Rating: 
Summary: space-opera fans...BEWARE!
Review: An extraordinary conclusion to an extraordinary series. Wolfe is the SF equivalent of Miles Davis. He frustrates those readers who come to read a space-opera like all the ones they have read and read again. Expecting another great Barry Manilow composition, they find their very world of expectations turned upside-down. This is very reminiscent of Delany's Neveryon series, a series that takes the standard rules and mores of a genre (there sword and sorcery) and completely subverts it. Wolfe's narrative is a maddening flirtation; each time his plot approaches a grand confrontation, or the sort of excitement that absolutely drives narratives of this sort, he deliberately omits the events. We are left to guess and extrapolate what took place from what is happening now. Wolfe declines to spoon-fed anything to us. Left significantly to our own devices, the experienced and mature reader is forced to become involved in Wolfe's novel. What DID happen when Silk climbed up into the engines of the zeppelin? Each reader who completes the book supplies his own answers to many questions here. This novel demands involvement and imagination from the reader. Just as any novel leaves much more work to the audience than a movie, Wolfe has demanded much of us here. This is an action story, but maddenly cuts away just instants before each big blockbuster expolsion, or each incedible escape. Silk is resolutely no sort of action hero at all. He refuses to fight or lie or cheat or oppose. Like Gandi, his unwillingness to participate in conventional intrigue and conflict make him a terrible enemy. He refuses to take to the battlefield and abide by the rules. Much like Wolfe. In the end, the reader is left starving and hungry. We have certainly enjoyed the reading, we won't forget such a work, but Wolfe has refused to completely satisfy. Like an almost-forgotten song, the wisps of his artwork haunt our minds; we recall them again and again and go back, seeking a staid sort of satisfaction that would leave us bloated and lesser in the end.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful end to one of the best SF series ever written.
Review: Ending a wonderfully magical and original story of Patera Silk and his "Whorl", Gene Wolfe in no way failed to strengthen my love for his writing with this volume. Not only is the story itself captivating but his weaving of words with beautiful skill makes it all the more enjoyable. Patera Silk continues his political and spiritual adventure, where he learns not only about the truths of his Whorl and religion but about himself. Maytera Mint also continues her fight which brings interesting events into play, unveiling yet a bit more about the Whorl and its many wonders. This by far is one of the best SF series written and this book is at the top of the series
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful end to one of the best SF series ever written.
Review: Ending a wonderfully magical and original story of Patera Silk and his "Whorl", Gene Wolfe in no way failed to strengthen my love for his writing with this volume. Not only is the story itself captivating but his weaving of words with beautiful skill makes it all the more enjoyable. Patera Silk continues his political and spiritual adventure, where he learns not only about the truths of his Whorl and religion but about himself. Maytera Mint also continues her fight which brings interesting events into play, unveiling yet a bit more about the Whorl and its many wonders. This by far is one of the best SF series written and this book is at the top of the series
Rating: 
Summary: What in the "Whorl" is going on?
Review: I am a fan of Gene Wolfe's writing since reading "The Book of the New Sun". For me, his writing requires concentration, absolutely no reading when I am tired or for a light escape. With high expectations I purchased all four books of the series "Book of the Long Sun". I knew it was unlikely I beginning a slam bam action techie SF space opera.One of the things I like about his writing is that it is so unusual and unpredictable. There are few if any cliches in is work. Silk is not your usual hero. His growth in the four books is both logical and satisfying. I loved Oreb for his comic relief. "Fish heads?" And found the tales of the Maytera's curious and fascinating. Were they first bio's? I was never completely sure. I was never completely sure about a lot by the end of the last book. Who created the Whorl? And why? Who are the gods? Who is the outsider? Why was there a choice of two planets? Why were only a few citizens suppose to leave the whorl? Who wanted them to leave? Why were the "gods" fighting with each other? What the heck was "Quetzal"? What is an inhumi? I came to read reviews from other readers to perhaps get a clue to what I missed in my reading. Some of the reviews were helpful because they suggested I am not alone in lacking understanding of the story. I know Wolfe does not spoon feed his readers and that is one of the reasons I like him. However, I finished this series so puzzled and annoyed that I couldn't figure out the barest outline of what, where and why of the whorl. He created an involving, charismatic literary feast which left me all the more famished at the end. Perhaps it's me and I need to reread them. I am still thinking about the books days after finishing them but it's not with satisfaction, it's with irritation.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe I need to start at the beginning again.
Review: I am a fan of Gene Wolfe's writing since reading "The Book of the New Sun". For me, his writing requires concentration, absolutely no reading when I am tired or for a light escape. With high expectations I purchased all four books of the series "Book of the Long Sun". I knew it was unlikely I beginning a slam bam action techie SF space opera. One of the things I like about his writing is that it is so unusual and unpredictable. There are few if any cliches in is work. Silk is not your usual hero. His growth in the four books is both logical and satisfying. I loved Oreb for his comic relief. "Fish heads?" And found the tales of the Maytera's curious and fascinating. Were they first bio's? I was never completely sure. I was never completely sure about a lot by the end of the last book. Who created the Whorl? And why? Who are the gods? Who is the outsider? Why was there a choice of two planets? Why were only a few citizens suppose to leave the whorl? Who wanted them to leave? Why were the "gods" fighting with each other? What the heck was "Quetzal"? What is an inhumi? I came to read reviews from other readers to perhaps get a clue to what I missed in my reading. Some of the reviews were helpful because they suggested I am not alone in lacking understanding of the story. I know Wolfe does not spoon feed his readers and that is one of the reasons I like him. However, I finished this series so puzzled and annoyed that I couldn't figure out the barest outline of what, where and why of the whorl. He created an involving, charismatic literary feast which left me all the more famished at the end. Perhaps it's me and I need to reread them. I am still thinking about the books days after finishing them but it's not with satisfaction, it's with irritation.
Rating:
Summary: Wolfe's most penetrating character study
Review: I had the chance to read all four volumes back-to-back. A long-time Gene Wolfe fan, I am glad I did: because what emerged was, I think, the finest character study I have found in twenty years of reading science fiction. Starting with Silk's real revelation from a real god, and ending on an unresolved note (like much of Wolfe!), the story gradually reveals Silk's character, of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. Much is left unsaid; by doing so, Wolfe invites the reader to participate in assessing Silk the way his contemporaries would. At the end, the reader is left admiring a thoroughly good yet humanly flawed man coping with an especially ambiguous world, a character drawn as successfully as any in non-genre literature. The book has other complications, of religion and will and governance, but at the end, it is the character study which leaves the book stuck in my memory
Rating:
Summary: The end of a four novel Saga.
Review: I lke well written series because they grant the reader an extension and a chance to explore, in depth, the characters and the story itself. This series, however, is unlike any I have read in one respect. The first three novels were a marvel to read. They were as well written and satisfying as I have ever read. The forth and final volume, however, is not satisfying nor adequate to the story in even the slightest measure. If you spend three full length novels dealing with a population inside a generation ship trying to get to a particular destination and then do not deal with the obvious problems of arriving at the destination ie., the leaving of the ship, the re-integration of technology to the society, the populations resolution of where they have been and where they are arriving, the truth about the gods and worshiping, the kinds of planets to which they have arrived, the conditions of the planet in terms of weather, flora and fauna, the survival problems on the new planets, who went to each planet, the ship's aid to the colonists, the settlement problems, the resolution of hostilities, some final scene with the Calde resolving where he went and his involvement with the new settlement, the list is endless. Maybe I missed all of this. Maybe my forth novel was missing some pages. Did this not bother anyone else?? I can only hope that the forth novel was not the last and that a fifth novel is upcoming that deals with all of the stated issues to some completion.
Rating: 
Summary: Huh?
Review: I loved the first three installments of The Book of the Long Sun. But this . . . I could not believe it was supposed to be a part of the same series. And worse than that, it was of very poor quality. Nothing was resolved or explained, and the plot took a ninety-degree turn that was jarring in the extreme. I personally prefer to excise this book from my memory and pretend that the series was never finished.
Rating:
Summary: No surprises here, mostly a disappointment
Review: If you're already a Gene Wolfe fan, you may like this series. If this is your first Gene Wolfe series, you may never read his work again after this series. I've read his "New Sun" books and enjoyed them very much because, while it's heavy reading - you really have to pay attention - there are some stunning surprises. Unfortunately, in the Book of the Long Sun, there are no surprises. You already know when you read the back cover of the books that the people are on a "generation starship". Figuring out who the "gods" are and the meaning of "Mainframe" isn't too difficult either. By the end of the fourth book, there really isn't anything special that is revealed that you couldn't figure out long before. Another major problem with this whole series is that seemingly trivial events are often covered in pain-staking detail, while more important things are glossed over entirely. At the end of this volume, the long-awaited visit to Mainframe is dealt with in less than a chapter. All in all, quite a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: No surprises here, mostly a disappointment
Review: If you're already a Gene Wolfe fan, you may like this series. If this is your first Gene Wolfe series, you may never read his work again after this series. I've read his "New Sun" books and enjoyed them very much because, while it's heavy reading - you really have to pay attention - there are some stunning surprises. Unfortunately, in the Book of the Long Sun, there are no surprises. You already know when you read the back cover of the books that the people are on a "generation starship". Figuring out who the "gods" are and the meaning of "Mainframe" isn't too difficult either. By the end of the fourth book, there really isn't anything special that is revealed that you couldn't figure out long before. Another major problem with this whole series is that seemingly trivial events are often covered in pain-staking detail, while more important things are glossed over entirely. At the end of this volume, the long-awaited visit to Mainframe is dealt with in less than a chapter. All in all, quite a disappointment.
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