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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
I feel Wolfe wanted to challenge the reader to finish the book, to piece together the story from the clutter. I may pick this up again since I do feel challenged to finish it but, the clutter sure makes it hard.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
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:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
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:
No
I gave it 2 stars because only about the first 40% of it is any good. The rest quickly became a problem of having a main character who becomes utterly uninteresting compared to other characters.
CW: rape (confined to the spoiler section below)
Reading through this set, all I could think of is this is the kind of writing I think of when someone would derisively(?) say something is fantasy writing. It's purple to the point of bruising and it's so dense in its own jargon that it can really be a stumbling block to get into - even if it is ultimately immensely readable. The one image that just kept repeatedly jumping into my mind as I read this was the segment in the 1981 film Heavy Metal where a nerdy John Candy (animated) gets put into the body of some fantasy world barbarian. He terrorizes the world and sexes any women he meets, etc. That's what sums up The Book of the New Sun.
Suffice to say this collection is only the first two books in a four book series, so I don't have the full story. But there's a development that happens in the second book (The Claw of the Conciliator) that really soured me on the book and on the character of Severian. I only read this book because of the acclaim I have seen from respectable authors and from the supposed standing that so many seem to have for it, and for Gene Wolfe, but I'm really disappointed that in a book so promoted as having an unreliable narrator, this liar would still think it okay to explicitly allow the main character to
**SPOILER:** rape an unconscious woman. And then to have that woman unceremoniously die by withering away and losing all her (already fake) desirability. **END SPOILER.**
That said - all of that said - I am still interested in reading the rest of the series. Curiosity - despite already having read the Wikipedia entry about the series - has me interested to see how it ends. How Wolfe pulls it all off. Because as trope-y and truly bonkers as it it, it is engaging. But interest doesn't mean I will. I still need to weigh my own convictions against completion. Many series of books and TV shows and movies and comics, have all been left unfinished for lesser causes that made me pause. So we'll see.
Reading through this set, all I could think of is this is the kind of writing I think of when someone would derisively(?) say something is fantasy writing. It's purple to the point of bruising and it's so dense in its own jargon that it can really be a stumbling block to get into - even if it is ultimately immensely readable. The one image that just kept repeatedly jumping into my mind as I read this was the segment in the 1981 film Heavy Metal where a nerdy John Candy (animated) gets put into the body of some fantasy world barbarian. He terrorizes the world and sexes any women he meets, etc. That's what sums up The Book of the New Sun.
Suffice to say this collection is only the first two books in a four book series, so I don't have the full story. But there's a development that happens in the second book (The Claw of the Conciliator) that really soured me on the book and on the character of Severian. I only read this book because of the acclaim I have seen from respectable authors and from the supposed standing that so many seem to have for it, and for Gene Wolfe, but I'm really disappointed that in a book so promoted as having an unreliable narrator, this liar would still think it okay to explicitly allow the main character to
**SPOILER:** rape an unconscious woman. And then to have that woman unceremoniously die by withering away and losing all her (already fake) desirability. **END SPOILER.**
That said - all of that said - I am still interested in reading the rest of the series. Curiosity - despite already having read the Wikipedia entry about the series - has me interested to see how it ends. How Wolfe pulls it all off. Because as trope-y and truly bonkers as it it, it is engaging. But interest doesn't mean I will. I still need to weigh my own convictions against completion. Many series of books and TV shows and movies and comics, have all been left unfinished for lesser causes that made me pause. So we'll see.