G.Wolfe _Shadow of the Torturer_

Janet M. Lafler · 23 Jul 1991, 22:52 · from rec.arts.sf-lovers.1991.mbox

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From: repnomar at leland.Stanford.EDU (Janet M. Lafler)
Subject: Re: G.Wolfe _Shadow of the Torturer_
Date: 23 Jul 91 22:52:39 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Jul23.225239.22413 at leland.Stanford.EDU>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers
References: <9107221851.AA00898 at nowalls.UCSD.EDU> <1991Jul23.164922.11000 at leland.Stanford.EDU> <MATT.91Jul23100408 at physics16.berkeley.edu>

>
>> There are four books in the series, _The Shadow of the Torturer_, _The Claw
>> of the Conciliator_, _The Sword of the Lictor_ and _The Citadel of the 
>> Autarch_.  There is also a companion volume, _The Urth of the New Sun_,
>> which I haven't read but have been reliably informed is awful.  
>
>Awful?? Gene Wolfe?  Them there's fightin' words.  The Urth of the New
>Sun certainly isn't as good as The Book of the New Sun, but a book
>could be much worse than The Book of the New Sun and still be very
>good indeed.  Urth of the New Sun still has the calm voice and
>meticulous craftsmanship and sense of inevitability that I find
>characteristic of Wolfe's writing.

Oops.  That's what I get for commenting on a book that I haven't read.  All
I can say is that a Usually Reliable Source, who works at A Bookstore You
And I Both Patronize (sorry, everybody else), advised me not to bother with it.

>Actually, I don't think I would call The Book of the New Sun a series,
>or a tetrology, so much as a four-volume novel.  (And I would call
>The Urth of the New Sun a sequel.)

True.  I think this is what Wolfe himself calls it.

/Janet

PS  You're not *really* mad, are you?  Snf.

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