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Gene Wolfe: The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun, #1) (Paperback, 1984, Pocket) 4 stars

The Shadow of the Torturer is a science fiction novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, …

Too impenetrable for me

2 stars

I liked this book less and less as I got through it, then I went and read some 5-star reviews for it, and they loved the things I did not. So you may wish to invert my reasoning!

I got tired of the archaic language - descriptions written solely in words I don't know don't intrigue me, they just annoy now (Charles Stross invokes this for me as well). It doesn't make me imagine the otherness, the Dying World vibes, it just means I don't know what's going on.

The second two thirds of the book feels like a fever dream, and I just hated it. The protagonist wanders from place to place and seems to accept literally anything he's told by anyone. Just not my cup of tea.

Weirdly there's both less torture in this than a Joe Abercrombie book, and also in some ways it's worse. The clue is in the title, though.

replied to Stephen's status

@tinheadned I love it and have read it several times. There are definitely heavy bits in it but I think I reached escape velocity, where enough of it made sense, and the rest was intriguing rather than annoying. In fact after several readings of the tetralogy there is one section in particular which has eluded my understanding, when Severian joins a theatre troop, and recounts the script of one of their plays. Maybe on the next reading I'll pay closer attention and work out how the play reflects "real life" events. I met Gene Wolfe in 1985 when he was guest of honour at the World SF convention in Melbourne. A great thrill!