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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Severian is a manly man. He travels Urth one foot in front of the other. The book doesn't explain the background or setting except in small asides, so I am still in the dark about many a thing. I do know he has a cloak that shrouds him in darkness and a mighty sword, matching well with his profession as an executioner.
Love struck, curious and dedicated, he is inspired by a lady from the Glass House of the Aurtarch, one Chatelaine Thecla. He meets quite an interesting band of characters along his journey, learning of the outside world as he goes. He has a near photogenic memory, and thus this book is his journal of the past.
Lofty spoken word and well elaborated environments paint a once glorious yet still thriving place. So much to still learn, I'd say I am in for the next book.
Love struck, curious and dedicated, he is inspired by a lady from the Glass House of the Aurtarch, one Chatelaine Thecla. He meets quite an interesting band of characters along his journey, learning of the outside world as he goes. He has a near photogenic memory, and thus this book is his journal of the past.
Lofty spoken word and well elaborated environments paint a once glorious yet still thriving place. So much to still learn, I'd say I am in for the next book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This wasn't an easy book to read. While it wasn't as tough as a classic, Wolfe's style is quite involved. Things require re-reading, and I had to go back and re-skim whole scenes to make sure that I had gotten the gist. I stopped myself from looking up any unexplained plot threads, however - I'll leave that until I tackle the sequel.
The book also has an interesting relationship with women, who are largely sidelined as accessories, foils, or antagonists to our lead - this, again, may change. One could also argue that we are always seeing through the eyes of Severian, and his experience of society's attitudes towards women.
That being said, the story itself is brilliant. The world is an enthralling medieval-level fantasy one, with some minor variations - which quickly become major when you consider that Severian's Urth is, in fact, our own. The shadow of our world haunts this one. Early in the first book, Severian looks on a canvas that, through clever description, Wolfe reveals to be a picture of Neil Armstrong on the moon. That's the kind of book this is.
The book also has an interesting relationship with women, who are largely sidelined as accessories, foils, or antagonists to our lead - this, again, may change. One could also argue that we are always seeing through the eyes of Severian, and his experience of society's attitudes towards women.
That being said, the story itself is brilliant. The world is an enthralling medieval-level fantasy one, with some minor variations - which quickly become major when you consider that Severian's Urth is, in fact, our own. The shadow of our world haunts this one. Early in the first book, Severian looks on a canvas that, through clever description, Wolfe reveals to be a picture of Neil Armstrong on the moon. That's the kind of book this is.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
UPDATE. I am temporarily rescinding my current review a.k.a just leaving it under a spoiler tag for now. I think I may have been too harsh towards the book and I later learned that Agia's fate is more extensive than what I initially thought. I am not doing this because the Wolfe fans I mentioned in my initial review, just I should have been more calm and collected. At a later date, I will continue the series and that will reform my thoughts on the first book.
For now I will leave no stars until I read the The Claw of the Conciliator.
2/5 stars.
UPDATE: Apparently some Gene Wolfe fans on twitter discovered my review and called me "flighty" and said that I "talks about a lot of pointless nonsense." I appreciate being called Team Agia though.
Shadow of the Torturer is the first installment of Gene Wolfe's very far future The Book of the New Sun. It follows the childhood and early adulthood of a young man named Severian, a member of the Torturers' Guild. When he he is still a boy, he witnesses the revolutionary Vodalus and two of his cronies grave-robbing. After defending Vodalus from an attack, Severian spends his upbringing wondering what the man was up to, while at the same time wondering where he belongs in the Torturers' Guild. Soon, a young woman named Thecla (shout-out to the name of one of my favorite saints) is imprisoned by the guild because her sister is one of Vodalus' cronies and lover. Severian falls in love with her and speaks to her about theology and what the world was before. The Autarch, the ruler of this world, believes that if the guild questions and tortures Thecla then her family will reveal the whereabouts of her sister and thus Vodalus. Not wishing to reveal anything, and it's questionable if she even knows anything, Thecla wishes to take her own life. Severian helps her and smuggles her knife and she does the deed. Severian has broken an oath in the guild, and instead of executing him they send him to another city to fulfil his role as executioner.
And from there, it goes down hill.
Wolfe has some interesting worldbuilding. Remember that this is the very far future. Urth, Severian's world, is implied to be either our Earth after some sort of apocalypse and then subsequent rebuilding, or is another planet altogether as the guild's citadel is literally a derelict space ship. Wolfe sometimes just references or alludes to certain things about the world's history. Sometimes it keeps your curiosity peaked, other times it's just aggravating. There are a lot of terms that Wolfe sometimes uses--some once, some more than once--that are never explained within The Shadow of the Torturer and frankly it's annoying. I am fine with occasionally Googling a word or phrase from a book to understand its meaning; but doing this multiple times for multiple words and learning across the Internet that Wolfe never explains it is just lazy and frustrating.
However, the biggest problems with The Shadow of the Torturer lies in its pacing, narration, Severian's character, and the treatment of Agia. We'll go step-by-step here.
I mentioned this in my updates, but perhaps my problem with the pacing was the edition I was reading which was an omnibus of The Shadow of the Torturer and the second book The Claw of the Conciliator, so the print was smaller and the paragraphs were kind of pushed together. However, the pacing in the beginning of the book was fine. A little slow, but not totally unbearable. The pacing after Severian leaves the citadel is so utterly slow that I literally nearly nodded off a few times. It's burdened by thick paragraphs and a lot of people talking about a lot of stuff that sometimes didn't matter or was incomprehensible. And, according to my Internet searches, a lot revelations aren't made until the third or last book and I don't have time or care for that. It just dragged and dragged. It ties into the narration which further ties into Severian's character, but one thing at a time.
Severian is recounting all of this. He's writing after the events of the book, and I assume the rest of the series, and telling us certain things. Severian's narration needed, I don't know, something less lethargic going on in it. At times, Severian just seems so casual or even disinterested in his past events. The narration felt clinical and disinterested. Most of the book is spent wandering around the giant country-like city that it takes place in and walking from place to place almost constantly with very little else going is not an enjoyable read. Also the narration just suddenly ends. It wasn't an ending that made me go "I'm curious to read more!" Instead, it made me go "Thank God that's over!" I don't really care much else about what happens.
And so that brings us to Severian as a character. In the beginning, he is a curious boy. Curious about the guild, the world, and Thecla. It is probably the most interesting part of the narration. But after the guild as a young adult he is at worse annoying and at best uncompelling. His recorded reactions to some things and people is a very "meh" attitude, or almost like he didn't even care about what happened. And dear God! He literally falls in love with almost every woman...just because she's pretty. Thinking a woman is pretty is attraction, not love. His views of romance and woman are just so damn weird and unappealing. He falls in love with Dorcas after knowing her for like a day and they start having sex like three days into their relationship with Dorcas' only input that she likes him because he doesn't hate her like Agia does.
And thus, this brings us to his treatment of Agia...
Now, I know Agia is technically an antagonist. Her attempted seducings of Severian were probably a ruse to get his sword (no that's not a euphemism); but even before her true goals and allegiance are shown, Severian's treatment of her is horrendous. He hits her a few times just out of annoyance. One time he just hits her because she's being mean to Dorcas and leaves her on the ground with the super poisonous plant she's holding and that he needs for combat. Severian just starts to dislike Agia because she dislikes Dorcas. Sure, her disliking Dorcas was mean and unfounded, but Severian's treatment of her was extreme in comparison. Now that I think of it, Severian hates Agia because her seduction towards him and of how forward she is with her dislike of Dorcas. She isn't quite and meek like Dorcas, therefore she gets hated. I also had to search the Internet to see what was up with Agia. Like most other things in this book, there's no explanation as to who or what she is beyond being Agilus' twin sister. Also, from what I dug up, she doesn't get much of a conclusion in the later books, so I'm still peeved about.
So all in all, The Shadow of the Torturer is an interesting science fantasy, but only in worldbuilding. A weak main character, pacing, and narration unfortunately sends the rest of the book crumbling down.
For now I will leave no stars until I read the The Claw of the Conciliator.
Spoiler
Review for Shadow of the Torturer only!2/5 stars.
UPDATE: Apparently some Gene Wolfe fans on twitter discovered my review and called me "flighty" and said that I "talks about a lot of pointless nonsense." I appreciate being called Team Agia though.
Shadow of the Torturer is the first installment of Gene Wolfe's very far future The Book of the New Sun. It follows the childhood and early adulthood of a young man named Severian, a member of the Torturers' Guild. When he he is still a boy, he witnesses the revolutionary Vodalus and two of his cronies grave-robbing. After defending Vodalus from an attack, Severian spends his upbringing wondering what the man was up to, while at the same time wondering where he belongs in the Torturers' Guild. Soon, a young woman named Thecla (shout-out to the name of one of my favorite saints) is imprisoned by the guild because her sister is one of Vodalus' cronies and lover. Severian falls in love with her and speaks to her about theology and what the world was before. The Autarch, the ruler of this world, believes that if the guild questions and tortures Thecla then her family will reveal the whereabouts of her sister and thus Vodalus. Not wishing to reveal anything, and it's questionable if she even knows anything, Thecla wishes to take her own life. Severian helps her and smuggles her knife and she does the deed. Severian has broken an oath in the guild, and instead of executing him they send him to another city to fulfil his role as executioner.
And from there, it goes down hill.
Wolfe has some interesting worldbuilding. Remember that this is the very far future. Urth, Severian's world, is implied to be either our Earth after some sort of apocalypse and then subsequent rebuilding, or is another planet altogether as the guild's citadel is literally a derelict space ship. Wolfe sometimes just references or alludes to certain things about the world's history. Sometimes it keeps your curiosity peaked, other times it's just aggravating. There are a lot of terms that Wolfe sometimes uses--some once, some more than once--that are never explained within The Shadow of the Torturer and frankly it's annoying. I am fine with occasionally Googling a word or phrase from a book to understand its meaning; but doing this multiple times for multiple words and learning across the Internet that Wolfe never explains it is just lazy and frustrating.
However, the biggest problems with The Shadow of the Torturer lies in its pacing, narration, Severian's character, and the treatment of Agia. We'll go step-by-step here.
I mentioned this in my updates, but perhaps my problem with the pacing was the edition I was reading which was an omnibus of The Shadow of the Torturer and the second book The Claw of the Conciliator, so the print was smaller and the paragraphs were kind of pushed together. However, the pacing in the beginning of the book was fine. A little slow, but not totally unbearable. The pacing after Severian leaves the citadel is so utterly slow that I literally nearly nodded off a few times. It's burdened by thick paragraphs and a lot of people talking about a lot of stuff that sometimes didn't matter or was incomprehensible. And, according to my Internet searches, a lot revelations aren't made until the third or last book and I don't have time or care for that. It just dragged and dragged. It ties into the narration which further ties into Severian's character, but one thing at a time.
Severian is recounting all of this. He's writing after the events of the book, and I assume the rest of the series, and telling us certain things. Severian's narration needed, I don't know, something less lethargic going on in it. At times, Severian just seems so casual or even disinterested in his past events. The narration felt clinical and disinterested. Most of the book is spent wandering around the giant country-like city that it takes place in and walking from place to place almost constantly with very little else going is not an enjoyable read. Also the narration just suddenly ends. It wasn't an ending that made me go "I'm curious to read more!" Instead, it made me go "Thank God that's over!" I don't really care much else about what happens.
And so that brings us to Severian as a character. In the beginning, he is a curious boy. Curious about the guild, the world, and Thecla. It is probably the most interesting part of the narration. But after the guild as a young adult he is at worse annoying and at best uncompelling. His recorded reactions to some things and people is a very "meh" attitude, or almost like he didn't even care about what happened. And dear God! He literally falls in love with almost every woman...just because she's pretty. Thinking a woman is pretty is attraction, not love. His views of romance and woman are just so damn weird and unappealing. He falls in love with Dorcas after knowing her for like a day and they start having sex like three days into their relationship with Dorcas' only input that she likes him because he doesn't hate her like Agia does.
And thus, this brings us to his treatment of Agia...
Now, I know Agia is technically an antagonist. Her attempted seducings of Severian were probably a ruse to get his sword (no that's not a euphemism); but even before her true goals and allegiance are shown, Severian's treatment of her is horrendous. He hits her a few times just out of annoyance. One time he just hits her because she's being mean to Dorcas and leaves her on the ground with the super poisonous plant she's holding and that he needs for combat. Severian just starts to dislike Agia because she dislikes Dorcas. Sure, her disliking Dorcas was mean and unfounded, but Severian's treatment of her was extreme in comparison. Now that I think of it, Severian hates Agia because her seduction towards him and of how forward she is with her dislike of Dorcas. She isn't quite and meek like Dorcas, therefore she gets hated. I also had to search the Internet to see what was up with Agia. Like most other things in this book, there's no explanation as to who or what she is beyond being Agilus' twin sister. Also, from what I dug up, she doesn't get much of a conclusion in the later books, so I'm still peeved about.
So all in all, The Shadow of the Torturer is an interesting science fantasy, but only in worldbuilding. A weak main character, pacing, and narration unfortunately sends the rest of the book crumbling down.
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Somewhere in the future, million years from now, mankind as we know it is not even a memory. The Society is ill, at least that's how Severian, a young journeyman of the Guild of Torturers perceives it, until one night by chance he meets Vodalus, a mysterious people hero figure. That encounter changes everything. Well, that and meeting Thecla, the beautiful prisoner he's charged to guard. Everything from that moment marks the journey of Severian, not to his goal, the town of Thrax, but to something bigger, his hidden destiny.
It's hard to write anything more about "The Book of the New Sun" without reading all four books of tetralogy, as it seems that's how Gene envisioned it. At the end of each book, Severian, whose memoirs we're reading, is telling us that we can continue reading if we want to as if he teases us to find an answer hidden between the lines.
Wolfe is an intelligent writer, who does not serves us anything on a silver plate, but leaves us crumbs along the way. Blink, and you'll miss them. That's why he made Severian an unreliable narrator with eidetic memory, who tells us lies, here and there.
There are layers upon layers buried in Gene's writing, symbols, and metaphors. Some are clear, such as names of saints used for characters, or Christianity themes, but others need careful observation and digging to be found.
This is not a book for those used to the usual tropes of epic fantasy or worlds that copy each other, or those who want action. These are novels to be read carefully, not once, but more times to understand the genius of Gene Wolfe.
It's hard to write anything more about "The Book of the New Sun" without reading all four books of tetralogy, as it seems that's how Gene envisioned it. At the end of each book, Severian, whose memoirs we're reading, is telling us that we can continue reading if we want to as if he teases us to find an answer hidden between the lines.
Wolfe is an intelligent writer, who does not serves us anything on a silver plate, but leaves us crumbs along the way. Blink, and you'll miss them. That's why he made Severian an unreliable narrator with eidetic memory, who tells us lies, here and there.
There are layers upon layers buried in Gene's writing, symbols, and metaphors. Some are clear, such as names of saints used for characters, or Christianity themes, but others need careful observation and digging to be found.
This is not a book for those used to the usual tropes of epic fantasy or worlds that copy each other, or those who want action. These are novels to be read carefully, not once, but more times to understand the genius of Gene Wolfe.
I did enjoy this book quite a bit. The author uses many words where a few would suffice, thus often requiring the reader to re-read sentences to make sure it was read correctly. The author uses such epic language and detailed descriptions that very little seems to happen over the course of many pages. This also seems to magnify the fact that many of the plot devices are quite simple and somewhat disappointing after pages and pages of buildup. Having said all of this, this book was an enjoyable read and definitely recommended for those who appreciate language for language sake.
4/29/16 - I don't think I enjoyed this book as much the second time around. The biggest problem with this book is that there is no obvious plot or conflict. It's basically just a travelogue of Severian's wanderings and the various chicks that he hooks up with. I decided to re-read this series because I recently picked up The Urth of the New Sun, which is the 5th book in the series and I had only read the first 4. Now I'm kinda dreading having to get through books 3 and 4 to read the 5th one. It's always interesting to me the kinds of books that other authors/writers rave about vs. how the average reader feels about it.
12/24/21 - Third read. Funny how our perceptions change over time and upon our moods. I think for my second read of this book 5 years ago, I just wasn't in the mood for an esoteric and wordy sci-fi. As such, I only read Shadow & Claw and didn't even bother with Sword and Citadel. After some recent reddit debates about what constitutes "true" literature, I took it upon myself to read something at least adjacent-to, if not outright "literary fiction". I chose to read BotNS. It also helped that I somewhat recently received my beautiful Folio Society edition of BotNS.
I must say that I definitely enjoyed Shadow & Claw much more this time. I think a lot had to do with knowing that I was going to be reading a book that can be confusing, slow-moving, and verbose. I also decided going into it that I was going to read this a bit more carefully and less lazily. I took the time to look up some of the words that I was unclear on. All the words Wolfe uses in these books are real, but they are often very archaic. I was able to pick up on a lot more detail and I also just decided to go along with the story and not try to make it something it isn't (fast-paced, action-packed). I think this approach served me well as I have been thoroughly enjoying this read (I'm currently nearly half way through Sword & Citadel). This series definitely has its rewards for careful readers.
4/29/16 - I don't think I enjoyed this book as much the second time around. The biggest problem with this book is that there is no obvious plot or conflict. It's basically just a travelogue of Severian's wanderings and the various chicks that he hooks up with. I decided to re-read this series because I recently picked up The Urth of the New Sun, which is the 5th book in the series and I had only read the first 4. Now I'm kinda dreading having to get through books 3 and 4 to read the 5th one. It's always interesting to me the kinds of books that other authors/writers rave about vs. how the average reader feels about it.
12/24/21 - Third read. Funny how our perceptions change over time and upon our moods. I think for my second read of this book 5 years ago, I just wasn't in the mood for an esoteric and wordy sci-fi. As such, I only read Shadow & Claw and didn't even bother with Sword and Citadel. After some recent reddit debates about what constitutes "true" literature, I took it upon myself to read something at least adjacent-to, if not outright "literary fiction". I chose to read BotNS. It also helped that I somewhat recently received my beautiful Folio Society edition of BotNS.
I must say that I definitely enjoyed Shadow & Claw much more this time. I think a lot had to do with knowing that I was going to be reading a book that can be confusing, slow-moving, and verbose. I also decided going into it that I was going to read this a bit more carefully and less lazily. I took the time to look up some of the words that I was unclear on. All the words Wolfe uses in these books are real, but they are often very archaic. I was able to pick up on a lot more detail and I also just decided to go along with the story and not try to make it something it isn't (fast-paced, action-packed). I think this approach served me well as I have been thoroughly enjoying this read (I'm currently nearly half way through Sword & Citadel). This series definitely has its rewards for careful readers.
In the final reckoning there is only love, only that divinity. That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.
Much of the this read like Chaucer on the hoof. There were certainly elements of Andrei Rublev and perhaps wee Oskar who refused to grow up. There was a refreshing evolution but there was too much obscured by language and deliberate opacity. This may be a preferable means of narrative, unbroken pages of infodump are a jar to the system. That said, the narrative unfolds with an imprisoned author scribbling his memoir on a planet named Urth in a time likely far in the future to our own blighted age. Matters have returned to a medieval realm of guilds, gods and wanton bloodshed. Plagues have yet to feature, though there's hope. My interest waxed and waned. The most intriguing development was the green man -- who alas, appeared and was gone.
Much of the this read like Chaucer on the hoof. There were certainly elements of Andrei Rublev and perhaps wee Oskar who refused to grow up. There was a refreshing evolution but there was too much obscured by language and deliberate opacity. This may be a preferable means of narrative, unbroken pages of infodump are a jar to the system. That said, the narrative unfolds with an imprisoned author scribbling his memoir on a planet named Urth in a time likely far in the future to our own blighted age. Matters have returned to a medieval realm of guilds, gods and wanton bloodshed. Plagues have yet to feature, though there's hope. My interest waxed and waned. The most intriguing development was the green man -- who alas, appeared and was gone.