The second time I read "The Book of the New Sun" I felt like I had a good grasp on the events of the saga as well as the characters and their relationships with each other. It was a gripping tale, a page-turner filled with monsters and adventure and politics and war and love and conflict. But there's still a high degree of mystery and fantasy in the book. Some of the events seems to come about as the result of some kind of destiny, the result of a prophecy perhaps. Or is it a projection of the author's beliefs? Gene Wolfe was a Catholic, and - spoiler alert - Catholicism makes no sense and has no internal logic. So maybe this book is no more coherent than that. It could be like a creation myth where things just happen because that's how the story evolved as it was passed through the generations. Wolfe's story includes rockets and a reference to a journey into space, but that shouldn't deceive you into thinking that this is a science fiction story and everything that happens in it has a scientific explanation.

Confounding this, "The Book of the New Sun" is complex, and you could think you didn't read it closely enough to get a grip on its internal logic.

I don't know how many times I'll have to read it to settle those questions. What I do know is that I find it to be a beautiful book, with beautiful words and characters an hugely tragic events, dealing with love and death and memory and pain and guilt.

I have a presentiment of my future, that I'll be reading it again soon.