The Book of the New Sun

I can see why some people find it difficult. I'm about 60 pages into "Shadow of the Torturer" and it is at times quite confusing. I don't have a problem with his prose, nor do I find it particularly elegant either. It is more in the dialog I think. Conversations are often seemingly eratic going in strange directions. Also it is not always clear who is saying what to whom. I have on several occaisions had to carefully re-read a passage to work out, logically, who must have been speaking.

Anyway, I'm pushing on and immersing myself in the story and will see how I take to it.
 
Well Wolfe's books are not really for the faint-hearted and he makes his readers work a bit but they are worthwhile. Things will become clearer and yet more intriguing as you progress.

Having to re-read passages is one of the features/elements of Wolfe's writing. His books are very much a riot of multi-layered text and can be read on different levels. That's why most people read a Wolfe book more than once to get the full value out of his texts.

Funnily enough whilst a masterpiece the original Sun quartet isn't necessarily my favourite book or where I would start with Wolfe. I think Latro in the Mist, Peace, Fifth Head Of Cerberus etc.. whilst erudite and heavy going in patches is an easier way to get into Wolfe IMO.

He's certainly very highly regarded amongst his SFF peers (at WorldCon 2007 he was often referred to as Mr. Triple Platinum) and the wider "literary" fraternity, some critics going so far as to label him America's greatest living writer, which is quite a wrap. I would argue he is one of the best living American writers in or out of Genre put it that way.

Cheers...
 
GOLLUM said:
Funnily enough whilst a masterpiece the original Sun quartet isn't necessarily my favourite book or where I would start with Wolfe. I think Latro in the Mist, Peace, Fifth Head Of Cerberus etc.. whilst erudite and heavy going in patches is an easier way to get into Wolfe IMO.
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Well, I've started now; this is the first Wolfe on my list that I've stumbled upon. Although if I end up slamming the book down in frustration and give up on it, I'll be unlikely to try anything else he's written; I don't think it'll come to that though! :D
 
I sincerely hope not LOL! Still it's not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly not if you only like a light read.

Good reading.
 
GOLLUM said:
I sincerely hope not LOL! Still it's not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly not if you only like a light read.

Good reading.
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That's the thing; it's not that I only like "light" reading. I've red and thoroughly enjoyed what I would regard as densely written prose (Smith, Lovecraft, Eddison, etc). Wolfe's prose doesn't seem that dense. I've not found the reading hard work, only a little confusing at times.
 
Well you're not working hard enough then....:p;)

Don't worry I found the beginning of New Sun difficult to follow too but it will become clearer as you progress. Then again sometimes you do need to say "what the?" I better go back and check what he wrote before proceeding in Gene's books.

Now if you do begin to enjoy the book and become a die hard like me you can purchase the fan-inspired Sun dictionary to make things even clearer in the ensuing Sun series.

Bye for now....
 
There are a number of books available about the Book of the New Sun:

Lexicon Urthus, Michael Andre-Druissi
Solar Labyrinth, Robert Borski
Shadows of the New Sun, Peter Wright
Attending Daedalus, Peter Wright (includes some essays on BotNS)

John Clute also discusses the books in one of his collections of his criticism, but I forget which one.
 
Well spotted.

I only have Lexicon Urthus of those listed. It's very helpful to use as a reference.
 
Well, I've finished the first two books of the quarted "The Book of the New Sun" and my views are broadly positive. As the author reminds the reader at the end of each part, it is no easy road, and it isn't. But I am enjoying it enough to want to read on.

Wolfe seems to write with a dreamlike quality making the reader feel that he is slightly stoned. The story seems to move erratically taking seemingly pointless transgressions although I feel that they are multi-layered revealing glimpses of the themes underlying the surface story.

There is no real kind of conclusion to the first half of this series and I feel that it is one of those books that would definitely benefit from a re-read but I look forward to the final two parts.
 
How would you compare the world,setting to Vance dying earth world ?

In stories like this its important and i still havent read this book/series.
 
I have yet to read Vance's Dying Earth series so I can't comment on it's comparison. But from other Vance I have read I would say his writing style is quite different.
 
No writing style isnt important, i meant what kind of world building is there in the story.

That is important when its a different series like this.

Sorry i forgot you hadn't read Dying Earth. Speaking about Vance you should read his SF, the writing style is so much different than from his fantasy writing. Not as much stylised prose.
 
Connavar said:
Sorry i forgot you hadn't read Dying Earth. Speaking about Vance you should read his SF, the writing style is so much different than from his fantasy writing. Not as much stylised prose.
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Well considering Gene has freely acknowledged that he used Vance's Dying Earth as a template for his own Book Of The New Sun there will be and are paralleles between these 2 IMO GREAT works of speculative fiction. In fact New Sun is considered probably the best exemplary example of the so-called Dying Earth sub-Genre of books.

Styles of the 2 writers as has been suggested are different but both rewarding in their own right and both witty and challenging texts, no doubt about it.
 
Urlik said:
I managed to read the first 4 books of the series and I had a similar feeling as I read every page.

I'll have to dig them out and read them again sometime and then get the fifth book to read after :)
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Hey wait, the fifth one? There's a fifth one??? How did I miss that?

Oh wait...- I suppose you mean The Urth of the New Sun, right? Yes, thanks for reminding, I never got around to reading that one.

I started a re-read of The book of the New Sun a few months ago, and it is true that one just keeps finding more and more in these books when you re-read them.

I'm so loving this website; I've already picked up a lot of pointers to books that I've now added to my "to-read" list. I just don't know how I'm going to manage to get through it all and still manage to eat and sleep as well.

Anyway, Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth has just been ordered...
 
Moontravler said:
Anyway, Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth has just been ordered...
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Glad you're enjoying the site.

Yes, they were definitely referring to Urth there.

Once you've read Dying Earth, you can try out the excellent anthology Songs Of The Dying Earth, released last year in honour of Vance's Dying Earth fiction. It boats an excellent array of modern day writers/contributors who all wrote pieces in honour of Dying Earth. I've only read a few of the stories so far but it's a genuine quality collection. Authors inlcude George R.R. Martin, Tad Williams, Glen Cook, Neil Gaiman, Lucious Shepard, Robert Silverberg, Jeff Vandermeer, Elizabeth Moon etc. You're really talking about the cream of the crop in many cases.....:)

P.S. Food and sleep are not an option; take it from me.... ;)
 
GOLLUM said:
P.S. Food and sleep are not an option; take it from me.... ;)
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Hehe, so it would seem, and you're not making it any better, just piling even more books onto the pile... :p :rolleyes:

Anyway, SOTDE sounds too irresistable to even attempt any resistance, so onto the pile it goes as well.. - thanks for recommending it.
 
Moontravler said:
Hehe, so it would seem, and you're not making it any better, just piling even more books onto the pile... :p :rolleyes:

Anyway, SOTDE sounds too irresistable to even attempt any resistance, so onto the pile it goes as well.. - thanks for recommending it.
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Maybe I should be receiving a commission....:p

Please post your thoughts once you've received both the Dying Earth series and the respective anthology. It will be interesting to see what you think of them.

Is the Dying Earth by Vance you ordered the Masterwork edn or another publication? I'm not suggesting there are issues with varying edns but am just curious to know.
 
At the rate I'm currently buying books, sadly I need to go for as cheap as I can get, you know... so I ordered this one ..er.. - since I cannot post links , I'll put the ISBN no, instead. ISBN 0312874561 . Apparently published
November 1st 2000 by Orb Books



Has the Masterworks edition got any additional material, I wonder?

Hmm, I just saw the Masterworks edition for about a pound more...
 
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