Book of the New Sun

Rating:
Summary: Strange world, meandering tale, stock characters
Review: This is four novels in one volume.

The story takes place one million years in the future of Earth (Urth). The sun is red, cool, and dim. The author does not say how this happened. According to contemporary astronomy, a red giant earth would reach to the orbit of Mars, engulfing the Earth.

Apparently, Earthlings long ago settled other planets. At some point, however, most of society sunk to a medieval level both socially, morally, economically, and technogically. However, the rich and the powerful maintain contact with other worlds and purchase their technology. So, most persons and battles deal with swords. Some soldiers have 'spears' that fire 'bolts' of 'energy.' This and other matters are only hinted at and rarely if ever explained.

The dialogue and characterization is frighteningly boring. The events narrated do not always further the plot, giving the book an eerie, stream of consciousness-like feel, when it is not overwhelmingly tedious. Every character is stock: the ignorant but tough adventurer, the cunning charlatan, the vain beauty, the frail and needy woman, the stupid giant, the eccentric ruler, etc. Some characters disappear in the middle of the story for no apparent reason.

The main character is a member of the guild of torturers. They live in the gigantic capital city of an empire. For a misdeed, he is exiled. He has a variety of adventures, after which he becomes the ruler of the empire. Exactly why he became emperor is never explained.

The main character has a variety of "encounters" with most all of the female characters of the novel. Twice, he put himself in serious danger for their sakes.

The details of the various scenes of the book are sometimes highly interesting, like the one in which a particular extraterrestrial beast uses the voice of the people it has eaten to entice others to let it into the house. But the tale as a whole was very disappointing. From the beginning of the story one knows that the main character will be emperor. He is imprisoned and nearly killed uncountable times, but always makes it. Every woman desires him, but he is ineffably modest. The story seemed to be an awkward patchwork of vignettes that suddenly stops. The characters were not endearing. There are a variety of irritating loose ends and unexplained developments.