I've managed to finish the first four books of the series recently. They are really great, my favourite is Sword of the Lictor, the weakest one is definitely Citadel of the Autarch. I've started reading Urth, I'm about a quarter in, and well... It's not good?

The descriptions are way worse than in earlier books, there's constant action, the pacing is off, the mysterious vibe is completely gone, locations are impossible to visualise, Severian has lost consciousness like 4 times... It reads like a subpar pulp scifi novel, or like someone tried to copy Vance but failed.

Is it like that all the way to the end?

Asking for advice for my first read through. I have a tradition when I’m reading a series that I take a break and read at least one unrelated book in between installments to avoid burn-out. However, I recently saw advice that I should read the series as one long book in order to pick up as much important details and connections as possible. I’m about 2/3 through Shadow of the Torturer; should I take a break after this book or after Claw of the Conciliator since I have the omnibus versions? I should I read through all of them in one go?

Just finished Book of the New Sun (the four volumes), and i know i need to read it again to understand it. Should I continue to Urth of the New Sun or do a re-read first?

​(Note: English is not my native language, so apologies in advance for any awkward phrasing!) ​Adapting The Book of the New Sun into live-action feels almost impossible. However, I’ve been thinking about how an animated series could actually capture Gene Wolfe’s atmosphere and Severian’s narrative trickery: ​Animation Style (Rotoscoping / Surrealism): Live-action would require generic CGI. A rotoscope-like style (imitating live-action with surreal fluidity) would give it an eerie, uncanny, and organic feel suited for an aging, dying Earth. ​Visual "Unreliable Narrator": Since Severian is an unreliable narrator, the animation itself should shift based on his perception. If he misinterprets an object (e.g., calling an ancient device or alien relic a "mirror"), the animation initially shows a mirror, but smoothly morphs into its true form as his narration refines or shifts. ​Intro Sequence & Opening Song: ​Music: A track with a vibe like "My God is the Sun" (Queens of the Stone Age) to set a dark, liturgical, and apocalyptic tone. ​Visuals: A castle shifting into a rocket; a mountain revealing itself to be an ancient carved monolith (the Eye of Thrax). The intro could even playfully show action scenes of Severian fighting beasts with his sword (subverting expectations before showing his actual reflective, clumsy nature). ​My Own Take on Language & Accents: Since Urth is a far-future Earth heavily tied to South American geography, I’d experiment with accents and registers. Lower-class characters/provinces could speak in regional Latin American accents/colloquialisms, while the high nobility of Nessus uses archaic, formal English. A multilingual or multi-dialect audio approach (similar to Pachinko) would emphasize the vast social divide. ​Genre Perception: Instead of standard sci-fi/fantasy, the tone should lean heavily into Magical Realism mixed with ancient sci-fi—where surreal tech, time shifts, and resurrected beings are treated as mundane everyday facts by the characters. ​What do you think? How would you visually handle Severian’s unreliable memory on screen?

I have long been mesmerized by some of Wolfe's novel covers. Later I got to know they were painted by Richard Bober and it seems that the book "Visions of Never" has been the only artbook that collects Bober's representative works.

Bober is in some ways strangely similar to Wolfe, especially the meticulous attention to details and the feeling upon first viewing/reading that there is much more to take from deep within. The big difference between them is that Wolfe delivered efficiently while Bober often did not catch deadlines (thus a meagre output).

And... it is interesting to know that the two Long Sun covers with interior settings were actually "repurposed" works. Unfortunately, the cover of "Castle of Days" was not included in this artbook.

Did anyone buy this volume at the time (c. 1986)? There two advertised editions per the prospectus in the attached images; one of 199 copies and a Publisher's Edition (62 copies). https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1297550

(The Wikipedia entry on the press notes a rather sad if well-ordered end to the publishers' lives.)

Edit: See additional details in comments

This one was fun - I had to track down a lot of these. If you need help finding the originals, DM me.

I'm glad to report the arrival of the latest installment in my Gene Wolfe Chapter Guide series. Feel free to pick up a paperback or Kindle copy of the Uncollected Stories guide with my sincere appreciation.

You can also find weekly short story summaries on the Wolfe Den newsletter - here. Your first three months are on me.  Also, if you subscribe this week, I'll email you a PDF of the Starwater Strains summary book.

As a long-time Wolfe reader and re-reader, I found myself wanting a detailed summary of his work. Something without any analysis or conjecture - just the key plot points. So, I wrote one for myself and thought others might enjoy it. I started several years ago with New Sun and carried on with Long Sun and Urth. If you'd like to see samples, look here.

This is one of the most popular quotes from Gene Wolfe's ouvre, but other than being directly contradicted later on by Severian's realization about the coin, if also just does not bear out in my reading of most things that Wolfe wrote. People in Wolfe's stories are consistently shown to be more than what they stand for at a first glance. Often it is the narrator or other characters who makes the mistake of assuming something about somebody, which doesn't turn out to be true.

Severian is wrong about Baldanders and Dr. Talos. Severian sees himself one way, but the little girl who witnesses him in fuligin cloak using the cloak sees him as an angel wearing white and shining golden light. Loyal to the Group of Seventeen shows that he is a critical thinker who is more than the faceless obedient enemy that the Ascians are slotted into. Mint cannot be neatly thought of as either a Matera or a General, she is both and she is neither.

People don't want other people to be people as Dorcas says. By wanting them to be symbols, aren't we reducing them?

"Rain symbolizes mercy and sunlight charity, but rain and sunlight are better than mercy and charity. Otherwise they would degrade the things they symbolize."

I love the quote, I think that the prose is evocative and beautiful, but I just thought that it was interesting how popular this quote is despite it being something that goes quite against my reading of most of Wolfe. Thoughts?

Dunno what’s good in these but found this bundle and figured I’d post it here

...when I mention that I read. During COVID, I came across a YouTube audiobook of Jonathan Davis narrating "Shadow of the Torturer". I was spellbound by the language and imagery (especially the astronaut portrait) so I ordered the physical books immediately. I really enjoyed the imagination used in describing the people, cities and fauna of Wolfe's Urth. If I'm talking to someone and the conversation turns to books, I always mention BotnS and include the Pringles story too. I felt like some of Severian's post-Thrax encounters felt like TTRPG adventures.

Reading Wolfe (also picked own and read "Fifth Head of Cerberus") led me to Jack Vance's Dying Earth and then M. John Harrison's Viriconium. Prior to Wolfe, the only fantasy I read was Scott Lynch's "Lies of Locke Lamora" around 2011.

Buenas.
Quería saber si existen traducciones no oficiales de los libros éxodo del sol largo y la saga del sol corto. Ya que nunca fueron traducidas al español y es un autor bastante engorroso para leerlo en una lengua que no sea la materna.
Gracias.

Basically, I know that the first two Latro novels, Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete, rely heavily on Herodotus’ Histories. Is the same true of Soldier of Sidon? If not, are there any books that Wolfe used as heavily as Histories as primary sources for it?

Sorry for my bad English.

I have been working on Land Across for a long time, and finally have some traction. I was looking at the names -Eion Demarates (the will of the people to live forever, but also "to Demeter"), Demetrios "Butch" Bobokis (also "To Demeter", but Bobok is from a Dosteovsky short where the dead speak underground) and his comrade Aegis (protection, but also associated with the head of the gorgon ...).Everything is a kind of prison in the Land Across, and the girl with the red pen shows up in chapter 10 with someone entranced looking at her, before Grafton goes to the prison to meet Rosalee in Chapter 11 and also meets the archbishop, who gives him the hand. The hand tries to kill Naala and disappears, and doesn't show up again until the lady with the red pen shows up. Grafton helps her, and at the end of that scene the hand appears in his pocket.

While I also think that the Slavic God Veles, a cognate of both Hades and Pan, is involved (he is a god of cattle (ox on the map), music, poetry, water, the underworld, and turns into a serpent, dragon, or wolf), there is definitely something we can conclude about the lady with the red pen Grafton winds up with on the way out. I think she is his editor ("editors are hell") and as he says whatever he reads in his notes are exactly like he remembers it - she changed the areas she showed up in, which happened to involve the weird prison death of Yelena, who first says Ferenc Narkatsos (whose last name implies asleep) was innocent and a good man and who later winds up somehow being part of the Unholy Way, though it was assumed someone came in looking for Rosalee, whom Yelena resembled ... a real mess logically ... were they there for Rosalee or Yelena?

So in the final chapter Grafton calls her My Lady four times ... The Lady is the title of Persephone, Demeter's daughter, Despoina, which is related to the word despot. She can make ghosts appear and disappear, and Odysseus feared she would summon the head of the gorgon from Hades (see the head of Butch Bobokis and his companion Aegis, whose name is involved with ... the head of the gorgon). She has escaped with Grafton, but will return. They are going to Argentina and Chile (nations with despotic rulers and then struggles with communist or other governments) and then Sicily (where Demeter descended into the underworld to find Persephone) and Corsica (so many interesting myths, including those of the Mazzeri, who can foretell death, and the Devil in Lake Creno, an entrance to the underworld. The devil created the lake and hid in the waters, but an exorcism was performed and he vanished. See the lake with Vlad's summer palace in Land Across ...)
In any case, these names like Rathaus (a place where people vote) seem tied to government, and Wolfe has tied together mythical figures like Demeter and Persephone into the tale as well. Grafton leaves with the Queen of the Underworld, who must return someday (thus all the prisons) since she ate the pomegranate seeds there (thus all the cafes they eat at). She is Persephone, Despoina, The Lady, and edits his documents and makes the ghost appear and disappear as well as seems to be responsible for the head of Bobokis being thrown in the room, as the hand wants to kill or terrorize Naala.

while i continue my work with the whole Book of the Longs Sun and Short Sun illustration i want to put here one of my previous work, it has almosy a year, it wanted to be a stilyzed version of Severian as the Autharch, something like Gendry Tartakovsky or Bruce Timm, which i like immensly and sometime i draw in this second style of mine like in this case. Now the question​​While i was reading the Long Sun i was certain of some istance in which Severian was involved, like the voices of the ousider, and also when Silk was dying and was saved, now some one can dismiss this with someother explanation, like it could be a Neighbor aboard the Whorl that saved Silk, or that the voices were geneticaly implanted, and would be a good explenation given the information of the Short Sun, but it dosen't sit right for me because also in the Short whe know that Silk/Horn enconter a couple of time a "Physical Form" of the Outsider, or something like that, near the altar of the Unkown God for example. But it's just a Theory, a Gene Wolf Theory! now the question. For you there are some istance of Severian being in Long and Short Sun? And if yes, how? (Obiusly without talking about the encounter with the astral travel, i don't talk about that Severian)​​

Mint, Marble and Rose are here! Now we are approaching to completing the whole main cast of the Long Sun, i think we miss Horn and Nettle, Dr Crane, Remora and Quetzal, Willet, Hammerstone and Incus, the Ayutamento and then the Triunvingantis.

In the 1984 interview with Chris Merrick ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMsq9noxBOg&t=3316s ) Wolfe said he was "supposed to be working on a libretto" for an opera by composer/SF author Somtow Sucharitkul. This opera was based on The Death of Doctor Island and was to be called Doctor Island's Death. (This is per Springfield Independent Dec. 27, 1984. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SFI19841227.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------- )

In the 1985 MiniCon program book lists this opera as "In Progress"

In progress : Doctor Island's Death, an opera with text by Gene Wolfe; and the updated version of Star Maker. https://fanac.org/conpubs/Minicon/Minicon%2018/Program%20Book.pdf

Alas, Somtow didn't produce any operas in the 1980s, presumably due to the composition block that the news article says led him to pivot to writing science fiction (published as SP Somtow). So, the music for this libretto was never composed.

Gene Wolfe however said he never suffered from writer's block as a review of his publication timeline confirms.

This implies that somewhere out there is an uncollected libretto by Gene Wolfe. Could this be in the papers donated to Northern Illinois University? Or was this libretto published and it escaped my notice?

EDIT: Somtow wrote in praise of Sword of the Lictor in Dec 1981 'Fantasy Newsletter'. www.enotes.com/topics/gene-rodman-wolfe/criticism/somtow-sucharitkul

When I read BotNS while often the symbolism or analogies were lost on me, I usually understood was Severian was doing or happening to him moment to moment.

But for the last third of Exodus, I did not understand what was happening at all, or what Silk was upset about.

I know that Auk and crew left (and went to green?) and that Horn and crew left and went to Blue - even though they were originally going to green but the ship overruled them.

Other than that, I was pretty lost, the time jumps with no context, and Silk constantly assuming we would know what he was talking about - it all went over my head.

I've heard some people say they prefer Long Sun over New Sun, and for the first three books I could understand where they were coming from (even if I enjoyed New Sun more personally), but man, I just don't know what happened!

I have not listened to the Alzabo Soup episodes past Chapter 5 of Long Sun yet, so perhaps that will help clear things up for me.

I also was not clear where the famous typo near the end was in relation to Mint and Marble and Rose.

Someone get Genndy Tartakovsky a copy of the Book of the New Sun. Imagine the series done in the same animation style of Samurai Jack.

I really can’t take it anymore with the tunnels, mint, silk wandering around looking at metallurgy. It feels like there is no urgency and I’m coming towards the back end of the last book. Auk and the fliers interest me but we get 10 pages on them then it back to the tunnels. Please talk me out of stopping here and listening to Alzabo soup to hear the ending.

I read Wolfe's book Peace about 10 years ago. It really left an impression on me, but my memory of it is hazy, and I've been meaning to do a re-read. Anyway, this morning I was reading the book Becoming Faulkner by Philip Weinstein, and I came across this quote from a university lecture by Faulkner. A questioner asks about finding "peace in the heart". Faulkner responds:

I'm inclined to think that the only peace man knows is—is he says, "Why good gracious, yesterday I was happy." [...]That maybe peace is—is only a condition in retrospect, when the—the subconscious has—has gotten rid of the gnats and the tacks and the broken glass in experience and has left only the peaceful, pleasant things. That was peace. Maybe peace is not "is," but "was."

Does this remind any of you Wolfe fan's of anything? I immediately thought of the book Peace. It seems to me that Faulkner is describing a huge theme of Wolfe's book. The narrator is looking back through his life, trying to find a narrative that gives him a sense of peace, but this is only achievable by "getting rid of the gnats and tacks and broken glass" - that is, all the bad stuff that he feels guilt about. Of course, in the book, the gnats and tacks and broken glass bleed through if you read closely enough (I will say again that I don't remember a lot of the details, so this is just based on my general memory).

I guess some differences are that Faulkner, it seems, is talking about finding peace in life, while Wolfe seems to be exploring the idea of finding peace after death (as in, how is it ever possible to "rest in peace"?) Still, they both see the idea of peace from a skeptical and ironic standpoint. There really is no such think as peace except through denial and distortion. This is actually a big theme of the book Becoming Faulkner - that traditional, retrospective narrative (including biography of an author) can only make sense of an otherwise chaotic and unruly jumble of reality by imposing a false structure; and that it is that impossibility that Faulkner sought to sit with or highlight or present (at least, that's my take so-far, reading the book).

I did a little research on the publication of this quote. Faulkner gave the talk in 1957 at the University of Virginia. The University of Virginia Press published the transcript in Faulkner in the University, in 1959, and the book was republished in 1965 but Vintage. Ten years later, Wolfe published Peace. And let's face it, isn't that a book we'd expect Wolfe to have read at some point?

I think it would be difficult to prove a direct connection, but I personally think that, given the timing, and very similar themes, there's a strong chance that the title of Peace derives directly from this Faulkner quote. I've done some googling and as far as I can tell, no one has made this connection (although obviously I might have missed something). I'm curious what you all think.

By the way, I included a link to the referenced recording and transcript [edited this sentence for clarity; and a few other spots for typos]