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yevolem 's review for:
The Shadow of the Torturer
by Gene Wolfe
I enjoyed this, but it baffles me why so there's so much published material about it, let alone reading guides. I can understand its cult status because it seems written for that purpose. I don't know whether I noticed connections more than others, or because I was satisfied with my speculations, or if its reputation is exaggerated, but overall I didn't find it that mysterious or puzzling. I felt like most of what I didn't understand was either because I lacked critical information or because it's just something that happened. The events seem to fit together like a puzzle, so it's more likely the former. I don't tend to like works where everything has to be inferred from the text because none of its is ever directly expressed. I don't believe that's what this book is, because I feel that by being attentive and doing a bit of induction most of what happens can be resolved with the information presented.
Word choice is forcibly made to be the center of attention. It's obvious that Wolfe was consulting a thesaurus and a multitude of sources for obscure, peculiar, and ancient words. Wolfe says he tried to avoid neologisms when possible, but I would have preferred having a few more of those rather than the profusion of non-English substitutes. I've written before about how the text may be translated from the setting's language into English so that the readers could understand. Wolfe explicitly states that this is an extreme case of that. It's so much so that it couldn't be translated entirely into English. I don't accept this. Yes, it does do that, but I think at too high a cost. As with the fantasy/mythological elements, it's an illusory and a surface level aesthetic. What bothers me most is a personal issue. The word choices make me feel like everything is a stand-in for something else, so I'm only seeing the shadows of the world. Apparently that isn't something I can appreciate.
Severian, the protagonist, is an unlikeable and bothersome young man. Fortunately for him he's the narrator, because if this were written from another viewpoint, he may have been insufferable. The other characters are fine, but it's obvious that Severian doesn't want others to outshine him in his autobiography. The plot is simple, for this book at least. Severian does some stuff and then has to go to a place, but gets sidetracked, and doesn't come anywhere near the place. That's because this series is the sort that's meant to be read as a single book. The setting is one that's to be expected from the Dying Earth subgenre. I believe the setting is what will have me continue reading the books, but it won't be what I'm reading them for. What I enjoyed most was the protagonist meandering. Somehow all of this comes together to be far greater than its individual parts. My complaints are enough that I can't rate this higher, but I also can't rate it any lower.
Word choice is forcibly made to be the center of attention. It's obvious that Wolfe was consulting a thesaurus and a multitude of sources for obscure, peculiar, and ancient words. Wolfe says he tried to avoid neologisms when possible, but I would have preferred having a few more of those rather than the profusion of non-English substitutes. I've written before about how the text may be translated from the setting's language into English so that the readers could understand. Wolfe explicitly states that this is an extreme case of that. It's so much so that it couldn't be translated entirely into English. I don't accept this. Yes, it does do that, but I think at too high a cost. As with the fantasy/mythological elements, it's an illusory and a surface level aesthetic. What bothers me most is a personal issue. The word choices make me feel like everything is a stand-in for something else, so I'm only seeing the shadows of the world. Apparently that isn't something I can appreciate.
Severian, the protagonist, is an unlikeable and bothersome young man. Fortunately for him he's the narrator, because if this were written from another viewpoint, he may have been insufferable. The other characters are fine, but it's obvious that Severian doesn't want others to outshine him in his autobiography. The plot is simple, for this book at least. Severian does some stuff and then has to go to a place, but gets sidetracked, and doesn't come anywhere near the place. That's because this series is the sort that's meant to be read as a single book. The setting is one that's to be expected from the Dying Earth subgenre. I believe the setting is what will have me continue reading the books, but it won't be what I'm reading them for. What I enjoyed most was the protagonist meandering. Somehow all of this comes together to be far greater than its individual parts. My complaints are enough that I can't rate this higher, but I also can't rate it any lower.