What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?

Mark Jeffcoat · 30 Dec 2003, 11:30 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2003.mbox

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From: Mark Jeffcoat <jeffcoat at alumni.rice.edu>
Subject: Re: What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 05:30:02 -0600
Message-ID: <87pte6ee6d.fsf at local.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <TW5Ib.559532$0v4.22734305 at bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net> <20031229225953.13604.00001784 at mb-m10.aol.com>

anomj7t7 at aol.com (AnomJ7t7) writes:

>>What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?                                          
> It's been awhile since I read it,but it seems to me
> an underlying theme was that Severian was supposed to 
> be procuring some sort of nuclear device from an alien 
> race that would 'restart' the sun which,of course
> a million years into the "Urth's" future, was dying.
>

My summary may contain spoilers. As the original post suggests,
though, this is not necessarily a plot-oriented sort of book.

Severian becomes Autarch in _The Book of the New Sun_. The old
sun of the world he rules is dying. In _Urth_, Severian travels
to meet an alien being who will test him. If he passes the test,
Severian will return with/as the New Sun (a white hole dropped
into the old sun's center, to rejuvenate it with new matter). If
he fails, there will be penalties.

The first part of the book takes place as the space (kinda)-ship 
is traveling: Severian has adventures, meets aliens, learns stuff,
etc. This part is weird.

Then Severian reaches the heaven-ish kind of place. Wolfe draws
a lot on a cosmology I usually think of as cabalistic (q.v. the
"Tree of Life"), though I have no idea where this structure
comes from originally. This part is weirder.

Severian brings the New Sun. Yay! ... But we're only about
half way though the book. Severian's Grand Journey Through Time
is next. You'll forgive me if I don't even try to recount any part
of the plot here, 'cause not only do things get even weirder 
and ridiculously complicated, but Wolfe also shows us scenes from
earlier books through new eyes (and possibly in new versions of
the universe), forcing us to re-interpret ... pretty much everything.
This project will expand to fill any time you give to it, but
you have to enjoy that sort of game.

Any questions? Too bad. I'm pretty much out of answers. 

-- 
Mark Jeffcoat
Austin, TX

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