Call number
Genres
Publication
Tor Books, 1988
Pages
372
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: The long awaited audiobook sequel to Gene Wolfe's four-volume classic, The Book of the New Sun. Listeners return to the world of Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test, to become the legendary New Sun or die. The strange, rich, original spaceship scenes give way to travels in time, wherein Severian revisits times and places which fill in parts of the background of the four-volume work, that will thrill and intrigue particularly listeners who enjoyed the earlier books. But The Urth of the New Sun is an independent structure all of a piece, an integral masterpiece to shelve beside the classics, one itself..… (more)
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1988)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1988)
Seiun Award (Nominee — 2009)
Italia Award (Winner — 1999)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1987-08
Physical description
372 p.; 6.5 inches
ISBN
0812558170 / 9780812558173
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User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
I bought this book in the twentieth century of the vulgar era, and moved it with my library about eleven times over the succeeding twenty-two years before I finally read it. Somehow that seems fitting. The Urth of the New Sun is the fifth of four volumes in Wolfe's autotheography of Severian the
There are roughly as many plot arcs and riddling enigmas in this book as in the four previous ones put together, and there is hardly a person or a place in the earlier stories that is not subjected to some sort of revisitation in the sequel. These seem to assume their "proper" dimensions so that it is difficult to believe that the author did not secretly understand them this way from the beginning. There is less here than in the earlier books in the way of nested narrative and storytelling set-pieces; for a book chock-full of the vagaries of time travel and transcendence of space, the tale is surprisingly linear, keeping to Severian's subjective experience of events.
I did not find this volume as difficult of access as I had its predecessors when I first read them in the 1980s. But there were still bits of it that resisted my full understanding, including the unspecified "plausible speculation" with which Wolfe teases his readers in the afterword on "The Miracle of Apu-Punchau." I expect that a re-read would yield perceptions that were withheld from me on this pass. But my aim is first to proceed on through the seven further volumes of the Solar Cycle.
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Torturer, a.k.a. Severian the Great, a.k.a. Severian the Lame, Autarch of the Commonwealth, Epitome of Urth, and incarnation of the New Sun. It first recounts his voyage to and from the neighboring universe of Yesod. (Qabalistic Hebrew is strangely conscripted throughout the book.) Then it details his salvific manifestations on Urth and its successor world Ushas. There are roughly as many plot arcs and riddling enigmas in this book as in the four previous ones put together, and there is hardly a person or a place in the earlier stories that is not subjected to some sort of revisitation in the sequel. These seem to assume their "proper" dimensions so that it is difficult to believe that the author did not secretly understand them this way from the beginning. There is less here than in the earlier books in the way of nested narrative and storytelling set-pieces; for a book chock-full of the vagaries of time travel and transcendence of space, the tale is surprisingly linear, keeping to Severian's subjective experience of events.
I did not find this volume as difficult of access as I had its predecessors when I first read them in the 1980s. But there were still bits of it that resisted my full understanding, including the unspecified "plausible speculation" with which Wolfe teases his readers in the afterword on "The Miracle of Apu-Punchau." I expect that a re-read would yield perceptions that were withheld from me on this pass. But my aim is first to proceed on through the seven further volumes of the Solar Cycle.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
This book is perhaps best thought of as volume five of the four-volume Book of the New Sun. As the book opens, we find Severian, now Autarch of Urth for the past ten years, on baard a mighty ship sailing the tides of space (and time) to the planet Yesod, where he will undergo trials to determine if
I first read this book not long after publication. It had been a couple of years since I'd finished the earlier four volumes of The Book of the New Sun, and so had forgotten many of the situations and incidental characters. This was a mistake. This book needs to be read as a pendant to the earlier novels, because it references many of the minor - and not so minor - characters of those books and their situations. This time around, I re-read it not long after a re-read of the earlier novels and the events made more sense.
But not much.
Severian's trials on Yesod grant him powers which he will use to turn back time on Urth. This means that the narrative is disjointed and things happen for apparently no good reason. By this time, we are well into the territory of "any sufficiently advanced science will look like magic"; indeed, so well into that territory that the science is pretty much dispensed with. We are left with the writing, which is deep, and baroque, and retains the voice, memories and experiences of Severian, as well as the personalities he has carried within himself since The Claw of the Conciliator.
Wolfe is taking no prisoners here. We became used to time elapsing between the different books in the New Sun cycle, so a ten year gap between Citadel and this book should come as no surprise. (And the intervening period is filled in with a flashback in due course.) But when we get to the last quarter of this book, narrative causality is discarded, and we enter a strange sort of Xeno's Paradox world where the more we read, the further away the ending of the book seems to get, until we suddenly get to it.
Is this book essential to understanding the rest of The Book of the New Sun? I doubt it. I'm about to tackle (for the first time) the following four novels in the Solar Cycle, The Book of the Long Sun . From what I've heard, I doubt this will have been useful for those books, either. But there is so much referencing back to the events of the earlier novels that there have to be insights here to be unearthed (or even unUrthed), if the reader can take the time to find them. Perhaps this was the whole point of the exercise, to provide the reader with a puzzle to solve. It may take me another re-read to get that, though.
Despite all that, I enjoyed this read up to the point where I hit the Xeno's Paradox section in the last 40 or so pages. I started reading science fiction because I found ways that the genre at its best would excite my imagination; understanding was sometimes secondary. And that was certainly the case here. But whatever you do, don't try to read this as a standalone novel!
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he will finally be the one to bring the New Sun back to Urth and reinvigorate the planet. He has numerous transcendent encounters with himself and others and finally returns to Urth, again through time and space, bringing the White Fountain that will renew the Old Sun.I first read this book not long after publication. It had been a couple of years since I'd finished the earlier four volumes of The Book of the New Sun, and so had forgotten many of the situations and incidental characters. This was a mistake. This book needs to be read as a pendant to the earlier novels, because it references many of the minor - and not so minor - characters of those books and their situations. This time around, I re-read it not long after a re-read of the earlier novels and the events made more sense.
But not much.
Severian's trials on Yesod grant him powers which he will use to turn back time on Urth. This means that the narrative is disjointed and things happen for apparently no good reason. By this time, we are well into the territory of "any sufficiently advanced science will look like magic"; indeed, so well into that territory that the science is pretty much dispensed with. We are left with the writing, which is deep, and baroque, and retains the voice, memories and experiences of Severian, as well as the personalities he has carried within himself since The Claw of the Conciliator.
Wolfe is taking no prisoners here. We became used to time elapsing between the different books in the New Sun cycle, so a ten year gap between Citadel and this book should come as no surprise. (And the intervening period is filled in with a flashback in due course.) But when we get to the last quarter of this book, narrative causality is discarded, and we enter a strange sort of Xeno's Paradox world where the more we read, the further away the ending of the book seems to get, until we suddenly get to it.
Is this book essential to understanding the rest of The Book of the New Sun? I doubt it. I'm about to tackle (for the first time) the following four novels in the Solar Cycle, The Book of the Long Sun . From what I've heard, I doubt this will have been useful for those books, either. But there is so much referencing back to the events of the earlier novels that there have to be insights here to be unearthed (or even unUrthed), if the reader can take the time to find them. Perhaps this was the whole point of the exercise, to provide the reader with a puzzle to solve. It may take me another re-read to get that, though.
Despite all that, I enjoyed this read up to the point where I hit the Xeno's Paradox section in the last 40 or so pages. I started reading science fiction because I found ways that the genre at its best would excite my imagination; understanding was sometimes secondary. And that was certainly the case here. But whatever you do, don't try to read this as a standalone novel!
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LibraryThing member lewispike
This is sort of part of the series, and part not. I'm not quite sure. I understand why he wrote it, but it doesn't quite hit the spot for me.
LibraryThing member Psycho_Milt
It seems like Wolfe felt the need to wrap up every possible loose end using the same small cast of characters, having them travel through time and space as necessary to do so, but his writing is so good and the character of Severian so real that when it came down to it I really didn't care, and
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loved reading it anyway. Show Less
LibraryThing member mrtall
This sequel to the already-hefty four-part Book of the New Sun integrates remarkably well with its predecessors. Wolfe takes us with Severian on a ship -- maybe The Ship -- that travels between stars and times. Does he manage to bring the New Sun to Urth? It's a hell of trip (and I mean that in
One warning: don't even think about trying to read this without having finished the Book of the New Sun first. It'll be utterly incomprehensible.
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every sense of the word you can imagine) finding out.One warning: don't even think about trying to read this without having finished the Book of the New Sun first. It'll be utterly incomprehensible.
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LibraryThing member Jim53
Severian, the narrator/protagonist of The Book of the New Sun, has been autarch for ten years. He is finally ready to make the trip for which his whole life has been preparing him, to plead as Urth's representative for the coming of the New Sun. He travels on an interstellar (and more) ship to the
Wolfe wraps up some loose ends from TBotNS, but does much more than that. His style, already remarkable in TBotNS, is more assured and platyul; we can almost imagine him laughing with joy as he writes. As always, he does not explain every detail, but invites the reader to participate in fleshing out the story. He gives us scenes from the New Testament, such as the storm on the river, reimagined to fit in with Severian's story and Wolfe's cosmology. Severian is not Christ, however, but a bad man striving to become good.
Severian's voice becomes more and more lyrical as he progresses. He has always sought understanding of his world and its events, but now he seeks and achieves appreciation of the world and his place in it.
I will confess to having my doubts about Wolfe revisiting Urth; this sequel has not only calmed my fears but delighted me with how Severian has grown and how Wolfe tells us his story.
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universe where he will be judged.Wolfe wraps up some loose ends from TBotNS, but does much more than that. His style, already remarkable in TBotNS, is more assured and platyul; we can almost imagine him laughing with joy as he writes. As always, he does not explain every detail, but invites the reader to participate in fleshing out the story. He gives us scenes from the New Testament, such as the storm on the river, reimagined to fit in with Severian's story and Wolfe's cosmology. Severian is not Christ, however, but a bad man striving to become good.
Severian's voice becomes more and more lyrical as he progresses. He has always sought understanding of his world and its events, but now he seeks and achieves appreciation of the world and his place in it.
I will confess to having my doubts about Wolfe revisiting Urth; this sequel has not only calmed my fears but delighted me with how Severian has grown and how Wolfe tells us his story.
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LibraryThing member robinamelia
Now I am going to have to start at the beginning of the series and see if I can make sense of it.
LibraryThing member robfreeze
Loved it. I really felt it capped the series really well and gave clarity to a lot left unexplained in the first 4 books.
LibraryThing member Phrim
"The Urth of the New Sun" is a follow-up novel to Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series, and recounts events in the latter part of Severian's life, as he negotiates with aliens to cause the coming of the New Sun. The first part of the book features an uncharacteristically determined Severian, who
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knows he is humanity's representative and possible savior. It was fun to watch him explore the strange alien ship, while uncovering plots against him and persevering through the tests of the aliens. The second half of the book, after he completes his trials, is much less focused. Severian visits a number of time periods in the world's history, but doesn't seem to have much of a goal, even mentioning that the New Sun will come no matter what he does at that point. While this second half does touch upon some of the loose ends in the original series, I'm not really sure what the author is trying to achieve. Show Less
LibraryThing member wickenden
I have a great sense (and I've read elsewhere that there is reason to sense this) that I ought to be reading Wolf several times in order to begin to get the tapestry he's woven. But, even on the first read there are apparent structures and relationships that are present, kind of like the sense one
A good followup to the first quartet. I'm about to begin on the next one.
Thanks to Jason for pointing my stubborn ass in this direction.
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gets when walking on an iceberg (ha, which no one I know has done), sensing the immense mountain beneath one.A good followup to the first quartet. I'm about to begin on the next one.
Thanks to Jason for pointing my stubborn ass in this direction.
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LibraryThing member Neil_Luvs_Books
I enjoyed this book but not as much as it’s predecessor, The Book of the Nee Sun. I am not sure it would make sense or be a worthwhile reading experience without first reading BotNS. UoftNS answers explains (obliquely) some of the mysteries set in the BotNS. But Urth also leaves something for the
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reader to mull over and speculate on well after the book is done. As is typical, I think for a Gene Wolfe book. Show Less