Sun Series---A Newbish Question

William Ansley · 06 Jun 2003, 17:21 · from urth-v0306.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Sun Series---A Newbish Question
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 13:21:17 -0400
Message-ID: <urth-v0306-3452 at digest.urth.net>
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"Sam Keyes" <skeyes at richmond.edu> wrote (in part):

>I can't really say
>in what order they're MEANT to be read, but they were, I think, published
>in this order, and this is the order in which I have and am reading them:
>
>The Book of the New Sun:
>Shadow and Claw (Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator)
>Sword and Citadel (Sword of the Lictor and Citadel of the Autarch)
>
>The Urth of the New Sun
>
>The Book of the Long Sun:
>Litany of the Long Sun (Nightside and Lake)
>Epiphany of the Long Sun (Cald=3DE9 and Exodus)
>
>The Book of the Short Sun:
>On Blue's Waters
>In Green's Jungles
>Return to the Whorl

Replying to Tyreal <akean989 at yahoo.com> who wrote

> > Tyreal here.  I was wandering if someone could put the all of the Sun
> > Series books in order in which they were meant to be read.   Please
> > include the urth, the new, the long, the short, and any other

I am a strong proponent of reading books in the order they were published,=
=3D
=3D20
no matter what the order of "internal chronology" is, so I agree with the=
=3D20
reading list order given by Sam Keyes, above. Frankly, I am not sure the=3D=
20
question, "In what order are Gene Wolfe Sun books meant to be read?" is=3D20
answerable in that form.

Here is a list of the titles of all the original novels in the Sun series=
=3D20
(so far) with some extras:

~The Book of the New Sun~
_The Shadow of the Toturer_
_The Claw of the Conciliator_
_The Sword of the Lictor_
_The Citadel of the Autarch_

(_Shadow and Claw_ combines novels 1 & 2 above.)
(_Sword and Citadel_ combines novels 3 & 4 above.)

_The Urth of the New Sun_

~The Book of the Long Sun~
_Nightside the Long Sun_
_Lake of the Long Sun_
_Calde of the Long Sun_
_Exodus from the Long Sun_

(_Litany of the Long Sun_ combines novels 1 & 2 above.)
(_Epiphany of the Long Sun_ combines novels 3 & 4 above.)

~The Book of the Short Sun~
_On Blue's Oceans_
_In Green's Jungles_
_Return to the Whorl_

Related books:
_Gene Wolfe's Book of Days_
(includes _The Castle of the Otter_, a collection of essays about the Book=
=3D
=3D20
of the New Sun)
Endangered Species
(includes the stories, "The Cat" and "The Map," generally considered to be=
=3D
=3D20
set in the same universe as the Sun books)

Possibly related books:
_The Fifth Head of Cerberus_
(said by some to be set in the same universe as the Sun books)
_Storeys from the Old Hotel_
(includes the story, "A Solar Labyrinth," said by some to be a metafiction=
=3D
=3D20
on the Book of the New Sun)


William Ansley


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