Book of the New Sun-Should I keep going?

Jeremy P Lakatos · 12 Dec 1996, 04:15 · from sf-lovers.1996.mbox

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From: afn39111 at afn.org (Jeremy P Lakatos)
Subject: Re: Book of the New Sun-Should I keep going?
Date: 12 Dec 1996 04:15:06 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v21-516-10 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V21 #516
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-21b

Michael Wen (mswen at worldnet.att.net@postoffice.worldnet.att.net) wrote:
>reading TSoT I get the impression that this series is Sword and Sorcery, 

Hardly. Though there are swords, and sorcery, there are no quests to be
won, no dragons to battle, no evil overlords to overthrow. It isn't Swords
and Sorcery, it's fantasy (but then, scifi is fantasy too).

>some colony world that's lost contact with civilization and had
>degenerated.  Am I right?

Yes. Except that several types of magic work: There's the mysterious
witchery of the Claw. There's time travel. There are great solar ships like
Space:1889. There are souls, which follow a bizarre and unscientific course
of action.

>What I would really like to know is why this series is so popular.  

It simply reeks with mystery. That's what I like. I don't like mysteries,
but I like mystery, and the New Sun books have a great sense of something
which is too big to be easily known.

The characters are realistic and intriguing. They have faults and they act
on them. The story would function quite well as a mainstream story (where
plot is usually rather formula but the characters are very crafted).

The story is crafted. It is written deftly and Wolfe achieves the mood he
sets out to achieve. His narrator is very cultured, with a endearing
maudlin touch.

The series is unabashedly fantasy and exemplifies what fantasy should be.
Other stories that fit this definition in my mind are Simmons' Hyperion
books, Harlan Ellison's stories, and some of PKD's novels.

>Does it get better in the later books?  Is there some great revelation
>about Urth that is to come?

It gets better, though most of the revelations are about Severian, up until
the Urth of the New Sun, where the mysteries are finally revealed.  The
book, however, is a disappointment after the original series.

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