Shadow & Claw

The Shadow of the Torturer & The Claw of the Conciliator

Paperback, 415 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 1994 by Orb Books.

ISBN:
978-0-312-89017-9
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
30700568

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (45 reviews)

Shadow and Claw is an omnibus of the first two books of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. It chronicles the life and adventures of journeyman torturer Severian.

1 edition

reviewed Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the New Sun)

Review of 'Shadow & Claw' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Torture, place-holder characters, odd under-explained male-female relationships, and unexplained key plot points eventually wore me down. I thought I had read 69% of this, but apparently it is two separate books published together, so I don't know.
========================================
The author sprinkles the story of his created world with interesting archaic words or neologisms. Many of these are religious or medieval in origin, but, as is common in fantasy and science fiction, their meaning in the created world is not entirely clear. We infer their meaning from the word's actual former meaning here on Urth Earth. Mr. Wolfe has a knack for this.

reviewed Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the New Sun)

Review of 'Shadow & Claw' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I read this some years ago, and was very impressed. The writing is way above the usual standards in fantasy, the characters are strange and the story both weird and wonderful. The pov is that of a young executioner who is sent out into the world to use his skills as intended. Along the way he arouses passions and desires for vengeance, has quite a lot of rather sinister sex and is caught up in an apocalypse in which he finds himself playing a leading role. Or so he thinks. The reader may be less certain. Wolfe is a Christian of deep faith, but you don't have to share this to appreciate the book.

reviewed Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the New Sun)

Review of 'Shadow & Claw' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Un libro que de primeras parece tener buena pinta, pero que al final me ha costado horrores terminar.
Espero que haya sido por falta de nivel al leer inglés o algo, pero la historia me parecía inconexa, una acumulación de situaciones sin sentido ni nexo definido, con personajes que no llegué a conocer en ningún momento y de los que por tanto no he podido preocuparme mientras los leía. Historias secundarias que pasaban por ahí, huecos en la narración del tamaño de capítulos enteros y demás obstáculos a la hora de entender lo que pasaba.
En resumen, si no eres nativo, no te acerques, aunque lo mismo, si el traductor es capaz, de aquí puede salir algo bueno.

reviewed Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the New Sun)

Review of 'Shadow & Claw' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Very dense, but ultimately rewarding. Not very much happens plot wise, but Severian is a dominating narrator. It's textbook unreliable narrator, but to read back anything through his lens complicates what is already a complicated story involving time travel and aliens.

Although it's often hard to figure out what's going on, I felt that the text invites deeper reading in a positive way. I often found myself revisiting a scene later to consider why and to what end Wolfe chose to show scenes. The play of Dr. Talos is particularly rich, as are Severian's conversations with Jonas.

avatar for lucasrizoli

rated it

5 stars
avatar for aandnota

rated it

4 stars
avatar for betolima

rated it

3 stars
avatar for xavierroy

rated it

4 stars
avatar for jumpinggrendel

rated it

4 stars
avatar for jkwatson

rated it

4 stars
avatar for lazcorp

rated it

5 stars
avatar for jfflak

rated it

5 stars
avatar for ChrisIkin

rated it

3 stars
avatar for cerieshunter

rated it

5 stars
avatar for theowatson

rated it

5 stars
avatar for TimmyMac

rated it

4 stars
avatar for rufzerg666

rated it

4 stars
avatar for m4cb3th

rated it

3 stars
avatar for nclack

rated it

4 stars
avatar for cwzp

rated it

4 stars
avatar for ChadGayle

rated it

4 stars
avatar for GvS

rated it

3 stars
avatar for tekila

rated it

5 stars
avatar for nwale

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Shtakser

rated it

3 stars
avatar for VerinEmpire

rated it

5 stars
avatar for recri

rated it

5 stars
avatar for fluxmind

rated it

1 star
avatar for flancian

rated it

4 stars
avatar for psy-q

rated it

4 stars
avatar for alexalily

rated it

3 stars
avatar for andym

rated it

3 stars
avatar for kaleon666

rated it

4 stars
avatar for lynn

rated it

5 stars