Urth of the New Sun

Not That One! · 27 Nov 1987, 06:15 · from sf-lovers.1987.mbox

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From: mcnc!rti!xyzzy!kjm at RUTGERS.EDU (Not That One!)
Subject: Re: Urth of the New Sun
Date: 27 Nov 87 06:15:23 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v12-516-3 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V12 #516
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-12b

_The Urth of the New Sun_ is here, and it's a knockout.
  This is the long-awaited sequel to _The Book of the New Sun_, Gene
Wolfe's monumental four-volume novel about the life under the dying
sun of the cradle of mankind, Wolfe's masterpiece.
  _Urth_ begins immediately after _The Book_ ends: Severian the
Torturer, Autarch of Urth, Examplar of Man, has boarded the ship
that will take him far from Urth to face judgement to determine
whether he will bring a White Fountain to rejuvenate the Sun. The
ship is enormous, possessing sufficient mass to generate a
gravitational field about 1/8th that of Urth. Severian spends some
time wandering about it, exploring this world, while various
factions attempt to assassinate him. He spends a fair amount of time
falling great heights without suffering serious injury and evading
hostile forces trying to prevent his success.
  After he arrives at the planet of judgement, in the universe of
Yesod, he discovers both how important and unimportant he is in the
eyes of God; eventually, he is returned to Urth, but things have
changed. The latter half of the novel entails his encounters on
Urth, in a variety of identities and locales, until his final
arrival at his true berth.

  I really don't want to go into any detail in a general review;
however, I will mention that the beautiful prose, oblique
story-telling, intricate time-travel, grand philisophical insights,
and general brilliance of _The Book_ are all here, although fewer of
them than in the original, which was, after all, much longer. A
great deal of _Urth_ is concerned with making more plain the
unravelling of mysteries established in the first; since I was
confident in my understanding of most all of that work, they came as
no surprise. However, I will state that _Urth_ was completely unlike
my expectations of it, and disappointed me not in the least.
  From what I understand, there will be no further volumes detailing
the life of Severian; this was intended as the coda to the concerto
of _The Book_, and after its final (uplifted) note, we must deduce
the rest of Severian's life ourselves--and with him, the life of
Man.
   Yes, _Castle_ is a _New Sun_ book (actually, I believe it was
published fourth, between _Sword and Citadel_ and is very worth
getting from the SFBC. Besides interesting insights into _The Book_,
it also has memorable bits about being a convention guest and plans
to put MX missles on wooden sailing ships in the Pacific.

Kevin J. Maroney

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