# Book of the New Sun *The SF-Lovers list — 4 messages, 3 voices, 28 Jan 1997* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### William H. Graham III *28 Jan 1997, 21:37* I just re-read Wolfe's centerpiece for the third time in ten years, and I still don't know: What the hell happened at the Wall of Nessus? How did the characters get separated. All I know is that there were uhlans blocking the road, then commotion as the travelers apparently panicked and crushed themselves a la General Admission Who Concerts. Does anyone have any other thoughts? Any other questions (I'm dying to talk about this book again!) --- ### Ross TenEyck *28 Jan 1997, 22:48 · follows William H. Graham III* "William H. Graham III" writes: > I just re read Wolfe's centerpiece for the third time in ten years, and I > still don't know: What the hell happened at the Wall of Nessus? How did > the characters get separated. All I know is that there were uhlans > blocking the road, then commotion as the travelers apparently panicked and > crushed themselves a la General Admission Who Concerts. I just finished the series. At least, I finished the main four, and I'm working on "Urth of the New Sun" now, after having started it when it came out and never finishing. Anyway, it seemed to me that there was just some kind of traffic accident, insofar as anything that happens to Sevarian is an accident, and the road was very crowded, and, as you say, everyone got separated in the confusion. > Does anyone have any other thoughts? I really like it, mostly... I think the fourth book is weak, though, and the third book isn't as good as the first two. The fourth book struck me as though Wolfe had largely run out of material, but had to wrap things up; so he just spent the first three-quarters of the book vamping. The background kind of reminds me of Vance's Dying Earth books, not surprisingly, perhaps. Both have that sort of air of terminal decadence about them... what was the line from one of Vance's stories, "Earth festers rich as rotting fruit"? Overall, a good read; although it helps to read it with a dictionary handy. Ross TenEyck --- ### William H. Graham III *29 Jan 1997, 14:46 · follows Ross TenEyck* I've heard others say that they though that the story petered out in the third and fourth books. I think some of this might be attributed, however, not to a decline in the quality of either the writing or the story, but rather the reader's desensitivity by this time as he is no longer reeling from the queerness of the world into which he has been plunged. --- ### Frank *30 Jan 1997, 05:01 · follows William H. Graham III* > teneyck at u.washington.edu (Ross TenEyck) wrote: > I think the fourth book is weak, though, and the third book isn't as good > as the first two. The fourth book struck me as though Wolfe had largely > run out of material, but had to wrap things up; so he just spent the first > three-quarters of the book vamping. You might be interested to know that Wolfe wrote the entire _Book of the New Sun_ as one very long novel, rather than one volume at a time. Here's his description of what happened when he realized just how long the story he wanted to tell was: "Very well, I'd write a trilogy. "I did, finishing (the first draft) with a sigh of exhaustion that shook my soul. There remained one small problem. I had, as is customary, divided my trilogy into three books. And the third was nearly as long as the first two combined. "... I now asked her [his agent] to ask him [the editor] what he thought of a trilogy with a very long third volume. "She softened it, but I suspect his reply was unprintable.... "Unwilling to cut tens of thousands of words from an existing manuscript, and unsure of my ability to do it without wrecking the story, I suggested dividing that last, fat volume and producing a tetralogy instead of the commonplace trilogy." [from "The Feast of Saint Catherine" in _Castle of the Otter_, which is currently available in the combined edition _Castle of Days_.] So, you may not have enjoyed the last volume, but it wasn't because Wolfe was running out of material. The last volume is, I presume, exactly the way he wanted it. For those interested in knowing some of what's _really_ going on in _Book of the New Sun_, I recommend John Clute's essays on Wolfe in his collection _Strokes_. I enjoyed _Book of the New Sun_ immensely, but when I read Clute, I realized there was far more to it that I had ever suspected. ---