staticskyy's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Book of the New Sun series is strange, dense, and hard to grasp on a first read. Yet, it is one of the most imaginative and rewarding series of books I have read. Neil Gaiman does a better job than me describing the beauty of these stores as such: "The more deeply you delve into the book, the more it will repay the delving. There are no digressions, no matter how much it appears that there are: each small journey is the huge journey, as a hologram contains the whole picture in each fragment." [1]
If you love Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Dark Souls, or finding new layers of understanding and wisdom upon each read, give this series a shot.
[1] https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/neil-gaiman-gene-wolfe-folio-society/
If you love Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Dark Souls, or finding new layers of understanding and wisdom upon each read, give this series a shot.
[1] https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/neil-gaiman-gene-wolfe-folio-society/
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny
rbrtvzz's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
arthurbdd's review against another edition
5.0
When Gollancz started the Fantasy Masterworks series, they made this compilation volume 1 in it, and they were damn right to do so. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2023/01/08/gene-wolfes-solar-cycle-part-1-a-magnificent-saga-executed-perfectly/
clmckinney's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fantasy/sci-fi tale of a torturer. He journeys away from his guild as an exile. The beginning of the book was really good but then there were parts that were a bit boring for me. The writing is good but I didn't like the plays that appear in the book. Those didn't add to the story. I already bought the sequel as I am interested in the quest of this character, but I probably won't read any more after that. I give this one a 3.7/5.
valjeanval's review against another edition
4.0
I had very mixed feelings about this book. At the beginning, I loved it. I'm a little sad that I went into already knowing but even still it was so much fun watching the slow reveal. Really, I enjoyed Shadow of the Torturer a lot for both the vivid language and the slow-burn of the puzzle. It's so full of mysteries that I enjoyed solving or not solving as they came along.
Sometimes, the dreamy nature of the prose made me get a bit lost, and I often found myself having to go back and re-read. This didn't necessarily hurt my enjoyment, but I found myself attacking the book with a very analytic bent, and that made it harder to hold on to the story. There is so much to this world that I probably should have read it with a wiki open, but I was afraid of spoilers.
The world is without a doubt the best part of the book. It's intriguing and mystical, but there are layers upon layers for anyone paying attention. I think I really started paying attention when Jonas (probably my favorite character) starts taking stage in the second book. Jonas is a fantastic outside perspective, and his twist is the one that blew me away. I'm hoping he comes back in the next book. In any case, the Wolfe has such a clear concept of a dying Earth that the book deserves to rank in the top of fantasy charts for that alone.
This doesn't make it perfect, at least not for me. My issues come, as they so often do in classic works, with the treatment of women. Actually, with Severian's treatment of women. I started off really liking the guy, torturer or no. He was naïve, yes, but he had a way of thinking and an attitude which read very real to me. His relationship with Thecla is unique, confusing, and tragic. Actually, that can be said of his relationship with Vodalus, his guild, and many of the people he meets on his journey.
However, it can't be said for all of the women, save Thecla. His first foray outside the Citadel, and he meets Agia for whom he has almost uncontrollable lust. Then there's Dorcas, who despite being described as childlike in every way, he also has uninhibited desire for. Dorcas herself is a problem for me in that she just randomly pledges herself to Severian, and neither book explains who she is or why she does this. Hoping that gets clarified later in the series. Then there's Jolenta, He looks at every single woman as an object of desire first. I don't know yet whether to interpret this as an intentional characterization of Wolfe's 1st person narrator or as genuine failure in the treatment of women. Either way, my opinion of Severian kept plummeting as the story went on. I guess this is what happens when you lock a kid in a tower without exposing him to women until puberty, then buy him a prostitute.
Neither book really stands on its own, and I know they were intended to be one gigantic volume, so I think I'll just dive into the next one while I still remember who all the characters are. Maybe a few hundred more pages will either make Severian a better person or at least make one of the women slap some sense into him.
Spoiler
the sci-fi background to this fantastic world. I can only imagine how mind-blowing it must be once the pieces start coming together on their ownSometimes, the dreamy nature of the prose made me get a bit lost, and I often found myself having to go back and re-read. This didn't necessarily hurt my enjoyment, but I found myself attacking the book with a very analytic bent, and that made it harder to hold on to the story. There is so much to this world that I probably should have read it with a wiki open, but I was afraid of spoilers.
The world is without a doubt the best part of the book. It's intriguing and mystical, but there are layers upon layers for anyone paying attention. I think I really started paying attention when Jonas (probably my favorite character) starts taking stage in the second book. Jonas is a fantastic outside perspective, and his twist is the one that blew me away. I'm hoping he comes back in the next book. In any case, the Wolfe has such a clear concept of a dying Earth that the book deserves to rank in the top of fantasy charts for that alone.
This doesn't make it perfect, at least not for me. My issues come, as they so often do in classic works, with the treatment of women. Actually, with Severian's treatment of women. I started off really liking the guy, torturer or no. He was naïve, yes, but he had a way of thinking and an attitude which read very real to me. His relationship with Thecla is unique, confusing, and tragic. Actually, that can be said of his relationship with Vodalus, his guild, and many of the people he meets on his journey.
However, it can't be said for all of the women, save Thecla. His first foray outside the Citadel, and he meets Agia for whom he has almost uncontrollable lust. Then there's Dorcas, who despite being described as childlike in every way, he also has uninhibited desire for. Dorcas herself is a problem for me in that she just randomly pledges herself to Severian, and neither book explains who she is or why she does this. Hoping that gets clarified later in the series. Then there's Jolenta,
Spoiler
whom he essentially rapes while she's unconscious even though he says again and again that he doesn't much like her and prefers Dorcas.Neither book really stands on its own, and I know they were intended to be one gigantic volume, so I think I'll just dive into the next one while I still remember who all the characters are. Maybe a few hundred more pages will either make Severian a better person or at least make one of the women slap some sense into him.
ponycanyon's review
3.0
Chalk me up as another who just couldn't get through it. Wolfe sets up an incredible world and concept in the first quarter of the book, but as soon as Severian sets out into the world it becomes an endless succession of the same picaresque episodes that we've read in a thousand fantasy novels before. The first quarter is still amazing - consider reading up to about page 150 as a novella and then just dumping the rest.
frogman_doug's review
5.0
Masterful: Wolfe was an unsung genius; a monolith to which fantasy readers and academics are drawn and immediately rewarded. Deep, dense, complex, and utterly terrifying...I loved every page of it.
pfeibusch's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0