The Shadow of the Torturer
The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume series, The Book of the New Sun. It is the tale of young Severian, an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession -- showing mercy toward his victim -- and follows subsequent journey out of his home city of Nessus.
Stats for nerds
12recommend
19mentions
18people
2014–2026years
63% recommend26% neutral11% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Shadow of the Torturer is wonderful.
- Actually I made a website that’s mostly sci-fi books I’ve read
https://mnky9800n.github.io/booklist/
It uses a google spreadsheet as a database so you just need to update the spreadsheet and it adds a book to the website.
I have a life goal to read every thing written by Phillip k dick as well as every book on David Pringle’s 100 best sci-fi list. Some of the books are hard to find though. Like I’ve been searching for years for the peoples republic of Antarctica.
I would suggest the following novels if you haven’t read them yet
Gene wolfe shadow of the torturer series aka book of the new sun
A scanner darkly by pkd, this, imo, is his best book even though all his books are compelling. But I think also, yes we can build him, its amazing because it really shows off pkd ability to come up with a wild premise but that’s simply the universe the characters live in and they don’t really care about that premise they have other problems.
Herovits world by malzburg, this book is hilarious and about how you must be a terrible narcissist to believe someone should read your fiction especially science fiction
The Brian Daley series about Han Solo, these are super interesting because they were written in 1979 so before empire strikes back came out. So Daley basically only had Star Wars to go on to create a whole trilogy of novels starring Han Solo. I think these are probably my favourite Star Wars novels because they have such little constraints.
- You might like "The shadow of the torturer" by Gene Wolfe. Definitely had a few "whoa" moments in it for me.
- Despite what the parent comment said I'd still recommend Shadow of The Torturer, the first book in the Book of The New Sun series. If you like the idea of being immersed in a world that you don't fully understand, but gives you the impression that there is a richness of lore behind every minor detail, then you'll enjoy it.
- “Book of the New Sun”, beginning with Shadow of the Torturer, is his major work but can be unapproachable at first. The narrator/protagonist is a terrific character, but a IMO difficult one to spend time with.
The Fifth Head of Cerberus is also a great entry point. It’s a set of three interconnected novellas that, for my part at least, were more immediately engaging than BotNS. It’s got all the Wolfe-isms you want: unreliable narrators, unconventional settings, and puzzle-box stories that slowly open themselves.
- A few I really enjoyed in the last few months:
- The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) - Old Man's War series (John Scalzi) - Bobiverse Series (Dennis E. Taylor)
Related
Book of the New Sun
64 recommend · 121
The Fifth Head Of Cerberus
21 recommend · 35
Shadow & Claw
2 recommend · 3
The Left Hand of Darkness
118 recommend · 214
The Urth of the new sun
6 recommend · 14
Heart of Darkness
41 recommend · 112
The Wizard Knight
6 recommend · 10
