Customer Reviews

The Shadow of the Torturer

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Seriously: This is one of the great overlooked Fantasy/Sci-fi adventures of all time.
And to be honest, I hate even putting it into a genre category; it's just a damn good read.
After having read tons of sci-fi/fanasy in my youth, I had reached a point where I was embarrassed to read any more of the stuff; almost all of it was trite, Tolkien- or Arthur C. Clarke-derivative, and, frankly, just plain juvenile. It was as if being a Fantasy writer meant that your standard of writing quality didn't have to be as high as that of straight fiction, as long as your characters included a busty warrior girl and a talking dragon. Then I picked up Shadow of the Torturer...
With The New Sun series, Gene Wolfe did to Fantasy what William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson did to Sci-fi; raised the bar for the genre and told a story that adults could read without feeling embarrassed. This is an epic up there with Lord of the Rings and Dune. It's that good.
Be aware that the negative reviews here (and most of the luke-warm ones as well), miss the point entirely. The "made-up words" and "anachronisms" they mention, for example, make complete sense if you actually pay attention, and the people who call Gene Wolfe's writing "rambling and incoherent" simply aren't doing that; he's one of the smartest fiction writers alive today, just don't expect to be spoon-fed everything.

In short: This is actually literature (big word, I know...), not just another spin on the same recycled themes.

My only question is: why haven't more people read this?! (Not to compare the two, but it's criminal that a predictable teen sci-fi book like Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game has over 2000 reviews and this one has only 13)

What an amazing saga of Earth ("Urth") perhaps millions of years into the future - the sun is weakening, there has been a major glaciation, but somewhere in the southern hemisphere exists a complex civilization, rich in hierarchy and tradition, and still using some of the ancient artefacts whose power source is almost inexhaustible. (In the top of the Matachin Tower - which we realize is actually a spaceship that has not moved for millenia - voices occasionally speak out, in forgotten tongues, to whomever is present, or to the other "towers". . .) But the residues of technology are secondary in interest to the wanderings of Severian, initially an apprentice in the order of Seekers After Truth and Penitence, commonly known as the Guild of the Torturers...

Inside the back cover of my copy, at one of my readings, I listed the dozens of words that Wolfe invents or modifies to suit his needs. . .many based on Latin or Greek, all with a phenomenal rightness to what they identify or - often - suggest. Badelaire, lansquenet, amchasphand, chrisos, orichalk, pinakothek, salpinx, ephor.. . . .And the tricky thing is that every now and then one of them is a real word . . did you recognise lansquenet and salpinx? Wonderful wordcraft.

Do read the four books of the series in order (this is the first). Otherwise you will certainly be confused, especially after Severian's encounter with the alzabo (the hideous animal that feeds on corpses and for a while thereafter posesses some of the dead person's ability and can mimic his/her speech: not a good voice to hear at your door in the middle of the night).

The Book of the New Sun, starting with the Shadow of the Torturer (its first volume), is the most sophisticated work in the Science Fiction stable, and one of the most beautifully written of all modern novels - set in a far, far future, where technology has evolved and degenerated to become almost Baroque ornamentation, it seems to describe a feudal or Medieval world. However, one of the many pleasures in this book is the way that our assumptions are taken and re-combined, giving the whole thing much of the intruige and fascination of the most intricate detective story. The characters are vivid, immediate and haunting - their problems believably distant but painfuly immediate - and the written style of the novel is always seductive and a pleaure. Everybody, everywhere, should read this - if only as one of the best example of "post-modern" fiction of all time.

On another forum I visit someone posted the New York Times list of the best American fiction of the last 25 years. Not surprisingly, none of it was F&SF. So far as that goes, none of the books listed were anything I'd ever be likely to read.

But as I reviewed the books that would make my best of the best list, the top choice is obvious. Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, of which The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume.

For anyone who enjoys craftsmenship, language, poetry, nuance, and irony, this is a book for you.

I'm astounded at the reviewers who have criticized the books for the very thing I love most about them: the use or archaic, rare, and invented words. Others complain about Wolfe's richness of detail, bemoaning the fact that it leads nowhere. I disagree. Everything ties together - it just requires some patience on the part of the reader to discover that.

This is not just some space opera romance that you can read while soaking in bath salts. This is literature that demands some sophistication from the reader. The New Sun quartet ranks with Dickens, Peake, Dostoevsky, and Hesse. It's not for everyone, but those who appreciate substance over butter popcorn will enjoy it.

My runners-up for best fiction of the last 25 years would probably be Connie Willis' The Doomsday Book and Tim Powers' The Annubis Gate.

This first volume of "The Book of the New Sun" establishes the setting of the overall story. It's a first person account told by Severian, who starts off as an apprentice torturor. He lives in the Matachin Tower with the Torturor's Guild in the city of Nessus. He is soon exiled for being merciful to one of his "clients" - a woman he had fallen in love with. He has to make a journey to the city of Thrax, where he will serve as the Lictor. "The Shadow of the Torturor" is the beginning of that journey.

This story is set in a future so distant that our own world is almost completely forgotten. All that remains of our civilization are a few artifacts and legends. To Severian and the other people of "Urth", our own world is as ancient and remote as the prehistoric age is to us. Urth is now an unbelievably old planet, circling a dying sun. It is littered with the remains of past civilizations. New plant and animal life exists of the strangest kinds. There are the relics of technology so advanced they look like magic.

What I find so appealing about this book is that Gene Wolfe succeeds in creating an alien world so ancient, fantastic and magical that you often forget it's really our own planet. The strange new people are distant descendents of us. Many of the book's influences come from Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth". When reading "The Shadow of the Torturor" and the other books in this series, you have to give it your complete attention to fully appreciate what is happening. Sometimes it's tedious, but overall it's rewarding. These books will challenge your observation.

STORY: Severian is born to the Guild of Torturers. When he shows mercy to one of his "clients" he is sent into a world he had never seen other than from the walls of the Citadel. Now begins the adventures of a young man in a world of love, magic and science.

MY FEEDBACK:
1) SETTING: A nice, complex fantasy world is created here with a melding of science and magic. Wolfe's descriptions are bordering on poetic as he clearly creates vivid images of places, people and governmental hierarchies.

2) CHARACTERS: Severian is a very likeable character...for a torturer. You realize he is the way he his because he knows no other life. He knows not how to lie and deceive but delivers the truth with as much brutal, calm honesty as he does his executions and other torturer's tasks. After page 100, the story begins to fill with a greater cast of characters. By the end of the book the main "band" of adventurers remain as individual mysteries even though they are believable and likeable.

3) STORY: This is where I have some issues.

a) First of all, I struggled with much of the language used in this book. I had to look up a lot of words in my dictionary, due to the use of terms not common in the everyday writing or reading.
b) Secondly, what should have been in the front of the book, turned out to be in an Appendix at the back. In his Appendix he briefly describes that he made up many words. The words seemed like "real" words, but it wasn't till I got to the end did I realize that I was unnecessarily getting frustrated at my new dictionary for not containing these unfamiliar terms. I was unhappy to find out after-the-fact that no dictionary would have contained the terms I was searching for.
c) The story is written like an autobiography with brief interludes to the present. This worked well and gave hints of what is to become of this youth many years later.
d) Many of the events seemed to go off into nowhere tangents. I realize that it was in part because our protagonist had never been outside the Citadel walls (more or less) so he was enamored with everything he saw. Pages are giving to descriptions of walls, building and things that really have no bearing on the story line...the setting, maybe...but our character is trying to leave the city in the later half of the book so his observations seem like wasted space.
e) You must read the next book to continue the story. By the end of this book, so much is left unresolved that you can't just read this and stop (unless you are hating the book and can't bear to continue...but I doubt that will happen). This book really felt like a 260 page introduction necessary to set the stage for a greater story.

4) CONTENT: This is an adult book. It is equivalent to a rated R movie due to sexual situations and nudity. It is not overly descriptive but leaves most to the imagination, if one so wishes to continue to entertain such thoughts.

OVERALL: Engrossing fantasy read that refreshingly departs from the typical: boy meets wizard and discovers he is a conduit of powerful magic that is needed to save the world from invasion by the evil hordes. That doesn't happen in this book and thus you feel compelled to keep reading into the next book...which I'll get my hands on shortly. You won't waste your time here.

For those of you who want a brief review: This is the story of a boy in a future that has gone beyond man's peak, and now civilization regresses. The main character Severian is in the reviled Guild of Torturers. A promising future in this guild awaits him, until he commits a crime against the guild, and is cast out. His journey into manhood comprises one of the most convoluted, in-depth, and compelling fantasy fiction ever told. If you haven't read this, find it, steal it, buy it, borrow it, but most importantly READ IT! WARNING! This is NOT lite reading, this is a story that must be concentrated on to truly enjoy, else you will become lost in the prose by chapter 3.

As readers can readily determine from the other reviews posted here, "The Shadow of the Torturer" (indeed Wolfe's entire tetralogy) is not an easy read. He's not a Cussler or Koontz -- he's up there with Melville, Pound, Faulkner, and Pynchon. (Another reviewer mentioned Hesse.)

Anyone looking for a good put-your-brain-in-neutral "beach read" should look elsewhere. Sophisticated readers willing to invest in a slow and thoughtful reading will very much enjoy the many "aha!" moments, and will revel in the subtle and brilliant prose and the numerous plot lines.

These books demand that you to stop and think, go back and re-read on occasion, and really exercise your brain. They're best read a chapter or two at a time, to give you time to puzzle out the metaphors, recognize the "ancient" devices and technology that pass for magic in Severian's world, and digest the many references to classic literature and mythology. Wolfe does not write fiction for the masses - but he amply rewards readers willing and able to meet him at his level.

The tetrology "The Book of the New Sun" ("The Shadow of the Torture","The Claw of the Conciliator","The Sword of the Lictor", and "The Citadel of the Autarch") is my favorite series of all time. It has a fantastic, original storyline, and is beautifully and intelligently written. I've read through the series three times, and each time I notice new facets that I missed the previous time through. I can't recommend the books in this series strongly enough. In my opinion, "The Book of the New Sun" deserves to be known and revered as much as, if not more than, "The Lord of the Rings".

For those of you enjoy audiobooks, this is the perfect time to finally read (or to re-read) Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer. Audible Frontiers recently put it on audio and the excellent Jonathan Davis is the reader.

The Shadow of the Torturer introduces Severian, an orphan who grew up in the torturer's guild. Severian is now sitting on a throne, but in this first installment of The Book of the New Sun, he tells us of key events in his boyhood and young adulthood. The knowledge that Severian will not only survive, but will become a ruler, doesn't at all detract from the suspense; it makes us even more curious about how he will get there and what he experiences on the way.

What makes Gene Wolfe's epic different from everything else on the SFF shelf is his unique, evocative storytelling style. The reader isn't given all of the history and religion lessons (etc.) that are often dumped on us at the beginning of a fantasy epic. Rather, Severian's story is episodic and seems like it's meandering lazily, taking regular scenic detours, as if there's nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there. Because the story isn't a straight narrative, we don't understand the purpose or meaning of everything Severian relates -- we have to patch it together as we go. By the end of the book, we're still clueless about most of it and we're starting to realize that Severian is kind of clueless, too. Much of the power of this novel comes from the sense that there is world-building and symbolism on a massive scale here, but that explanations and revelations for the reader would just cheapen it and remove the pleasure that comes from the experience of discovery.

In addition to being unique in style, The Shadow of the Torturer is a gorgeous piece of work: passionate storytelling (heart-wrenching in places), fascinating insights into nature and the human condition, beautiful prose:

Perhaps when night closes our eyes there is less order than we believe. Perhaps, indeed, it is this lack of order we perceive as darkness, a randomization of the waves of energy (like a sea), the fields of energy (like a farm) that appear to our deluded eyes -- set by light in an order of which they themselves are incapable -- to be the real world.

I enjoyed every moment of The Shadow of the Torturer. I love the oddness, originality, and challenge of it, the way that events I knew I saw coming didn't happen, and the unsettling sense that there's way more going on here than I'm being explicitly told and that it will probably take several readings to fully (if possible) uncover it. I can't wait to read on in The Book of the New Sun with Jonathan Davis. This story is deeply emotional and introspective and, as usual, Mr. Davis's performance is perfection.