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I was thinking the same thing. I mean there is some violence in there, but nothing more than you'd find in any of his other books. Heck, he had an executioner for a protaganist. So what did you find offensive David?
I don't think that David is going out on a limb, at all. Severian may have been a torturer, but in the end he took off his fuligin and disbanded the torturer's guild.
While "The Death Of Dr. Island," a violent young man murders a young girl and, far from being punished, the good Dr. deems it was a vital therapeutic step and declares the offender cured. It's one of Wolfe's better early stories, but certainly one of his most brutal and disturbing. I don't find it offensive, but I can easily see how some might.