Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Since I adored the first three on your list--and pretty much everything else I've read by those authors--I suspect I should take the other two as must-read recommendations.
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I'd call Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series a must-read.
But note it's SF, not fantasy. It's set on a
very far future Earth where the sun has become a red dwarf and will someday go out entirely. In some respects it's a homage to Jack Vance's _The Dying Earth_, but Wolfe is working in deeper waters. The series depicts the adventures of Severian, who begins as a torturer in the service of the Autarch of his land, but who may just be the prophesied savior who will travel into space and convince the powers that dwell there to kindle a new sun and renew the Earth.
Wolfe is Roman Catholic, and there's a religious underpinning and concerns, but you have to read _The Urth of the New Sun_, a grace note issued after the series, to see it made explicit.
Just wonderful stuff. I consider Wolfe one of the best living writers, period.
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Dennis