Shadow & Claw (The Book of the New Sun, 1) Paperback – June 8, 2021

I started reading The Shadow of the Torturer with hesitation. Too much "genre" fantasy is full of boring and tired tropes, hollow characters, and predictable plots. To my delight, I found that Shadow was not going to fall into that category.The story opens up simple enough (alright, maybe this is one trope the book falls victim to) - a young man with no family leaves his home. In the very least, this is spiced up by the intriguing world it takes place in. Severian is a torturer, one of a secretive guild whose duty is to torture those deemed deserving.Throughout the four volumes composing The Book of the New Sun, Severian "practices his art" several times. The books are not gory or violent, however. Wolfe's prose turns the mundane into the fantastic and the terrible into the whimsical. Everything in this foreign world of Urth is described with thoughtful word choice that (most of the time) tells you more than you realize. Unfamiliar words create a believable yet strangely familiar setting throughout the story. Many complain that the vocabulary in the book is difficult or obscure - yes and no. It is not an easy book to read. If you have a strong vocabulary, you may recognize many words based on their roots (Wolfe often uses archaic words, but not made up words) and context. If you are the sort who doesn't mind looking up occasional words they don't recognize, you will certainly leave this book with a slightly larger vocabulary. But if you exclusively prefer novels written with a conversational tone and always familiar vocabulary, this book really may not be for you. Anyone and everyone should still give this book a try, but go in expecting to read slowly and thoughtfully.The story takes several twists and turns in strange and unexpected ways, but the plot devices tend towards thoughtful rather than absurd. I found myself thinking about how a given scene fits into the big picture rather than taking them on their own. In a lesser author's hands, The Book of the New Sun would certainly be a muddled and unfocused adventure with too many loose ends to be satisfying. Gene Wolfe, however, has proved himself to be a masterful writer (n.b. I am not a Gene Wolfe fanboy, The Book of the New Sun is the first and only thing by him that I have read). If you dig into these works, you will be rewarded with a depth of story found rarely in any genre. It is clear that the four books composing The Book of the New Sun were written at the same time, and this is a huge advantage over other multi-volume series. The writing is consistent and the storytelling is purposeful. I don't think Wolfe wasted much more than a word in composing these works. Also, the first book (The Shadow of the Torturer) on its own I found a little unsatisfying - perhaps rightfully so if you look at it as the first quarter of one large novel. During the second book (The Claw of the Conciliator), however, things really started to fall into place for me and I got deeply interested in the characters and happenings. So if you read Shadow and think to yourself, "Well, I could take it or leave it," do yourself a favor and read the second book, Claw of the Conciliator. I sincerely doubt you will find yourself less interested by the end of it.So, obviously I liked it. It was a thoughtful, interesting, and unique story. The writing is second to none and the text is rich with meaning if you care to look for it. It is a work that will challenge you from the beginning and reward you in spades. If you want a throwaway story to kill time, this isn't it. If you are needing more from a book, look no further.

THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURERGene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is a popular recommendation in terms of non-traditional fantasy/science-fiction, and the man is well-respected by authors I respect so I figured it was time to find out why.The Shadow of the Torturer is the first book in a tetralogy and it feels like it. It's a little sliver of a world, a little taste-test of Urth (a planet with a dying sun) and its weary inhabitants, and then cuts off hard at the end, offering no real conclusion. In a sense I expected this, as this story is often sold as two volumes of two books, or even a single volume of all four books. So in a way I was ready for it to be a very... introductory type story, and it was. It is a very promising introduction though.I am a sucker for sci-fi settings that take place so far in the future that they end up feeling like the past instead. Science-fantasy, I've heard it called (though I prefer space-fantasy). The types of stories that rest on forgotten epochs and eons upon eons of history. Dune is like that. But unlike Dune Wolfe's books take place on Earth itself, or Urth. It is unclear just how far in the future the story takes place (at least, it's unclear at this time) but you can feel the history of the world. It's a tangible thing, and you can read it in the characters' faces, scry it in the ancient river Gyoll, see it in the massive border-wall of Nessus, and in the eerie halls of the Citadel... It's a world that feels old—with all of the strange mythos and cultural idiosyncrasies one would expect—and those are often the best kind.Now, I was less sold on the characters than I was on the world itself. The story is about Severian, an apprentice of the Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence, more commonly known as the Guild of Torturers. We are being told the story, in Severian's own words, of his exile from the guild and ascension to the throne of the autarchy. And while that story is really just getting started, the nature of Severian's unreliable narration is one of the more interesting parts of the series thus far. This unreliability could certainly be why I don't quite know how to feel about Severian yet, but the other characters that surround him sometimes felt like mere carriers of plot points instead of people with agency. I'm looking for improvement there.Beyond the story, beyond the characters, the writing itself is noteworthy. I must be on a path of difficult lexicons or something. First Wallace, now Wolfe. I should read McCarthy soon and complete the hat trick. Bring a dictionary, is what I'm saying. Better yet bring a google search bar, because not only is Wolfe using words of utmost antiquity, he's perverted them with time. Which is realistic, but does not help in the effort of deciphering the language. Vocabulary aside, the man can write. His prose is that of someone who loves language, and wants you to love language. And there were phrases that caught me in just the right way.So ultimately, it was a good start. And I did enjoy joining Severian as he encounters the wider world outside of his guild's Citadel. He has a lot to learn, and frankly so do I.THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATORA step up from the first book, I am considering giving this one all five stars. I felt that it lost some of its steam toward the end, but may yet still change my mind.In any case, certainly a step up. Though honestly it may just be the simple fact of getting more familiar with the world, more familiar with the characters. It's what generally happens in any series that I spend more time with (assuming consistent—or in this case improved—quality).The Claw of the Conciliator seems to take a firmer grip on what Wolfe is shooting for this series to be. Drug experiences, strange creatures, non-linear time, secrets and myths, even tongue-in-cheek stage plays, all of these things lent to a more... involved feeling story for me here in book two.Severian... I still don't know what to think about Severian. He has a strong sense of justice, and often does honorable things. He’s loyal, and even compassionate at times. But he also performs despicable acts, seemingly without thinking about them. And I'm not talking about his work as a headsman. In fact, as morbid a thought as it is, I actually found it fascinating how this book gets you inside the head of someone whose job is to torture and kill people for a living, and forces you to consider the thoughts and emotions that accompany such a role. Severian is a professional. He doesn't worry about the things that would make someone like me squirm. He worries about his nerves. He worries about doing a good job. In a weird way, it makes him far more relatable.But then there's also the fact that the entire story—told as it is by Severian himself—could be full of as many lies and deceptions as he sees fit to tell. Additionally, I did not really think all that much during the first book about the repercussions of having perfect recollection. The dangerous possibility of getting lost in such a thing. How could you differentiate memory from reality? Memory from dream? Dream from reality? It would be very difficult, and is thus on occasion difficult for the reader to differentiate between these things, on top of the unreliable narration.From a writing standpoint, I think I needed to get used to Wolfe's prose just like I needed to get used to the setting, because it was really hitting for me at times here. Many vividly and poetically described scenes that I found myself appreciating.Taking a short break then I'll read on for the third and fourth entries in the tetralogy.