robots_suck reviewed Sword & Citadel by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the New Sun)
Review
4 stars
Sword is the best book in this series, imo.
Paperback, 608 pages
Published Dec. 28, 2000 by Gollancz.
Shadow and Claw is an omnibus of the second two books of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. It chronicles the life and adventures of journeyman torturer Severian.
Sword is the best book in this series, imo.
I loved this tetralogy, though I'm not convinced I'm even close to understanding all that went on. This saga demands re-reading.
A little too pretentious for my taste. I have to give the author credit for engaging me enough so that I went out and bought supplemental material to help me unravel some of the 'riddles', but most of the revelations left me wondering why Wolfe obfuscated all of these things in the first place. Rather than creating puzzles to enhance immersion or engage the reader most of the time I was left with the feeling that he was just playing literary games with himself.
I'm glad I read it, and I imagine that this is the kind of story that would actually get better on re-reads, but I don't think I've enjoyed it enough to do that to myself.
:/