Hidden Treasure
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This book isnt for everyone. Its not a can't put down book. It needs to be read carefully and closely as there are so many hidden depths. This does not make it a bad book - something that gives quick easy rewards is fine, but BOTN sun gives greater rewards if you put the effort in. The world of New Sun is a stunning creation and it is brought stunningly to life with Wolfe's elegaic style. THis alone is exciting enough. But then there is the science, the metaphysics, philosophy, religious themes all carefully hidden. This book begs to be re-read.
I'm not saying its better than Lord of the Rings or that more accessible works are poor in comparison. It is simply a seperate entity that is incomparable. It heightens sci-fi by making it literal. It heightens literature by successfully incoroprating sci-fi.
Saying this its sad this book is so unknown and my only critisism of this edition is that the cover is too pulpy for the literal content. People probably see this as a hack and slash and either be turned off or buy the wrong product.
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Not as enjoyable as it should have been
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I couldn't resist getting my teeth sunk into this book. Not only is it Number 1 in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks, its author has been described by no less than Neil Gaiman as one of our finest living writers. (Some even say he's the greatest writer in the world, bar none.)
However, Gene Wolfe's style may well not be to everyone's taste. In fact, if you're a fan of Lord of the Rings (and New Sun is yet another book with a comparative reference to it on the back cover) this may well be the complete opposite of what you'd regard as A Good Read.
For a start, there is an absence of consistency and drive in the narrative. Characters appear from nowhere and are then killed off (often literally) without any notice - or, indeed, remorse on the narrator's part. There are plenty of plot meanderings and third-person anecdotes that lead to nothing. I would even suggest that Wolfe has written a series of loosely-linked short stories, disguised as a single work. (My suspicions were aroused when I realised that all four volumes of the Book of the New Sun are almost exactly 300 pages long. Could it be that Wolfe simply kept adding more short stories until he met his quota? Surely not.)
Then there's the use of language. Instead of writing it in modern English, or going down the JRR route and inventing his own, he's resurrected obscure pre-Victorian terms, such as "destrier" and "fuligin". You'll have to look these up if you're to understand what's going on, but bear in mind that no other contemporary author will ever use them: you may consider this effort poorly spent.
Two other devices (detractors would say "gimmicks") are involved. Severian is an "unreliable narrator", meaning that certain aspects of Severian's story shouldn't be trusted and you, the reader, have to decide! Unfortunately, some of the least believable events, such as a character left behind weeks ago and hundreds of miles away randomly re-appearing for no apparent reason, or the Deus Ex Machina ending, don't appear to be part of this scheme - they must have really happened.
Finally, Wolfe has some tricks up his sleeve of the "science is in the past" variety. There are hidden references to grounded rocket ships, teleportation, genetic engineering and so on, all regarded as either irrelevant or magical by the inhabitants of Severian's world. These "easter eggs" were, for me, easily the most enjoyable part of the novel.
In short, although this is an extraordinary work of the imagination, I'm far from convinced that fans of science fiction and fantasy will find it worth the very large amount of time and concentration it demands. Still, it lingers in the mind, and perhaps I'll re-read it one day, as Severian would like me to... but it won't be any time soon.
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Not as good as I was hoping
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I was generally quite disappointed with this book, finding that although many of the characters seemed rather interesting, the complete lack of coherence in the storytelling made getting to know them incredibly difficult, with Severian gaining and losing travelling companions entirely without explanation or mention, and entering and leaving situations in exactly the same manner.
I suppose I should have expected this, having read 'The Wizard Knight', in which sudden jumps in the timeline of the story aren't explained until much, much later, but I was hoping that this had been a more recent affectation - and I was proven disappintingly wrong in 'the book of the new sun'.
I haven't even read the second half of the series yet - and I didn't find myself sufficiently drawn in in the first half to give me any motivation to do so at all.
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Takes time, but so do all good things.
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To me all the books in Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle ( The book of the New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun) are in similar vein to The Lord of the Rings, Gormenghast, The Chronicles of Amber; Massively ambitious fantasy books that when given the proper attention, fully reach their own potential. This is a fantastically written book, sharp descriptions and a clever narrative style (severian as a narrator is fallable, and thus leads to some interesting questions over his story-telling) and leave you wanting more and more.
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Deservedly Acclaimed Science Fantasy
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From what I've read so far of 'The Book of the New Sun' tetralogy (i.e., this ;)), Wolfe deserves at least a part of his considerable acclaim. He expertly lays out his rather gothic, intricately detailed scenes, and proceeds to fill them with a plethora of characters. Some of these characters will only appear in a single chapter or two, but Wolfe is always careful to clearly delineate each creation, pumping them full of personality and luscious description that fills the words with vivid physicality. The plot can occasionally appear a bit unconnected, and Wolfe is prone to philosophical flights of fancy that don't always fit with the picture of the character he has built up, but any failings are more than made up for atmospherically. It is in this that Wolfe excels - his world is immersive, outlandish, but consistently engaging. He is also highly inventive, producing streams of neologisms as well as reviving medieval terminology (e.g., 'leman', 'destrier'), which provides a certain degree of archaic authenticity to Wolfe's world of Urth. As this is also intended to be Earth, but a million years in the future, that authenticity is especially well applied. My one problem with is that, in this volume, Wolfe is somewhat conventional in his treatment of women; he tends to use them to decorate his text rather than engage fully into an investigation of gender issues. The female characters are invariably attractive, and almost always attracted to his main character, Severian. Still, this one chauvinistic failing aside, 'The Shadow of the Torturer' (first of the two books included in this volume) is a rewarding piece of fiction. This second volume in the tetralogy, 'The Claw of the Conciliator', has many of the strengths of its predecessor, but also some weaknesses. In particular, the chapters in which Wolfe attempts stylistic and structural innovation, such as his play and 'extract', fall short of his usual writing. Of course, that still means falling short of a rather high standard, so while these sections are less enjoyable than others, they still manage to expand Wolfe's New Sun mythos. The narrative also continues the occasionally disconnected sensation prevalent in the first, which is a part of Wolfe's style, albeit one which can be confusing when the jump-cuts follow in quick succession. This is noticeable at the beginning of the second book, where it takes a while to establish a connection with the end of Wolfe's previous work, 'The Shadow of the Torturer'. One point of special interest is Wolfe's greater emphasis on science fiction elements, though these are cleverly interwoven with the fantasy milieu in a way that doesn't jar. Hence the reason these books are categorised as science fantasy rather than either one or the other genre.
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