Political intrigue and murky mysteries permeate every page.
Pain, though uncomfortable, can be useful. The Guild of Torturers is well acquainted with this concept, and Severian, a journeyman of the guild, has found its application to be his life’s purpose. However, he has one flaw: mercy. After helping an inmate end their life painlessly, Severian is cast out from his guild’s halls and into a wide world of strange “post-historic” earth.
Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun is a strange tale of a strange man’s journey. The story is set so far into the future that guns have fallen to swords, husks of rockets stand as cathedral spires, and photos of astronauts are described as “knights with golden helmets.” Wolfe’s disjointed prose gives only a veiled glimpse of what’s happening. It’s easy to get lost in it, but with attention, there is just enough information to paint a scene so alien that the reader can’t help but be drawn into the haze of half-imagined adventure.
Each chapter’s climax—Severian’s exile, a strange duel, a traveling troupe, and a sci-fi prison, to name a few—leaves many questions unanswered. The reader’s satisfaction, however, comes partly from that lack of knowledge as they are left to puzzle over and discover the world around the characters. In the event that the reader is unsuccessful in doing so, the story holds up nonetheless, and the characters are clear where their setting is not. Political intrigue and murky mysteries permeate every page. At the book’s surface lives a satisfying story, but at its core, Book of the New Sun has a whole world for the reader to explore and piece together. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is for the strange of mind.
—Review by Kevin Clark
