Customer Reviews

The Urth of the New Sun

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The underlying allegory in the Book of the New Sun is the story of the redemption of one man- Severian- and all men and women on Urth, as represented by him. It is an intentional irony of the story that when Severian embarks on this final odyssey he is already more than one person himself, from his experiences previously; and indeed those inside him form part of the process of saving his (and thus the Urth's) soul.

Those who read this story as a straightforward space opera will probably be puzzled and confused. However, as a spiritual pilgrimage and tale of the human condition, pain, and forgiveness, it is without parallel as far as I know in the science fiction genre (and with few parallels in any other genre).

The clever connections with Hebrew and Christian mythology continue to run beneath the surface of the story, and if it wasn't already clear from Severian's monologue in the earlier books about God being a torturer, too, it becomes evident in this book that Severian is a literary Christ figure- though one of the most bizarre and fragmented I have come across, and certainly one of the greater and so more human ones.

The delight in following this myth is only increased by Wolfe's admirable, unshakeable dedication to real science. The evolution of the even more fantastic part of the New Sun Universe shown to us in this additional novel continues to be hinted at and explained in terms of the real world, though shrouded in myth and awe.

Those who fail to understand the strength of the ending would be well advised to go back to the earlier novels and re-read the script of the play Severian performs in the Autarch's gardens. In fact, the entire series improves with re-readings, as it has obviously been cross-written throughout- no mean feat when the last book is written so long after the first four are theoretically complete.

The Urth of the New Sun is a coda to the Book of the New Sun, so going into it one has to expect a few things:

1) A story that builds heavily on what has gone before- this book is not for newcomers to this world! Read New Sun first.
2) Uncomplicated plots- this book is about half a story. Don't set your expectations too high.

However, if you can look at Urth of the New Sun getting past these first two hurdles, this book is the key that unlocks the secrets of the Book of the New Sun. Insight is provided on many questions left unanswered in the original tetralogy, and especially we learn a lot about Severian's character.

This isn't quite the Severian of New Sun, but it's still someone who has grown from there; still questionably insane, still the product of his society. Some more information is provided on the world.

All in all, the book is enjoyable, especially if you feel like you missed some major element of the Book of the New Sun. Urth of the New Sun isn't an incredible read, but it definitely filled me with some flashes of insight that made it well worth reading.

"The Urth of the New Sun" has the same strength and depth of "Book of the New Sun." It has exciting action scenes, bittersweet love interrests, and a thought-provoking (mind boggling) scientific foundation. BUT...like the other 4 parts, it lacks closure. Up until the last page, Wolf's dynamic story line and writing style kept me glued to the book, but when I finished the last paragraph, I couldn't help feeling robbed. If you've read "The Book of the New Sun," you can relate. Only this time, you know there won't be a sequel. The Beginning and the Middle were definitely worth it, but just don't expect a big Conclusion. The story just sort of wears itself out, and doesn't provide any sense of emotional satisfaction for the reader or for poor Severian. But the book WAS very very gripping and I would definitely recommend it.

I finished Gene Wolfe's "The Urth of the New Sun" about a day and a half ago; after sorting out my impressions to write this review, I would say that it seemed like "Urth" should have been all the 4-volume "Book of the New Sun" was...but it wasn't. But then, it's hard to top a masterpiece, which "The Book of the New Sun" certainly is.

My history as a Gene Wolfe reader is torturous. I read the first two volumes and felt like I was watching paint dry. Four years later, out of curiosity, I bought volumes three and four and found that my opinion of Wolfe had changed completely. His writing in "The Book of the New Sun" is strange, heartbreaking, mind-bending, and above all emotionally involving and obscurely moving to an extent perhaps no other author evokes in me. While I would never claim to have completely understood any event in any of its four volumes, I know they were awesome--truly deserving every word of praise they've been given.

Obviously, I had high expectations for "The Urth of the New Sun," and I was disappointed to find that they weren't all fulfilled. Severian has turned infuriating in this book, both in his pontifications and his occasional thick-headedness (I know something's wrong when I can figure out what's going on and he can't), and Wolfe's writing is no longer so emotional. Moreover, though I was gratified that "Urth" tied up many of its predecessors' loose ends, I felt that it perhaps explained too much at the large scale, while leaving many minor points infuriatingly inexplicable. (Can someone explain Gunnie/Burgundofara's history to me?) Now, as a Gene Wolfe reader, I should be used to being confused, but it seemed too much, especially for a book whose purpose is specifically explanatory--in essence, "The Urth of the New Sun" merely answers "And then what happened?"

Perhaps that is the main problem with this book--its teleological essence is rather banal, if I may be allowed to borrow a word Severian might use. Furthermore, even less so than any other Wolfe novel I've read, it doesn't so much end as stop, leaving me wondering just what the heck happened. Again, a familiar feeling, but one that grows wearisome when one feels cheated. There are passages in here which no amount of rereading can make clear, and Wolfe's concept of time and space travel makes my brain ache.

All this (and there was a lot of it) being said, I'm still glad to have read this book, if only to find out what happened, and it must be said that Gene Wolfe mediocre is still very good by other yardsticks. In other words, "The Urth of the New Sun" is a fine, fascinating, and confusing read. I would reccommend it to those who read and enjoyed "The Book of the New Sun," but not to those who haven't done so yet, as I suspect it will make even less sense to the uninitiated then it did to me. And finally, despite my disappointment, I intend to begin "The Book of the Long Sun" without delay, as Wolfe is easily one of the greatest authors in general, and science fiction/fantasy writers in particular, that I've ever encountered.

Urth will live as "the coda" to New Sun. We don't believe that it will ever be fully accepted into the New Sun canon but exist outside of it as a separate work despite what Foundation may think. It illuminates a great deal of the material that people may have puzzled over in New Sun and brings up a great deal of new issues to ponder-one of which is one of the greatest coincidences we have seen in any literature anywhere; the kind of coincidence that so impossibly defies probability that one is thrown into a state of pondering the existence of divinity, which no doubt Wolfe intended. This book will not, however, gather the fierce following the original New Sun captured.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS:

If you enjoyed New Sun it's hard to imagine that you would not read this book and will need little urging from us to go do so. It is rather essential for Wolfe devotees. Anyone who enjoys the unspoken vividness of Eastern philosophy will find a great deal to enjoy here and may derive pleasure out of it without ever having read New Sun. There are occasions here where one is reminded of Siddhartha and other works dealing with consciousness, time, and humanity's place in the universe.

WHO SHOULD AVOID:

If New Sun was too hard for you or irritated you, definitely pass. Urth isn't that different. If you haven't read New Sun, you probably shouldn't read this book first-although Reading Urth first and then backtracking to New Sun might provide an interesting experiment in itself. In some ways, that sort of reverse reading is in keeping with principles contained in Urth. Interesting. If that little digression into reverse reading was uninteresting to you and made your head hurt, definitely pass. That's the kind of thing that fills scores of pages in Urth.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN is a coda to Gene Wolfe's four-volume masterpiece The Book of the New Sun. It is a work both like and unlike its predecessor, and is essential reading for anyone who appreciated The Book of the New Sun.THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN begins with Severian having just completed the second copy of his book while on the Ship of the Hierodules, journeying to Yesod, the universe higher than our own, that he may stand trial to bring a New Sun to Urth. Although The Book of the New Sun was concerned mostly with Severian's internal thoughts, THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN is very much concerned with the universe(s) outside Severian. The settings in which Severian finds himself in the first half of the book, outside the Ship, in the Ship's holds, and finally on the isle on Yesod, are brilliantly exotic locales, but which Severian himself knows are beyond his understanding. In The Book of the New Sun, Severian writes his tale in a complete manner, understanding why various aspects of his adventure are as they are. In URTH, however, Severian gives detailed descriptions of where he travels, but writes as one completely lost as a mere human among the Hierodules.Yesod is one of the most fascinating settings in science fiction, and Wolfe's clear style brings them to the reader's imagination fully. Wolfe's concepts of the wings of Tzadkiel looking like curtains around him while he sits on his throne, the scarab machine that like something out of ancient mythologies makes Yesod function, and tongueless Apetha enthrall the reader. Madregot, the Brook beyond Briah were Severian pauses for a moment, is a rather powerful place to the reader.The second half of THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN involves Severian's return to Urth. As other reviews have let out, it does indeed deal with time travel. And although Wolfe does obviously tie up several loose ends in this part of the Book, he also clearly evokes Severian's bafflement at his own omnipotence. The final scene of the book is mysterious and it is difficult to say it concludes anything, so the ending is a beginning of something much more for Severian, about which we must only speculate.Having completed The Book of the New Sun, a beautiful and original work that was for me the Book of Gold, I hope readers will go on to THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN, which dazzles and entertains as much as the first four volumes of Severian's tale. Having finished it, perhaps the reader will wish to go on to Wolfe's other "solar" works, The Book of the Long Sun and its follow-up The Book of the Short Sun.

If you enjoyed the four volumes of "The Book of the New Sun," I would suggest picking this up. Severian picks up where he left off at the end of "Citadel of the Autarch," and much of what made those books good is in here. The problem, and the reason I don't give this 5 stars, is that I found a lot of the story predictable. I hope I am not being to vague here, because I don't want to post spoilers, but if you paid close attention when reading "The Book of the New Sun," it shouldn't be too hard to see where this one is going before you're halfway done with it. Still, overall I must say that it was an enjoyable read, Wolfe still uses the language beautifully, and you get to meet even more strange characters. Just don't set your expectations quite as high as the first four books in the "New Sun" series.

The Book of the New Sun is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. It is entirely self-contained, and brilliant in many ways. It is my favorite sequence of books, and Wolfe is, far and away, on of the best science fiction writers alive. The Urth of the New Sun provides an interesting perspective on the "actual" events that resulted in features of the old Urth from the viewpoint of Severian in the original tetralogy. It is an interesting supplement, but given its purpose, unavoidably lacks much of what made the New Sun books so memorable. The Urth of the New Sun is a must-read for Wolfe aficionados, but is not a necessary or key part of the New Sun narrative.

If you've read the first 4 books of The New Sun series and enjoyed them, just buy this book right now. There's no point in reading a review, or spoilers or anything else, positive or negative. Just buy it and read it.

After you finish, you'll probably be intrigued enough at some of the hidden meanings to re-read the first 4 books in the series. In fact, the last 4 times I've re-read the series, I started with this book first as it lends itself well to being both the first and last book, because Severian's adventure is somewhat cyclical, like Finnegans Wake or what Giambattista Vico would deem a 'storia ideale eterna'.

This book clarifies most of the mysteries surrounding the New Sun series, while tantalizing us with a classic open-ended and somewhat cryptic Wolfean ending, very much in the spirit of the work. A colossal masterpiece.
Wolfe gets himself far out on a limb for this sequel yet he is able to deal beautifully with the deepest philosophical and spiritual questions,
This is a work so far beyond the genre of 'fantasy fiction' that it is really ludicrous to speak of it as anything but great literature. In a tale of weighty concerns, the leavening humor of Wolfe deals with those sci-fi tropes by turning them completely inside out. Certainly the Nerw Sun series is the Book Of Gold, and explicates the Christian Ethos in the same way that Tolkien's great work Lord Of the Rings explicated the English Civilization.