The Urth of the New Sun: The Sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun'

If you've read the first 4 books of The New Sun series and enjoyed them, just buy this book right now. There's no point in reading a review, or spoilers or anything else, positive or negative. Just buy it and read it. After you finish, you'll probably be intrigued enough at some of the hidden meanings to re-read the first 4 books in the series. In fact, the last 4 times I've re-read the series, I started with this book first as it lends itself well to being both the first and last book, because Severian's adventure is somewhat cyclical, like Finnegans Wake or what Giambattista Vico would deem a 'storia ideale eterna'.

This book clarifies most of the mysteries surrounding the New Sun series, while tantalizing us with a classic open-ended and somewhat cryptic Wolfean ending, very much in the spirit of the work. A colossal masterpiece. Wolfe gets himself far out on a limb for this sequel yet he is able to deal beautifully with the deepest philosophical and spiritual questions, This is a work so far beyond the genre of 'fantasy fiction' that it is really ludicrous to speak of it as anything but great literature. In a tale of weighty concerns, the leavening humor of Wolfe deals with those sci-fi tropes by turning them completely inside out. Certainly the Nerw Sun series is the Book Of Gold, and explicates the Christian Ethos in the same way that Tolkien's great work Lord Of the Rings explicated the English Civilization.

The underlying allegory in the Book of the New Sun is the story of the redemption of one man- Severian- and all men and women on Urth, as represented by him. It is an intentional irony of the story that when Severian embarks on this final odyssey he is already more than one person himself, from his experiences previously; and indeed those inside him form part of the process of saving his (and thus the Urth's) soul. Those who read this story as a straightforward space opera will probably be puzzled and confused. However, as a spiritual pilgrimage and tale of the human condition, pain, and forgiveness, it is without parallel as far as I know in the science fiction genre (and with few parallels in any other genre). The clever connections with Hebrew and Christian mythology continue to run beneath the surface of the story, and if it wasn't already clear from Severian's monologue in the earlier books about God being a torturer, too, it becomes evident in this book that Severian is a literary Christ figure- though one of the most bizarre and fragmented I have come across, and certainly one of the greater and so more human ones. The delight in following this myth is only increased by Wolfe's admirable, unshakeable dedication to real science. The evolution of the even more fantastic part of the New Sun Universe shown to us in this additional novel continues to be hinted at and explained in terms of the real world, though shrouded in myth and awe. Those who fail to understand the strength of the ending would be well advised to go back to the earlier novels and re-read the script of the play Severian performs in the Autarch's gardens. In fact, the entire series improves with re-readings, as it has obviously been cross-written throughout- no mean feat when the last book is written so long after the first four are theoretically complete.

THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN is a coda to Gene Wolfe's four-volume masterpiece The Book of the New Sun. It is a work both like and unlike its predecessor, and is essential reading for anyone who appreciated The Book of the New Sun.THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN begins with Severian having just completed the second copy of his book while on the Ship of the Hierodules, journeying to Yesod, the universe higher than our own, that he may stand trial to bring a New Sun to Urth. Although The Book of the New Sun was concerned mostly with Severian's internal thoughts, THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN is very much concerned with the universe(s) outside Severian. The settings in which Severian finds himself in the first half of the book, outside the Ship, in the Ship's holds, and finally on the isle on Yesod, are brilliantly exotic locales, but which Severian himself knows are beyond his understanding. In The Book of the New Sun, Severian writes his tale in a complete manner, understanding why various aspects of his adventure are as they are. In URTH, however, Severian gives detailed descriptions of where he travels, but writes as one completely lost as a mere human among the Hierodules.Yesod is one of the most fascinating settings in science fiction, and Wolfe's clear style brings them to the reader's imagination fully. Wolfe's concepts of the wings of Tzadkiel looking like curtains around him while he sits on his throne, the scarab machine that like something out of ancient mythologies makes Yesod function, and tongueless Apetha enthrall the reader. Madregot, the Brook beyond Briah were Severian pauses for a moment, is a rather powerful place to the reader.The second half of THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN involves Severian's return to Urth. As other reviews have let out, it does indeed deal with time travel. And although Wolfe does obviously tie up several loose ends in this part of the Book, he also clearly evokes Severian's bafflement at his own omnipotence. The final scene of the book is mysterious and it is difficult to say it concludes anything, so the ending is a beginning of something much more for Severian, about which we must only speculate.Having completed The Book of the New Sun, a beautiful and original work that was for me the Book of Gold, I hope readers will go on to THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN, which dazzles and entertains as much as the first four volumes of Severian's tale. Having finished it, perhaps the reader will wish to go on to Wolfe's other "solar" works, The Book of the Long Sun and its follow-up The Book of the Short Sun.

Part of the motivation for reading URTH OF THE NEW SUN is simply to breathe in more of Wolfe's beautiful prose, as written by Severian, and to take a few more footsteps in the path of that (ex?)-torturer. URTH OF THE NEW SUN does more than simply show us what happens when Severian takes the trip implied at the end of THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH. It does not explain away the mystery, but deepens it; it widens and deepens our understanding of the universe of Wolfe's Sun Books, and warns us to (in Flannery O'Connor's phrasing) beware of "the swiftness of mercy" and the painful touch of Divine Grace. Le Guin (who sometimes achieves the goal herself, but not as often as Wolfe) is correct in calling Wolfe science-fiction's Melville--not that Wolfe and Melville have the same vision, but they share the ability to make the concrete things in their fictional worlds embody ideas and truths without losing their "thingness"--they escape the Scylla and Charybdis of fictional idealism and materialism. In Wolfe's case, I would call this "Incarnational" fiction, grounded in his Catholic worldview, but whatever perspective it comes from, it is worth seeking wherever it can be found in literature.