Sword & citadel
Shadow and Claw is an omnibus of the second two books of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. It chronicles the life and adventures of journeyman torturer Severian.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
2people
2015–2026years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you enjoyed that experience, read The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe (5 books, 1-2 and 3-4 commonly printed as combined volumes: Shadow & Claw, Sword & Citadel, The Urth of the New Sun). I re-read them this spring, and they remain among the top ~3 series I've ever (re-)read.
- Not much fantasy here yet, so Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy, republished as two books: Shadow & Claw and Sword & Citadel.
- Ah, East of Eden. I'm halfway through it right now, and it is fantastic so far. I've found many good recommendations over the years from HN threads. For example, I've read 7/10 of the Culture novels by Iain M Banks now, and a couple of them were exceptionally good (Use of Weapons, Surface Detail). Most discussion here ranks the books roughly the opposite of how I would, but chances are good you will thoroughly enjoy at least some of them.
Last year I finally got around to reading the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe (another series recommended more than once on HN). Oh wow. So, so good. Yet I hesitate when recommending these books, because they are challenging to read, both in terms of vocabulary and deeply entangled story. Many times I had, "Wait, what?" moments where I reread entire chapters to make sure I really understood what had just happened. And there are many pieces I won't be able to fit together without at least another reading or two. The prime audience for these books is narrower than most of what I've read, but if the books speak to you, you're in for a huge treat. There are five books, but the first four are commonly published as pairs:
- Shadow & Claw
- Sword & Citadel
- Urth of the New Sun
