Humanity is grounded on Earth, even though it used to travel among the stars – like a very old person, Urth’s humans as a whole have forgotten more than they remember.įor me by far the most interesting element of The Book of the New Sun was the weight of history, both the one forgotten and the one remembered in bits and pieces, often simply garbled beyond recognition of purposefully misremembered. The Sun is old, very old, and has already darkened considerably due to the black hole at its heart – and, as a result, Urth is slowly dying from the lack of light and warmth. Earth, called now Urth, is nearing the end of its time.

Starting off as a straight fantasy narrative, a Bildungsroman and a quest for knowledge, The Shadow of the Torturer & The Claw of the Conciliator reveal themselves to be set in a wonderfully complex, multi-layered world, where far-future Earth is still inhabited by much diminished humans, who had forgotten more than they know, as well as a scattering of both alien and heavily modified and engineered lifeforms. As it is, however, with these decades filled by a multitude of other books, be they fiction or not, and my own life experiences, I can’t help but be less than dazzled by Wolfe’s intellectual magic and because of this – to see more clearly the imperfections of his work.Īd rem, though. I would revel in the intricate puzzles these books offer (though I did it anyway) and would discover many of Wolfe’s opus magnum’s secrets with a fresher eye and more inclination to unhedged awe than I possess today.

It would undoubtedly form my mental image of the far-future decline-of-humanity narratives reminiscent of anthropological analyses of historical cycles, and I would’ve judged all other books by Shadow & Claw’s own measure. You see, had I read it a decade or two ago, it would’ve made a much greater impression. And the responsibility for this turn of events lies as much in me as in the books themselves. Was it however such profoundly intellectually challenging experience I dared to hope? Alas, not entirely. Both The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator are indeed worth reading, and I hope to get my hands on the rest of the series sooner than later. I’m very content that I had finally gotten the chance to acquaint myself with this series. Hailed as a masterpiece and having won numerous awards, The Book of the New Sun remains one of the key SF works over 40 years after its conception. I don’t think I’ll be offering any new insight in this review – Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun has already been analyzed to death since its original publication date.

Title: Shadow & Claw (Omnibus edition containing The Shadow of the Torturer & The Claw of the Conciliator)

Shadow and claw gene wolfe