Questions about Book of the New SunUsenet

Hi all, I have been working my way through this book and loving it, but I'm starting to get confused. I just started Sword and Citadel. 1. I don't get the vision Severian had on the roof with the witches. 2. Why does he leave Thrax? 3. When is all of this stuff going to come together? 4. How are we to tell that he lies during his narrative? Why would he do so? Thanks. I am loving the book, but it's even tougher to follow than Hyperion. jonathon

My advice is to just go with the flow, lots of stuff will be made more clear later on, some other stuff won't. I found reading Book of the New Sun to be a "project," like reading In Search of Lost Time, but like Proust, a project that rewarded my efforts. I have only read Book of the New Sun once, but I suspect it is very profitable to reread it, again like Proust, several volumes of which I enjoyed more the second time around. And don't be afraid to consult the Oxford English Dictionary or google or something for those archaic words; I found this helpful at times.

Make sure you read Urth of the New Sun when you've finished with the BotNS series.

Is it really neccessary. I didn't think it was nearly as good and found it unneccessary. And since I've read it I've almost forgot everything that happened in it even though I remember The Book of the New Sun fine. Mike

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Yeah like "Why did I bother to read all the volumes" and "How come Wolfe's dictionary has got more words in than mine, I'm using the Shorter Oxford already, fer crisakes" and "What was this doing in the Science Fiction section"... 8>.

Because it's perhaps the most seminal work of literary Science Fiction ever written.

He's a bright, literate guy. Use the full Oxford!

It's set in the far future and involves things like spaceships, time travel, and lasers? -David