{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/9",
    "note": "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.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
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  "archive": "sflovers",
  "thread": {
    "id": 9,
    "subject": "Wolfe\"s The Book of the New Sun",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": null,
    "last": null
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<sflovers-v6-107-9@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "from": {
        "name": "harpo!utah-cs!utah-gr!thomas",
        "address": "harpo!utah-cs!utah-gr!thomas"
      },
      "date": null,
      "subject": "Re: Wolfe\"s The Book of the New Sun",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I'm not sure I'd call it a \"quest\" story.  It might be, in a sense,\nbut Severian really doesn't know what he's looking for (if anything).\nMaybe he's searching for the meaning of life, I'm not sure.\n\nAmong the things which make the series great for me are the language\nand the wonderful description of a future/past world.  Wolfe manages\nto evoke wondefully clear images of the fantastic world in which\nSeverian finds himself.  You can feel the tremendous weight of the\n(mostly ignored, but everpresent) immense past history pressing down\nupon the people of his time.  Everything has been done, forgotten,\nrediscovered, and forgetten again.  The world is running down to an\nend (or, as he seems to hope, a new beginning).  This background,\ndeveloped only implicitly in places, provides a rich backdrop for the\nstory.  The storyline in the first book seems a little thin, but only\nbecause of the wealth of subplots it begins.  There are no extraneous\nincidents recalled, no characters introduced as mere padding.  It is a\ndifficult book to read, the motives of the characters are frequently\nhidden or inexplicable and the description of some events are\nunexpectedly cut short.  You have to read every word, or you risk\nmissing something important.  But, then, real life is often this way,\nalso.  The \"Book of the New Sun\" is Severian's memoirs, and, although\nhe has perfect recall, he is still human, not omniscient, and can't\nknow everything.\n\nI'm not sure I would classify it as \"sword and sorcery\", there is very\nlittle sorcery, and what \"sorcery\" there is is really forgotten\nscience.  Severian certainly carries a sword, but members of the\nAutarch's guard carry advanced energy weapons.  I'm not sure it's\nclassifiable as anything except \"Speculative Fiction\", and only that\nbecause there is no other category which can hold it.  It is\ndefinitely not the escapism that so much SF is - if you are to\nunderstand the book on more than a superficial level, you must think\nabout it, be willing to ferret out that which is not said directly.\n\nIf you're not sure you will like it, borrow a copy from a friend, or\nthe library.  The first book is not the whole story, it was only\npublished as a multi-volume set because the publishing industry will\nnot put out a single book that long.  (Except for Michener, of\ncourse.)  By all means, though, give it another chance.\n\n=Spencer"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}