The Book of the New Sun - The Shadow of the Torturer: Thoughts

[itstito]

I had heard really good things about Gene Wolfe, and decided to give the first book in the series a try. Many have expressed their disappointment with this novel, while many more have gone on to describe the series as a work of art, and science fiction unlike anything out there. I myself am at a difficult position after having finished book 1: while it is very clear that the author has an extremely impressive grasp of language and Severian himself is a very interesting character, none of it seemed to go anywhere. I re-read the book, underlining passages that felt like they could very well be clues which would help my reading of the rest of the series, but I have heard many readers say how it doesn't really tie up together in the end, and you'll be left fumbling for the real meaning, if at all there is one.

My question to everyone who's finished the entire series: does it really come together in the end? Or is this something akin to say Joyce's Ulysses?

 

[j d worthington]

A) Moving to the Gene Wolfe sub-forum, where it will (likely) garner more responses

B) It has been quite a long while since I read this -- not since it was first published, in fact -- but as I recall, yes, it ties together; and I very much think it deserves its reputation. Wolfe can be a difficult writer, but he is also generally well worth the effort to read closely.

C) Ummm... I would say Ulysses "ties together" quite well, actually. Takes some getting used to in spots, but I would argue it is a wonderfully constructed novel that is very carefully written, and where very little is extraneous....

 

[itstito]

Thank you. I should have posted here in the first place Well, then I'll start on the Claw of the Conciliator as soon as I can! This just might turn out to be one of the best things I'll ever read.

 

[itstito]

And by the looks of it, there has been substantial discussion regarding this elsewhere in this sub-forum. Thank you nevertheless

 

[Fried Egg]

I've read the first three books in this series and it hasn't all quite come together yet, I'm still quite confused.

But then having red one of his stand alone novels "Peace", that was the same. Even at the end it didn't really make much sense. There may well have been enough clues left for the astute reader to have pieced them altogether to enable them to understand it but obviously I was not astute enough...

I think it helps somewhat though that if you can derive pleasure from the prose itself as well as enjoying many of the subplots (even if you can't see how they fit into the big picture).

 

[T77]

There is a fifth and final book, The Urth of the New Sun, which I am almost finished reading and I would say that a lot of things are resolved and explained. That's not to say that a re-read of the series would not be in order as in most of his books.

Also, for me the final three books I thought were the best in the series, not that I did not enjoy the first two

I would say that the enjoyment in these books is not so much the destination, but the journey itself.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I feel people need to read it a least twice in order to grasp its complexities. Also - it only seems as though it's not going anywhere. But really, it is.

 

[Jane Delawney]

I feel people need to read it a least twice in order to grasp its complexities. Also - it only seems as though it's not going anywhere. But really, it is.

I've read this and the rest of the BoTNS at least 15 times, BoTLS once and BoTSS twice, and am still convinced it does all tie together ... somehow. I love this series so much I'm willing to read it all until I know it by heart, if it'll help - and if it still doesn't all tie together after that, I'll still be inclined to believe that it's because I'm dense, rather than because GW never meant it to.

Strongly recommend reading both BoTNS and UoTNS before venturing into the Long Sun novels (or you won't grok the background) and both are essential before taking on Short Sun - especially the final volume thereof. These works are all interconnected; though (again strictly IMO) it pays to remember that GW wrote them in that order - New Sun, Long Sun, Short Sun - and may not have had (likely did not have) the later works in mind when constructing the earlier.

And although the whole 12 vol series seems on the face of it to belong in the Dying Earth fantasy genre of William Hope Hodgson and Jack Vance (GW has acknowledged these as major influences), have to say that in my opinion - based largely upon multiple re-readings of New Sun, with limited experience of the remaining volumes - this is in fact hard SF.

Which is not to say that I disagree with all of the religious and spiritual readings of this work - there is at least one passage, and possibly more that I have missed, which support this notion despite various commentators' denials - again IMO!

It's all very fascinating, and that is what makes this sequence one of the great literary works of the 20th century. Do persist - it's extremely rewarding, and some people find themselves finishing a series, only to go straight back and read it again in order to find out what they missed first time.

I'm one of these, and it's been well worth it, every single time round.

cheers

jd