All this took place in dark and fog. I saw it, but for the most part the men were no more than ambient shadows - as the woman with the heart-shaped face had been. Yet something touched me. Perhaps it was Vodalus's willingness to die to protect her that made the woman seem precious to me; certainly it was that willingness that kindled my admiration for him. Many times since then, when I have stood upon a shaky platform in some market-town square with Terminus Est at rest before me and a miserable vagrant kneeling at my feet, when I have heard in hissing whispers the hate of the crowd and sensed what was far less welcome, the admiration of those who find an unclean joy in pains and deaths not their own, I have recalled Vodalus at the graveside, and raised my own blade half pretending that when it fell I would be striking for him. The book doesn't need anything cut, it needs to be slashed, gutted and reassembled into a cohesive narrative. We don't need 30 hours to go over literally two plot points - leaving his childhood home after a betrayal, and meeting some people on the way. Concerning the tone of the story, the audience is reminded from time to time that these are essentially memoirs of the main character, which does take away from the narrative tension. In effect, you are reading a story knowing the ending beforehand, which I think is an admirable decision on the part of the author. By placing the ending of the story in the beginning, Wolfe has essentially challenged his audience to come along for the ride just to see how the lead character gets to where he is. Severian claims to possess not just an eidetic memory but a perfect memory and as such any contradictions on his part as the narrator are deliberate obfuscations. He comes to an inn, where he first meets Baldanders and Dr. Talos. The are travelling mountebanks, who invite Severian to join them in a play to be performed the same day. During breakfast, Dr. Talos manages to recruit the waitress for his play and they set out into the streets. Severian continues his travels toward Thrax, and Dorcas accompanies him. While searching his belongings, Severian finds the Claw of the Conciliator. Apparently Agia stole the Claw from the altar they destroyed and placed it in Severian's belongings knowing that she would be searched. Eventually Severian and Dorcas encounter Dr. Talos, Baldanders and Jolenta, who are almost ready to perform the play they had invited Severian to the morning before. Severian assists in the play, and the next day the group sets out toward the great gate leading out of Nessus, where they meet a man named Jonas. As they are passing through the gate, there is suddenly a commotion and the narration abruptly ends.

After seeing the suspended building for a brief moment, Severian comes to realize that he loves Dorcas but in a different way than he had loved Thecla. They discuss whether it was a vision and Dorcas says she does not know whether she has ever had a vision because she can recall only brief moments before coming out of the water, including a small dog barking outside a door. Severian then asks if she has heard the idea that the universe has a secret key. He states that the brown book had a section listing all of the alleged keys of the universe, collected from all of the different worlds. One of them is that everything is a sign which has three meanings – its practical meaning, its impact and what it says about the world around it, and its transubstantial meaning which expresses the will of the Pancreator. Dorcas says the third meaning of the building that leaped into the sky seems very clear (although she does not express that meaning) but the first and second meanings are more difficult to interpret. What makes Gene Wolfe's epic different from everything else on the SFF shelf is his unique, evocative storytelling style. The reader isn't given all of the history and religion lessons (etc.) that are often dumped on us at the beginning of a fantasy epic. Rather, Severian's story is episodic and seems like it's meandering lazily, taking regular scenic detours, as if there's nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there. Because the story isn't a straight narrative, we don't understand the purpose or meaning of everything Severian relates ??? we have to patch it together as we go. By the end of the book, we're still clueless about most of it and we're starting to realize that Severian is kind of clueless, too. Much of the power of this novel comes from the sense that there is world-building and symbolism on a massive scale here, but that explanations and revelations for the reader would just cheapen it and remove the pleasure that comes from the experience of discovery. Stressing the tone of the tale, the target market is recommended every so often that these are generally memoirs of the significant character, which does eliminate from the narrative stress. Effectively, you read a tale understanding the finishing in advance of time, which I presume is an amazing option on the component of the writer. By placing the finishing of the tale originally, Wolfe has actually generally evaluated his target audience to locate along for the flight simply to see just how the protagonist gets to where he is. Severian insurance policy asserts to have not just an eidetic memory nevertheless a finest memory as well as due to the fact that of this any kind of kind of oppositions on his element as the author are determined obfuscations.Severian is told to leave the lazaret after the doctor confirms he is healthy because his garb and sword are upsetting the other patients. A magistrate from the Hall of Justice finds Severian and tells his services as carnifex will be needed tomorrow to execute a man who has killed nine people. After securing overnight quarters for himself and Dorcas, Severian visits the prisoner per his guild’s customs. He sees a naked woman (who he is surprised to see is Agia) sobbing beside a chained naked man who she names as Agilus. Their faces are mirrors of each other and does not understand how this can be, until Agilus explains, “It was Agia in the shop. In the Septentrion costume. She came in through the rear entrance while I was speaking to you, and I made a sign to her when you wouldn’t even talk of selling the sword.” Agia then explains that the sword was made by Jovinian and was worth ten times their shop. You see," the heavy man said, "just as I told you, Liege, Madame, nineteen times of a score there's nothin' to it. We've only to get her over the wall now." Exhausted by his day’s travels, Severian finds an inn and asks for a room. The innkeeper says none are left but Severian insists and the innkeeper says he can share a bed with two others who he assured Severian are optimates (“good men”). He brings Severian to a room where Baldanders – “the largest man I had ever seen; a man who might fairly have been called a giant” -- is asleep. Severian joins him in bed with Terminus Est between them and they mumble greetings to each other. Several of the others muttered agreement, and the group began to scatter, one lantern moving to the left and the other to the right. We went up the center path (the one we always took in returning to the fallen section of the Citadel wall) with the remaining volunteers.

In pre-Internet times, it was hard for everyone who didn’t live in an English-speaking country to buy science fiction and fantasy made in the US or in the UK. It was far from impossible, but very often it wasn’t feasible: we had to send letters (yes!—paper ones, mind you) to bookstores, but the whole operation would only be interesting money-wise if we gathered in a four- or five-person group to buy, say, two or three dozen books. And I’m talking about used books, of course. Most of my English-language books during the Eighties and Nineties were acquired this way, including Neuromancer (but that is another story, as the narrator in Conan the Barbarian would say), in the notorious A Change of Hobbit bookstore, in California. When finally Thecla is put to torture, Severian takes pity on her and helps her commit suicide, by smuggling a knife into her cell, thus breaking an oath to his guild.

Customer Reviews

This work is also extremely metatextual, allegorical, and metaphorical from a wide variety of cultures, religions, and languages. This makes the text incredibly rich and dense which also makes the book feel a lot longer than it actually is, because you can read a single sentence and extract multiple meanings from it. Likely this means that every person reading it will get something unique from it, which is not easy to do by any means. Gene Wolfe does have passages in this book where he nods to the reader and sort of breaks the fourth wall, at one point even telling you that he understands if you don't continue reading Severian's journey.

Some of them, however, I borrowed from friends who had been doing pretty much the same, or buying the occasional volume in one of the two bookstores in Rio that carried imported books. One of these friends I’d met in a course on translation—Pedro Ribeiro was an avid reader, as I was, but his interests tended more to the Fantasy side. He introduced me to many interesting writers, such as David Zindell (who remains to this day one of my favorite authors), and, naturally, Gene Wolfe. I will be listening to work that has critical literary acclaim, rather than relying on cult success.

Reading this book is like accidentally stumbling into the dreams of another person that is barely keeping their sanity intact. Per guild custom, a masked and cloaked Severian stands on the scaffold for a long time before Agilus is brought out. Once he is, the execution is swiftly completed. Severian hears Agia’s faraway scream at that moment. After the body is dragged away and Severian is paid a “master’s fee” for his services, he and Dorcas depart after dark per the advice of more experienced guildsmen. It is revealed that Severian was ill after the execution and he attributes that to nerves and concern that something would go wrong. You won't be getting in tonight." The leader put his hand on the hilt of his knife before taking a step closer. For a moment I was afraid he knew who we were. They arrive at the far shore and walk toward the averns, Severian wondering aloud, “They are not from here, are they? Not from Urth.” But no one answers him. The averns have sharp dagger-like leaves and Agia tells him to snap a plant off at the stem to avoid touching the poisoned leaves. As Severian approaches the averns, Hildegrin states, “I’ll take the females to safety”. This statement reminds Severian where he has met Hildegrin before – in the Citadel cemetary when he made a similar statement to Vodalus about taking Thea to safety.