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Old 06-17-2008, 09:00 PM   #68
DMcCunney
New York Editor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackVoid View Post
I posted before, but really have to add this.
The New Sun books by Gene Wolfe. The first book is a bit slow, but the pace really picks up int he 2nd. It is really a book where you have no idea what will happen in the next 50 pages. The world Wolfe has created is FASCINATING. And the good thing is, that there are many, many surprises, you will not understand how the world works just after a few pages.
I concur. These are classics, and Wolfe is simply one of the best writers I know, in any genre.

Note that the books have a deeply religious underpinning, though you have to dig into The Urth of the New Sun to have it made explicit. (Wolfe is a devout Roman Catholic, and Christian themes and concepts underlie the story. But Wolfe is too subtle a writer to bludgeon you with it. Like the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis, they can be read with pleasure whether you get the religion or not.)

Wolfe's protagonist Severian is a torturer, working for the Autarch who rules a portion of a far future Earth. The sun is dying, and there are legends about a savior who will travel to the stars and convince the powers that dwell there to kindle a new sun and cause a rebirth of the Earth.

Wolfe is working in territory similar to Jack Vance's _The Dying Earth_, but with deeper concerns. Severian's journeys through the four books as as much spiritual as physical, as his experiences change him and prepare him to be the one who might just bring about the New Sun.

Just wonderful.
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Dennis
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