The Shadow of the Torturer

Rating:
Summary: Amazing! Entrancing!
Review: Gene Wolfe establishes himself as the foremost modern writer of fiction with this, the first volume (of four) of the Book of the New Sun. From humble beginnings, an apprentice torturer begins a fantastic journey of epic proportions. The text weaves and pulls the reader, everything is in place for a reason and all questions (some quite small or forgotten) are eventually answered! If you haven't put down a book with the word: "Amazing..." on your lips, you will when you start this series.

The final tome, the sequel to The Book of the New Sun, "The Urth of the New Sun" ... there are no words to describe. The completeness of this work is astounding.

Rating:
Summary: Rambling and incoherent
Review: I have never been of the opinion that any book could be considered truly BAD until I read the first book of this series! On multiple occasions this book started to develop one point or another only to change direction never to return. So much was left unfinished in this story with its random changes of direction and useless description of pointless objects and abstract concepts that I honestly could not keep reading. On several occasions I had to put the book away until I was bored enough to go back to it. Usually I will read a book from cover to cover in one or two sittings with breaks only long enough to let my eyes unblur. The only thing blurring my eyes while reading this book were the tears of pain! To make it more difficult the author felt the need to create half of the vacabulary used in this story and fish the other half out of unused portions of his thesaurus. I purchased a hardcover version of the first three books all bound together and forced myself to read the first book...as painful as that was. It ended as randomly as it progressed. I suspect this was to leave me in suspense, waiting to read the next book. Unfortunately the second book started in on yet another story all together. I never made it to the second chapter. If random unfinished thoughts, shallow character development, indecipherable vocabulary, and a weak plot appeal to you as a reader then this is the book for you! However, it is my personal opinion that your time might be better spent reading a book by authors like Glen Cook, Michael Stackpole, or Terry Pratchett. As for my unfinished copy of The Book of the New Sun....I suppose I could always use it to replace a missing leg on my couch. For this one useful function I give one star!

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy and disorienting
Review: I understand how this novel can be given five stars on one hand, and one on the other. Unless read very slowly and carefully, it can be, as one reviewer wrote, "rambling and incoherent." But, if read slowly, there are some pleasures to it. It reminds me a bit of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth," about an earth so far in the future the sun is dying. In Wolfe's series, the moon (which is now changed into a planet with an atmosphere), has moved closer to the earth. What we are dealing with here is a combination of a feudal society and technology so advanced it has for all practical purposes turned into magic. Wolfe's style is a bit disjointed and dream-like. I suspect some aren't going to like this book at all; others, a great deal. The plot has been outlined in other reviews, so there is no need to repeat it here. What matters more than anything else is Wolfe's unique style.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy and disorienting
Review: I understand how this novel can be given five stars on one hand, and one on the other. Unless read very slowly and carefully, it can be, as one reviewer wrote, "rambling and incoherent." But, if read slowly, there are some pleasures to it. It reminds me a bit of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth," about an earth so far in the future the sun is dying. In Wolfe's series, the moon (which is now changed into a planet with an atmosphere), has moved closer to the earth. What we are dealing with here is a combination of a feudal society and technology so advanced it has for all practical purposes turned into magic. Wolfe's style is a bit disjointed and dream-like. I suspect some aren't going to like this book at all; others, a great deal. The plot has been outlined in other reviews, so there is no need to repeat it here. What matters more than anything else is Wolfe's unique style.

Rating:
Summary: Not overly enthusiastic, so far
Review: Most science-fiction/fantasy works try my patience for reasons difficult to articulate. Perhaps it is because their authors are frequently more concerned with describing the outpourings of their vivid imaginations than with getting their souls out onto the page. When I read stories in these genres, it is like being led around an art museum, looking at a string of striking pictures that ultimately don't connect very well with one another, or even when they do, are somehow devoid of feeling in the sterility of the museum. Occasionally, I find a story that touches me deeply (for example, "the wedding album", a novella by David Marusek that can be found in a collection of stories called "Supermen: tales of the post human future" edited by Gardner Dozois) and that inspires me to occasionally search for the hidden gems of these genres. I had hoped that Gene Wolf's stories would fit that bill, but (after admittedly having read only the first novel in this four-part series) to no avail. Certainly, his language is more refined than that of the great majority of science-fiction writers, but it doesn't affect me as positively as it does others. The anachronisms have an overly self-conscious ring in my ear (but don't get me wrong, I have no objection to an anachronism in general), which reminds me too frequently of the author's presence. Additionally, many of the events feel disconnected from one another, even when, from a plotting perspective, they are not. Take these assessments with a grain of salt, however: I haven't read the whole series.

Rating:
Summary: Pure escapist fantasy, but still an enjoyable read
Review: Severian, an outstanding young apprentice in the Torturer's guild, falls for a beautiful prisoner and is forced to leave his lifelong home to seek his destiny, in the first volume of Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series. While the plot is in many ways pretty ordinary - a boy who excels at his studies has a life-changing experience and is sent out into the world to find himself - there are plenty of unusual touches that take this fantasy beyond the run of the mill.

Severian's life in the Torturer's Guild is relatively mundane, and surely the writer's intention is to show that a boy's schooling is pretty much the same wherever he goes. Although fate has decreed Severian will study the science of penance and punishment, his childhood is not really so very unusual. He knows the same joys, terrors, and triumphs as the rest of us, so it's easy for us to find him sympathetic despite his (un-chosen) profession and frightening attire. But outside the walls of the Citadel is a world that is rife with astounding wonders, from Dr. Talos' oddball repertory company to the bizarre doings in the Botanic Gardens to the most inventive dueling scene since Barry Lyndon. And more often than not Severian finds himself both involved with a woman and required to ply his somewhat unsavory trade (not that this book is excessively gruesome; considering the title, it's really pretty tame, but still, this work is not recommended for young teens) before it's time to move on to the next town.

Wolfe's language helps create the other-worldly locale for his story, and he often employs archaic or invented words to describe objects that are common enough on "Urth", but are unfamiliar to us. Almost every other page describes some incredible wonder. And even though the practical-minded Severian frequently doesn't seem to react to the astounding things he sees and experiences, most readers will find themselves intrigued, even though the question "What does it all mean?" remains unresolved, at least for now.

All things considered, this book is pretty light fare: pure escapist fantasy, with no real point or depth of human insight, but it is a quick, enjoyable read and a promising opening to a highly acclaimed series. The fictional narrator foreshadows great things in Severian's future, and presumably the succeeding books will reveal an overall plan and sense of purpose that this novel lacks in and of itself.

Rating:
Summary: Nice change of pace from "traditional" fantasy
Review: STORY: Severian is born to the Guild of Torturers. When he shows mercy to one of his "clients" he is sent into a world he had never seen other than from the walls of the Citadel. Now begins the adventures of a young man in a world of love, magic and science.

MY FEEDBACK:
1) SETTING: A nice, complex fantasy world is created here with a melding of science and magic. Wolfe's descriptions are bordering on poetic as he clearly creates vivid images of places, people and governmental hierarchies.

2) CHARACTERS: Severian is a very likeable character...for a torturer. You realize he is the way he his because he knows no other life. He knows not how to lie and deceive but delivers the truth with as much brutal, calm honesty as he does his executions and other torturer's tasks. After page 100, the story begins to fill with a greater cast of characters. By the end of the book the main "band" of adventurers remain as individual mysteries even though they are believable and likeable.

3) STORY: This is where I have some issues.

a) First of all, I struggled with much of the language used in this book. I had to look up a lot of words in my dictionary, due to the use of terms not common in the everyday writing or reading.
b) Secondly, what should have been in the front of the book, turned out to be in an Appendix at the back. In his Appendix he briefly describes that he made up many words. The words seemed like "real" words, but it wasn't till I got to the end did I realize that I was unnecessarily getting frustrated at my new dictionary for not containing these unfamiliar terms. I was unhappy to find out after-the-fact that no dictionary would have contained the terms I was searching for.
c) The story is written like an autobiography with brief interludes to the present. This worked well and gave hints of what is to become of this youth many years later.
d) Many of the events seemed to go off into nowhere tangents. I realize that it was in part because our protagonist had never been outside the Citadel walls (more or less) so he was enamored with everything he saw. Pages are giving to descriptions of walls, building and things that really have no bearing on the story line...the setting, maybe...but our character is trying to leave the city in the later half of the book so his observations seem like wasted space.
e) You must read the next book to continue the story. By the end of this book, so much is left unresolved that you can't just read this and stop (unless you are hating the book and can't bear to continue...but I doubt that will happen). This book really felt like a 260 page introduction necessary to set the stage for a greater story.

4) CONTENT: This is an adult book. It is equivalent to a rated R movie due to sexual situations and nudity. It is not overly descriptive but leaves most to the imagination, if one so wishes to continue to entertain such thoughts.

OVERALL: Engrossing fantasy read that refreshingly departs from the typical: boy meets wizard and discovers he is a conduit of powerful magic that is needed to save the world from invasion by the evil hordes. That doesn't happen in this book and thus you feel compelled to keep reading into the next book...which I'll get my hands on shortly. You won't waste your time here.

Rating:
Summary: The most sophisticated genre series ever written
Review: The Book of the New Sun, starting with the Shadow of the Torturer (its first volume), is the most sophisticated work in the Science Fiction stable, and one of the most beautifully written of all modern novels - set in a far, far future, where technology has evolved and degenerated to become almost Baroque ornamentation, it seems to describe a feudal or Medieval world. However, one of the many pleasures in this book is the way that our assumptions are taken and re-combined, giving the whole thing much of the intruige and fascination of the most intricate detective story. The characters are vivid, immediate and haunting - their problems believably distant but painfuly immediate - and the written style of the novel is always seductive and a pleaure. Everybody, everywhere, should read this - if only as one of the best example of "post-modern" fiction of all time.

Rating:
Summary: An Alien World Called Urth
Review: This first volume of "The Book of the New Sun" establishes the setting of the overall story. It's a first person account told by Severian, who starts off as an apprentice torturor. He lives in the Matachin Tower with the Torturor's Guild in the city of Nessus. He is soon exiled for being merciful to one of his "clients" - a woman he had fallen in love with. He has to make a journey to the city of Thrax, where he will serve as the Lictor. "The Shadow of the Torturor" is the beginning of that journey.

This story is set in a future so distant that our own world is almost completely forgotten. All that remains of our civilization are a few artifacts and legends. To Severian and the other people of "Urth", our own world is as ancient and remote as the prehistoric age is to us. Urth is now an unbelievably old planet, circling a dying sun. It is littered with the remains of past civilizations. New plant and animal life exists of the strangest kinds. There are the relics of technology so advanced they look like magic.

What I find so appealing about this book is that Gene Wolfe succeeds in creating an alien world so ancient, fantastic and magical that you often forget it's really our own planet. The strange new people are distant descendents of us. Many of the book's influences come from Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth". When reading "The Shadow of the Torturor" and the other books in this series, you have to give it your complete attention to fully appreciate what is happening. Sometimes it's tedious, but overall it's rewarding. These books will challenge your observation.