A review by deimosremus
The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

5.0

The Urth of the New Sun is the 5th entry in the Solar Cycle, taking place, more or less, directly after the events of The Book of the New Sun. Throughout reading this, I had a lot of changes of opinion-- though it still contains all the confounding Wolfian hallmarks presented in his Magnum Opus (archaic terminology, puzzling narrative, etc), its aim isn't quite as clear, and the (relative) break-neck pace of it can be a bit jarring at times. I'm sure, like BotNS, it'll benefit from re-reads, though on this first read-through, I have some conflicting thoughts about it. There are numerous scenes that are just as powerful as some of the best in the original tetralogy, and there are stretches in the book that are so confounding that it borders on being frustrating... but the revelations that are revealed make the original tetralogy even more rewarding than it already was, and for that, I think it's a masterful followup. Basically the 'sum of its parts' argument can be used here-- it's not my favorite single volume, but it does make the entire series even better.