Book of the New Sun — Unsurpassed in Depth and Beauty

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Orb Books (October 15, 1994)
ISBN: 0312890176
Price: $14.95

I read The Book of the New Sun when it debuted back in the 1980s. Since then I've read it twice more and intend to read it again. Gene Wolfe has been hailed as a modern day Melville, and also as the best sci-fi writer working today. In short, no one but Gene Wolfe could've written The Book of the New Sun. Although it contains elements of mythology as well as technical aspects of sci-fi, The Book of the New Sun is neither; perhaps it is a genre all its own. This tetrology, now combined in two volumes-Shadow and Claw, and Sword and Citadel-mark Wolfe as the most important writer in the sci-fi field today.

The Book of the New Sun chronicles, in first person, the travels of young Severian, born into the guild of Torturers and exiled for showing mercy to one of his victims, to eventually become Urth's Autarch, or ruler, in a time so distant in our future that all memory of our history has been long forgotten, despite ancient relics such as the painting described as a gold-visored knight who is really an astronaut standing on the moon. The denizens of that distant future Urth live in perpetual twilight, as the sun itself is dying.

Wolfe has created in The Book of the New Sun perhaps the greatest depiction of a future society and history that I've ever read, with glimpses at technology that is otherworldly and alien creatures combined with elements of Dickens, Kafka, and Borges. The language is magical, lyrical, with a touch of ancientness. Wolfe's protagonist Severian is a gentle soul, despite the savage indifference his trade demands from him. Readers will discover that they would willingly follow Severian anywhere across Urth to bear witness to his quest.

The Book of the New Sun is an epic masterpiece that Wolfe has yet to equal in the 20 years since its completion, despite eight additional books based on these original four works. Achingly good, The Book of the New Sun is filled with treasures awaiting discovery with each subsequent reading: it beckons to be read sequentially.