A review by thebestmark
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Wolfe's ambiguous narratorial style is often excruciating, particularly in this second book that deeply expands the world of the series, but it is always productive. I am fascinated by what Wolfe does with the protagonist, Severian, and our sometimes fraught relationship with him as readers. If you consider Severian purely through the lens of plot, as in 'what literal actions does this sword-wielding, cape-wearing main character take,' then he's perfectly commensurate with genre expectations, a fantasy hero only very slowly coming to grips with the fact that he has been transposed into a science fiction novel. It's the fact that we cannot escape Severian's perspective, though, that really expands the potential of the narrative. So much of what Severian doesn't tell us, or of what he reveals later, or of the way he angles his own behavior, frequently unmakes the heroic mythology he becomes absorbed by, revealing a cautious, sometimes fearful, and often confused human being. As in the first book, this is made all the better thanks to the fact that Wolfe's imaginary as a writer appears to be boundless,  each new horrible imbroglio Severian has to flail his way out of equally imagistic, dense in material detail and almost psychedelic in presentation.