The Complete Book of the New Sun: The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch, The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe – eBook Details

Imagine someone writing two dozen prompts in different universes with different tones, different characters and in divergent styles. Then imagine someone trying to piece together these half-stories into a narrative and this is what you end up with. The story is a set of disconnected impressions which meander without purpose. The author is EXTREMELY free in introducing imaginary words, and has a habit of reeling them off. An example: "This reminded me of the flargulburt, and the whoopy-di, and the crested hooplesnap. On the flinning of Voling, I often found myself gazing at the flargulburts before the hour of the Ydwan. " Each 'scene' of the story just vomits inconsequential characters burbling about nothing at all. While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Little Eata fidgeted with nervousness, and the leader saw us and lifted his lantern over his head. "We're waiting to get in, goodman," Drotte called. He was the taller, but he made his dark face humble and respectful.Severian laughs at this twisted logic and says he is not such a fool. Agia drops her gown and clasps Severian, declaring her love for him but then also reaching into his sabretache. Severian forcefully thrusts her away and her head strikes the wall; she slides down the wall weeping. He believes she was trying to steal the letter intended for the archon of Thrax but Agilus says she was after the coins in the sabretache. Severian leads her out into the hall and gives her a coin. The old man tells Severian that he cannot find his wife because the bodies move due to an underwater conduit; indeed, some have been seen out in the distant sea. He has been searching for his wife’s body for over 15 years and is convinced she is now wandering and may return to him because he has pulled up all the bodies in the lake in that time. He has been looking for her because when she was put under the water, her eyes opened and he dreams of it every night. He needs to find her end the dream and his belief that she may return. This is maybe one of the saddest books I've read. An overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness pours out of each line. It is deeply emotional book, and I don't think such a book is for everyone.

It is my nature, my joy and my curse, to forget nothing. Every rattling chain and whistling wind, every sight, smell, and taste, remains changeless in my mind, and though I know it is not so with everyone, I cannot imagine what it can mean to be otherwise, as if one had slept when in fact an experience is merely remote. Those few steps we took upon the whited path rise before me now: It was cold and growing colder; we had no light, and fog had begun to roll in from Gyoll in earnest. A few birds had come to roost in the pines and cypresses, and flapped uneasily from tree to tree. I remember the feel of my own hands as I rubbed my arms, and the lantern bobbing among the steles some distance off, and how the fog brought out the smell of the river water in my shirt, and the pungency of the new-turned earth. I had almost died that day, choking in the netted roots; the night was to mark the beginning of my manhood. Drotte moved away, and the rest of us stayed behind him. "Who are you, goodman? You're not soldiers."Some of them, however, I borrowed from friends who had been doing pretty much the same, or buying the occasional volume in one of the two bookstores in Rio that carried imported books. One of these friends I’d met in a course on translation—Pedro Ribeiro was an avid reader, as I was, but his interests tended more to the Fantasy side. He introduced me to many interesting writers, such as David Zindell (who remains to this day one of my favorite authors), and, naturally, Gene Wolfe. Audible really outdid themselves with this production. I can't imagine a finer narrator for this series than Jonathon Davis. His pacing, emphasis, vocal expressions and various character renderings are flawless. The pacing is particularly important, as nearly every sentence contains some clue to solving the final puzzle. Though Severian expects to be tortured and executed, instead the head of the guild dispatches Severian to Thrax, a distant city which has need of an executioner. Master Palaemon gives Severian a letter of introduction to the archon of the city and Terminus Est, a magnificent executioner's sword. He departs the guild headquarters, traveling through the decaying city of Nessus. He finally comes upon an inn, where he forces the innkeeper to take him in despite being full and is asked to share a room with other boarders. His roommates are the giant Baldanders and Dr. Talos, travelling as mountebanks, who invite Severian to join them in a play to be performed the same day. During breakfast, Dr. Talos manages to recruit the waitress for his play and they set out into the streets. Severian continues his travels toward Thrax, and Dorcas accompanies him. While searching his belongings, Severian finds the Claw of the Conciliator. Apparently Agia stole the Claw from the altar they destroyed and placed it in Severian's belongings knowing that she would be searched. Eventually Severian and Dorcas encounter Dr. Talos, Baldanders and Jolenta, who are almost ready to perform the play they had invited Severian to the morning before. Severian assists in the play, and the next day the group sets out toward the great gate leading out of Nessus, where they meet a man named Jonas. As they are passing through the gate, there is suddenly a commotion and the narration abruptly ends.

As they cross the Lake of Birds, Hildegrin says that some call it that because many birds are found dead in the water. However he thinks it’s just because there are so many birds found at the Garden of Everlasting Sleep. He comments, “But she’s a good friend to birds, Death is. Wherever there’s dead men and quiet, you’ll find a good many birds, that’s been my experience.” Severian agrees, recalling the thrushes in the necropolis. Severian is sent on a mission to retrieve a mysterious item known as “The Claw of the Conciliator,” which is said to have the power to heal the sun. Along the way, he encounters a diverse cast of characters, including a band of rebels, a group of heretics, and a powerful ruler known as the Autarch. As they walk the road, Dorcas talks about Hethor following Severian is like how she followed Severian, despite her fear of Agia’s hatred toward her. Severian expresses surprise but Dorcas says Agia hated her even more when Dorcas assisted the dazed Severian from the Sanguinary Fields after the duel. Severian then reflects on his good fortune since leaving the Citadel. “Dorcas I knew was my friend – more than a lover, a true companion, even though we had been together only a few days. The giant’s heavy tread behind me reminded me of how many men there are who wander Urth utterly alone. I knew then (or thought I did) why Baldanders chose to obey Dr. Talos, bending his mighty strength to whatever task the red-haired man laid on him.” The only issue I had was that the author does ramble more than once, even to the point of being annoying in a few instances. Once during the book, I did sigh and think, "Can we get on with it?" However, this did not spoil my overall enjoyment.There where parts I liked. His compassion for the lady to be tortured, the dog he rescues, the tunnel under the city. There is an interesting plot twist involving a duel, only it is a duel with plants.

To state that the world of Severian is grim is greater than an exaggeration; it is unable to entirely stand for the stagnancy as well as ethical latitude the personalities expose. As correct a torturer, Severian is very uncertain morally, qualified of both deep love in addition to wish yet also passionless when it concerned physical violence. The character oscillates in between merciful (for one personality) as well as divided when executing an added in addition to there is incredibly little in the means of brevity from the significant personality. Wolfe furthermore takes his time in spite of the measurement of the tale in getting where he wishes the personality (in addition to the target audience) to go. There are no grand events in this story (another break from design conventions). Instead, Wolfe counts on little occasions that finish in substantial yet regulated changes in the significant personality. In the beginning phases of overview, Severian reveals grace as well as looks after a damaged wardog. This worry builds up inside the character, leading to the event that would definitely trigger his expulsion from the just house the character has really ever understood amongst the torturers.They enter the Garden of Endless Sleep which consists of a dark lake in an endless fen. Agia explains that the lake water can preserve corpses so they are weighted down with lead to reside there and their locations noted so they can found later. An old man paddling a skiff approaches and disputes this – although he has a marked diagram, he cannot locate the body of his wife. He further explains that the deadly averns were planted here by Father Inire to kill the manatees which came through the conduit. Agia is not interested and proceeds forward but Severian slowly walks along the shore in time with the old man’s paddling while the two converse. After seeing the suspended building for a brief moment, Severian comes to realize that he loves Dorcas but in a different way than he had loved Thecla. They discuss whether it was a vision and Dorcas says she does not know whether she has ever had a vision because she can recall only brief moments before coming out of the water, including a small dog barking outside a door. Severian then asks if she has heard the idea that the universe has a secret key. He states that the brown book had a section listing all of the alleged keys of the universe, collected from all of the different worlds. One of them is that everything is a sign which has three meanings – its practical meaning, its impact and what it says about the world around it, and its transubstantial meaning which expresses the will of the Pancreator. Dorcas says the third meaning of the building that leaped into the sky seems very clear (although she does not express that meaning) but the first and second meanings are more difficult to interpret. Shortly thereafter, Severian is elevated to journeyman on the Feast of Holy Katherine. He next encounters and falls in love with Thecla, a beautiful aristocratic prisoner. Her status permits her some luxuries, including the books that Severian is sent to obtain from the Master Ultan, the librarian. Inside, they visit several engrossing gardens. Severian falls into a lake used to inter the dead, and while emerging finds a young woman named Dorcas to have come up from the lake as well. Dazed and confused, the woman follows Severian and Agia. Severian secures the avern and the group proceeds to an inn near the dueling grounds. While eating dinner, Severian receives a mysterious note warning about one of the women. After dinner, Severian meets with his challenger, and though stabbed by the avern he miraculously survives and finds that his challenger was the male owner of the rag shop, Agia's brother Agilus. Severian wins the duel amid some confusion. The next day, he is requested to perform an execution. The client is his challenger, Agia's brother, whom he executes.