donn (02/07/83)
Gene Wolfe's tetralogy THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is now complete with the
publication of THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH. CITADEL follows the
ex-torturer Severian, shocked by his loss at the end of the previous
volume (THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR), as he wanders northward and becomes
embroiled in the war with the Ascians. It rapidly becomes apparent
that the war is more than just a struggle for territory, but its full
complexity does not become apparent until a series of not-quite-
coincidences leads to Severian's accession to the position of Autarch
of the realm. The book concludes with Severian's regal return to the
Citadel in which he was born and raised as a torturer, where he
resolves to attempt to bring forth the New Sun, just as the former
Autarch tried to do, but failed. The book also explains more of the
background to the peculiar Christian/Hindu mythology, and even provides
a science-fictional rationale for some of it. All in all an excellent
book and worth buying in hardcover (as I did). Most of the important
threads of plot from the previous volumes are wrapped up, but alas we
do not find out whether Severian succeeds in his final task; if this
matters to you, then you will want to read the (projected) sequel THE
URTH OF THE NEW SUN when it comes out.
If like me you would like to know even more about the world of THE BOOK
OF THE NEW SUN, there is yet another book, THE CASTLE OF THE OTTER
(Ziesing Bros.: Willimantic, Connecticut, 1982, 117pp.). The title of
this book derives from a mistaken announcement of CITADEL in Locus
magazine; Wolfe couldn't resist using the name because he knew the
perfect epigram for it (from THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS). Wolfe explains
why he wrote the book: "When a writer has the gall to do an entire
book, even a very small one, about the writing of a previous book, it's
more or less customary for him to announce that he's acting in response
to innumerable and insistent demands. Unfortunately, I'm not... Why
do it, then? Out of a sort of blind optimism. Every writer worth his
two-cents-a-word hopes, in some little corner of his mind at least,
that somewhere out there, there are a few people who will do more than
read his book, pitch it away, and reach for the next one -- people who
will read and reread, study the cover, perhaps, in search of some clue,
shelve the book and later take it out again, just to hold. There was a
time when I could put the palm of my hand flat on the front of a
tattered paperback called THE DYING EARTH and feel the magic seeping
through the cardboard: Turjan of Miir, Liane the Wayfarer, T'sais,
Chun the Unavoidable. Nobody I knew had so much as heard of that book,
but I knew it was the finest book in the world." Needless to say,
THE DYING EARTH by Jack Vance and its sequel THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD
are among my absolute favorite books and there are more than a few
similarities between NEW SUN and DYING EARTH... an interesting bit
of trivia.
More trivia in THE CASTLE OF THE OTTER:
* NEW SUN originated as an unpublished novella called THE FEAST
OF SAINT CATHERINE.
* The story grew from a novella to a novel to a trilogy to finally
a tetralogy...
* NEW SUN as a whole went through two drafts before the first
volume came out, in a situation not unlike THE LORD OF
THE RINGS -- Wolfe wanted to be able to change the first
book on the basis of plot events in the last book...
* There is a chapter "Words Weird and Wonderful" that glosses
all the strange words in THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER on a
chapter by chapter basis.
* There are also chapters on writing, on publishing, on warfare
in Severian's time and also a chapter containing a set
of jokes as told by various characters from NEW SUN.
Yours trivially,
Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn
(619) 452-4016 sdamos!donn@nprdc