reccomend this book, but warn anyone who wants to peruse the book and remain satisfied.

It was twenty two years ago that I first read this book. Over the last twenty years Wolfe has added the Book of the Long Sun and the Book of the Short Sun, which are two related stories in 7 parts. Only at the very end do you realise that these are linked to this first Book. Having finally finished the Short Sun book, I delved again into the magic of the Book of the New Sun. And what magic it is.
Like some of the other reviewers, I will warn you: this is not an easy read. Wolfe uses complicated words, non-existent words, and difficult sentences to weave this world, the Urth, as it is a few billion years from now, with the sun growing old and red. It is this distance in time, with what has become of mankind, that turns Wolfe into a philosopher.
One of the reviewers claims the book is a non-event. It is. But what a brilliant non-event, that keeps you thinking about that distant age, and the way it reflects on our age.
Not all parts of the book are equally good, but having read this Book of the New Sun now for the fourth time, I still am spell bound, finding new things and a better understanding of the later series.
This is definitly the very best series I have ever read, and it is a shame that Wolfe finally seems to have ended it.

I wouldn't mind someone who gives a poor review to this because some people truly won't understand it, and what they don't understand they surely won't like.

What I can say though is that Wolfe is a treasure, and this work epitomizes the expectations I have when someone uses the word "grandmaster" in terms of Science Fiction.

Wolfe is simply the best, that he has agonized over every word he's written, and has laid his path out carefully is clear from the first page of this novel and the following works.

I read these first when they came out long, long ago as a young adult and was thrilled.

I re-read them every few years, every time I read them again I gained new insight, new appreciation, and greater love for what Wolfe has written. And every time they solidify my opinion that Wolfe is our best, and our most sophisticated, and a treasure. As is Severian, and this series of books.

I cannot possibly recommend these novels more highly. Even if you don't like them in the end, it's something you should try, much like any fine food, wine, or potential wonderful experience under the sun.

My first edition paperback came with an encomium by Ursula K. LeGuin on the cover. LeGuin and Wolfe are among the few sci-fi/fantasy writers I feel compelled to re-read every few years. LeGuin once said (in effect) that she wrote not as a prophet of the future, but to explore the human condition by placing her narratives in an alien setting, and Wolfe's work may be viewed best in this context.

Those who find too many loose ends and ambiguities in Wolfe seem to want a neat fantasy adventure, and that is not what Wolfe offers here. Though in form an (anti?) hero's journey, with deep roots back to Homer's Odyssey, it is narrated in the first person. Thus we hear the story from a protagonist who may not feel we require all the background information on his world, and is in any case not omniscient. (Here readers may question the intent of Wolfe's constant iteration of Severian's claim to total memory recall.) The question of personal identity and the "self" is a major theme, which Wolfe handles in a unique fashion from several different aspects. One may note the importance of masks, disguise, play-acting and storytelling in the narrative, though I won't mention Wolfe's more original metaphors, so as not to spoil this for the reader. In the end Severian become the Autarch of the Commonwealth - obviously a metaphorical referent, as Wolfe for once clearly implies, shortly before glossing "autarch" as "the thing itself - the self-ruler". But does he really? (Not to spoil the plot, but this end is revealed early on...)

One may compare Wolfe with Frank Herbert, to name a more well-known and more popular author, but Wolfe is more elusive and open to more varied interpretation.

Though Wolfe's protagonist is a member of the professional guild of torturers, this is not a gratuitously violent book, though set in a rather dark world (as is our own, viewed from a certain perspective.) The few clinical descriptions of torture by Severian are clearly a necessary foil to the other aspects of his character; he is, after all, twice driven from a comfortable position into exile and wandering by acts of mercy, first by granting a merciful death to a "client", then by refusing to perform an execution.

A plot summary of this complex work would be difficult and perhaps futile. In a sense the overall plot is subordinate to the individual episodes of the story. Many elements can be best seen as metaphors, and the referents of those metaphors may be different for different readers, or indeed for the same reader re-reading the book a second time. We are not dealing with relatively simple alegory (as in Swift, for example), which is perhaps why some readers find such difficulties here. Highest recommendation.

This series is easily the best book ever written. It is fantastic how Gene Wolf can conjure up images, colours, smells and noises. You'll be complete lost in this book as you read it, go days without food or sleep. I've read them 4 or 5 times over the last 14 years, and I will be coming back for more. Full of legends and stories referring back to that long lost past (which is today) delicatly distorted. To describe the books as 'Science Fiction' does not do them justice. Definitly fiction, but very little of the 'science' part. An absolute must! Don't borrow it from the library, because you won't return it...
I'm still, after all these years waiting for an (unlikely) sequel, after all, the story is never told...

This is my favorite book of all time. However, I would not recommend this book to everyone. In fact, I would only recommend this book to a rather small audience. The people who will love this book need to be rather intelligent. There I said it but it really is the truth. Normal to below average readers simply will not be able to handle the complexity found in this novel. However, if you read often then I strongly suggest that you try this series. It is rewarding on so many levels that you won't find in reading regular novels. Half way through this book I was already very anxious to start over from the beginning once I was done. Seriously, how many times have you wanted to do that when reading a book? This is a novel that demands to be reread over and over. Best of all, the next read through is so different than the first read through since you can see so much more that you missed the first time.

If you love this book, Gene Wolfe continues the series in "The Urth of the New Sun, "The Book of the Long Sun", and "The Book of the Short Sun".

I'll just have to start by saying that this is probably one of the best books ever written, no more no less!
Mr. Wolfe beguins here his work as a demiurg, creating a universe in the whole implication of the world (but then again, maybe the right word would be multiverse).This is a book that is like those tacky postcards with a picture that changes acordind to the angle that you look upon it. So when you start reading this book prepare yourself to the literary ride of your lifetime. The book of the new Sun consists of four books + one. Then came The book of the Long Sun wich comprises again four books + one (the last one is comming out soon) and Mr. Wolfe is now beguining the new sequel cycle called The book of the Short Sun and I can only guess that the pattern will be the same of having 4+1 since only the first volume has been released yet. So, breath in, take courage, and just dive in. Its a lot to read, but then again, maybe you will never need any other books :-)...
With The book of the New Sun Mr. Wolf has achieved what most authors don't even try to dream about. He has written a story that bends and gets shaped by the reader. Really! This is a book that maybe can only be compared to the bible and sacred writtings since it can be interpreted in so many diferent ways :-D
So far, I have read this book (the 5 whole volumes) 3 times and I know that i am not finished with it and that it still has a lot to offer. When I got to the end of the 5th volume I went straight back to the first and I read a new layer of the story. And when I finished The book of the Long Sun I went back to New Sun and there it was a new layer! Now I'm looking forward to the Short Sun because I know that it will cast a new light on both the New Sun and the Long Sun series. What else can I say about it? That Mr. Wolfe is a delight to read. That these stories sink in your sould like old dreams from your childhood and haunt you with their peculiar strange beauty.That this is definetly the best book(s) that I ever read and that this is not doubtly a peak in the literary art creations of mankind (and I've read a lot in my life, believe me).
Now, just one question for you: why are you reading this stupid review? Just go ahead and buy the book! Mr. Wolfe writes much much better than me. I am just one of the many readers wich are considering building him a magnificent mausoleum ;-D

Although not the easiest read due to the somewhat often confusing syntax, a truly remarkable book. This is the perfect installment to follow Shadow & Claw, and ties everything together quite nicely. Severian remains a very relatable character and as the novel progresses, one begins to sympathize with his journey. Suggest this to anyone looking for a great read that actually stimulates your mind and broadens your imagination. Hats off to Gene Wolfe for this series.

You can read the various details about this book here on-site, but nothing can prepare you for the overwhelming experience of reading it. The imaginary world Severian inhabits is deeper, richer, and more detailed than anything in literature with the possible exception of Tolkien. But Wolfe is a darker, more ironical writer than Tolkien, and shows influences of Swift, Borges and Melville that you'll never find in Middle-Earth. Just go and read it. There are scenes and passages that will stay in your mind the rest of your life. It's pleasures are extraordinary.

Reading all these reviews is a bit disappointing; not that the praise is undeserved but simply that you cannot summarize these books in 1,000 words. I've been reading them off and on since 1980 and I still find something new every time. Get these books, don't be scared of the big words and the long sentences, and stick with them, no matter what. You will never regret it.
Advice: might as well get *The Urth of the New Sun* (carries events past *The Citadel of the Autarch*, *Endangered Species* (has a few related short stories), *Castle of the Otter* (several essays by Mr. Wolfe on the writing of the Book), *Empires of Foliage and Flower* (if you can find it, stories from the Book of Wonders of Urth and Sky). Might as well get Michael Andrei-Druissi's *Lexicon Urthus* too, will help with Mr. Wolfe's wonderful words.
And when you've sucked all the good out of these, check out *Soldier of the Mist* and *Soldier of Arete*.

This is a really unique book. S&C is a high concept far future sci-fi novel filled with jarring anachronisms, fantastic creatures, and other weirdness. The oddness is compounded by a somewhat myopic and unreliable narrator who finds the mundane and the strange to be equally interesting. This narrator, a traveling executioner named Severin, has a perfect memory. He is also a pompous jerk. One of the chief pleasures in this book is in trying to untwine Severin's recollections from his narrative bias.

If you want to read something thought provoking with a prose style that demands your full attention then you should give this a try. If you're in the mood for an easily accessible adventure then you will probably not like this.

This is a book that demands interpretation, and as you can see from the range of reviews here, some people don't like that. Totally understandable. What I don't get is the defensiveness and resentment that seems to go with that attitude. If you don't like a book, just say "I didn't like this book because x, y, and z." Adding that you think that people who did like it are being pretentious faux intellectuals isn't really productive. In literature and life reasonable people can disagree.

(By the way, I fully understand the irony implicit in complaining about reviewers complaining about reviewers. I'm doing it anyway)

I hate Gene Wolfe. I hate him for his creativity and mastery of words. The Book of the New Sun series, of which "Shadow of the Torturer" and "Claw of the Conciliator" compromise the first two parts, is a work of art. Be warned, this is no light read. It's a story about an epic quest in a brilliantly detailed futuristic medeival setting, but there's nothing traditional about it. The book begins with the main character, an apprentice torturer, committing an intentionally fatal act of mercy which sets the tone for the entire series. There's very little to indicate its flawed characters have any chance of a happy ending. It's a dark and sometimes dense ride but it's worth it.

James Pratt, author of 'When Dead Gods Dream - A Collection of Lovecraftian Short Stories'

Just a word of caution; Gene Wolfe has been called "The Thomas Pynchon" of science fiction and, like Pynchon, he isn't for everyone. I just finished the first two installments of this tetralogy and I don't think I'll finish it. The writing is, no doubt, brilliant and inspired, however, the plot never emerges and characters come and go with little regard for purpose. If you love fine langauge, then this is for you. If you like a compelling story, solid plots, and absorbing narrative, I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

*sigh* It saddens me, truly, to see the recent swath of negative reviews for this book. But then again, the majority of the people reading this book are Fantasy or Science Fiction readers, which are absolutely wonderful genres and their best works can contain a great deal of literary depth. However the majority of their readers don't read their best works.

So why is this book (and it's sequel) so misunderstood? And why do I think it's so fantastic? Well first off, I can't go into great depth here, because this is a review, and full literary analysis would a)require me to spoil the book and b) require me to read the book many more times. So, let me just try and combat the criticisms. First, yes there is no plot... on the surface. The plot is fairly weak (in the traditional sense), even when you get to the core of it, which is hidden under layers of Severian's deceptions. It's not a work of great Pathos, but it is layered and it is complex. The complexities are hard to fully understand in one readthrough, even from a surface "what happened?" standpoint (more on that later). However, a good analogy to make for the plot would be between this and Catcher in the Rye, both told by essentially insane narrators, and both are apparently plotless. So check off the need for a great pathos driven plot for great literature.

OK, moving on to the language. Yes, obscure words are used. This is to help convey a sense of a truly different place and a truly different time. It's just that simple. It's not literary masturbation, it's for atmosphere.

Next: To those who wonder where the subtleties and complexities are, much of it is in the nature of the Narrative. Every single one of Gene Wolfe's books is heavily shaded by the narrator in the story, and this one is absolutely no exception. Severian is insane and Severian can remember everything, but he is a liar. The majority of his lies will not be apparent the first time through, because this is NOT an easy, accessible book. The interplay between what happens as Severian tells it and what actually happens is fascinating and worthy of this books "great book status" by itself.

Where else are there complexities? Well this book is laden with symbolism. Almost everything that happens to Severian has a symbolic place, it seems to me. This is true especialy of dream sequences, but many other events follow suit. This symbolism, like in any book in the modernist tradition (and yes this book is in the tradition of authors like Hemmingway in that there is a factual plot and a symbolic plot that coexist. This, however, much like books from Joyce or Pynchon seperates it further into a told plot, the real, factual plot and the symbolic plot, so if Post-Modernist writings can be considered to fall into that category, this is probably a post-modern work). Also, I know there are many other characteristics of each respective movement, and many of these appear in this novel, such as the fractured world perspective epitomized by T.S. Elliot's Wasteland and the self-awareness of many of the post-modern novels, which is present here in that the narrator lies to the audience.

Finally, all of the characters are very three dimensional. Enough of your whining about how Severian isn't explicitly influenced by his career as a torturer. You said it yourself, he's a violent, violent person. Does the author have to TELL you that for you to make the association? If so, you should not be attempting to understand this book. No offense intended, but work up your literary analysis skills and come back later.

Finally, yes, the most easily appreciable aspect of this book is the unusual setting. And yes it is unusual. Yes China Mieville may have created a more unusual setting. However, he stole half his setting based ideas for the admittedly wonderful Perdido Street Station.

And what does it all mean? Well, like many great works of fiction, that's highly debatable.

So what do we have? A truly complex, truly difficult book with a group of readers who are trying to review it before they've even read the entire thing through once. *sigh*

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is a massively complex work of fiction. However, this depth never seems to bog the reader down, instead it further involves the reader in the saga of Severian. Wolfe takes the basic idea of Jack Vance's classic "The Dying Earth," the concept of an Earth far in the future underneath an aging sun, and creates a totally unique perspective on this scenario.
I'm sure you could analyze every sentence of the "Book of the New Sun" and come up with an exact timeline and explanation for everything in the book. However, to me Severian's journey and experiences along the way were enough and any loose ends just further added to the mystery of my planet millions of year in the future. This is a book that begs to be experienced and leave an impression that you will never forget. Whether you want to dissect every chapter or just go along for the ride "The Book of the New Sun" will captivate fans of speculative and science fiction. Read it with an open mind and don't expect a typical genre book and you will not be disappointed.

I first read the Book of the New Sun as a teenager back in the early 1980s and I must say I understood very little of it except for the basic story. I've now finished reading the series for the 3rd time and my understanding is vastly greater- not due to my greater discernment or maturity, but mainly because I've since read "Solar Labyrinth" by Robert Borski.

The Book of the New Sun is highly literate puzzle which requires much thought to understand (the real key is to recognize that many of the characters are actually relatives of the protagonist). So why only 3 stars? There are great works of literature that are still highly entertaining and readable-unfortunately, the New Sun isn't one of them. Rather, I'd compare it to something like Moby Dick which I admire but also didn't enjoy reading. I'm glad I've read the book several times (and I've been enriched by the experience), but frankly, it's a book with limited appeal...even many highly-literate readers will be put-off by it- I think the main problem is the story isn't grand or epic enough. Also, the puzzles in it require too much thought- reading "Solar Labyrinth" shocked me in a way because I would never have figured out even half of it on my own. Reading should be entertaining first and foremost- it shouldn't require so much thought with so little pay-off (in the sense that ultimately, the story, a religious parable, doesn't justify all of the complexity-complexity for the sake of complexity?)

Hands down Gene Wolfe is the best Sci Fi(Fantasy) author that has ever taken pen to paper. Elements of both Sci Fi and Fantasy are present in this book. This book is a masterpiece, but not for those who enjoy cookie cutter, bubble gum fantasy. The surface plot is simple, but beneath it lies such a vast overwhelming subplot that when you realize it your breath will be taken away. Subthemes of politics, religion, and pschology abound. This is truly a book to be read more than once. Keep a dictionary on hand and don't get frustrated. Then read it again. Gene Wolfe stands among the greats of literature, breaking the boundaries between great literature and sci fi. Wolfe is the equal of Tolkien and stands heads above Herbert and the ilk. Pick this book up and you will not be disappointed.

not a casual read, but not nearly as inaccessible as you may imagine it to be if you read other reviews (here, or elsewhere).

Severian is (like most of Mr. Wolfe's narrators) very human- in the sense that he's sometimes a crappy observer, makes many assumptions about what the reader already knows, tosses out the big clues to what's going on in an off-hand manner, and lies all the time- in short, he's just like most of the people you know.

my suggestion is to go get this one from the library and read it; then decide if you need it on your shelf - but note that Mr. Wolfe's prose works(especially here and in the short/long sun novels) are an acquired addiction.

The Book of the New Sun is considered by many one of the greatest science-fiction/fantasy novels ever written. I have to agree. Severian is an enthralling character that is most appreciated by how human of a character he is. Written as an autobiography by the main character, you delve into the world of Urth as a part of the world as opposed to merely reading a book about it. Viewing the world as Severian sees it can be mystifying, horrible, beautiful, shameful and overwhelming.
Part of the power of this book, mainly because of the amazing literary prowess of Wolfe, is that you read the book with a full understanding of Severian's motives, be they cowardice or heroic. You smell the iron air in the Matachin tower, you feel the awe that he does upon witnessing the many miracles that happen in the book.
The one disclaimer is that it is not easy reading. Wolfe's use of nearly dead words can be confusing and when Severian is confused, you are too. As opposed to re-reading and trying to understand every little thing that happens, just continue reading, the book solves itself as you learn with Severian the intricasies of Urth.

The Book of the New Sun is considered by many one of the greatest science-fiction/fantasy novels ever written. I have to agree. Severian is an enthralling character that is most appreciated by how human of a character he is. Written as an autobiography by the main character, you delve into the world of Urth as a part of the world as opposed to merely reading a book about it. Viewing the world as Severian sees it can be mystifying, horrible, beautiful, shameful and overwhelming.
Part of the power of this book, mainly because of the amazing literary prowess of Wolfe, is that you read the book with a full understanding of Severian's motives, be they cowardice or heroic. You smell the iron air in the Matachin tower, you feel the awe that he does upon witnessing the many miracles that happen in the book.
The one disclaimer is that it is not easy reading. Wolfe's use of nearly dead words can be confusing and when Severian is confused, you are too. As opposed to re-reading and trying to understand every little thing that happens, just continue reading, the book solves itself as you learn with Severian the intricasies of Urth.

I am a big fan of Gene Wolfe's other work and this is a masterpiece. Set in a decaying Earth with a faded Sun in the distant future, it documents the wanderings of a disgraced torturer who was banished for showing mercy to one of his subjects.

Reminiscent of David Lindsay's 'A Voyage to Arcturus', we are taken through a surreal landscape where the torturer has a series of unsettling encounters. Wolfe has a talent for writing scenes and characters which are close enough to the norm to make us comfortable with them, and then surprise us with a surreal twist, forcing us to question our initial evaluation.

Read slowly and enjoy.

What Gene Wolfe has done in these books is to create something completely new, which is a rare thing in the realm of fantasy. Sure, there are great books in the field that have stood the test of time (Lord of the Rings, for instance) but these are inevitably surrounded by massive numbers of pale imitations. These books are so unusual I have nothing to which I can compare them. I read the first book, The Shadow of the Torturer, years ago, and yet I find myself going back again and again to reread this scene or that. When you are reading it, it doesn't even seem that it is affecting you, but there are scenes which will haunt you later. The language is rich--keep a dictionary by your side!--and varied and the world is utterly alien. The characters are memorable and the plot keeps on surprising you. If you enjoy a challenging read, I cannot recommend this highly enough and I cannot wait to read the final two books.

I pride myself on the number of books I have read in my life, so it is with little reservation that I recommend Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun Series. He writes as only the best writers do - offering just the right amount of mystery between the lines. With any writing, too little explanation soon leaves a reader exasperated and frustrated, while too much explanation can bore a reader until he loses interest. Gene Wolfe rides that fine line between the two extremes with perfection. You cannot put his story down. What he does not spell out between lines means even more than what appears on the page. He takes command of your imagination and leaves you reeling with pleasure.

I remember grabbing this book of the "best of SF" shelf in my library when I was twelve. Hell, the cover and title were pretty cool looking. I wasn't ready then. I got through the first novel out of respect to Mr.Wolfe, and vowed one day to return to this book and master it. Well a few years later that is exactly what I did. I'm twenty-one now I own every one of Wolfe's works, and I've read them all countless times. His writing is staggering. He gives us so much in his writing but leaves you too soon. Reading his books forms a partnership between writer and reader that I've never experienced before. I realize I haven't actually reviewd his book so let me do so: This is a major work! You WILL love it. And the strange feeling it leaves you with will never leave. The plot is intricate, the characters marvelous, and the ideas it puts forward will have you thinking long after you are done. BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!

A very interesting read, unique in its style, but I can't help but feel that the kaleidoscope of ideas and concepts are almost overwhelming, too ephemeral in its presentation. I agree with other reviewers that there are lots of suggestive depth open to the imagination, but not quite up to the level of the greats as many on here seem to laud Wolf as. Why is that? For one simple, but important fact when picking up a book. Is it captivating? Is it a page turner that will keep you up all night? As you yawn through work or class the next day, will you feel it was well worth it? Unfortunately, I believe most would answer NO.

I'm rating this book as a solid 3 stars, worth reading. I applaud the style of Wolf, and love the imagination and depth that went into it. Yes, this is a world that will make you think about it after you set the book down, but I ask a question ... if the writing style is not totally captivating in the first place, would you still want to take the time and effort to think about it afterwards? Probably not. And that I believe, is the biggest difference between a great writer, with one who is merely excellent.

When I first read this series as a teenager, I did not understand the weighty implications, symbolism and depth behind the literature. I read them as a wonderful "Action/Fantasy" with "Cool" characters and began building my own vocabulary around the words I discovered in the text. The second time I read them, in my maturing years, I realized the impact the storyline would have on me. The tale is the classic chronicle of man alone against the forces of his life, acheiving his understanding through experience and consequence, learning through the characters he meets. Not only is that the underlying premise with which the concept of "Story" lies, but Wolfe weaves in the archetypal premise of a "Messiah" as well, in Severian as the Christ figure. I only wish that more people were readers of Gene Wolfe, so all could revel in the brilliance of these works. Make no mistake, I also wish we could review The Urth of the New Sun, the perfect companion piece to The Book of the New Sun, I've read that four times, awed at the effects the five books have had on my personal growth. I've never met a literate person who has read Wolfe that did not enjoy his works. Everyone needs to spread the word.

Serious, subtle, atmospherically lush, psychologically austere, ingenious: this is my favorite novel in this genre. Four volumes (originally), it is long but not too long, such is the glamour of the distant-future world of seeming magic that Wolfe creates. Our protagonist, a tradesman, to wit, a torturer, encounters dozens of bizarre characters and circumstances. But there a couple of things whose full import is not know until the end that provide a subtle, unifying explanation: the `Claw', and a substance that allows our simple torturer, against any desire of his, to become Autarch, ruler of the planet.

How come Wolfe isn't more popular? I love Gene Wolfe's masterpieces and plan on reading everything he's ever written, or at least all the great ones. Are his writing styles and vocabulary just too deep for the masses? There are so many made up animals mentioned in the books that leave it all up to the imagination, what's an arsinoither? I love some of the amazing beings in the books that make it so bizarre, like the cacogens(aliens who pose as humans), cyborgs(who also try to be human), and zointhropes(animals that gave up their humanity). The story is often confusing and the scenery constantly changing, Severian does most of his traveling on foot and covers whole continents. What happens if you don't succeed? You get your manhood taken away. Talk about motivation to succeed.

The literary value of this work is immense. It can hardly be explained in the farmiliar terms of plot and world and character development, because it is so much _more_ than just these concepts. It is full of rare gems, little bits and pieces of paragraph or phrase that reach out to you with a beauty only rarely seen in the works of other authors. It's an uncommon mix of the two halves of the sci-fi/fantasy genre.
If you are a serious reader but have yet to find anything sci-fi/fantasy that seems worthwile, consider giving Shadow & Claw a chance. If you are an avid fan of the genre, by all means pick this up - Wolfe is a shining example that the more popular, well-known authors aren't always the best (I didn't hear about Wolfe until after college). Younger (pre-college) readers will probably struggle with this series.

Let me first say that I loved this book... ...but it is not for the faint of heart... Wolfe doesn't give anything to the reader...you are compelled to try to sort out what the heck is going on from the fragments that enter your brain through the eyes of a protaganist who is far better aquainted with the world you travel through then you will ever be...it's a wild and at times taxing ride... ...somehow the author has recreated the sense we all get when we come in at the middle of something and have to sort it all out ourselves...a bit like life... His characters are real people...balanced...vulnerable... "The Torturer" is comprehendable...and likable...a feat in itself... It almost goes without saying that the beauty of his writing style alone is worth the ticket of admission... Looking to hang out in the sun ...cool breeze blowing through your hair...skip this book... Want to be engaged...and A-Mazed...look no further

This series has some pretty incredable imagery, including the concept of the color fuligin, the color that is darker than black. The main character, Severin, is no refugee from a John Norman book. Torturers are raised from orphaned boys and are taught their skill as a doctor does medicine. At times the book is remenescent of the old Kung Fu series; the protaginist wanders the earth with mantled powers after being raised in isolation.
Few reviewers will say this is a quick read. Some minor plot points in the first book will reappear in the second book, and so on. Some of the words are almagams of Latin: Zooanthropes are "animal people" and there is clever word play with some of the characters' names.
There is a great payoff for those who stick to the series, and the secondary players have depth beyond what is normally found among protagonists in most books.

I've written only one review and of course that would be the one your eyes are looking at now. It's my subtle way of emphasising how wonderfuly scary and amazing this book is.
The Book of the New Sun is a novel, or rather, an autobiography that roots itself deep into detail and awe. The journey of Severian is something that only us truly imaginitive thinkers have ever day dreamed of. The setting is so distant it seems to fall off the edge of my wildest thoughts. The world of amazing detail and harsh reality. A character of incredible depth and humanity.
I cannot begin to comprehend what this book COMPETELY entails as there is so much to take in and more than I and many others shall ever grasp. If you think you know it all your only fooling yourselves. Gene Wolfe has created something that spreads beyond the letters, words and pages... as if Wolfe himself were Severian. (and in a sense he is).
This work of art is not an easy read. Many elements are difficult to follow and you will find yourself going over the same passages many times to grasp the concepts as best as possible. This book also has a deep undertone to religion; Christ is actualy one of the many themes. However, becuase this book works on seemingly infinit layers, it may not be obvious at first glance. The terminology will also require a bit of getting used to.
If you are any type of fan of fantasy or SF, I think you owe it to youreslf to open the covers of this book and dive into Severians world. If you have ever day dreamed as I do then this is truly a "dream come true". I am a great fan of The Lord of the Rings; likely do to its powerful, epic themes and simplicity. But I have placed The Book of the New Sun above Tolkiens masterpiece as it is just far more complex and deeper, and it is the top book on my list. I assume it will remain there a while too.

Reading Wolfe, any Wolfe, is an exercise in patience, dictionary use, and focus. Chiefly focus. You absolutely cannot skim his works. That said, The Book of the New Sun (in its totality) is seminal speculative fiction in the vein of Tolkein and Herbert. The story is mountainous and the ascent difficult; but when you reach the summit, the view is rewarding and spectacular. This type of writing simply enriches your life. A MUST read for any student of speculative fiction.

Buy this book now. Yes, it can be difficult and yes, you need your dictionary handy, but this has got to be the most fascinating piece of work I've ever read. Horrific and dazzling (and how often do those two things go together, huh?) Beautifully articulate and ultimately devastating. I understand the people who gave up on it (the language can be daunting, it took me a couple tries to get through some of it) but after finishing the whole thing, you find your perspective has been irrevocably altered, and I, for one, have gotten more and more out of it ever since. It's hard to start something knowing that it may take hold of your life, but trust the reviews you've seen below, and realize that this series is worth it.

I have read for years about how great The Book Of The New Sun is and it was worth the wait. While it is a story told by the title character with all that can mean in terms of truth this is not Tales Of A Dying Earth. (((Cugel in Tales does not have the level or quality of reveals, foreshadowing as well the payoff that Shadow & Claw has.)))
Our anti hero springs from a despicable but honorable profession and apparently rises to the top. In his world the humans made it off earth and some have returned apparently and that alone adds better story telling potential that Tales.
I will be off to the book store this afternoon to get the second half of this damned fine series.

The Book Of the New Sun isabsolutely my favorite book/story/series. Wolfe involves the reader so deeply in the life of Severian, it is hard to imagine that the story is only fiction, and speculative fiction at that. The incredible world Wolfe creates is so well-conceived that it will transport you there, never to return. But don't believe me (even though I have a BA in literature from an Ivy League University). Check out some of the testimonials from the book's cover (which is one thing we miss when shopping online.)
"A triumph of the imagination...one of the modern masterpieces of imaginitive literature" - The New York Times Book Review.
"Arguably the finest piece of literature American science fiction has yet produced." - Chicago Sun-Times
"The finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced." - The Washington Post.

Great book--I found echoes of Chaucer, Bocaccio, and many others in its pages. I wanted more answers, the whole history of Urth, but if it had all been laid out I think it would have taken away from the books' mystery. There were definitely a lot of flaws (mostly characters who seemed to come from nowhere for no reason), but that acutally made it seem more like a lot of medieval literature. A ton of fun to read.

This is by no means a conventional story; I might go so far as to say it is like nothing I've read before. Besides what has been noted already, I would like to emphasize that this is not a book to sit down to on a lazy Saturday, nor is it one to entertain on the primal levels of suspense or even emotion in a literal sense (you may not care much about the character through the whole of the series). Rather, the title's character, Severian, serves as a vessel of relizing a new world, in all its facets and dimensions. The Shadow and Claw is likely the most involved of the series, focusing more on the individual, but similar to our own lives, as Severian ages and gains in wisdom, so does his world expand. What I especially enjoyed was the way in which events from Shadow and Claw led to or are alluded to in the future volumes; the setting is so bogglingly woven that one could hardly appreciate fully the depth of Wolfe's writing by reading the series only once.

This book is one of the most beautiful writings ever produced in the English language. It is not what I would call an accessible "storytelling" book; Stephen King is the master at writing such novels. This book is beautifully written and complex at every level, from each sentence to the whole story and every image and thought it creates in one's mind. It is also an unforgiving book -- nothing is really explained. But, the book rewards careful reading and re-reading. I enjoy it anew every time I read it. My son has read it several times since he was a teenager and has become enthralled. Without compromising, Wolfe is letting his central character tell a story that takes place in a culture and a physical environment far removed from our own. The reader must struggle to comprehend this alien landscape with only the unfamiliar and idiomatic, but still human, narrative of a single person from this other time in the far future.

I believe it isn't fitting to describe this book using superlatives, because it just seems to be beyond that. After you have read this, images of Urth will become a part of you forever. If you have read Zelazny's "Lord of Light", this is like twenty of them all brought together. Thank god that Jack Vance's powerful "Dying Earth" concept has found a perfect author to elaborate on it.

Like thousands of teenagers, I came of age with *The Lord of the Rings*. The rather ugly Bakshi movie was the first one I went to see without my parents, and the novel was virtually the first one I ever read that was not a children's book, except for Jules Verne's *Mysterious Island*. Just like many Tolkien fans, I became a lifelong devotee of the fantasy genre, and explored the more promising of the other Middle-Earths, from Lankhmar to the Dark Shore, Lyonesse, Majipoor, Amber, Earthsea and the world of the Hyborean Age.
But of all the fantasy series I ever read, the only that ever compared to Tolkien's masterpiece in my opinion was Gene Wolfe's *New Urth* tetralogy. The others were fun, imaginative, full of action and adventure, but they either failed to maintain throughout the literary and spiritual power I had found in *The Lord of the Rings* or to equal the richness of its world-building.
Interestingly enough, however different Tolkien's and Wolfe's epics might be, they share two profound similarities. First, both were written by Catholics and infused with their author's faith. With Tolkien, all the trappings of religion are evacuated from the world itself while the story is saturated with religious symbolism. With Wolfe, on the contrary, Christianity is still very present but transformed, as if through layers and layers of rewriting, into a distant shadow of itself. There is only one God, Pancreator or Panjudicator ; an almost legendary «Conciliator» walked the earth eons ago and is still venerated by the order of the Pelerines ; and priests, rituals, sacred items and guilds abound, as in the Golden Age of Christianity.
The other similarity between the two sagas is the spiritual nature of their ultimate magical item. In *The Lord of the Rings*, the object is the ring itself, each successive use of which is a step on the path to damnation - conferring power on Earth in exchange for another fraction of the user's soul, as witnessed in the various states of spiritual decrepitude of those who have succumbed to the temptation. In *The Book of the New Sun*, the most powerful item is the Claw of the Conciliator - «the most valuable relic in existence», a gem that «performs miraculous cures... forgives injuries, raises the dead, draws new races of beings from the soil, purifies lust and so on. All the things [the Conciliator] is supposed to have done himself.»
In other words, Tolkien's ring is the Devil ; Wolfe's Claw is God : an interesting symmetry.
The texture of the two worlds, however, is very different. Middle Earth seems to be set in a distant past, barely threatened by the first premises of industrialization. Urth on the other hand is our own world millenia hence, a decaying planet waiting for a promised rebirth, frozen in some static medieval social order, incapable of producing any complex artefact except by magic, and borrowing fragments of more advanced technologies from its own past or from the mysterious hierodules, elusive offworlders who only have transactions with selected individuals on Urth and seem to be guiding the world's destiny in some occult fashion.
Tolkien was obviously not Wolfe's major influence. The world Severian, his first-person narrator, so entrancingly describes seems to be a mixture of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Peake's Gormenghast, a labyrinthine urban world rather than an enchanted primeval setting, filled with Lovecraftian horrors and filtered through the literary sensibilities of an admirer of Jorge Luis Borges.
So if you know that you will not recapture the wonder of *The Lord of the Rings* by reading any of its countless rehashes, and are seeking for an original voice of comparable eloquence, the *New Sun* cycle is for you : open the gate to the necropolis, unsheathe *Terminus Est* and come drink the analeptic alzabo.
*Shadow and Claw* brings together in one volume the first two novels in the series, *The Shadow of the Torturer* and *The Claw of the Conciliator*. It is followed by *Sword and Citadel*, the conclusion of the original series, initially published in two volumes, and *Urth of the New Sun*, which I have not read yet. Wolfe further expanded the saga with the books of the Long Sun and Short Sun, comprising seven volumes so far. And readers who have fallen in love with his universe will also be interested in *The Castle of the Otter* (1983), a collection of essays he wrote on the *New Sun* cycle ; *Lexicon Urthus*, a New Sun encyclopedia ; and GURPS New Sun, the role playing game based on the series.

Book one of this series contains a scene in which the main character is forced to follow someone in the dark. He doesn't know where the other person is going, so he must grope behind and trust his guide to lead.

In a nutshell, that's how I felt reading this book. I had no idea where Wolfe was going most of the time. I just kept hoping he would explain it all to me at some point. But Wolfe never did show me anything.

Honestly, I had to force myself to pick up the book. The story just meanders from scene to scene, loosely tied together by the main character's Herman Hesse-like musing about himself and his purpose. Unlike Hesse, though, Wolfe fails to move the story while developing his character(s)--at least not fast enough for me.

To be fair, I can see why people enjoy the series. The tone is mysterious and introspective. But that's not what I was looking for. If I was, I'd rather read "Narcissus and Goldmund." It may not be sci-fi or fantasy, but I'm not convinced "Shadow and Claw" is, either.

Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, taken as a whole, if without question the best sci-fi-fantasy story ever put to paper. It makes Tolkien's work seem like a childish fairytale. Indeed it shouldn't even be pigeonholed as "science fiction." Wolfe's epic is one of he great achievements of American literature.

This series of five books (inc Urth of the New Sun) is singly the most imaginative and moving piece of sci fi I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is not, an easy road, as Severian the central character states at the end of book 1, but is well worth pursuing again and again. Such is the nature of the writing, different levels of meaning and suggestion are discovered on every reading, and a detailed examination of the sequence reveals a story which is so rich in texture as to suggest a visual tapestry of imagery. Wolfes books range from the impenetrable to the merely obscure, but BOTNS must be read by any sci fi enthusiast - not just the first book(s) but the whole series, as although each book is a self contained wonder, it is only after completing the final part that the whole sequence lights up like a neon sign and glows with the light of the Claw. An indisputable 20th century classic. Fabulous.

I have little but praise for Gene Wolfe's bittersweet epic of a man who is one of science fiction's most fascinating and contradictory characters. By upbringing he is a man made to cause pain, by nature he is a man who tries to save people from it. But I warn readers, Gene Wolfe has created an Earth (Urth) so far in the future it is wholly alien - and he doesn't explain the details that make it alien! This adds to the mystery, but it can be very confusing. However, I gave these books five stars, because he is so subtly deliberate. His sensitivity to language (especially using unusual, evocative descriptions) and his learning (creating allusions tantalizingly familiar) put other authors to shame, except Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. "The Book of the New Sun" reminds me strongly of Jack Vance's "Tales of the Dying Earth", except that Wolfe writes with more economy, less penchant for the wittily absurd and with a keen sense of all the beauty and folly that is humanity.

Gene Wolfe receives a plethora of praise from literary critics and fans around the world, and yet the level of notoriety he deserves continually eludes him. These four parts of the book of the new sun are not as difficult as everyone might have you believe, if you've read anything classical and liked it then you will find Gene Wolfe's writing style to be better than classical but no more harder than even the likes of The Count Of Monte Cristo. Those who have never read a classical book will find his diction to be rather normal, with only certain select points where the words are too difficult for contextual reasoning. Much like any book, it is rare for a reader to understand every single word that is written, but trying to understand Gene Wolfe is reading at its best: action packed, complex, excellent character evolution, better plot. If you haven't read Gene Wolfe yet then now is the time to start!

I thought this book was very good.
Very good, however, is a far cry from the "classic of the genre" it is generally regarded as.
The characterisation is generally flat, the pacing is all over the place, and the infodumps/backgrounding sometimes laborious.
Having said that the world building is incredible, and the setting is both original and disbelief-suspending.
If this was an obscure work I'd un-Urthed, I'd be shouting from the rooftops for my friends to all read it.
As an acknowledged classic of the genre, I was slightly disappointed.

This is a classic science fiction book. And it is just an amazing, epic book. Be aware though, unlike a lot of science fiction books there are a lot of terms and events left unexplained.

I read the kindle version, and it had a series of nice anthropology-like descriptions of some of the terms in the book (for instance explaining the caste system and military structure). In some ways these take away the main text as they clarify minor unrelated points in the book.

Gene Wolfe's writing is nourishing. His world has a mythic feel, like reading the real accounts of godlings, before oral tradition has embellished it into fable. He establishes a world within the first pages and religeously adheres to it, unabashed in its assumed authenticity. This book is a delight to read both for its story and its style.
Shadow & Claw is a terrificly involving book to read. It is the perfect beginning for this series, easily guiding the reader into the world of the New Sun. The language used by Wolfe is very involving, this is not the kind of book that can be skimmed, and truly appreciated. This is the kind of series that will either enflame a passion for gifted science fiction, or ignite one.

I've read some of the reader reviews of "Shadow and Claw" and come to the conclusion that the book needs an introduction. Many of the negative reviews, I think, come from readers who weren't familiar with Gene Wolfe's writing style, which is understandable. So let me say for Wolfe that you cannot by any means read "The Book of the New Sun" the way you would ordinarily read a book. This mostly stems from the fact that the book is supposed to be an autobiography, and the writer, Severian, really can't be trusted to describe things accurately. A pretty good example would be the first woman Severian becomes interested in, Agia. He tells us that she was the most unattractive woman he has ever been attracted to. Fine, but the way that he becomes somewhat obsessed with her at a glance would suggest otherwise, and the way she treats him would account for his recalling her as being ugly. This is a minor example, to be sure, because it is a matter of Severian's perspective. There were other times in the book that I got the impression that Severian was telling flat-out lies. It's confusing, but it makes the book extremely interesting to read, simply because you are able to figure out much of what actually happened. Another thing to keep in mind, as somebody said in a quote on Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," (I forget who, and don't really care to find out, mostly because I'm lazy) is that Wolfe is "a master of the casual revelation." Which is to say that Severian will out of nowhere mention some vital piece of information, apparently assuming that we already knew about it. And we probably would know were we from his world, as he assumes we are. The only other thing to be aware of is the vocabulary, which thankfully is not nearly as difficult as people have described it. By and large, you won't have to look up the words being used simply because while you may not what an individual word means, you can infer it's meaning from the sentence it is used in. I started out looking up words constantly, and found that they mostly meant what I had already assumed they did. This is not to say that you shouldn't have a dictionary on hand, but looking up every word used that you don't know would be excessive. If all this sounds intimidating, I highly recommend that you read "Cerberus" which will give you a better handle on Wolfe's style. It's great book, and a good place to start if you are unfamiliar with Gene Wolfe. (If you do take my advice, it would be good to note that Severian's writing style is most similar to the first novella in "Cerberus.") The main thing I want to be clear on is that you shouldn't start reading this book expecting another "Lord of the Rings." While it can be argued that the "New Sun" series is of a similar calibur in terms of greatness, these are entirely different books. "LOTR" is an entertaining story, and you don't have to read into it at all. Everything you need to know is right there on the pages. The "New Sun" series is a bit more literary (Which sounds like a cultural elitist term, but I can't think of another one. Rest assured, I don't mean to belittle "LOTR" in any way, shape or form). If you're reading purely for an entertaining story, you would probably do well to look elsewhere.

this book is a work of art and either it grabs you or it doesn't. one reviewer wrote that it's like a cross between GORMENGHAST and DYING EARTH (without the humor) and that's about right. but it's a totally original work, like no other book i can think of. the only comparisons for originality of world creation are TOLKIEN and E.R. EDDISON. when you read it, you will either be transported to URTH or you won't be. if your a sci-fi or fanstasy fan you owe it to yourself to check this book out. i love it. i think it's a masterpiece.

A fantasy so fantastic it surpasses the word fantasy and reads more like truth. It is such an intricate and interwoven story that it astounds you. It's flecked with literary references that leaves you wondering how many more you'll catch when you read it again. Have a dictionary close by--even the language plays a part in the story. You won't want to put it down, it's that much fun.

Thick with allegory and multiple meanings, my three read throughs of the book have left me with three different opinions over the years, gradually improving over time. There is definitely a case to be made for it being overly dense, but at the end of the day, I found it worth my time and thought.

There has been much written about the 'complexity' and 'vocabulary' associated with this series. But the bottom line is, we read books for their stories. We want to be whisked away to a far away place of wodner and excitement. Gene Wolfe takes you there on an incredible tour that you will never forget.
Are there incredible plot twists? YES! Does it ruin the story? NO! People who want something boring and unpredictable should go elsewhere. There are very few books that get better with each reading; this is one of them.

This is the greatest SF book I have ever read in terms of scope, grandeur, and imagination (with Dan Simmons's "Hyperion" coming second). It is also written in a dark, dense, haunting style. A superb, unforgettable read!

I'm an avid reader, and this was tripe of the highest order. Every sentence was loaded with random, made up words. Expecting your reader to tag along on a ride of this magnitude demonstrates hubris of biblical proportion. Told from a first person view, it has potential. Wolfe forces his readers to re-read every paragraph, just to decipher what's going on. I must admit, I really don't have the patience to decode what he's trying to do with this story. I did make it through to the end, but it reminded me of Ayn Rand in it's epic failure to achieve any coherent story.

This is in no way an easy, lightweight read. It draws the reader in slowly, but the further you go into Wolfe's world, more layers you'll find. This is a puzzle of a novel that really makes the reader work to understand what's going on, particularly as it's told from the point of view of the main character, and we the readers often have to transpose into our own present world what he perceives and describes in order to unlock the story. Not a read for the commute then, but for the quiet of home. But once you start to unlock its riches, Shadow & Claw will prove to be one of the most satisfying SF novels you'll ever read. Repeated readings might reveal even more. While tou're at it, go ahead and get Volume 2, Sword & Citadel, as this is not intended as a standalone book, and you really have to find out how it ends.

I read this book several years ago and am in the process of replacing the copy I loaned out and that has now made untold transfers to new readers. It is one of my favorite SF books, both due to its style and its' intriging story. The story is told from the first person perspective of a young man, without any preface or setting-up of the situation. It is somewhat confusing at the beginning, because you, as the reader, do not understand quite a bit of what is happening. Eventually, though, information is given - a piece here, or a chunck there - that allows you to assemble the picture. I read on with anticipation of the next 'Eureka' moment, or the next puzzle piece.

The downside does not show up in my rating, and that is that the second half of the series does not quite live up to the first half (each half is really two books in one volume); however, even with that being the case, I am looking forward to re-reading this one again.

like any other gene wolfe novel, novella, or short story, this is not an easy read. the prose is dense, the plotting labyrinthian, the narrator unreliable (and the protagonist, indeed, almost unlikeable), and the subtext profound in scope and implication. if you are able to meet the challenges with which wolfe baits you, though, you'll be rewarded at the end with more than just another scifi series completed and reshelved: you'll have absorbed a voice that will stay with you, experienced a world so deftly imagined that its images will haunt you, and been provoked to think about things in a slightly different, wider, more far-ranging manner. and you'll be entertained along the way.

wolfe's brilliance defies categorization. he's not just a giant of speculative fiction; he's a giant of literature.

The more I read, the less clarity I get. Obviously the narrator has no idea what's going on either but he seems less worried about it than I am. Yet it's completely fascinating. I haven't read a book like this for ages-- the narrator's perspective really affects the story here and I have to say it reminds me of Benji's section of the sound and the fury in some ways. Only not so extreme of course!

I feel like I need a full night's sleep to be able to read it with any kind of understanding.

After that excellent review by Sean Hanley, I first thought that there is nothing else for me to contribute in terms of describing why or why you shouldn't get this book. After a few years, I see that some people are still daunted, confused, and thrown off by Wolfe's elusive yet eloquent, difficult yet multi-faceted language. So I'll just add a few of my thoughts on the entire quartet and indeed Gene Wolfe's works.

Gene Wolfe is an artist, in the pure sense of the word, and what he does with literature is nothing short of amazing, avoiding all the cliches while adding twists to conventional storylines. Yes like Joyce and Faulkner, he can be obtuse and frustratingly complex in his words, but those words stand on their own. The basic plot may seem simple, and skimming over a work by Wolfe, you may think it doesn't suit your tastes. Depending on your taste between quality and banality, in your familiarity with 'difficult' authors, and especially on what kind of reading skills you bring (how good are you in understanding the subtext, of understanding foreshadowing, of asking questions, etc.), the quartet "Book of the New Sun" (actually quintet) will be among your most precious literature or you will hate it. Like the other reviews, this is not for you if are not into hard sci-fi and into experiencing literature as art as well as entertainment. Like Citizen Kane, like the works of Picasso, like the music of late Beethoven, you will be rewarded in reaching the pinnacles of human culture if you put the time and effort into them.

The Book of the New Sun was my introduction to Gene Wolfe, and the experience was fascinating, challenging me yet beckoning with its strange yet familiar world, an entrance to human psyche, relationships, and above all faith. I too was first put off by Wolfe's language, but the command he has as a writer, a prose that slithers and sparks imagination and creation, it is intoxicating. It is definitely unique and masterful. I recommend before trying this quartet to read his short stories and see how you like them: The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction

A manuscript from far in the future has been acquired and translated, and this translation is the content of the four books of The New Sun. It is the memoir of Severian, a young member of the Guild of Torturers, describing his travels in his country. The world of this time has turned away from technology and regressed to a condition best described as medieval. The sun is waning in strength, and ice is beginning to cover the earth. People look forward hopefully to the arrival of "The New Sun" to warm the earth and bring on a renaissance. Severian, in his travels, is tested again and again, often in life threatening situations. The frequency of these, the wonderful imagination of the author, and the author's writing ability combine to hold the reader's interest. The world is seen only through the eyes of Severian, and the reader gains underwstanding of it slowly as a result. At the end of book 4, for the reader who lasts through the entire work, Svereian, disfigured and lame, gains great knowledge, and the reader is treated to more information about the world of this time and what its future may be. The world of the future the author puts together through the eyes of Severian is complex; marvelous while at the same time being severly cruel. Severian, at the end of book 4, becomes the leader of the autocratic government, the Autarch, amid hope for better times.

Not for the feint of heart, Gene Wolfe's Shadow and Claw,is the first of the two books of the New Sun. His rich discription, unusual characters and plot full of mystery make the tale of a torturer all the more intriguing. His writing is satisfyingly dark and does not avoid the harsh truths of his character's failures. No one writes like Gene Wolfe.

I've been reading speculative fiction since the early 50's, and lots of it. This series, The Book of the New Sun, ranks as my all time science fiction favorite. And yes, it looks a lot like fantasy but you'll realize it qualifies as sf once you keep in mind Arthur C. Clarke's famous dictum about advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic.

I have read this series over and over and everytime I read it I rediscover something or uncover a gem I missed. This is a series that you can read over and over and enjoy it on a new level every time. A must read.

I have read this series over and over and everytime I read it I rediscover something or uncover a gem I missed. This is a series that you can read over and over and enjoy it on a new level every time. A must read.

Reading Wolfe, any Wolfe, is an exercise in patience, dictionary use, and focus. Chiefly focus. You absolutely cannot skim his works. That said, The Book of the New Sun (in its totality) is seminal speculative fiction in the vein of Tolkein and Herbert. The story is mountainous and the ascent difficult; but when you reach the summit, the view is rewarding and spectacular. This type of writing simply enriches your life. A MUST read for any student of speculative fiction.

Having finished the first 2 installments in this series I can safely say I won't be finishing it. It is difficult to read because of the lack of plot and the use of "big" words you haven't seen since the SAT. While you can infer the meaning of most of the words based on the context of the sentence it is still very annoying.
The first 2 books are essentially descriptive imagery of the places and people Severian happens to meet on his completely random and meaningless journey. There is no adventure or character development - just an endless stream of bizarre imagery interlaced with hidden references to present day Earth and ancient myths. Maybe the point of this story is revealed in books 3 and 4, but I don't care to find out.

I had heard very little of Mr.Wolfe's writings when I wen to the bookstore to find something exciting. This work is brilliance, and a shining star among sci-fi/fantasy novels.
As a torturer Severin is facinating. The most compelling aspect of the novel is the alien life of an outcast torturer. It is the fire that keeps it moving along. As Severin experiences this new and strange world so does the reader. A fantastic story bound firmly by a master of prose.

Boy did I not know what I was getting myself into. The first two books of The Book of the New Sun, an award-laden series by Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, were a present from a friend and I jumped in with naive gusto.

I'm really not going to be careful with spoilers, so if that bothers you stop reading now.

I loved Wolfe's description of the Citadel, and his excellent portrayal of the professionalism and dedication of the torturers to their guild, where the flaying of skin to the bone of a 'client' is discussed by master torturers in a professional and passionate manner akin to computer science professors at a top university debating the merits of a particularly interesting algorithm.

They might be intensely interested in their art, but they completely distance themselves from the justice of the essentially random and senseless punishments they are carrying out. It is explained that 'clients' arrive carrying:

"...his or her papers and thus his or her fate. All of them had broken the seals and read those papers, of course; and some had destroyed them or exchanged them for another's. Those who arrived without papers would be held until some further word concerning their disposition was received - probably for the remainder of their lives. Those who had exchanged papers with someone else had exchanged fates; they would be held or released, tortured or executed, in another's stead."

Gradually hints are dropped and you come to the realisation that this society is not medieval, but set in the far far distant future on Earth as our Sun is dying and technology has peaked. Society has fallen back to a feudal level ruled by an upper class with some control over high technology, while most of the populace cannot distinguish such technology from magic. Wolfe has been called the master of the casual reveal, and I felt that many times, here's a casual line dropped by Severian:

"The lights of the oubliette are of that ancient kind that is said to burn forever, though some have now gone out."

Just as I was starting to feel comfortable in this world, and ready to learn more about the Torturers, Witches and follow Severian as a journeyman, the book lurches into a series of increasingly mad, and seemingly disconnected adventures. What's going on? Here's a mini summary:

Someone in armor gives you a seed and suddenly you jump in a cab and steal the most important artifact of a religion, on the way to Hunter S. Thompson's Botanic Gardens where you wander through a desert and a naked jungle hut discussion before coming to a lake full of bodies, get collected by a guy who is searching for his dead wife with a row boat and a grappling hook for well, possibly forever, and pick the nastiest, deadliest piece of flora which will be your weapon in an upcoming fight to the death that you somehow agreed to.

So this is why you should probably read the Wolfe hints for beginners, and Neil Gaiman's advice. It feels like you're trying to solve a puzzle being described by a narrator who is fond of LSD and lying.

"Now I could no longer be sure my own mind was not lying to me; all my falsehoods were recoiling on me, and I who remembered everything could not be certain those memories were more than my own dreams."

And it is a beautifully crafted and complex puzzle, which has hooked me into buying the next two books. But I have many questions in my troubled, troubled mind:

What is the nature of Severian's allegiance to Vodalus? When asked about it he says 'I saved him once' and that symbols 'invent us', with reference to the coin given to him by Vodalus. He says he 'backs into the throne', which I assume means he becomes the Autarch? Does the Autarch actually exist at present, or was this business about mirrors and light 'creating' something mean that the Autarch doesn't yet exist? Severian met the androgynous Autarch in the house of Secrets, but I really don't know what to make of that, does taking the Autarch's life mean killing him/it or something else? (note the contradiction in the meaning of the word Autarch and its use as a monarch-like figure) Or is Severian Vodalus? Oh wait, the coin has a 'worn, serene, androgynous face on its obverse' so perhaps the Autarch is real but Vodalus is a construct created by the Autarch? Dorcas and Severian are described as innocence and death, but it seems like it should be the other way around? Did Dorcas kill Jolenta?

But despite all this deep thought-provoking analysis, the truth is I definitely didn't enjoy large parts of this book. It is very very wordy, and difficult to read: it's been called the Odyssey of Science Fiction. And while there is a lot of depth and mystery, and little secrets to unlock, I'm sure not every boring and diversionary little anecdote was essential to the story:

"Must it not be then that in darkness order grows ever less, flowers leaping from nothingness into a girl's fingers just as by light in spring they leap from mere filthiness into the air? Perhaps when night closes our eyes there is less order than we believe. Perhaps indeed, it is this lack of order we perceive as darkness, a randomization of the waves of energy (like a sea), the fields of energy (like a farm) that appear to our deluded eyes-set by light in an order of which they themselves are incapable-to be the real world."

Perhaps indeed, it is such passages that detract from an otherwise 5 star novel? It feels like much of the book is padding to provide nooks and crannies for Wolfe to stash his secrets. I found reading Dr. Talos's play especially painful, possibly since it reminded me of boring English classes that sucked all the enjoyment out of Shakespeare.

I've heard the books are best on your second or third re-read, but if this novel was truly great, as many claim it is, it would be great the first time. It's a remarkably interesting and complex puzzle, but not a great novel.

3 stars. Read more of my reviews at g-readinglist.blogspot.com

This book is good. Very good. The whole series is exceptionally good. I would not recomment it to anyone; I know too many people who would be unable to appreciate the depth of Wolfe's writing. The emotional, moral, and to a lesser degree philosophical implications create a great deal of depth and longevity to the story. Read the book, then read it again because it's that good.

Are people losing their imaginations...do they need an obvious resolution for everything? To be spoonfed? Do they need the thinking to be done for them? All these people giving this book 1-3 stars for the wrong reasons...if you do not like it, if it's not to your taste, then you have every right to state your opinion, but to say this book is full of pointless passages and whatnot is ridiculous...to mock it for using a vocabulary you don't understand? Gene Wolfe has and can write a book with simple vocabulary that is still complex, but this book, for many ovbvious reasons, called for a rich vocabulary with many different language roots. Figure it out. Read carefully cause there isn't a wasted breath...things do happen for a reason, they're just not explained explicitly...what's the point in telling the readers everything...you ruin the fun...anyways, my gripe is people who trash something they don't understand...

This book was crafted well, and beuatifly written, but focased so much on detail it lost the overall meaning. The intresting parts of the plot are done quikly and the "inbetweens" are long and boring. If you like every day life, this is the book for you

It's not by chance that many writers consider this a masterpiece (Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Thomas Disch and so on). I'm not saying (nor implying, as other reviewers did) that people who dislike this book lack the necessary I.Q.; sure, you need some brains to figure out what he means half of the time, but that's not the point. The point is that there's nothing conventional about this book: no plot, no accurate descriptions, no precise and unambiguous character presentation. Instead, it gives you bits and pieces that you have to stitch together using your intuition and imagination. And when you do all this, the picture is still incomplete and contradictory. It's no surprise to me that there's such a strong bias regarding Gene Wolfe: it takes a writer, or a reader who's completely de-structured writing, to enjoy his works.

As a side note, I didn't need to re-read The Book of the New Sun to appreciate it. In fact, I read it only once. And it's still the best book I've ever stumbled upon.

This book was crafted well, and beuatifly written, but focased so much on detail it lost the overall meaning. The intresting parts of the plot are done quikly and the "inbetweens" are long and boring. If you like every day life, this is the book for you

It's not by chance that many writers consider this a masterpiece (Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Thomas Disch and so on). I'm not saying (nor implying, as other reviewers did) that people who dislike this book lack the necessary I.Q.; sure, you need some brains to figure out what he means half of the time, but that's not the point. The point is that there's nothing conventional about this book: no plot, no accurate descriptions, no precise and unambiguous character presentation. Instead, it gives you bits and pieces that you have to stitch together using your intuition and imagination. And when you do all this, the picture is still incomplete and contradictory. It's no surprise to me that there's such a strong bias regarding Gene Wolfe: it takes a writer, or a reader who's completely de-structured writing, to enjoy his works.

As a side note, I didn't need to re-read The Book of the New Sun to appreciate it. In fact, I read it only once. And it's still the best book I've ever stumbled upon.

This is one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written. Anyone who casts doubt on its place in the canon of great writers has no idea what they are talking about. This work is intense, complex and has sn incredible amount of depth.

Those opening up to the first page should be aware that this story is an all encompassing one, and that as a reader they will be expected to figure out what is going on without being lead by the hand. This text must be read the way you would be expected to read any "classic" pice of literature. It also helps to know that there are going to be post modern storytelling methods used. Instead of being told where you are, you have to place youself in the piece as you read it, the clues are there and it is not terribly difficult to work out, but you do have to do it.

All of that said, the piece is an enjoyable read. Not only entertaining, but considering, and exploring, deep philisophical concepts: time travel (through relativity), the effects of alien contact, and identifying the self. Science fiction that reads at first like fantasy and then transcends the genre to become great "literature".

This is possibly the best work of Gene Wolfe's career, and that says a lot considering the amount of great material he has written over the years. Do not be daunted take up the challenge and you can experience one of the great science fiction classics of our time.

The first two volumes of the Book of the New Sun, presented here in a handy omnibus edition, begin one of the finest stories of all time, and in this reviewers opinion, the best work of fiction ever written. As the setting is build, one plunges into the mystery of the decay of Urth and the importance of Severian, apprentice to the Torturers. Such a fine read is never found elsewhere.

I first read this work when I was a teenager back in the eighties. Now I'm near 40 years old, and nothing else I've read in my entire life has approached the brilliance of this story. I must have read this complete work 4 or 5 times at least, and it's still rewarding. The language is rich and seductive. Wolfe has a way of crafting sentences that is just unique, and hard to describe. Achingly beautiful. He creates images with words that will imprint themselves onto your soul.

Not everyone will like this book. But for some it will be the best thing they've ever read.

This is one of best series of books I have ever read. They are complex, beautifully written, tricky, engaging, and full of brilliant imagery, characters, and mystery. This is science fiction at its best.

That's what I can't figure out about this book, and this writer. I'd read books before that I felt were not for me, or that I felt I had not understood. This one, however, left me wondering, "IS there anything to understand?" I like challenging reads, but sometimes there's such a thing as a pointlessly difficult read with no other reason for being difficult than to claim itself a masterpiece. Unfortunately, only very few of such books are actual masterpieces, and this is not one of them.

First, the good points: the main character is definitely very unique and intriguing. Despite his rather odd and disturbing occupation, Wolfe manages to make him strangely compelling. The writing is highly descriptive, detailed and rich, creating a picture of a truly bizarre, fantastic society.

There is no doubt that the story IS original. Yet at the same time, it falls short on so many levels that it would take me about 5 pages to describe in detail. The main character's nature and profession are what makes him so interesting yet, having given us much insight into his past and present, Wolfe all of a sudden disregards those aspects completely just as the story starts getting interesting. He brings in more compelling and well-written characters (Dorcas, Agia, Jonas) in the middle of book one, only to abandon them for no solid reason and with no explanation by the beginning of book two. He makes things happen that seem like they might lead to very interesting plot turns and resolutions, but in the end they only prove to have been completely pointless and unnecessary. All that the reader is left to think is, "huh?" There are enough loose ends in this book to choke and elephant. So many times in the course of reading it, I found myself drawn into the story in one chapter, only to be disappointed and confused by lack of resolution and continuity in the very next. By the end of book two I felt annoyed and exhausted and definitely not interested of reading any more.

I cannot help but imagine the author writing this book without quite knowing where and how it would end, and with a thick dictionary of medieval terms at his side. I feel that the fancy archaic and invented terms were put in there simply because they sounded cool, and for no other reason than to make the writing sound fancier and more original. But if you really look at it, the author is not creating anything new, he's just replacing existing terms - "horses" with "destriers", "nobles" with "chatelaines", "gold" with "orichalks", and so on. I'm sorry to say but that is NOT a mark of a genius. Fancy words do not equal original story. If you want to see a truly original story set in a truly alien world, don't waste your time on this. Try China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels, or Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris Chronicles (those aren't easy reads either, but they have a lot more to offer than fancy language and convoluted plots).

In the Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe touches on many allusions and themes, thoroughly exploring none. Time and again he raised my hopes by initiating an intriguing line of thought just to wear my patience thin by flitting from thing to thing and never satisfactorily following through. Certain details, like the concept of a torturer's apprentice, are what sold me on trying these books in the first place. Other compelling ideas are buried deep within the book. The alzebo is horrifying and fascinating. It's even touching, in a macabre way, when Severian becomes closer to Thecla through its use. The waiting room that has transformed over time into a de facto prison, where people wait generations for an audience with the Autarch, is darkly humorous. But these fascinating details are not enough to sustain a coherent storyline.
While reading one tale from the book Severian carries around with him, I was trying to figure out if it was a corruption of the Romulus and Remus story, Moses' early life, or some conflation of the two (or more). And I realized I was paying more attention to the artifice Wolfe constructed than to Severian's own story.
The use of literary allusions should aid in fleshing out a story, to say something about a character or his situation. It should not be an end in itself. In New Sun, Wolfe piles allusion upon allusion, overburdening a flimsy story structure, which simply collapses under the weight.
There are other problems that contribute to this state of affairs: a mostly pointless addition of archaic vocabulary, meandering and awkward sentence structure and intentionally vague pronouns. All, apparently, to the purpose of constantly reminding the reader how clever and erudite the author is -- a process devoid of storytelling.
In the end, the plot becomes a slave to this hodgepodge of techniques, jerking Severian through a gauntlet of unbelievable or unexplained twists, making for a disappointing reading experience.
I enjoyed Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas much more.

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is a truly rare find: a science fiction novel that treats its reader like an adult. This is not a quick or an easy read, but it is well worthwhile for those who are willing to pour themselves into it. This book creates for the reader such an intricate and complete world that it is difficult not to fall in love with the storytelling. Wolfe has created some of the most memorable characters I have ever read, and I'm an English major, so I'm no stranger to "fine" literature.

If any book establishes the gifts that science fiction can contribute to literature at large, it is this book.

I have just finished The Book of the New Sun, and all I can say is WOW. Not since Dune have I read a SF book that was as amazing as this is. I simply cannot wait to read it again. I'm amazed I have passed over this author until now. This is one of the best modern novels I have read.

If you are looking for a story that challenges you and plays with your emotions, read this book. I found Severian to be the most intriguing character I've ever read about. Wolfe's writing is also very beautiful and I found myself keeping a notepad near to write down quotes. I consider this to be one of the classics - not only in sci-fi but in all literature.

I can't believe that Gene Wolfe isn't more known. His style and vocabulary may be over the top, but the context always lets me know what he's writing about. I just seen his picture for the first time on Wikipedia and I was amazed at his appearance and age. Then again the series is almost 30 years old. I'm overjoyed when I find a great author to immerse myself in. I can't wait to read the next two books in the series. Thank God for libraries, and librarians, those nasty old witches.

I think this book is better than I understand...

If you are into science fiction and literature this is a great book. If you are just into science fiction you should probably pick up something easier...like I will

To say The Book of the New Sun to a retelling of the old testament is to say that "Smokey and the Bandit" is a retelling of Ulysses.
I was originally taken in by the rave reviews and even gave the first volume, Shadow of the Torturer a grudging three stars. Now that I have completed the four novels I feel cheated. The "great vocabulary" is nothing more than a device that actually tires after awhile, not because one can't understand it, but rather it becomes a gimmick.
Good writing may make a reader search for meaning, but it doesn't make a reader search for plot. And that is one of several problems with this story. I kept expecting some sort of summation, some revelation of several needlessly ambiguous plot points. But, no such luck. Fine, if you want to convince yourself that being confused by an underplotted, overwritten storyline is really being treated intelligently by the writer, then go ahead. But an final vigorous editing is what this series needed badly.
Wolfe seems to "write on the fly". In other words, something is suddenly revealed in book three about a character in book one. You're left thinking- what? He uses this technique not because he planned it or to make the story or characters deeper or for any other reason than it fits into the gimmick storyline/adventure he has thought up for Severian at that moment in his writing. To think it's more complex than that is to fool yourself.
In the end this is a tale silly beyond words. The main character actually takes part in the horrible torture of the woman he loves early on(!) and we are left to the third book to see any attempt at redemption? The redemption itself is a response to the terrible critical beating Wolfe took over the ammorality of his main character by several literary reviewers of that time (early eighties), not to any pre-planned story line.
If you are impressed by little used vocabulary, consider being confused by a poor plot "intellectually challenging" and are wowed with sophmoric philisophical musings thought up by one dimensional characters, then by all means take a stab at this. Otherwise look elsewhere.

It is nice to occasionally read a science fiction/fantasy story wrapped in sophisticated and elegant prose. Almost always the writing, especially in this genre, is sophomoric and corny. Wolfe is an excellent writer by any standard without qualification and if I were an author this is a style I would aspire to. He shows respect for his reader, his characters are true to human psychology, and there is a sense of depth and atmosphere missing from most books. Recommended.

One of the best books I have ever read. The first few chapters were about as exciting as watching paint dry and I had to force my way through, but it was well worth it. The main charcater Severian is simply amazing.

Contrary to what many reviewers are saying, I, a fan of the book, do not feel that I am raised upon any pedestal. Rather, I found the novel addicting and well written. I enjoyed all of the details, even when they didn't push the plot forward. The novel exuded a great sense of mystery, at times similar to the sensations produced in dreams. If you don't agree, thats fine, but to generalize admirers of the work as elitists is pretty asinine.

A brilliant work of science fiction that needs to be read more than once to be fully appreciated. Inventive, clever, inspiring, and moving. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a challenging read.

Well, having given up on Shadow several years ago,
and having been told that people often gave up
on these books and loved them on a second attempt,
I am making a second attempt. I have finished Shadow
and Claw, and so far am not having anything resembling
a good time.
I'm not that bothered by the antique vocabulary. I'm just
not sure that I care what happens to Severian or indeed
anyone else in the story. I enjoyed Jack Vance's "Eyes of
the Overworld" much more - and that has a somewhat
similar setting and somewhat similar vocab.
I will read Sword and Citadel, but whilst it's possible
that they will make me re-evaluate events in books 1
and 2 I can't see myself deciding after 3&4 that
1&2 were, in retrospect, brilliant fun.
In particular, Dr Talos' play near the end of book 2
is something I skipped faster and faster, like romance
scenes in a Doc Smith book. Eeeagh.

I have great respect for Gene Wolfe, who has written some truly excellent short stories, but I cannot say that the "Book of the New Sun" is a great work. Certainly he does dredge up a great many "almost dead" words from the dictionary and work them into the language of the story, but unless you enjoy looking up words in the dictionary you won't appreciate this for very long.
We begin with the story of an apprentice torturer living in a distant future where poverty, banditry, warfare and government edicts have degraded civilization down to a near medieval level. What caused this great decline? Uh, well, we are never told exactly why, but the ongoing war, the fading of the sun, and the exhaustion of fossil fuels all seem like possible excuses.
A sorry appreciation for modern warfare is a serious weakness in the background story as the author seems to feel laser cannons, spacecraft, and mounted cavalry make a good mix. Have they run out of ICBM's and U235? And why does Nessus have a wall around it? In the distant future have they forgotten that mere medieval trebuchets made such city walls obsolete?
Sadly, in my opinion, the story itself does not truly satisfy. The tale begins in quite an original manner but then self-destructs in the course of a highly improbable detour through the tent of a nomadic religious order and then an ancient botanical garden. These two rather stupid adventures are made into the key pivotal events of the story, and lead up to a farcical fight to the death which seems straight out of Monty Python. Not only do we have a "shrubbery" contest but also a "Is he dead?" "No, he's getting better" scene as well as a quick "Run away! Run away!" Putting those behind us is not easy. The main character, who will kill and torture for fun and profit, does seem to have sex with every nubile woman he meets, and this brings us to the edge of comedy when at one point he seems ready to dive in with a gigantic sea-mermaid. Don't toy with her you foolish boy.
There are some stark horrors to contrast with these lighter moments, and in fact most of the story is dark and bloody, but the horrors seem quite intentional while the comedy purely accidental.
We have, in the end, a main character who learns to be an apologist for tyranny, and a bunch of baloney about running back and forth in time, underwater giants plotting with distant aliens, and the need for a new sun so that the tyranny, poverty and misery can continue. In conclusion, gentle reader, it is no easy read, and in the end you will probably only get a headache.

As others have mentioned, the writing style is extremely involving and can be extremely vivid while at the same time feeling as if you're discovering the world as opposed to it being described to you. I love the mix of elements of science fiction and fantasy.

First let me say that Gene Wolfe writes wonderful prose and that's the only thing that kept me going to the end. Go into this book without expectations and I imagine it could be a very good read. I went into it believing that it may be on par with the fantasy worlds of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, thanks to otherwise reliable reviewers and an abundance of 5-star ratings. It is not even close.

First off, it lacks the epic scope of those masterpieces. If Tolkien's Middle-Earth has the scope of Eurasia, Wolfe's Urth is about as big as the state of Massachusetts. In LOTR, a character had to send messages through other characters, then search for months just to meet up with someone they were looking for. On Urth, you can seemingly run into the same person (and persons) multiple times just by stepping into a building that's along your path. By the time I was into the second book, I knew that when Severian met a character, he was going to "accidentally" come across them again. It's pretty ridiculous. I think the timeline of this story is probably supposed to span half a decade, but it seemed less than half a year. More like a month. Contact between characters is contrived, and therefore the scope of the landscape seems almost claustrophobic.

In relation to this lack of time and distance, the theme of Fate seems to be Wolfe's main goal within this story. That's why Severian meets up with most characters more than once, and some characters half a dozen times. Well, Fate don't work that way. Fate has just as much to do with NOT meeting up with someone again as it does with reuniting. Sure, the narrator is looking back, but even in reminiscence, the coincidences become ridiculous. I lost my suspension of disbelief early on, and I never got it back.

The narrator, Severian, who happens to be the main character, is the main flaw of this series. I think what Wolfe was trying for was to give us an unreliable narrator who believes he has a photographic memory. It could have been an insanely brilliant concept, but it's just not taken far enough. Instead of showing us some sort of struggle inside Severian, I was shown the struggle to keep reading the words of an utter bore. Severian is a braggart and a jerk. He's in love with every woman he meets, and you're going to hear about it. He's been through the ringer, but is neither a hero nor a coward. He's pretty brave at times, but a wuss in general. He switches between matter-of-fact stoicism to whiney romanticism, from wise philosopher to naïve pawn. It sounds like it may be interesting, but it's not. And it's tough to get through four books of it all. In the end I don't care about Severian in the least. I just want him to shut up and move along to his freakin' destiny already. Leave me alone so I can go read something else.

As far as the series goes: Book one is great; Book two is a sharp turn in the wrong direction; Book three heads back the right way; but then Book four gets convoluted in tying up loose strings. In the end, it's better than a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy out there (the inane serial stuff), but not even close to the classics and the masterpieces. It's got unique concepts and nice style, but it's an insult to Tolkien to even put this set on the same shelf. And it's certainly not the best fantasy literature of the last century, as some would have you believe.

After I finished reading the first volume (and immidiately cancelled the second from my order) my disappointment slowly turns into disgust.
What do I care for someone dreamy imagination? The book must have a story to tell, not just being a pile of so-called "gems" of style.
All the story I found is torturer in black cloak and mask staying between various decorations. Sometimes he loses his sword. Sometimes he uses it. That's all.
Only thing I don't understand is why the book is rated so high.

Why try to go in-depth? This book is the pinnacle of american fantasy: kafka-esque, nightmarish, but full of hope. The interludes provide a very-real backdrop to a society that has slowly lost itself over millions of years of stagnation. Severian is the chlorine thrown into the stagnant water that is modern fantasy.
This series will leave the most gourmet appetite filled. Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman fanbois need not apply.

The book of the new sun series is absolutely superb and transcends the genre it is written in, drawing heavily on Greek myth, mediaeval imagery and a whole host of cultures past, present and dare I say it: future. Brilliant! Buy it in hardback so you can read it again and again.

So ends the second book of the new sun, haven't read it? Then read it to find out what I am talking about and have a thrill exploring the far-flung future that Severian inhabits all under the ever watchful eye of the Autarch.

Years ago - while working in a library in high school - I set about reading all the "classic sf" I shelved. There were a few I could not get through. Gormenghast was one; this was another.
I had already read (and reread) Our Mutual Friend, Anna Karenina, Elie Wiesel's Dawn, much of Joseph Conrad and RA Lafferty - so dense prose, ornate vocabulary, and dark themes were no strangers. But I couldn't get farther than Severian's "crime" and even that was an effort. I couldn't figure out if the opaque prose was a sign of an art so rarefied it was still beyond me, or if it was just pretentiousness. And I couldn't make myself stop saying what I later learned are known as the Seven Deadly Words: "I don't care what happens to them."
Chanced across it again the other day & decided to try again. The impressions of half a lifetime ago were validated. There are far more deft ways of using archaic and obscure words - at least indicate, in the sentence, by a short epithet, if the word is supposed to indicate an animal, plant, piece of masonry, or citizen! There are less torturous ways of telling an involuted narrative - case in point, Lord Jim.
It isn't as bad as Foucault's Pendulum was (imo), and I will probably plod through to the end of the quartet, if for no other reason than to tally up the number of teeth-gnashingly chauvinist dogmatic assertions for my own grumly amusement. But the Iliad it ain't, that's for sure. Now *there's* a story filled with obscure reference, too many names and characters for comfort, comfortless tragedy and a remote style - which *works*, as New Sun does not. (Nor is it the True History: Wolfe could stand a few lessons from that master of sf and mythological mockery, Lucian of Samasota.)

I can't recall where I read that description of Wolfe's prose, but it's apt. The writing in this book is dense and full of allusions. Dense like cornbread that's too dry, and murky allusions to things you don't know. If you like your writing foggy and unnecessarily complex, this may be the book for you. Also if you like torture scenes, which I am no fan of.

I hate to be so negative, but that was the case for me with this book. I tried Wolfe because F&SF magazine so highly recommended him, because a number of authors I like (including Gaiman) recommend him, and because I liked his story in F&SF magazine's tribute issue. First I started the Wizard Knight series, and I liked the first book of that fairly well. Then I tried this torturer series, but I found it unpleasant and virtually unreadable. It's just not my cup of tea.

To say The Book of the New Sun to a retelling of the old testament is to say that "Smokey and the Bandit" is a retelling of Ulysses.
I was originally taken in by the rave reviews and even gave the first volume, Shadow of the Torturer a grudging three stars. Now that I have completed the four novels I feel cheated. The "great vocabulary" is nothing more than a device that actually tires after awhile, not because one can't understand it, but rather it becomes a gimmick.
Good writing may make a reader search for meaning, but it doesn't make a reader search for plot. And that is one of several problems with this story. I kept expecting some sort of summation, some revelation of several needlessly ambiguous plot points. But, no such luck. Fine, if you want to convince yourself that being confused by an underplotted, overwritten storyline is really being treated intelligently by the writer, then go ahead. But an final vigorous editing is what this series needed badly.
Wolfe seems to "write on the fly". In other words, something is suddenly revealed in book three about a character in book one. You're left thinking- what? He uses this technique not because he planned it or to make the story or characters deeper or for any other reason than it fits into the gimmick storyline/adventure he has thought up for Severian at that moment in his writing. To think it's more complex than that is to fool yourself.
In the end this is a tale silly beyond words. Early on the main character- Severian- actually takes part in the horrible and brutal torture of the woman he loves. Well, at least one of the women he "loves", seems Severian falls in love at the drop of a hat. Redemption here, doesn't even build up. He just announces that he won't torture/kill again after letting a "client" go. The redemption itself is a response to the terrible critical beating Wolfe took over the ammorality of Severian by several literary reviewers of that time (early eighties), not to any pre-planned story line.
The characters are basically one dimensional, with little thought to any depth except maybe only slightly Severian, who is not that likeable for that matter. At the end of book II before he meets the "rebel" commander, he needlessly kills the three guards who work for the man he supposedly admires. Then, V, after seeing the headless body of one of his men, greets Severian as....a guest. Not exactly a military leader that would inspire confidence among his soldiers.
I began to think that Urth would actually be a better place if the main character and all of his torturers guild were basically wiped off the planet and the series itself would be a much better one if the mystery of how Urth became the way it was became the main point of the story rather than a collateral one.
So, if you are impressed by little used vocabulary, consider being confused by a poor plot "intellectually challenging" and are wowed with sophmoric philisophical musings thought up by one dimensional characters, then by all means take a stab at this. Otherwise look elsewhere.

This book seems to jump around a lot to me. Perhaps I am not well read enough to catch all the literary allusions, but I was just overwhelmed. The language is incredibly intricate, I had to read many passages several times over to figure out what was going on. Beware.

An excellent entry in the Dying Earth genre. Wolfe elaborates on his already fascinating and baroque Urth. His protoganists journey ends in full circle, but another one begins.

Wolfe's writing style is intense and interesting and the memoir style the book is written in works great. Highly recommended.

This mixture of fantasy and science fiction has some interesting ideas: Decay of a formerly space-faring planet into a world of fantasy, telling the story from the point of view of a renegade torturer in a guild and caste based social structure. But in the end it disappoints because the people in the story are not convincing, the author never achieves a good rhythm and often rambles around. As a result, I for one, after the first of the two novels packed into one book here, rapidly lost interest and I am now forcing myself to read on just to find out where the story leads.

What a boring book. (Or rather, what a boring bunch of 4 books). The main character is Severian the torturer who pursues his destiny across the lands of Urth. Torture, cannibalism, grave robbing, public executions ad nauseum abound. I hope I'm not spoiling anything when I say that Severian does eventually decide to quit his job (well, duh). Wolfe uses some excellent descriptive prose to fashion an Urth of the far future. The place is alright but the motivations of the main characters are obscure and consequently uninteresting. I would suggest Zola and his pit ponies for a much better read.

Please note -- Spoiler alert: Two specific plot points are divulged in this review.
Boy, was this series a disappointment. I had high expectations, especially with praise like, "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" from the Washington Post. And so many positive customer reviews, too. Well, I should have looked a little closer.
Beware of reviews that state that anyone who likes complex and hard reading will love this book, thereby implying - or sometimes explicitly stating --that if you don't like the book you must be a Philistine with a junk food diet in literature. These reviewers are too busy patting themselves on the back to give useful advice.
Let me make this clear: I like a challenging vocabulary. However, Wolfe's use of arcane words adds nothing. Few of the words are used in any sort of context, that one might glean their importance to the story. Mostly, they're dropped in at random points in Severian's journey, like specks on the horizon, signifying nothing. One could just as well substitute names of trees for the same effect. Also, the whole conceit behind the use of these words is that the book is being translated from a document and that these are the closest words to the meanings in the document. A translation that requires one to translate yet again is a bad translation. It is a very lazy device for the author to say that these things are so different from what we know today they cannot be described.
For example, here is a quote from the book when Severian describes partygoers in the city of Thrax as, " . . . the autchthons, gymnosophists, ablegates and their acolytes, eremites, eidolons, zoanthrops half beast and half human, and deodands and remotados in picturesque rags, with eyes painted wild." Sounds promising, especially the bit about half beast and half human. I even know a few of the other words without having to look them up in the dictionary. But so what? It's all background noise, never more a part of the story than a laundry list. It's a distracting gimmick that wears thin.
Another distraction for me was the sun's burning down like an unattended campfire. Any astronomers please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the sun has another three or four billion years' worth of fuel before it enters its next stage, red giant, in which it will burn brighter, pretty much turning the Earth into a cinder.
I quickly lost interest in the story soon after Severian left the Citadel. One event is so unlike another in Severian's journey that, after a rapid succession of strange encounters and narrow escapes, I felt more cheated by the capricious will of the author than drawn in to any sort of coherent future society. It got to the point that I could predict when Wolfe was getting tired of a character who would soon be making an abrupt exit. I certainly didn't flinch when Severian Jr. got barbequed. A dozen pages back, Wolfe seemed exasperated with the kid, as if he'd written himself into a corner.
I found the books to be surprisingly humorless, as well. Scenes like the play Severian performs in are supposed to be comic relief, I guess. I just found it grotesque.
And, finally, at the tail end of book four, when a little green man appears with a flying saucer to whisk Severian to safety, I wanted to throw the book against the wall. That one random and too convenient incident embodied my impression of most of the previous 800 pages, coming full circle -- back to the beginning when I thought, early on, why should I care?
I would suggest the following alternatives to The Book of the New Sun:
-Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake. Two books that provide a much more richly imagined and alien medieval setting than New Sun.
-Engine Summer by John Crowley. Truly immersing read. The lyrical telling of a quest/coming of age story set in a distant future with gymnosophists, an eremite, and what could be called one big deodand. Although, Crowley does not use those words.

The concept of the main character being a torturer is fascinating and is by far the most interesting concept of the book. The first book (Shadow of the Torturer) is actually decent for this reason. Unfortunately the author seems to get bored and entire chapters are taken up with short stories, plays, and other half-assed works. In the second book the narrator states "assume I am continuing to work as a torturer as I travel" and goes on to tell the story in a high fantasy style ignoring the most fascinating parts of the character.
I had just finished China Melville's "Perdito Street Station" and have to say that Gene Wolfe's pretensions are a mockery of writing after reading China's masterful ministrations.
If you want complex worlds try Steven Erikson, if you want artistic style try China Melville. If you want good fiction about executioners you should try to chase down some of Dru Pagliosotti's High Lord Executioner tales (web only). All those works show years of care and effort, while this book had obvious spelling and textural errors. Even the editor had trouble finishing the book to all appearances.

Boring and pointless, this book does not deserve the accolades given it. The characters are flat, there is no plot, and you never know or care why anyone is doing what they are doing. I kept pushing ahead thinking it was going to turn into something but it never did. Don't bother.

Please note -- Spoiler alert: Two specific plot points are divulged in this review.
Boy, was this series a disappointment. I had high expectations, especially with praise like, "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" from the Washington Post. And so many positive customer reviews, too. Well, I should have looked a little closer.
Beware of reviews that state that anyone who likes complex and hard reading will love this book, thereby implying - or sometimes explicitly stating --that if you don't like the book you must be a Philistine with a junk food diet in literature. These reviewers are too busy patting themselves on the back to give useful advice.
Let me make this clear: I like a challenging vocabulary. However, Wolfe's use of arcane words adds nothing. Few of the words are used in any sort of context, that one might glean their importance to the story. Mostly, they're dropped in at random points in Severian's journey, like specks on the horizon, signifying nothing. One could just as well substitute names of trees for the same effect. Also, the whole conceit behind the use of these words is that the book is being translated from a document and that these are the closest words to the meanings in the document. A translation that requires one to translate yet again is a bad translation. It is a very lazy device for the author to say that these things are so different from what we know today they cannot be described.
For example, here is a quote from the book when Severian describes partygoers in the city of Thrax as, " . . . the autchthons, gymnosophists, ablegates and their acolytes, eremites, eidolons, zoanthrops half beast and half human, and deodands and remotados in picturesque rags, with eyes painted wild." Sounds promising, especially the bit about half beast and half human. I even know a few of the other words without having to look them up in the dictionary. But so what? It's all background noise, never more a part of the story than a laundry list. It's a distracting gimmick that wears thin.
Another distraction for me was the sun's burning down like an unattended campfire. Any astronomers please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the sun has another three or four billion years' worth of fuel before it enters its next stage, red giant, in which it will burn brighter, pretty much turning the Earth into a cinder.
I quickly lost interest in the story soon after Severian left the Citadel. One event is so unlike another in Severian's journey that, after a rapid succession of strange encounters and narrow escapes, I felt more cheated by the capricious will of the author than drawn in to any sort of coherent future society. It got to the point that I could predict when Wolfe was getting tired of a character who would soon be making an abrupt exit. I certainly didn't flinch when Severian Jr. got barbequed. A dozen pages back, Wolfe seemed exasperated with the kid, as if he'd written himself into a corner.
I found the books to be surprisingly humorless, as well. Scenes like the play Severian performs in are supposed to be comic relief, I guess. I just found it grotesque.
And, finally, at the tail end of book four, when a little green man appears with a flying saucer to whisk Severian to safety, I wanted to throw the book against the wall. That one random and too convenient incident embodied my impression of most of the previous 800 pages, coming full circle -- back to the beginning when I thought, early on, why should I care?
I would suggest the following alternatives to The Book of the New Sun:
-Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake. Two books that provide a much more richly imagined and alien medieval setting than New Sun.
-Engine Summer by John Crowley. Truly immersing read. The lyrical telling of a quest/coming of age story set in a distant future with gymnosophists, an eremite, and what could be called one big deodand. Although, Crowley does not use those words.

The concept of the main character being a torturer is fascinating and is by far the most interesting concept of the book. The first book (Shadow of the Torturer) is actually decent for this reason. Unfortunately the author seems to get bored and entire chapters are taken up with short stories, plays, and other half-assed works. In the second book the narrator states "assume I am continuing to work as a torturer as I travel" and goes on to tell the story in a high fantasy style ignoring the most fascinating parts of the character.
I had just finished China Melville's "Perdito Street Station" and have to say that Gene Wolfe's pretensions are a mockery of writing after reading China's masterful ministrations.
If you want complex worlds try Steven Erikson, if you want artistic style try China Melville. If you want good fiction about executioners you should try to chase down some of Dru Pagliosotti's High Lord Executioner tales (web only). All those works show years of care and effort, while this book had obvious spelling and textural errors. Even the editor had trouble finishing the book to all appearances.

Boring and pointless, this book does not deserve the accolades given it. The characters are flat, there is no plot, and you never know or care why anyone is doing what they are doing. I kept pushing ahead thinking it was going to turn into something but it never did. Don't bother.

I did not like this book. Part of it was that every other page required me to run to a dictionary, as Wolfe has a compulsion to use the most obscure words available whenever possible. It really became aggravating to watch this guy flex his vocabulary muscles apparently for the sheer joy of doing so.
But that wasn't the only problem, as one can still follow the story even with the "I'm of superior intellect" verbiage.
This story is about the biggest non-event I have ever read. Simply put, very little happens. Mr. Wolfe is so enamored of his own prose that he rambles incessantly without purpose. I will admit that he paints a decent picture; his imagery is strong, but that's all it is. All the frosting in the world won't hide the fact that it's a flavorless cake.
If you are having trouble sleeping, purchase this book and you will be welcomed into the arms of Morpheus before you know it.

I'm usually not too hip on the sci-fi/fantasy stuff, but this book is different. Great characters, and plenty of twists and turns. Finished it in a couple of days and i don't even really like to read.

I read such good reviews of this book that I was really looking forward to reading it.
However, I really couldn't get into the book. I kept reading the book waiting for it to pick up, for some significant plot, for something...
Eventually, I gave up entirely. The book just felt like some half-metaphysical stream of consciousness blabber to me.

This was recommended to me in the context of Vernor Vinge's "Fire Upon The Deep" and "A Deepness In The Sky", as a book that would use suspended disbelief to raise compelling moral or metaphysical questions, and then explore them with an entertaining story and characters.

I was extremely disappointed. Wolfe's prose is flowery to the point of being tedious, the plot is meandering and thin, and the characters are one dimensional where they're consistent at all.

Other reviewers have labeled the main character an "unreliable narrator" (the book is an autobiography), which is incorrect. He does not lie, he is merely faithless-- he betrays a complete stranger, his lover, his guild, his friends, himself, his sworn ruler, his new-sworn leader, his new lover, and his friend. At lease he's consistent. Sadly, that's his only dimension-- the only other thing adding depth to him is his pre-destination to become a pope-like ruler sometime after the timeline of the book.

And all the while, we're barraged with the king of all cop-outs: statements of emotion. "I loved", "I wanted to be loyal", "I lusted", "I desired", "I was ashamed" and so on, all belied by the character's actual decisions and actions. Maybe this is where Twilight's author learned her tricks.

The one good thing I can say is that the world painted is interesting. I do want to know more-- I wanted it enough to slog through all 400-odd pages of nauseating descriptions of grass-colors and doorframes.

But in the end, I really wish I'd spent my time reading something else. And I'll never again trust the recommendation of the person who pointed me at this.

People, if the story of a guy who, for 18 years, did not actually bother to get more than a few meters away from his tower, seems like an interesting reading to you - go for it. Otherwise bear in mind that, even when he is set on his journey, for something like 200 pages he does not even get past his own city, let alone the scores of pages passed wondering the botanic gardens of all places. At some point, not being sure of my being immortal just as yet, I simply stopped.

This was a book that you have to be older to read. I do not think that children will get the some of the words used. It would also be nice if he explained the world that the book is based in better.

"The first of two volumes of one of the greatest novels ever written", "A masterpiece. Tatally original, new, incomparable; the beginning of something great." "Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time after the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit..." blah, blah, blah - these are some of the high praises for this book. I forced myself through the first book hoping that the second would finally show something of "the greatest novel of all time". After watching "Severian", a person who is a learned torturer (how charming) and kills and torturers people for money, for 300-something pages and "listening" to his rather boring thoughts, living in his well written but dark and dying and depressing world, I reached a point in the second book "The claw of the conciliator" were I found myself unable to read on. There Gene Wolfe describes how the main character executes a young woman, in detail. First she's branded on both cheek's, then her legs are broken and after that she's beheaded. I'm just shocked and don't intend to read it further. I just can't identify with a main character like that and of course I'm offended by the violence and sadism in this book. I couldn't find anything wise, unusually intelligent or inspiring in this "work". What I can't understand is the hype created around these books. While his writing is pretty good it is so overloaded with archaic greek and latin vocabulary that it's ridiculous. I've read the books of the Long Sun which I liked - so I expected this to be something like those books. I find it alarming how many of the so called masterpieces today are needlessly violent and sadistic.
I have nothing left to say, only that I wasted my money and time on this.

I won't go on and on (as the author did) but instead refer you to the other one-star reviews. At first I was interested in Wolfe's funereal tone and odd subject matter, but after 800 pages, I'm sorry to inform you, you won't find out whether the world got saved or not. The hope of at least a bit of plot resolution was the only thing that kept me going to the end. Don't make the same mistake I did.

If you like Wolfe's books or writing for themselves, that's fine, I'm not criticizing you, but the first time reader has a right to know that many people (including many people who enjoy other difficult and demanding works) don't feel the way you do.

Instead, or in addition, please read John Crowley's "Little, Big," or Steven Erikson's Malazan books, starting with "Gardens of the Moon." Those are also long, confusing, and demanding, but they will reward you more.

As you can see, a lot of the die hard sci-fi fans enjoyed this book- most likely for the very reasons I loathed it. Loathed. The charaters are all two dimensional- the plot is paper thin, the actual basis of the world is dumbfoundingly unrealistic. Gene Wolfe isn't a reader's writer. The hammers out wrds to decribe events with little use for grace or refinement. Instead he uses a thesaurus.

To me, anyway. Maybe I missed something.

I picked this one up because it has been lauded with awards (and graced with some nice cover art) and the premise sounded interesting. And the interest lasted thirteen pages. There was nothing in this book that said 'I'm worth your time, turn the page.'

The problem is also Wolfe's heavy handed writing style. Do not expect graceful scentences that slide easily from page to eye to mind. This is like eating bricks.

However, I'm trying to write a useful review to people who might actually like this. The few people that I've met who enjoyed this book where huge into Michael Morcock, his Elric novels and his earlier books. If you like thise, you might like this one.

If you like George R.R. Martin, just back away from Mr. Wolfe now.

The same if you enjoy Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Robert Heinlein, et c.

I can't believe how many good reviews these books have gotten. One of the review bits on the front cover, by Niel Gaiman, says - "The besst SF novel of the last century." - REALLY??? That's an awfully bold statement considering the works of Anne McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, et al.

I found this book to be incredibly boring. The story meanders about without ever really getting anywhere. There is no real suspense and no real suprises. The book starts by telling you that the main character, Severian, is writing his memoirs and that he is now the Autarch; so you always know that Severian will get out of whatever difficulty he finds himself in. And the desriptions of those difficulties have no passion, no excitement, nothing.

Also, the author's "foreshadowing" is so heavy-handed that it is immediately obvious where the plot is going. When the author finally gets to the "big reveal" it has no shock value, no "aha, I thought so" - it is more like, "Really? Tell me something I haven't known for six chapters."

This may not be the worst book I have ever read, but it is certainly in the bottom ten.

I forced myself to keep reading for the first 120 pages because I read so many reviews that described this as the best fantasy work since Lord of the Rings.
What a joke. The Lord of the Rings drew me in in the first 5 pages. After over 100 pages of this tripe, I was bored stiff.
The book is tedious, confusing, and just plain boring. Wolfe's writing is completely unremarkable at best, and just plain bad at worst.
Don't believe the pretentious fantasy fans who proclaim this book to be the best thing since sliced bread -- the fact that so many of them boast of re-reading the work several times says volumes: anyone who lacks the intellectual curiosity to seek out new works, rather than to endlessly reread old stories, is not someone whose advice you should be taking.
You can take this: If this book really were as good as some proclaim, it would be a lot better known. Its obscurity is an indication of its low quality.
Don't waste your time. There's a lot better fiction out there. This one isn't worth the effort.

Made it to page 197 and realized that the "intelligent" writing was only unique in the fact that the majority of the "big, scary words" haven't been used by people for hundreds of years. I could deal with this if something would happen, but it has yet remained without plot. Or maybe it has a plot, but I just don't feel like reading every paragraph twice just to figure out what the hell Dr. Superman-wordy Wordsmith Wolfe, Esq. over here is trying to tell me. I generally finish a book of this length in a couple days. Took me three weeks to reach page 197 before I realized that this is one if those plotless tryhard books. Oh, and it is fantasy. Mentioning a red giant Sun every now and then does not automatically classify this as Sci Fantasy. Heck, it's not even Fantasy, it's freaking cryptography. This will go into a donation bin. Not my bookshelf.

If you like easygoing, unimaginative, fluffy rubbish you will not like this book.

If you lack the intelligence to meet the author halfway and understand all the clues he leaves you dotted throughout Severian's narrative, you will not "get" this book.

If you're one of those despicable cads who thinks everything should have the sort of meaning that is easily evident and measured using high school literary analysis acumen, you won't like this book.

If you like being spoonfed mush by ludicrously awful writers like Jordan, Mccaffrey, Goodkind, Brooks et al and think that such gruel is high literature, this book will fly over your head.

If you like using your brain when reading, you'll probably like this.

If you can appreciate a combination of subtlety and a sense of the grandiose, you'll probably like this.

As for the "problem" with the big and obscure words: if you can't infer the meaning of the problematic or exotic word via the context - what are you doing spending your money on literature anyway? Jesus Hulkmaniac Christ. Go buy some American Gladiators or Dragon Ball Z DVDs. You know, something more suited to your infantile intellects.

The book started strong. But as with many science fiction writers the the author tried to weave too many ideas and stories together which by the end of the book left me confused, unattached to the characters and just not interested anymore. While this book as a huge following I remember being very disappointed with it by about the final quarter. It has been a year since I read it and I am finally getting around to picking up the sequel. All in all it is alright, but there are better books out there, this is a wait for the Library to get it to you and not a drop cash/money on it read.

First of all let me say that I have -bravely- read all the four books of this series.
This happened only because after reading the first book I was totally baffled by the discrepancy between my dislike and the enthusiastic reviews, so I wanted to read it all and give it a chance.
At the end I loathed the whole series and I didn't enjoy the reading - I just wasted my time.
I'll try to be short about it and just give you a few bullet points, in the hope someone else can spare his time and read something better.

So here's why I dislike this series:
- no suspense, the narrative, for all of its complex and archaic prose, is just flat and monotone. Sorry, a strange vocabulary doesn't necessarily make for a rich or satisfying prose. On the contrary, it is just tiring and smells too much like the author is saying "Hey I'm a great writer - you should understand it from the sheer amount of strange words I can scatter around".
- the narrator and protagonist, Severian to me is an epic fail. He has the flatness and lack of introspection of a cardboard cutout. His narrative is monotonous, sterile and verbose. He can rape a woman or eat a loaf of bread and his tone will hardly show any difference. At some point he even has within him the personalities of other characters... but for all of that he never really reaches the complexity and well-roundedness of a single well built character. I'm all about twisted characters (and Severian is a torturer, a mysoginist etc.) but the problem here is that he is not well developed and disappointing.
- the story is a jumble of episodes without much cohesion. There is no evolution neither to the characters nor to the story in itself.
- the "unreliable narrator" thing... sorry this is another gimmick that doesn't really add much to the plot. The lies and contradictions are all about details, most of all petty gossips around Severian's real relationships with all the "meat" (womens). Okay, but I don't really care about them...

I bought both of the books of the New Sun at once. What a shame. After laboriously reading the first volume, I'm not going to waste my time reading the second one. I think one way that academics and so-called literary types make themselves feel superior is to take confusing, meandering pointless books like this, proclaim them masterpieces and then put themselves on a pedestal and say if you didn't get it, you just don't have the capacity to understand a great literary work.

I see no point to this story. The adventures that Severian has meander all over the place, having no flow, no theme, no plot, and I had to really force myself to finish this book. I read over a hundred books a week, and I have read some "literary classics" that I enjoyed. Some of them were difficult to read, but the story made sense, the character motives could be understood, and eventually I would get drawn in to the story. Not so with this.

Normally I skip 5-star reviews and go to the 4 or 3-star ones. This is because the book I am interested in usually comes recommended from a fairly reliable source, and so I expect that 1 or 2 star reviews are from impatient or unfair readers. On the other hand I know all books are flawed from some perspectives, and 5-star reviews can tend to be undiscerning in this respect.

Usually this all works out well, and I read a novel that I greatly enjoy despite all flaws.

Unfortunately in the case of this novel, you need to go to the 3-star reviews before you really get an idea of its flaws. Really awkward pacing, bizarre and unjustified turns of events (although a large part of the stangeness just comes from the fact that it is unjustified and seemingly pointless), randomly inserted and poorly thought out philosophical musings (which might barely get a pass in an introductory moral or social philosophy course, and succeed mostly in insulting your intelligence). It's all true.

But I've read other novels with similar flaws and still enjoyed them. Many fantasy/sci-fi novels can be carried by the strength of characters or by a rich world. This fails on both counts, in my opinion.

I think we're supposed to be fascinated by Severians apparently complex character, a trained torturer and executioner who is (I guess) supposed to redeem and justify himself in the eyes of the reader, as, among other things, he saves and swears allegiance to the number one enemy of his state, he falls in love with one of his guilds victims, and is cursed, as you will be constantly (and ironically) reminded by Severian throughout his many ramblings, by a perfect recollection.

The problem is that this all rings hollow. Wolfe can't show us the way inside Severian (which is the real test of such a story as this) and he is left just assuring us that all of these incredible things occur. Overall, I alternately disliked or was disinterested in Severian. He feels like a shallow character whos complexity is just pretense.

The world, called Urth, also had great potential at the beginning. You get a vague knowledge that there exist numerous guilds with complex codes and rituals, a complex court consisting of genetically superior aristocrats, a ruler and his wizard-like advisor, a history of a great war of some sort and a new one about to begin, and god-like creatures lurking beneath mountains and oceans waiting to be wakened. None of this really goes beyond hints, unfortunately. You don't see any ingenius politicking which you might expect given the circumstances, instead everyone is quite simple-minded.

I didn't find anything too complex to follow and I didn't need to read it with a dictionary by my side. Just to give you an idea, this is not as complex as Herbert's "Dune", and is WAY less complex than Dan Simmons Hyperion series. In fact, if you are looking for a complex and at time bizarre (in a good way) fantasy/sci-fi book with dark themes, violence, sex, terrible love, political intrigue, truly complex characters and world, not to mention well-written, I'd check out Hyperion. It really exceeds Wolfe's New Sun series in all of these respects.

I have 2 weeks left of my holidays from Uni, and I stopped reading this with about 50 pages remaining so that I don't waste any more of my time with it. If it was a 3-star novel I'd be able to finish it. However, it is so frustratingly tedious I can only give it a 2, and it's doubtful I'll be bothered to finish it and pick up the final book. Borrow it first.

...but I'm genuinely baffled by the praise lavished on this book. I decided to read _Shadow & Claw_ after reading Michael Dirda's fairly negative review of Neal Stephenson's _Anathem_. Dirda suggested that _Anathem_ didn't measure up to _Shadow & Claw_, or, for matter, a variety of other literary science fiction.

I disagree with Dirda, and think _Anathem_ is one of the most compelling novels I've read in a long time. It's intellectually engaging, and, for me at least, it was a 'page turning read,' enough to keep me from getting as much sleep and work done as I otherwise would have. So if I liked Anathem, and if Wolfe's work beat Stephenson's out, I had to give Shadow & Claw a try, I thought.

I regret that decision. In every place where Stephenson's writing is clear, intelligent, and cleverly written...Wolfe's is a mess. I read entire chapters thinking 'how in the hell does this advance the plot? Why is he going into such descriptive detail?' Stephenson's book has intellectual rigor. And while you may think Stephenson's description and use of the relative science is poor (I don't know enough to say), there is at least a structure, a framework, for his world. 'Urth,' on the other hand, is an impressionistic mess. I'm not saying the people who love the work are crazy, but I just couldn't get into the story, and after slogging through 200 pages just hoping to find out more about the society of Urth and where it is Severian is headed (how did he become Autarch?) I'm giving up. My head hurt after reading dozens of page of mind numbing...weirdness. If I were editing this book, I'd probably slash into into one-tenth the size and maybe burn what was left.

Of the novels I've read recently, I'd more highly recommend almost anything by Neal Stephenson, Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, or Keith Robert's Pavane (a book as impressionistic as Wolfe's, but more lyrical and beautiful, even though the ending is a let-down)

Anyway, I wish I hadn't bought this book.

Gene Wolfe's novel "The Book of the New Sun" has received great praise, and the copy I borrowed claims it created fantasy as we know it today. If this book did so, then I am ashamed of my love for fantasy. This book certainly isn't a masterpiece or literature as some have claimed. On the other hand, it is a book with an underdeveloped world, underdeveloped characters, and undeveloped (if developed at all) plot.

The book starts off with the main character, Severian, trying to sneak through some gate with his friends. Or, at least that seems to be the case. The beginning is in fact difficult to follow, as the narrative is writing out of sequence, and with little description of the surroundings it is difficult to follow what is happening and where. However, the novel still caught my interest, and held it during the first few chapters of the story. The narrative introduces his life in the guild, which is intricate and richly cultured. Once again it is difficult to tell what is happening where, as though the setting is well-described, none of it is related to each other, and so everything might as well float in space. It's so baffling that I can't describe it; I never did figure out where some scenes took place.

This lack of description ends up being common place. Oddly enough, it isn't that Wolfe doesn't describe anything; he just never describes anything important. The narrator automatically assumes that we will know what certain animals are, and never describes them in detail; apparently they are extinct animals, but beyond that I have no idea what they look like. The setting may be described, but only in terms of how pretty it is; any description on where anything may be is vague. Some characters get more description than others, for no reason that I can see. Furthermore, some items get described multiple times; we are constantly told that one woman has a large chest, for example.

In the end, the novel falls into a pattern. What Severian is supposed to be doing is heading to a town after getting exiled, and perform jobs as a torturer/executioner on the way. What happens is that Severian gets attacked or tricked in some sort of adventure, in startling stupidity falls for it, and almost gets killed. This is then repeated throughout the rest of the book. Many people are met, then met again, then met again, without any clear consistency. Entire scenarios happen without any clear meaning; for example, we are given the script of a play up until when their play is ruined, and while it is rather obvious what the allusions are, there doesn't seem to be any point to them. In the end, Severian never does get to that town, and I doubt he ever will at the rate he's going.

The characters are stereotypes and nothing more. There is the "one true friend" who ends up being lost forever in a way I couldn't quite comprehend. There is the woman who loves her beauty so much she thinks herself a queen. There is the man who wants to succeed and controls everyone else. There is the crazy guy who admires Severian and thinks he is his servant. When they aren't stereotypes, they are merely pawns to help Severian survive, such as the man who is a new servant and so helps Severian around without realizing he is an escaped convict. In fact, no one in this novel appears to have a real personality.

Then there are the aspects of the novel that add to its absurdity. Severian's cloak is "darker than black", which means that items appear to disappear into it when close to it or touching it. Severian finds a jewel that has the power to do, literally, everything. It can heal, stop him from being killed, or anything he wants it to do. Of course everyone either wants this jewel or advises him to dispose of it, but Severian never manages to lose it. Events happen without any clear cause; for example, at one point Severian and his friend get attacked by bat-like creatures; saved by some man described by a noun that is never explained, who Severian then saves for no clear reason; he finds his friend; sees a massive statue-like beast, and tries to commit suicide by attacking it, but then he and his friends are attacked and brought to a prison. The entire scenario probably made less sense than my summary.

There are moments when the novel assumes you know something, then other moments when things are so blindingly obvious one wonders why Severian can't figure it out. Throughout it all, Severian is supposed to be traveling to some town, while at the same time caught up with some classic attempt to overthrow the ruler and return civilization to its former glory. How incredibly creative. Ultimately, the book is awful in many ways, and by the end boring and unable to muster my interest no matter what happened.

This is not literature. If it is considered literature, then I have lost faith in that world. This is a badly-written novel in many ways, from the stereotypical characters to the badly developed world and plot. I would avoid this book no matter what you were searching for, whether a good fantasy novel or literature.

These books by Gene Wolfe are some of the absolute worst rubbish I have read. When a author resorts to calling common animals by names not used since the 1700's,
it tells one about his pretensions. In the first book the main character develops several love interests only to have some of them discarded by the end of the book, never to reappear. He doesn't kill them all off, it's sort of like he either forgot he ever created them, or he couldn't drum up any more trivia to bore people to death with. He sounds like a young author, unsure of his skill who resorts to awkward and contrived constructs to disguise his lack of ability. The whole 'sun' series were painful and boring.
After employing no-doze to finish the books, the last book in the series was so simple minded, I threw the whole series out in the trash.
The biggest tragedy is wolfe attracts young male readers with dreams of literary significance, who, being baffled as anyone about what in the heck Wolfe was trying to do, defend the effort they put into reading this sordid mess, by calling anyone who doesn't profess their undying love of this tripe, as being somehow, less worthy then they. How tragic.

There's no arguing the author is an excellent writer in the technical sense. For some, that is enough. And Wolfe certainly knows how to tantalize the imagination. He expertly wraps his world in mystery, allowing the reader only brief, side-ways peaks behind the curtain. This is tantalizing at first, but only a masochist would want to be tantalized forever. After reading two books in the series, Wolfe has yet to pull back the curtain, and I begin to suspect there's nothing there. Charlatan may be too strong a word, but I have come to the sad conclusion that the author never had a clear idea of his world. If you followed the TV show LOST, then you have already experienced the kind of disappointment this series has to offer.

I tried very hard to like this book. I have been reading sci fi and fantasy novels since I was very young and have read the majority of what is out there. Some would have you believe that because of its complexity and writing style, those who like hack and slash novels and are unable to appreciate either the writing style or the depth will not like it. Hogwash. I like complex writing and difficult to follow plots. Steven Erickson, R.R. Martin, etc. are right in my wheel house. This book is boring, period.

It starts off rather promising in the early stages but it all goes straight down hill after the point in which the main character leaves on his journey. I kept reading. Hoping, almost begging, for some sort of plot to develop. Something, anything which would justify the praise that this book was getting. Nothing manifested. Not after I read page after mind numbing page of needlessly archaic writing full of words that made no sense and added nothing to the book. The main character's journey was full of things which made absolutely no sense and added nothing whatsoever to the story. Nevertheless, like an automaton, I kept reading and struggled through until the end where I was left with nothing whatsoever to reward my efforts other than, for an insomniac like me to only gets a few hours of sleep a night, the strongest desire to sleep and put down a book I have had since I took my last statistics class in grad school.

There are no words to describe how completely awful this book is. I have on more than one occasion, been left disappointed after a great deal of hype surrounding a particular novel or series. The writings of Eddings would be a good example along with Drake, Donaldson, and a few others. But this book completely takes the cake. Never in my life have I come across a novel with such great critique that sucked so completely out loud and with such strong conviction.

The beginning of the book is so exciting. The world is really colorful, the main character seems interesting, and a lot of little mysteries are brewing. Throughout the book, there are creative cultural notes (legends, traditions, ghosts, hints that this is the future of humanity); the history of "Urth" and its seemingly bleak future are compelling.

But there were two major flaws that completely ruined the book for me:

1. The protagonist and narrator, Severian, is lame. He undergoes absolutely no character development, he doesn't mature emotionally or psychologically, his actions never have consequences, and he never has to develop a sense of morality or deal with guilt. Other people make sacrifices or suffer for him, but he's got a cool sword and a magical gem that can do anything, so he never has to worry too much. (Which is one reason why the narrative lacks any tension or immediacy.) He falls in love with almost literally every single woman he meets, all of whom are, naturally, beautiful and also interested in him. But why? As a character, Severian is dull as dishwater, arrogant, and unlikeable. His narrative is repetitive and lifeless, because he has no personality.

2. The rampant misogyny. You could argue that Severian is a misogynist, so that is just part of his character, but every single female character is either a tertiary character or a sexual conquest. Nothing in the narrative ever forces Severian to question his assumptions, and he's never held accountable for his actions. He beats women (with extremely weird and frightening justifications, like "it doesn't matter how hard I hit her, because her hair cushioned the blow" - Oh really???), he sleeps with a woman who's obviously unwell because he wants to make her hate herself - her thoughts and feelings are never examined - and it's part of the story that the woman he claims to actually love is hurt by his actions, but is so docile and in love with him that she has to accept everything he does and will follow him no matter where he goes. It's almost like Gene Wolfe has never interacted with a woman, or he has but he didn't bother to listen to her at all, because all of his female characters act in the same bizarre, unbelievable ways. Also, he's pathetically devoted to informing us about breasts exposed by rent garments, breasts that are large, breasts in general, thighs, chafing thighs, breasts, naked women, breasts. Oh, and we deserve to be "prey" because we're so weak :)

If you read all that and think that's my kind of book!, boss for you. Regardless of the archaic vocabulary and creative world-building, I felt like I was reading some teenage boy's poorly-written, immature fantasy.

Well, Shadow & Claw is like a beautiful stage with beautifully dressed characters with blank faces.
No personality and no interesting story. Maybe this book is just an introduction to the next one,
but that IS NOT an excuse to make it so boring that I actually felt that I lost my time reading it.

For those who are looking for an interesting story or good action, stay away from this.

I found this book at a cheap hotel in Southeast Asia. This novel boils down to a guy with a magic sword wandering around and discovering the wonders of the library and having sex with just about every single female character. As an escapist fantasy for repressed nerds who read too much and have sex too little, it's a masterpiece, and even a page turner. However there was nothing to elevate it above any of the other "airplane novels" one might expect to find at a cheap hotel in Southeast Asia.

I read this on the recommendation of Neil Gaiman. I discovered that even as I worship the man's work, we have VERY different tastes in fiction. This book started out very strong for me, but as soon as the Torturer, began questing I began to snooze heavily and continuously. So someone tell me, did the sun die? Did someone kill it? I am totally chagrined. Sorry Neil.

Considering all books of all SUNs (a single book or series is not a decent option)

Science fiction = 1/2 stars
Fantasy = 2 "
Mystery, riddles = 5 "

This is a new fantasy beast, an intricate twelve books long mystery.

Wolfe mimicked the misdirections, parable architecture and revelation tricks used in most religious literature, with innumerable direct and indirect (defined by the reader theological knowledge) catholic references, subliminally enchanting the biggest portion who have had his mental taste resonating with infant-preaching.

Is comparable with the more explicit zombie and vampire phenomena, exciting hidden pleasure centers in defenseless people.

That explains the legion of admirers, but also inevitably attract a lot of independent thinkers.

Those will find in whole "Sun" series excellent grammar, mysteries hidden until the end of the Short Sun, riddles, constantly killed expectations, almost perfect lack of science and finally poor respect to the human kind, relegated to a low entropy cloud of dust with the only purpose of worship his gods.

"Wolfe indicates that those who try to follow this parody of Roman Catholicism become good Christians despite the falsity of the gods themselves"

This is supposedly a "masterpiece" or maybe its supposedly only an "SF masterpiece". Even by the abysmal standards of the SF ghetto this one belongs only in the "Noted with Disdain" column. There are a good number of 1-star reviews already that lay out the indictment. The comments on the non-hagiographic reviews are a most curious phenomenon, even worth an academic sociolgical study - apparently if you piss on this book as I and several others do, it evokes a deep personal animus among the fanboys. And said fanboys post comments on negative reviews taking such reviewer severely to task for being philistines. The fanboy pseudo-argument is often is along the lines "I like X by universally acknowledged genius Y. I like Wolfe. Therefore Wolfe is a universally acknowledged genius."
Some negative reviewers have confessed to being suckered into wasting their money and/or time on this book on the basis of blurbs from Gaiman, Le Guin, and others. I think either they sell those by the dozen, book unseen, or that the ellipses in those blurbs hide the truth..
[Note to the fanboys: Have yourselves a lonely time if you insist on commenting.]