Rating: 
Summary: More Literary Science Fantasy
Review: Sword and Citadel is the combination of Sword of the Lictor and Citadel of the Autarch, the final two volumes in Gene Wolfe's tetralogy, The Book of the New Sun. In it, we follow exiled torturer Severian on a series of adventures that (as the reader knows early on) will lead him to the position of Autarch, the king of his land.As with the first half of this story, Wolfe is aiming for something more than a routine science fantasy novel, with general but not complete success. The flaw is that in aiming for something more literary, Wolfe is also detaching himself from a lot of his potential audience. The prose is sometimes a bit densely written and the action often seems to meander from the main story. For example, it is not uncommon for there to be a break in the story by having some character tell a tale that is more or less unrelated to the main plot. A good piece of literature often offers more upon multiple reads, and that is what this tetralogy aspires to be. Is it successful? Maybe, although after only one read, I was not completely satisfied. As with the first volume, Shadow and Claw, this book is good to great, but not perfect. While many will enjoy reading this book, they should be aware going in that this is not your typical fantasy novel.
Rating: 
Summary: The New Sun Lives beyond the 21st Century!
Review: Sword and Citadel; the 2nd half the New Sun series, (both books) have no equal in literature. The better reviews (see Chris McCallister's right-on review), at Amazon are more articulate and indepth, help you appreciate the scope of this work. Written in a wonderful memoir style prose, the story proceeds with our hero, Severian (an excommunicated journeyman torturer), making an Odyssean adventure to ultimately unravel the mystery that is the instrumentality and power of the supreme ruler, known as the Autarch. Faced with the crises of the sun going extinct, the obstacles of war, unexplained phenomena and the perils of health, life and limb. Our hero unfolds to his destiny, from near death to resurrection (he is a type of Odysseus, the perfect hero for all millenia). The images and symbolism is at times indeed difficult to understand, but the story gets through. The author keeps your attention and makes you think of things you never thought of without being preachy or condescending. In Mr. Wolfe's omniverse, everything is not always as it appears to be so there is subtlety at every turn. Sword and Citadel answers a lot of questions from the the previous book (Shadow of the Tortuer and Claw of the Conciliator). However, an epic would not be an epic if there is not something to make you look forward to. In this case, the book of the Long Sun series... I can not say enough that these works bear repeated reading to fully appreciate them. I highly highly recommend. Thank you Mr. Wolfe!
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: The people who dimiss this by comparing it to great books of the past are making a BIG mistake. They are right in saying that it is not similar to this classic or that. But so what, do we really want that? Is it even possible? If a painter comes along in 2001 doing cubism just like picasso did it long ago is this the purpose of art? I don't think so. These are the type of people that feel that if you can't get a degree reading a book it's not great literature. They are also the narrow minded ... of the many who I'm sure said the same thing about Ulysees, Crime and Punishment etc. etc. etc. GENE WOLFE IS A GREAT WRITER AND THIS WHOLE SERIES IS GREAT.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest stories ever told
Review: This book encompases the second half of the New Sun series, and you should first see the reviews for the first two books (in one volume), "Shadow & Claw". "Sword & Citadel" continues the story from there. Once you start "Shadow & Claw" you will NEED "Sword & Citadel", so buy them together. The story then continues in "Urth of the New Sun", so get that one too. They all comprise an unforgettable story that is so full of wonders and excitement that, after reading the series, was it to come up conversation, you would find yourself unable to stop questioning and puzzling over the mysteries Gene Wolfe has contrived. When it happened to me, I had to go back and reread it. This series is a Rust Mave--that's FIVE WHOLE FIRST-LETTERS PAST A MUST HAVE! Now that's something.
Rating:
Summary: For the sake of promotion
Review: This book is good. Very good. The whole series is exceptionally good. I would not recomment it to anyone; I know too many people who would be unable to appreciate the depth of Wolfe's writing. The emotional, moral, and to a lesser degree philosophical implications create a great deal of depth and longevity to the story. Read the book, then read it again because it's that good.
Rating: 
Summary: Not really comparable to the classics
Review: This is the third in the Book of the New Sun series that I've read. Judged against other science fantasies it is among the best, but judged against classics it doesn't really stand up. I only add this because of the number of reviews comparing this to great writing of the past. Not so. Wolfe's plotting leaves a lot to be desired. It one thing to subtley leave clues and nuances but another thing to not tie up plot lines. Ian Bain's "Use of Weapons" is a good model. Reading it one has the feeling of "where is this going?", but by the final chapter Bain converges the total writing towards his goal. There isn't quite this cohesion in any of the New Sun books. Using archaic vocabulary is at first interesting, then becomes nothing but a gimmick that basically makes the reading a chore rather than a pleasure. Some reviewers have commented that Wolfe writing is on such a high plain that he makes the reader work and as such he is great literature. Baloney. Read Dosteyevski, Hemmingway, Tolstoy and Shakespeare. There isn't much guessing when it comes to plot, rather the point is to convey a sense or impression rather than make the reader guess as to what the hell is going on. Again, I only make the comparasion to these writers because of the numbers of reviewers comparing this to "great literature". As a science fantasy, this is a decent work. Like most, it's basically an adolescent male fantasy, complete with emotional, submissive women, the requisite battles with strange attackers and a citadel that is really something else than what it seems. Additionally, the endless "I loved her" statements regarding every other women he meets are damned irritating. The characters are basically one dimensional, with little thought to any depth except the main character, who is not that likeable for that matter. When at the end of book II he meets the "rebel" commander he needlessly kills the three guards who work for the man he supposedly admires. Then, V, after seeing the headless body of one of his men, greets Severian as....a guest. Not exactly a military leader that would inspire confidence among his soldiers. I began to think that Urth would actually be a better place if the main character and all of his torturers guild were basically wiped off the planet and the series itself would be a much better one if the mystery of how Urth became the way it was became the main point of the story rather than a collateral one. Basically, if you like adolescent male science fantasies with a bit of a twist this does well. Judged on that basis it stands well on its own merits. Judged as great literature, it falls very flat. It takes more than a thesauras referencing medieval English vocabulary and sometimes convoluted plotting which some confuse as "subtlety" to qualify as classic literature. Tolkein on some level knew this, and produced a much greater work.
Rating: 
Summary: Silly and bankrupt beyond words
Review: To say The Book of the New Sun to a retelling of the old testament is to say that "Smokey and the Bandit" is a retelling of Ulysses. I was originally taken in by the rave reviews and even gave the first volume, Shadow of the Torturer a grudging three stars. Now that I have completed the four novels I feel cheated. The "great vocabulary" is nothing more than a device that actually tires after awhile, not because one can't understand it, but rather it becomes a gimmick. Good writing may make a reader search for meaning, but it doesn't make a reader search for plot. And that is one of several problems with this story. I kept expecting some sort of summation, some revelation of several needlessly ambiguous plot points. But, no such luck. Fine, if you want to convince yourself that being confused by an underplotted, overwritten storyline is really being treated intelligently by the writer, then go ahead. But an final vigorous editing is what this series needed badly. Wolfe seems to "write on the fly". In other words, something is suddenly revealed in book three about a character in book one. You're left thinking- what? He uses this technique not because he planned it or to make the story or characters deeper or for any other reason than it fits into the gimmick storyline/adventure he has thought up for Severian at that moment in his writing. To think it's more complex than that is to fool yourself. In the end this is a tale silly beyond words. The main character actually takes part in the horrible torture of the woman he loves early on(!) and we are left to the third book to see any attempt at redemption? The redemption itself is a response to the terrible critical beating Wolfe took over the ammorality of his main character by several literary reviewers of that time (early eighties), not to any pre-planned story line. If you are impressed by little used vocabulary, consider being confused by a poor plot "intellectually challenging" and are wowed with sophmoric philisophical musings thought up by one dimensional characters, then by all means take a stab at this. Otherwise look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Milestone - But Where To?
Review: Unparalleled, yes. Yet, I must offer a somewhat askew opinion of all four parts of Mr. Wolfe's magnificent series: There is much meandering and often seemingly parenthetical material to these episodes of Severian. Some of them are less than successfully interesting, others seem deliberately obtuse. Yes, Mr. Wolfe can illuminate by misdirection; but sometimes that misdirection is a distraction. In any case, after having read the entire series of four installments or movements - as you prefer to consider them - three times,I must confess that the Sword of The Lictor is, to my mind, perfect. Would that the other three shared the same wealth of plain old-fashioned narrative drive! Superb as the inventiveness, the brilliance of language and writing and overall ambiance of this masterpiece is, there are numerous tiresome stretches. Wolfe's virtue sometimes results in his only vice worth mentioning: over complicated indefiniteness -- he just hates resolution. This poetic openness of style, this opacity that makes New Sun so dreamlike, also can result in an aggravating diffuseness of meaning, as if he is afraid of limiting the story's scope or its resonance -- little chance of that though there is! Which brings me to that fith installment: Urth of The New Sun is the best example of over- mythopoeia, if that is the right word, I have ever seen (until Hyperion). After reading the fourth installment, Citadel of the Autarch, to discover its beautiful but unresolved finale to this long, long journey, I wanted to throw the book against the wall. In fact, I think I did (18 years ago). But after Urth, I vowed never again to let Mr. Wolfe take me on any more quests, or whatever it was! Of course, now I am planning to read The Litany of the Long Sun, so there is hope for me yet. Anyway, be prepared for wonder and beauty and deep, deep imagination...but at a price!
Rating:
Summary: A superior piece of work, falls nothing short of literature.
Review: Until my roommate handed me Wolfe's four part "Book of the New Sun" I did not believe that I would ever come across another writer of Tolkien's caliber. From phylogenectically engineered destriers to the multiplicity of the autarch produced by an alzabo, Gene Wolfe has spun a tail that intricately incorporates elements of past and future, science and magic, English and the language of future Urth. Independent tales of an entirely different genre are woven into every fold and crease of Severian's journey. As I dismiss myself to go and usher in the new year, I leave these comments as a testimony to the best novel that I read in 1997.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Novel of Its Kind Ever Written
Review: What Frank Herbert attempted and only partially succeeded at in the DUNE series--a tale of theosophy and apotheosis that keeps its head in the heavens and its feet down to Earth (or Urth)--Gene Wolfe does with the apparent effortlessness of a true master. I consider myself well-read in general, but THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is easily one of the two or three most difficult texts I've ever encountered...it's the ULYSSES of science fiction. Wolfe presents us with a cosmogony staggering in its scope and detail and challenges us, along with his narrator Severian the torturer, to puzzle out its secrets. He poses questions to us that, until we stumble across the answers, we weren't even aware were asked. The story is filled to the brim with Biblical allusions, rich metaphor, high adventure, and--at the last--revelations and insight that feel authentic rather than contrived or exaggerated. THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN makes you work for your entertainment, but what you come away with really sticks to your ribs. Information about Mr. Wolfe is depressingly hard to come by, so I can only marvel at the kind of mind that could have produced something this compelling, truthful, and--let's not forget--entertaining.
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