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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
that sounds daunting.....  |
Well, ok... So I went balls out on the book, changed my life. Recommended the Book of the New Sun to every avid reader I knew. Especially folks that have an interest in psychology, philosophy, theology and dark ass shit. I managed to spark the interest of many people, but nobody except for my girlfriend actually finished the BOtNS, and not even she read the coda fifth book that came out like 20 years later, nor did she read the overlapping series (Book of the Long Sun, Book of the Short Sun). But just by reading Shadow of the Torturer - Citadel of the Autarch, she made it three and half novels farther than a former professor of mine who taught classes on Campbell and Jung, and had two doctorates.
Not saying it's only for smart people, because if that were the case, she would have made it through. But it's not for pussy ass casual readers. That's for damn sure. You've got to have the brain for navigating prose that doesn't give you the luxury of setting up everything for you. You kind of just have to follow the story as it unfolds, and not get discouraged when you run into things that don't add up (one person I gave it to- a hardcore Lovecraft fan- abandoned it after 30 pages and said it was "just fantasy" ... All I'll say is that he couldn't have been more wrong. He wanted more hard-fi shit, or something more epic, and he would have been blown away if he hadn't pussed out.)
Reading it is like solving a mystery, really. But the main character is so well constructed that he burrows down into your soul. He's the Holden Caulfield of dark theological science fiction. Also, he's a professional torturer who has a perfect and limitless memory! As long as you're able to let your imagination fill in a lot of blanks, and your comfortable with not knowing what time, place, setting, or environment the characters you're reading about are actually in, then it's a goddamn blast. Witty and horrifying and ingenius.
NPR ranked it as the #4 greatest sci-fi/fantasy book of all time several years ago. Oddly, it's prequel/sequel Book of the Long Sun took the #1 spot. This shit beat Tolkien, Lewis, Lovecraft, Bradbury... Gene Wolfe is one of the most underrated American authors in history.
Anyway .... anyone listen to the new Knxwledge album yet?