Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
2.0/5.0
I'm stupid I don't get the hype..... written well, horrid pacing, boring plot. It's a no from me.
I'm stupid I don't get the hype..... written well, horrid pacing, boring plot. It's a no from me.
At last, tackling the first volume in Gene Wolfe's magnum opus. This series has a hell of a reputation, largely due to its dense language and narrative structure; it is told through an unreliable narrator and makes heavy use of dream sequences and other ambiguous symbolism which has made The Book of the New Sun the subject of much analysis since its publication.
I tried to put all that out of my mind for this read, as such I'm critiquing this book in a more surface-level way for my first read. The story follows Severian, told in the first-person by Severian himself after the fact (though where and when he's writing this is, so far anyway, undisclosed).
The first third of Shadow is concerned with Severian's time in the executioner's guild, serving the Autarch ('autocrat'?) in a fortress of towers called the Citadel. All the while there's this mysterious character called Vodalus who occupies Severian's thoughts from an experience he had in a part of the Citadel called the Necropolis (which I'm guessing is the subject of Gollancz's SF Masterworks cover art for this volume) and who I understood to be against the Autarch in a kind of counterpoint (which may be completely wrong). In fact, this whole world seems populated by several differing guilds of various types - all headed by mysterious figures with lofty titles - adding to its 'fantasy' feeling.
That, along with the point about the cover art, brings me on to how this book reads. Shadow definitely reads more like fantasy than SF. I'm sure this may change the further along in the series one gets. In fact I think The Book of the New Sun is the only title to appear in both the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks series, reflecting its unclear genre status.
After this first third, Severian leaves the Citadel for the city of Thrax, at the behest of his guildmaster, who gifts him the sword 'Terminus Est' ('it is the end') before expelling him. On this journey he meets various strange characters, learns more about the world he inhabits, and through this Wolfe flexes his worldbuilding more.
There is a lot of obscure vocabulary and interesting turns of phrase in this book. Some of this vocabulary I'd never seen or heard before, and that which I couldn't work out by the context, I didn't bother to look up as I find this interrupts the flow of reading. But it got to a point where it stalled the narrative for me (see below).
The dream sequences and tangents of Severian often caused me to have to go back a paragraph or two in order to really understand what just happened. These attempts to grasp the narrative are I gather what attracts people to this series; the allure, the ambiguity, the maddening desire to understand the references and the symbolism. For me, right now, I'm not feeling the pull to do that. The Shadow of the Torturer was, for me, more of a task than T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph (my most recent read prior to this) which is kind of amazing that a fiction book could be more of a chore.
The language can be impressive, but unlike Seven Pillars (whose language is also impressive but not archaic in the way Shadow is) I can't say I particularly enjoyed reading this, nor was I excited to get back to reading it every time I had to put it down. In fact, I was closer to dreading it. It felt at times I could skip a few pages and it wouldn't matter in terms of grasping plot advancement; especially when 10% of the words you do not understand. If it's one that lingers with me and entices me to continue with the rest of the series, only time will tell - but as for right now, I unfortunately haven't been won over. I fear the plot - which I found turgid - simply didn't grab me enough, which may also be symptomatic of my gradual pivot away from these long, worldbuilding-heavy sagas in SF & fantasy for shorter, tauter stories.
All in all, this was a real struggle and a rather rough reading experience, and it was a challenge not to DNF, which I practically did at page 150 of Shadow , sadly. For a 290-page book, that is pretty damning, and puts it at a similar place for me to Philip José Farmer's disappointing To Your Scattered Bodies Go. However, unlike Farmer's book, I was barely able to finish this. As such it unfortunately has to get one less star.
I tried to put all that out of my mind for this read, as such I'm critiquing this book in a more surface-level way for my first read. The story follows Severian, told in the first-person by Severian himself after the fact (though where and when he's writing this is, so far anyway, undisclosed).
The first third of Shadow is concerned with Severian's time in the executioner's guild, serving the Autarch ('autocrat'?) in a fortress of towers called the Citadel. All the while there's this mysterious character called Vodalus who occupies Severian's thoughts from an experience he had in a part of the Citadel called the Necropolis (which I'm guessing is the subject of Gollancz's SF Masterworks cover art for this volume) and who I understood to be against the Autarch in a kind of counterpoint (which may be completely wrong). In fact, this whole world seems populated by several differing guilds of various types - all headed by mysterious figures with lofty titles - adding to its 'fantasy' feeling.
That, along with the point about the cover art, brings me on to how this book reads. Shadow definitely reads more like fantasy than SF. I'm sure this may change the further along in the series one gets. In fact I think The Book of the New Sun is the only title to appear in both the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks series, reflecting its unclear genre status.
After this first third, Severian leaves the Citadel for the city of Thrax, at the behest of his guildmaster, who gifts him the sword 'Terminus Est' ('it is the end') before expelling him. On this journey he meets various strange characters, learns more about the world he inhabits, and through this Wolfe flexes his worldbuilding more.
There is a lot of obscure vocabulary and interesting turns of phrase in this book. Some of this vocabulary I'd never seen or heard before, and that which I couldn't work out by the context, I didn't bother to look up as I find this interrupts the flow of reading. But it got to a point where it stalled the narrative for me (see below).
The dream sequences and tangents of Severian often caused me to have to go back a paragraph or two in order to really understand what just happened. These attempts to grasp the narrative are I gather what attracts people to this series; the allure, the ambiguity, the maddening desire to understand the references and the symbolism. For me, right now, I'm not feeling the pull to do that. The Shadow of the Torturer was, for me, more of a task than T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph (my most recent read prior to this) which is kind of amazing that a fiction book could be more of a chore.
The language can be impressive, but unlike Seven Pillars (whose language is also impressive but not archaic in the way Shadow is) I can't say I particularly enjoyed reading this, nor was I excited to get back to reading it every time I had to put it down. In fact, I was closer to dreading it. It felt at times I could skip a few pages and it wouldn't matter in terms of grasping plot advancement; especially when 10% of the words you do not understand. If it's one that lingers with me and entices me to continue with the rest of the series, only time will tell - but as for right now, I unfortunately haven't been won over. I fear the plot - which I found turgid - simply didn't grab me enough, which may also be symptomatic of my gradual pivot away from these long, worldbuilding-heavy sagas in SF & fantasy for shorter, tauter stories.
All in all, this was a real struggle and a rather rough reading experience, and it was a challenge not to DNF, which I practically did at page 150 of Shadow , sadly. For a 290-page book, that is pretty damning, and puts it at a similar place for me to Philip José Farmer's disappointing To Your Scattered Bodies Go. However, unlike Farmer's book, I was barely able to finish this. As such it unfortunately has to get one less star.
Gene Wolfe turned out a lot well-crafted lines. The narrator exhibited creepy and sometimes disturbing sexual energy.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Second read through of this book and although it has been a few years, I really only remembered the first third. The rest felt like reading everything for the first time. But I think I understood it more this go around. Of course “more” is still far less understanding than a regular book, Wolfe is obviously much smarter than me or most common people, and he knows it. I know I am missing out on the Catholic undertones but the masterful thing is the book is enjoyable without it, the book is even enjoyable without understanding any of it… what a book.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's been ages since the last time I've read science fiction fantasy of this scope and thoroughly enjoyed it. Personally, the major charm of The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator resides in the manner in which Wolfe portrays the decaying planet--Urth--as having more or less abolished from collective memory the glory of its former inhabitants from eons past, yet being unable to completely exorcise these phantoms whose significance present day humanoids (save for the exalted classes) can no longer comprehend. A huge chunk of the sprawling world is buried in so many pseudo legends and compromise-formations (as if by design) and obscure even to the ancients whom we as readers fathom might be a thousand generations or so removed from the ancestral generation that originally figured out interstellar travel in the nick of time (sub specie astronomicus) to escape the dying sun. Traditions and rites are handed down and practiced with ritualistic efficacy, but not renewed with a fresh understanding. Take our narrator Severian, a torturer's apprentice and a state executioner in the making. Neither he nor his guild master(s) seem to be aware of the full extent of their own guild arsenal, nor do they seem troubled by the fact that entire floors of the Matachin Tower (their residence) remain undiscovered and un-utilized. As such, their alleged mastery of their own craft is questionable from a third person point of view. Presumably this suspicion can be extended to all other guilds in the city as well, and even beyond. As he makes it abundantly clear in the two appendixes Wolfe's masterful approach to the saga is that of a historian exploring and documenting an almost fully realized world that is already 'out there'. This is some really marvelous stuff. I can't recommend it enough.
This felt like the literary equivalent of going thru a car wash without a car. Its dreamlike prose and imagery is dynamic and psychedelic and beautiful, but I have absolutely no idea what it’s describing or what it’s leading to. There’s enough clues to keep me interested tho so hopefully it lives up to its reputation (or at least reveals and explains things?????) by the time I’m finished. It could do with less violence toward and objectification of women. I’m really not sure what purpose that serves the plot or main character, but then again I’m really not sure what the plot is at all.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated