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The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It's hard to describe. Rather, the story is easy to describe: it concerns the travel of a man from a future age. Nothing

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It's hard to describe. Rather, the story is easy to describe: it concerns the travel of a man from a future age. Nothing is what it seems. There was a moment when I realized "Oh shit. This is real." The book may be fiction but almost nothing about it is fake. The Big Questions, in History, in Philosophy, in Politics, in Theology, in Technological Progress, in interpreting reality, it's all there. Most non-fiction work of fiction I've ever read, and the best one, above Tolkien, above the Bible, it towers above all texts I have read. It will take multiple reads to understand what it is saying, different parts will appeal to you each time. In terms of the people you know: imagine that Stewart Brand, Peter Thiel and Christopher Nolan somehow had a lovechild - it would be The Book of the New Sun.

solipsism 9y ago
"Nothing is that it seems" typically makes for a horrible experience, for me at least. Can you explain it any better than that?
- Finnucane 9y ago
  The conceit is that the narrator has an eidetic memory, or at least claims to. And at the same time, it is apparent that he is not always a reliable or honest narrator, not does he always fully understand what is going on in front of him. The narrator is also being manipulated by alien powers beyond his control. The relationships of the characters are weird and complicated. And it is true--Wolfe deliberately constructed the books so that rereading them would make these connections apparent in different ways. (I should say that Shadow of the Torturer was published when I was 17, and over the next decade I must have gone through the series four or five times, even taking up a correspondence with Gene, who was actually pretty good about answering questions).
  - observation 9y ago
    If you get another opportunity to write, I'd like to ask Wolfe whether there exists an allegory with the present world Wolfe lived through e.g. The Oil Shocks in the 70s, the esotericization of Nuclear Energy, the half century unvisited moon. I want to know whether the "New Sun" is symbolic of nuclear power in the present. I wondered reading the book whether Gene Wolfe was writing of a Dark Age in the present because the very first few words out of Sevarian's record are "presentiments of the future", which I thought to be kind of telling given the historical circumstances Wolfe has lived, especially since he obviously has the mind of an engineer.
- observation 9y ago
  Typically I'd agree. I don't mean the text has no answers or is subjective - the text does contain the answers to nearly every puzzling thing within it, if you can see it. Wolfe is an engineer and the pieces fit together. Neil Gaiman has a nice essay on how to read it properly (Gene Wolfe is the favorite author of many famous authors you've heard of): https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm The main character is an unreliable narrator. However consider all the veils that would have to be cast aside to understand reality: 1. The narrator could be lying to you. 2. The narrator could not understand what is truly happening. 3. The narrator may have mental models which are not accurate. 4. The narrator may be passing on inaccurate information or lies. 5. The narrator may be using words in a way that you think you understand, but do not. 6. The narrator may be expecting you to implicitly understand something that you do not e.g. we make certain assumptions about information because the Internet now exists, something similar exists in the world of the New Sun. 7. The narrator may be using the language of metaphor to describe something that is quite real but not what we think it is. 8. The narrator may not be one person. This won't make sense until you read the book. 9. The narrator could be telling you the truth, but you merely do not understand what he is really saying. 10. The narrator may not be lying at all, merely leaving out information that makes him look bad. I could go on for many more points. I found thinking of Vernadsky's theories useful while reading it. If reading Gene Wolfe does not fire up your neurons, nothing will. Again: the answers are in the text, it is not subjective in my experience, but you're going to have to think real hard on many different levels. Your understanding of the New Sun's world will be in flux for the duration of the book. Gene Wolfe gives you the answer, but he gives it once so you have to pay close attention. If something puzzles you, tuck it away and keep reading.
  - gasbag 9y ago
    That's a good list. I'm curious about what you're referring to in 6. The only thing I can think of is beneath Nessus, but I can't for the life of me recall how it plays into what Severian writes (or perhaps rather what he doesn't). It's been a few long years since I was last there though.
    - observation 9y ago
gasbag 9y ago
Yes, this tetralogy* is spellbinding. The world is vast and cannot be fully comprehended. As you said, it feels quite real, and everything that happens around Severian hints at so much more. This book ought to be at the top of every SF aficionado's reading list. It's that good. I'm glad yours is the top comment right now. I have been thinking about how the trend in long-form television would be very favorable for translating some of Wolfe's books into film and exposing them to a broader audience. There are so many things in New Sun that would make for compelling television, and we have the technology to do the special effects right--that is, not a CG-fest, but (mostly) subtle and in service of the story. His fuligin cloak alone I would love to see in motion. Though I think the way the story is told would have to change drastically, unless they were to keep the narration--which is a tricky prospect. Part of the book's charm is that you never know if what you are imagining based on what the narrator says really happened that way, and people put enough faith in what they see to lose that aspect. For that reason, and because a film translation would have to expose a number of the puzzles that Gene put into New Sun for us, I've latched onto the idea of a TV series for Book of the Long Sun instead. It is just as imaginative, the world (or should I say the whorl) just as vast, and the book follows almost as grand an adventure. Patera Silk, in my opinion, makes for an even more compelling protagonist than Severian, and the other characters are even more human than those in New Sun. On the surface it is not as dramatic, or fantastic, but the interactions of the gods of the Whorl with the humans gets at one of those central philosophical and technological questions, as does Silk's enlightenment (which happens on page one, so I'm not giving anything away) among other things. So if anyone here happens to be a producer, or knows one, get the first book of either series into their hands. They'll get the rest on their own. And hurry up, please--Gene's getting up there in age and you'll want his help. * though of course there is Urth of the New Sun...
- observation 9y ago
  Agreed! I think it is difficult, but possible to convert BOTNS into television, it would be on the scale of The Lord of the Rings (which I originally thought impossible to film) and about as long as the Game of Thrones series. If only we could the Cohen Brothers and the Nolan Brothers to cooperate!

solipsism 9y ago

"Nothing is that it seems" typically makes for a horrible experience, for me at least. Can you explain it any better than that?

Finnucane 9y ago
The conceit is that the narrator has an eidetic memory, or at least claims to. And at the same time, it is apparent that he is not always a reliable or honest narrator, not does he always fully understand what is going on in front of him. The narrator is also being manipulated by alien powers beyond his control. The relationships of the characters are weird and complicated. And it is true--Wolfe deliberately constructed the books so that rereading them would make these connections apparent in different ways. (I should say that Shadow of the Torturer was published when I was 17, and over the next decade I must have gone through the series four or five times, even taking up a correspondence with Gene, who was actually pretty good about answering questions).
- observation 9y ago
  If you get another opportunity to write, I'd like to ask Wolfe whether there exists an allegory with the present world Wolfe lived through e.g. The Oil Shocks in the 70s, the esotericization of Nuclear Energy, the half century unvisited moon. I want to know whether the "New Sun" is symbolic of nuclear power in the present. I wondered reading the book whether Gene Wolfe was writing of a Dark Age in the present because the very first few words out of Sevarian's record are "presentiments of the future", which I thought to be kind of telling given the historical circumstances Wolfe has lived, especially since he obviously has the mind of an engineer.
observation 9y ago
Typically I'd agree. I don't mean the text has no answers or is subjective - the text does contain the answers to nearly every puzzling thing within it, if you can see it. Wolfe is an engineer and the pieces fit together. Neil Gaiman has a nice essay on how to read it properly (Gene Wolfe is the favorite author of many famous authors you've heard of): https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm The main character is an unreliable narrator. However consider all the veils that would have to be cast aside to understand reality: 1. The narrator could be lying to you. 2. The narrator could not understand what is truly happening. 3. The narrator may have mental models which are not accurate. 4. The narrator may be passing on inaccurate information or lies. 5. The narrator may be using words in a way that you think you understand, but do not. 6. The narrator may be expecting you to implicitly understand something that you do not e.g. we make certain assumptions about information because the Internet now exists, something similar exists in the world of the New Sun. 7. The narrator may be using the language of metaphor to describe something that is quite real but not what we think it is. 8. The narrator may not be one person. This won't make sense until you read the book. 9. The narrator could be telling you the truth, but you merely do not understand what he is really saying. 10. The narrator may not be lying at all, merely leaving out information that makes him look bad. I could go on for many more points. I found thinking of Vernadsky's theories useful while reading it. If reading Gene Wolfe does not fire up your neurons, nothing will. Again: the answers are in the text, it is not subjective in my experience, but you're going to have to think real hard on many different levels. Your understanding of the New Sun's world will be in flux for the duration of the book. Gene Wolfe gives you the answer, but he gives it once so you have to pay close attention. If something puzzles you, tuck it away and keep reading.
- gasbag 9y ago
  That's a good list. I'm curious about what you're referring to in 6. The only thing I can think of is beneath Nessus, but I can't for the life of me recall how it plays into what Severian writes (or perhaps rather what he doesn't). It's been a few long years since I was last there though.
  - observation 9y ago

gasbag 9y ago

Yes, this tetralogy* is spellbinding. The world is vast and cannot be fully comprehended. As you said, it feels quite real, and everything that happens around Severian hints at so much more. This book ought to be at the top of every SF aficionado's reading list. It's that good. I'm glad yours is the top comment right now. I have been thinking about how the trend in long-form television would be very favorable for translating some of Wolfe's books into film and exposing them to a broader audience. There are so many things in New Sun that would make for compelling television, and we have the technology to do the special effects right--that is, not a CG-fest, but (mostly) subtle and in service of the story. His fuligin cloak alone I would love to see in motion. Though I think the way the story is told would have to change drastically, unless they were to keep the narration--which is a tricky prospect. Part of the book's charm is that you never know if what you are imagining based on what the narrator says really happened that way, and people put enough faith in what they see to lose that aspect. For that reason, and because a film translation would have to expose a number of the puzzles that Gene put into New Sun for us, I've latched onto the idea of a TV series for Book of the Long Sun instead. It is just as imaginative, the world (or should I say the whorl) just as vast, and the book follows almost as grand an adventure. Patera Silk, in my opinion, makes for an even more compelling protagonist than Severian, and the other characters are even more human than those in New Sun. On the surface it is not as dramatic, or fantastic, but the interactions of the gods of the Whorl with the humans gets at one of those central philosophical and technological questions, as does Silk's enlightenment (which happens on page one, so I'm not giving anything away) among other things. So if anyone here happens to be a producer, or knows one, get the first book of either series into their hands. They'll get the rest on their own. And hurry up, please--Gene's getting up there in age and you'll want his help. * though of course there is Urth of the New Sun...

observation 9y ago
Agreed! I think it is difficult, but possible to convert BOTNS into television, it would be on the scale of The Lord of the Rings (which I originally thought impossible to film) and about as long as the Game of Thrones series. If only we could the Cohen Brothers and the Nolan Brothers to cooperate!