Customer Reviews

Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'

5 star:		(152)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I've read some of the reader reviews of "Shadow and Claw" and come to the conclusion that the book needs an introduction. Many of the negative reviews, I think, come from readers who weren't familiar with Gene Wolfe's writing style, which is understandable. So let me say for Wolfe that you cannot by any means read "The Book of the New Sun" the way you would ordinarily read a book. This mostly stems from the fact that the book is supposed to be an autobiography, and the writer, Severian, really can't be trusted to describe things accurately. A pretty good example would be the first woman Severian becomes interested in, Agia. He tells us that she was the most unattractive woman he has ever been attracted to. Fine, but the way that he becomes somewhat obsessed with her at a glance would suggest otherwise, and the way she treats him would account for his recalling her as being ugly. This is a minor example, to be sure, because it is a matter of Severian's perspective. There were other times in the book that I got the impression that Severian was telling flat-out lies. It's confusing, but it makes the book extremely interesting to read, simply because you are able to figure out much of what actually happened. Another thing to keep in mind, as somebody said in a quote on Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," (I forget who, and don't really care to find out, mostly because I'm lazy) is that Wolfe is "a master of the casual revelation." Which is to say that Severian will out of nowhere mention some vital piece of information, apparently assuming that we already knew about it. And we probably would know were we from his world, as he assumes we are. The only other thing to be aware of is the vocabulary, which thankfully is not nearly as difficult as people have described it. By and large, you won't have to look up the words being used simply because while you may not what an individual word means, you can infer it's meaning from the sentence it is used in. I started out looking up words constantly, and found that they mostly meant what I had already assumed they did. This is not to say that you shouldn't have a dictionary on hand, but looking up every word used that you don't know would be excessive. If all this sounds intimidating, I highly recommend that you read "Cerberus" which will give you a better handle on Wolfe's style. It's great book, and a good place to start if you are unfamiliar with Gene Wolfe. (If you do take my advice, it would be good to note that Severian's writing style is most similar to the first novella in "Cerberus.") The main thing I want to be clear on is that you shouldn't start reading this book expecting another "Lord of the Rings." While it can be argued that the "New Sun" series is of a similar calibur in terms of greatness, these are entirely different books. "LOTR" is an entertaining story, and you don't have to read into it at all. Everything you need to know is right there on the pages. The "New Sun" series is a bit more literary (Which sounds like a cultural elitist term, but I can't think of another one. Rest assured, I don't mean to belittle "LOTR" in any way, shape or form). If you're reading purely for an entertaining story, you would probably do well to look elsewhere.

Like thousands of teenagers, I came of age with *The Lord of the Rings*. The rather ugly Bakshi movie was the first one I went to see without my parents, and the novel was virtually the first one I ever read that was not a children's book, except for Jules Verne's *Mysterious Island*. Just like many Tolkien fans, I became a lifelong devotee of the fantasy genre, and explored the more promising of the other Middle-Earths, from Lankhmar to the Dark Shore, Lyonesse, Majipoor, Amber, Earthsea and the world of the Hyborean Age.

But of all the fantasy series I ever read, the only that ever compared to Tolkien's masterpiece in my opinion was Gene Wolfe's *New Urth* tetralogy. The others were fun, imaginative, full of action and adventure, but they either failed to maintain throughout the literary and spiritual power I had found in *The Lord of the Rings* or to equal the richness of its world-building.

Interestingly enough, however different Tolkien's and Wolfe's epics might be, they share two profound similarities. First, both were written by Catholics and infused with their author's faith. With Tolkien, all the trappings of religion are evacuated from the world itself while the story is saturated with religious symbolism. With Wolfe, on the contrary, Christianity is still very present but transformed, as if through layers and layers of rewriting, into a distant shadow of itself. There is only one God, Pancreator or Panjudicator ; an almost legendary «Conciliator» walked the earth eons ago and is still venerated by the order of the Pelerines ; and priests, rituals, sacred items and guilds abound, as in the Golden Age of Christianity.

The other similarity between the two sagas is the spiritual nature of their ultimate magical item. In *The Lord of the Rings*, the object is the ring itself, each successive use of which is a step on the path to damnation - conferring power on Earth in exchange for another fraction of the user's soul, as witnessed in the various states of spiritual decrepitude of those who have succumbed to the temptation. In *The Book of the New Sun*, the most powerful item is the Claw of the Conciliator - «the most valuable relic in existence», a gem that «performs miraculous cures... forgives injuries, raises the dead, draws new races of beings from the soil, purifies lust and so on. All the things [the Conciliator] is supposed to have done himself.»

In other words, Tolkien's ring is the Devil ; Wolfe's Claw is God : an interesting symmetry.

The texture of the two worlds, however, is very different. Middle Earth seems to be set in a distant past, barely threatened by the first premises of industrialization. Urth on the other hand is our own world millenia hence, a decaying planet waiting for a promised rebirth, frozen in some static medieval social order, incapable of producing any complex artefact except by magic, and borrowing fragments of more advanced technologies from its own past or from the mysterious hierodules, elusive offworlders who only have transactions with selected individuals on Urth and seem to be guiding the world's destiny in some occult fashion.

Tolkien was obviously not Wolfe's major influence. The world Severian, his first-person narrator, so entrancingly describes seems to be a mixture of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Peake's Gormenghast, a labyrinthine urban world rather than an enchanted primeval setting, filled with Lovecraftian horrors and filtered through the literary sensibilities of an admirer of Jorge Luis Borges.

So if you know that you will not recapture the wonder of *The Lord of the Rings* by reading any of its countless rehashes, and are seeking for an original voice of comparable eloquence, the *New Sun* cycle is for you : open the gate to the necropolis, unsheathe *Terminus Est* and come drink the analeptic alzabo.

*Shadow and Claw* brings together in one volume the first two novels in the series, *The Shadow of the Torturer* and *The Claw of the Conciliator*. It is followed by *Sword and Citadel*, the conclusion of the original series, initially published in two volumes, and *Urth of the New Sun*, which I have not read yet. Wolfe further expanded the saga with the books of the Long Sun and Short Sun, comprising seven volumes so far. And readers who have fallen in love with his universe will also be interested in *The Castle of the Otter* (1983), a collection of essays he wrote on the *New Sun* cycle ; *Lexicon Urthus*, a New Sun encyclopedia ; and GURPS New Sun, the role playing game based on the series.

The Book of the New Sun is an amazing literary work. The language is poetic (and have your Oxford English Dictionary close at hand), the images are beautiful and strange, and the thoughts--almost essays--of the narrator lead the reader to look at the story, and life, in a whole new light. This is a book of revelations, a book of thoughts; each time one reads it, it is somehow a different story. Each time I think I grasp something, it shifts into "something rich and strange" (in the words of Shakespeare).

The plot is relatively simple. Severian, an apprentice of the torturer's guild, is exiled for an act of mercy, and he must wander the distant future world of Urth. Urth is a world in which the sun is dying, and there is a prophecy that the New Sun will come to renew life to the world. Urth has generated a spacefaring empire, but in the millenia that empire has collapsed, and Urth is older even than that. In one of the volumes, we learn that excavations present us not with fossils of dinosaurs but with the fossils of previous civilizations. The sands of the seashore, it is rumored, are not sediment but rather ground bits of glass from generations of cities. Perhaps a million years have passed since our time--perhaps more.

Wolfe is able to evoke this distant world--a human world that is at once both alien and familiar--by the use of archaic words and by his depiction of future artifacts and monuments whose meaning and purpose has been lost in the interval of time between us and Severian. Urth is a world of staggering technology, built on an epic scale, but it is also a world filled with philosophy and mysticism. Severian, who has lived his entire life in the Citadel, discovers this world even as the reader does. And the imagination that goes into constructing this distant world is astounding.

As the reader finds new mysteries and new angles in Severian's narrative, the reader is compelled to ask: What is this story? On one level, The Book of the New Sun seeks to define just what a story IS. The reader thus sets out on a quest every bit as strange and multifaceted as Severian's quest. The book is as much a paradox as a tale, but it is also fine, enlightening entertainment that can be read on a number of levels.

I highly recommend this book.

Gene Wolfe's four-volume work The Book of the New Sun must rank among the finest works of literature of the past quarter-century. SHADOW AND CLAW is an omnibus consisting of the first half, the volumes THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER and THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR.

The Book of the New Sun is shelved among science-fiction, but it is much more. Wolfe draws on Christianity, the works of J.L. Borges, medieval morality plays, and a thousand elements of "Spritus Mundi." It is essentially a Christian allegory, as "Sun" is clearly the homophone of "Son." However, this element doesn't intrude on the unbelieving reader. The BotNS is written with a colourful array of obscure English words, for example: odalisque, fulgurator, carnifex, cenobite, peltast. Nonetheless, Wolfe gives such context that reaching for the Oxford English Dictionary is hardly necessary. A saint's dictionary helps, however, as most characters are named for nearly-forgotten saints.

SHADOW AND CLAW introduces us to Severian, an apprentice to a guild of torturers in a far-future Earth, when the sun is dying. As he confesses early on, Severian's narration is essentially the story of how he has "backed into the throne." He begins by telling the reader of his exile for showing a condemned woman mercy and his going forth into a world both alien and wispily recognizable.

THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR continues Severian's wanderings, and his unwitting involement in the mysterious politics of his day. Most striking is a play transcribed in the second half. "Dr. Talos' Play: Eschatology and Genesis" seems at first a poorly written morality play, but the careful reader will notice myriad hidden references to the book's plot, Greek and middle-eastern myth, and the renewing salvation of Christ as seen by Christianity.

Severian is among of one the most complex and believable narrators I've ever read. Wolfe uses Severian to see Urth through his eyes, and much of the information we gather about his world comes from what he doesn't understand. For example, he lives in a world where one no longer distinguishes between ocean and space-going craft, and his confusion gives us important clues about the character Jonas. Furthermore, this book, although only four volumes and a coda, spawns whole years of exegesis, as denizens of the 'net mailing-list "Urth-l" can attest. Mystery has always been a continual element in Wolfe's works, but answers do luck in every paragraph.

I admit that the Book of the New Sun is not for everyone; its million allusions and complex language require a fair degree of classical education and may bore many people. Nonetheless, for me it was "The Book of Gold," as I discovered it at an age when it sped me on to the glories of world literature. It shows the way to Borges, Robert Graves, Roman and Greek history and myth, the splendour of exegesis and, for at least me personally, the Catholic Church. If this review makes the work sound appealing, I would recommend buying SHADOW AND CLAW and experiencing this wonderful work.

*sigh* It saddens me, truly, to see the recent swath of negative reviews for this book. But then again, the majority of the people reading this book are Fantasy or Science Fiction readers, which are absolutely wonderful genres and their best works can contain a great deal of literary depth. However the majority of their readers don't read their best works.

So why is this book (and it's sequel) so misunderstood? And why do I think it's so fantastic? Well first off, I can't go into great depth here, because this is a review, and full literary analysis would a)require me to spoil the book and b) require me to read the book many more times. So, let me just try and combat the criticisms. First, yes there is no plot... on the surface. The plot is fairly weak (in the traditional sense), even when you get to the core of it, which is hidden under layers of Severian's deceptions. It's not a work of great Pathos, but it is layered and it is complex. The complexities are hard to fully understand in one readthrough, even from a surface "what happened?" standpoint (more on that later). However, a good analogy to make for the plot would be between this and Catcher in the Rye, both told by essentially insane narrators, and both are apparently plotless. So check off the need for a great pathos driven plot for great literature.

OK, moving on to the language. Yes, obscure words are used. This is to help convey a sense of a truly different place and a truly different time. It's just that simple. It's not literary masturbation, it's for atmosphere.

Next: To those who wonder where the subtleties and complexities are, much of it is in the nature of the Narrative. Every single one of Gene Wolfe's books is heavily shaded by the narrator in the story, and this one is absolutely no exception. Severian is insane and Severian can remember everything, but he is a liar. The majority of his lies will not be apparent the first time through, because this is NOT an easy, accessible book. The interplay between what happens as Severian tells it and what actually happens is fascinating and worthy of this books "great book status" by itself.

Where else are there complexities? Well this book is laden with symbolism. Almost everything that happens to Severian has a symbolic place, it seems to me. This is true especialy of dream sequences, but many other events follow suit. This symbolism, like in any book in the modernist tradition (and yes this book is in the tradition of authors like Hemmingway in that there is a factual plot and a symbolic plot that coexist. This, however, much like books from Joyce or Pynchon seperates it further into a told plot, the real, factual plot and the symbolic plot, so if Post-Modernist writings can be considered to fall into that category, this is probably a post-modern work). Also, I know there are many other characteristics of each respective movement, and many of these appear in this novel, such as the fractured world perspective epitomized by T.S. Elliot's Wasteland and the self-awareness of many of the post-modern novels, which is present here in that the narrator lies to the audience.

Finally, all of the characters are very three dimensional. Enough of your whining about how Severian isn't explicitly influenced by his career as a torturer. You said it yourself, he's a violent, violent person. Does the author have to TELL you that for you to make the association? If so, you should not be attempting to understand this book. No offense intended, but work up your literary analysis skills and come back later.

Finally, yes, the most easily appreciable aspect of this book is the unusual setting. And yes it is unusual. Yes China Mieville may have created a more unusual setting. However, he stole half his setting based ideas for the admittedly wonderful Perdido Street Station.

And what does it all mean? Well, like many great works of fiction, that's highly debatable.

So what do we have? A truly complex, truly difficult book with a group of readers who are trying to review it before they've even read the entire thing through once. *sigh*

The Book of The New Sun, of which this is the first, can be read on as many levels as you choose: as bizarre, outre genre fantasy; as Christian allegory/parable/fable; as bizarre, outre science fiction; as Literature (in the sense that Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" and "The Heart of Darkness" with their confessional aura and poignant glimpses into the human condition are Literature) . But, mainly, this series is just a fine, fine read, simply the best there is in SF and, I'd argue, the mainstream of Lit. Besides the beautiful first-person narration, full of intimations of immortality and forebodings of doom, told in that baroque, dolorous style Wolfe practically invented, and the well-drawn, resonant characters, and the great, action-oriented plot that impels you along with Severian in his backing into the Throne, you can frankly go as deep into this series as you want to. The multi-layered meanings and levels of allusion run that deep! Gene Wolfe is the best living writer of science fiction/fantasy in the world and, with this series, validates the entire genre! Journey with Severian, the naive torturer's apprentice and saviour of humanity, on an odyssey through a dying Urth so old that archaeology and commerce are the same thing, where high-born exultants eat the dead to gain their memories and overthrow the Autarch ("Ruler of Self"), who is the epitomy of human knowledge, all the emperors of Rome within one skull; where aliens wear alien masks underneath human masks, to frighten humanity back to its senses; where monsters appear as gods to prevent Severian from bringing the New Sun to reenervate the dying Old Sun; where, ultimately, Severian learns the true meaning of love and sacrifice! Read this one or remain impoverished beyond your darkest imaginings!

It's interesting that so many reviewers either adore it or are repelled. What makes the divide? Temperament? A kinship with one particular approach to "sci-fi?" - but this can't really be called "sci-fi", and that is part of the problem.

I was enlightened when one negative review said not to bother with this if you like, among others, Heinlein. Well, I've read quite a lot of Heinlein, so I absolutely see that if he is your ideal writer, then Gene Wolfe cannot be! Heinlein wrote various very good thrillers that happen to be set in the future and include some likely or unlikely social predictions, along with a strong dose of a very conservative and militaristic philosophy which he doesn't mind throwing in your face. Reminds me strongly of Kipling but without Kipling's nuances and ambivalence (though not without charm, as for instance Pete the cat in "The Door Into Summer" - delightful) Hard to see anything in common with the subtle, tangled and lustrous web woven by Gene Wolfe.

I also note those who have problems with "plot" and "character." Their comments tend to sound like a judgment on an entry in a "How To Write And Sell Your Stories" course. The point about Gene Wolfe is that he is not at all formulaic. He is inventing a genre as he goes along. The closest in literature would be the genre called "picaresque," in that it doesn't have to have a well-defined plot of n strands, but can be just a series of fantastic episodes. But Wolfe goes beyond this, in that "episodes" link up, dance together and separate again. Nabokov, anyone?

I suggest that if you are not sure you will like this, get hold of a copy briefly to dip into and test the waters. I think you will rapidly decide it you want to buy it, and the other two books in the series. Just be aware that when you dip into the later books, there is more than one personality inhabiting Severian's mind and one of them may be talking even though you know this is Severian's situation.

Science fiction and fantasy are literary genres that I doubt will ever rank among my favorites. However, I am always open to a stretch from my usual reading fare, so when a bookish colleague stated with impassioned conviction - "this is the best book I've ever read!" - I had to peer inside the covers of "Shadow & Claw".

Gene Wolfe is inarguably a highly skilled and richly talented author. I had already read Wolfe's "There Are Doors" and was decidedly underwhelmed. But this first half of a tetralogy was entirely on a different level of polish. Wolfe is a prolific writer, and when one produces as many books as he does, some are bound to be less, some more. I was willing to give him another look. I'm very pleased that I did. No, this is not my favorite book ever. Nor will it make the top ten on my top bookshelf. But it enthralled me instantly, pulled me in to its lush and intricate language, clouded my mind's eye to the reality around me to be reopened into the fantasy world of Severian the Torturer, and brought to life a brilliant array of characters, creatures, and settings. Wolfe has taken on an intriguing challenge in developing a central character, Severian, who tortures and kills for a living. How does one feel empathy for such a vile man? Ah, but one does. Wolfe succeeds, at least initially. Brought into the guild of Torturers as a child, Severian does what he has been taught to do, and, in spite of his gruesome work, he has a core spirit that has its sharper edges softened by compassion and tempered by a sense of honor. As the story weaves its highly imaginative path, however, my empathy for Severian does, admittedly, wane to some degree. As his understanding and, mostly, his free choice of occupation increase, he becomes less sympathetic. It's hard to feel for a man who takes such precise pleasure in his work of torment and death. His intelligence and his ability to discriminate also come under question as he falls in and out of love in the blink of a wandering eye with every female - prostitute, damsel in distress, prisoner, actress, or wandering waif - who crosses his path. Honestly, Sev. Tone down the testosterone, will you?

Yet I read this book to the end, and I read quickly. Whatever genre, Wolfe is a rare talent. I do understand why my bookish colleague so adores his work. I've already begun reading the second half of this tetralogy, "Sword & Citadel". Severian falls far short of being my hero, but the otherworldly world he inhabits will have my attention a while longer.

"Here I pause. If you wish to walk no farther with me, reader, I cannot blame you. It is no easy road."

So go the extremely memorable ending lines of both books contained in this one volume.

It seems to me that this is one of those books that people are either going to love or hate.

WHAT'S TO LOVE ABOUT IT:
The storyline is extremely refreshing--when was the last time you read a story from the torturer's point of view?
The books do indeed feel like you're reading literature and not something fluffy.
The characters are very interesting--not just the main character, Severian, but the supporting characters as well, like Agia, Jolenta, Jonas, Dr. Talos, Thecla and a handful of others.
The chapters are extremely short--usually about 5-6 pages long--which make for a quick read--although not always an easy one.
The plot in general is very different from your typical "formula fantasy".

WHAT MIGHT TURN YOU OFF: As I mentioned before, this book is like literature. If fantasy were more popular in the late 1800s/early 1900s, it would read somewhat similar to this. The pages probably won't be flying like that page-turner you took to the beach last summer.
There are lots of real words that are so seldom used as to falsely lead one to believe that they are fantasy words (e.g. Sabretache, which is actually a little pouch). The writing is not florid however.
However, there are also made-up words, usually for units of time and currency, and although there is an appendix, it is inconveniently at the back of the book.
Gene Wolfe's writing style can take some getting used to. There were a few times I had a hard time visualizing what was going on and had to reread a paragraph or page to figure things out.

OVERALL:
If you're up for a challenge, then I'd definitely give this series a try. If I had to rate the books individually, the first book I'd give 4/5 and the second I'd give 3.5/5. The first book is more linear and makes for an easier read, while the second is more complex and unconventional.

It can be seen from the varied responses here that this book is not for everyone. Fantasy has become a mass-market genre, but if your taste inclines to the typical fare of elves and orcs and wizards, you will find little to like here. Mr. Wolfe does not write "formula fiction." His literary style is unique and challenging, his characters complex and morally ambiguous, and the story itself is dense and subtle and full of unexpected turns. One of the measures of good fantasy, to me, is the capacity for "suspension of disbelief," and the Book Of The New Sun totally works for me that way. Wolfe's gorgeous prose weaves such a spell that, as others here have noted, you want to savor every page, not wanting the chapter to end, and being yet unable to stop yourself from reading. I have a read a great deal of fantasy and science fiction over the last thirty years, and I can count on one hand the books that are in this league. If you like your fantasy with a good measure of philosophical depth, you must give Severian's strange tale a try.