Rating: 
Summary: I'm shocked!!!
Review: "The first of two volumes of one of the greatest novels ever written", "A masterpiece. Tatally original, new, incomparable; the beginning of something great." "Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time after the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit..." blah, blah, blah - these are some of the high praises for this book. I forced myself through the first book hoping that the second would finally show something of "the greatest novel of all time". After watching "Severian", a person who is a learned torturer (how charming) and kills and torturers people for money, for 300-something pages and "listening" to his rather boring thoughts, living in his well written but dark and dying and depressing world, I reached a point in the second book "The claw of the conciliator" were I found myself unable to read on. There Gene Wolfe describes how the main character executes a young woman, in detail. First she's branded on both cheek's, then her legs are broken and after that she's beheaded. I'm just shocked and don't intend to read it further. I just can't identify with a main character like that and of course I'm offended by the violence and sadism in this book. I couldn't find anything wise, unusually intelligent or inspiring in this "work". What I can't understand is the hype created around these books. While his writing is pretty good it is so overloaded with archaic greek and latin vocabulary that it's ridiculous. I've read the books of the Long Sun which I liked - so I expected this to be something like those books. I find it alarming how many of the so called masterpieces today are needlessly violent and sadistic.I have nothing left to say, only that I wasted my money and time on this.
Rating: 
Summary: Second to None
Review: Why try to go in-depth? This book is the pinnacle of american fantasy: kafka-esque, nightmarish, but full of hope. The interludes provide a very-real backdrop to a society that has slowly lost itself over millions of years of stagnation. Severian is the chlorine thrown into the stagnant water that is modern fantasy.
This series will leave the most gourmet appetite filled. Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman fanbois need not apply.
Rating:
Summary: Pure reading enjoyment
Review: I had heard very little of Mr.Wolfe's writings when I wen to the bookstore to find something exciting. This work is brilliance, and a shining star among sci-fi/fantasy novels.
As a torturer Severin is facinating. The most compelling aspect of the novel is the alien life of an outcast torturer. It is the fire that keeps it moving along. As Severin experiences this new and strange world so does the reader. A fantastic story bound firmly by a master of prose.
Rating:
Summary: Starts strong but quickly became tedious
Review: The concept of the main character being a torturer is fascinating and is by far the most interesting concept of the book. The first book (Shadow of the Torturer) is actually decent for this reason. Unfortunately the author seems to get bored and entire chapters are taken up with short stories, plays, and other half-assed works. In the second book the narrator states "assume I am continuing to work as a torturer as I travel" and goes on to tell the story in a high fantasy style ignoring the most fascinating parts of the character. I had just finished China Melville's "Perdito Street Station" and have to say that Gene Wolfe's pretensions are a mockery of writing after reading China's masterful ministrations. If you want complex worlds try Steven Erikson, if you want artistic style try China Melville. If you want good fiction about executioners you should try to chase down some of Dru Pagliosotti's High Lord Executioner tales (web only). All those works show years of care and effort, while this book had obvious spelling and textural errors. Even the editor had trouble finishing the book to all appearances.
Rating:
Summary: laughable genre-writer pretension
Review: Wolfe is the type of writer who writes to impress critics, other writers, and people who would like to be writers, instead of drawing on deeper cultural archetypes or his own spiritual depths (such as they might be). What that means is this: first, he gets good reviews. Second, he heavy-handedly inserts vapid asides which he and his target demographic imagine are deep philosophical insights in every twentieth paragraph; provides slick, polished prose that really says and evokes nothing at all; and most importantly, leaves everything of any importance in the book open to endless interpretation, giving the genre-fiction geek-critics fodder for endless useless debate. It goes without saying that he provides zero entertainment value, as that would injure his reputation. If you're one of these pseudo-literary types who likes the Harlan Ellison or Neil Gaiman brand of fantasy, well, here's some more of it. Or, if you actually have any taste or want to have any fun, go read Jack Vance's marvelous, ten-star classic "Tales of Dying Earth" -- the book that Wolfe is doing a poor job of ripping off in this egregious product of sci-fi-convention, writer's-workshop culture.
Rating:
Summary: Something original in all aspects
Review: If you have found yourself in the same position as I, were time and again you run into typical cliché formulated fantasy and science fiction. Then I feel you will find this novel and its predecessors truly captivating. The novel tells the story of a Severian, an apprentice of the guild of torturers, who through his own mercy becomes an outcast in a world as alien to him as it is to the reader. The series guides Severian through a long a struggle filled journey filled with characters and locations that range from humorous to out right bizarre. Summing up the depth and elegance of Wolfe's creation is something that can only be achieved by reading the novel itself. The language, the intricate story that weaves its web in subtle ways, the philosophy, the mysteries that uncover the identity of the world all bring something new to the table of fantasy. I was truly captivated by this novel and recommend it to any advanced reader. I say advanced because I will admit the language is difficult and from what I read from other reviewers this seems to bother a few people. This is not romp along cheesy fantasy and if that is your ticket I'll suggest you should avoid. Anyone who is looking for something that provokes the mind, and has a bit of rich texture go no further then this novel and its follow up Sword and Citadel.
Rating: 
Summary: Wolfe overrated
Review: When I saw that this book got such great reviews I decided to buy it - big mistake! I feel obligated to write a review to others so that they can avoid the same mistake. In all fairness some of the reviews which rated this book as great did so with the qualification that the style is difficult. This is an understatement - the characters are boring and the story is confusing. The direction is never clear, characters come and go with no overall theme and you never get any strong feeling for the main character (one way or the other). I got through the whole book and even tried to start book#3 in the series but could see it going nowhere and finally decided to put myself out of my misery and just quit. I would advice you to avoid making the same mistake and take a pass on this series. Recommend :
Any Jack Vance novel - especially Demon Princes, Night Lamp, Dying Earth, Lyonnesse Stephen King's Dark Tower series
Rating:
Summary: Begin the Dream...
Review: Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series involves the reader immediately in a maelstrom of intrigue and adventure. The surreality of a protagonist as a torturer sets the scene for a dreamlike succession of Candide-like complications. Severian is not easily categoried; at times he seems amoral, violent, and indecisive, yet he also strives to be part of something larger than himself, has his (almost outside himself) tender moments, and makes tough choices that could put his life on the line. In short, a very real person. The world he lives in is pseudo-medieval. There are street hawkers and city paid executioners and a hierarchy of nobles. But there are also machines that run on "lightening" (the word "electricity" having been long forgotten), Pleistocene era animals, and "fliers." Yes, there are probably a couple hundred words you won't know, but they won't slow you down when you first read it, and when you read it again, you'll start looking them up (by the way, Wolfe did NOT make up any of the words--he's used Latin roots, Biblical references, obsolete words, Indian, Persian, and Greek mythology, heraldic terms, and a vast array of names for weapons and extinct animals) and your new knowledge will only add to the books' seduction. Not to mention, you'll kick ass if you ever play Scrabble. You will forsake family, work, and Christmas just to have more time to read. I cannot recommend these books enough.
Rating:
Summary: Long Days Journey into Light
Review: This series of five books (inc Urth of the New Sun) is singly the most imaginative and moving piece of sci fi I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is not, an easy road, as Severian the central character states at the end of book 1, but is well worth pursuing again and again. Such is the nature of the writing, different levels of meaning and suggestion are discovered on every reading, and a detailed examination of the sequence reveals a story which is so rich in texture as to suggest a visual tapestry of imagery. Wolfes books range from the impenetrable to the merely obscure, but BOTNS must be read by any sci fi enthusiast - not just the first book(s) but the whole series, as although each book is a self contained wonder, it is only after completing the final part that the whole sequence lights up like a neon sign and glows with the light of the Claw. An indisputable 20th century classic. Fabulous.
Rating: 
Summary: Literary science fiction
Review: Shadow and Claw is a combination of the first two volumes of Gene Wolfe's tetralogy The Book of the New Sun. The individual books are Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator, and both follow (and are narrated by) Severian, an apprentice torturer on a far future Earth. Severian is a young member of the Torturer's Guild, a respected (but also reviled) part of the government that implements punishments, sometimes through executions and sometimes through slower, more painful means. The Guild members are not sadistic, but they are extremely bureaucratic, referring to their victims as clients and rigidly following the instructions of their higher-ups. Although relatively content in this life, Severian breaks a cardinal rule by showing mercy to a prisoner. This leads to his exile and a series of bizarre adventures that - as we are told quite early on - will lead to Severian's ascension to the throne of the Autarch. In a vague sense, this is similar to Jack Vance's Dying Earth books, which also take place in an era when the sun is dying and Earth's civilization has become almost medieval again, with magic often replacing technology. But where Vance focuses on humor and adventure, Wolfe has a loftier, more detached goal, aiming for a story that is more literature than genre fiction. To some extent, he succeeds: this is a very well-written tale, in the sense that he is adept at the use of language. On the other hand, many readers may be distracted by his meandering plot and sometimes confusing action. Although this series is considered somewhat of a classic, I'm not sure if I'd personally rate it that high. It is not an easy read, and I feel my perspective may change if I reread it in the future; based on a single read, however, I'd say this is a good novel, bordering on great, but still a bit shy of true classic status.
|
