Shadow & Claw (The Book of the New Sun, #1-2) in Beyond Reality

Jan 24, 2011 Adrienne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, unreliable-narrator, assassins-thieves-etc, science-fiction, owned, first-person, dense, post-book-withdrawl, sword-and-laser

Rereading.. Gulp!

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Do you know what's crazy? Six months later and I'm still thinking about this series. I guess that means I have to upgrade it to five stars.

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I'm not exactly sure what to say about this series. Or rather, the first two books of the series. I don't really like the main character (as a person or as a character), I don't really like the plot, but I'm very intrigued by it all. The world has a very fantasy feel, but this is actually science fiction. Oh, and it's told by an unrelia Rereading.. Gulp!

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Do you know what's crazy? Six months later and I'm still thinking about this series. I guess that means I have to upgrade it to five stars.

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I'm not exactly sure what to say about this series. Or rather, the first two books of the series. I don't really like the main character (as a person or as a character), I don't really like the plot, but I'm very intrigued by it all. The world has a very fantasy feel, but this is actually science fiction. Oh, and it's told by an unreliable narrator!

Anyway, the book is filled with obscure and archaic words, making it the first book I can remember in a long time that had an overabundance of vocabulary I don't know. Google was often more useful in finding their definitions than the OED. (And also, an iPhone if you want to read on the bus.) But they're all derived from actual words or roots, and they give the world a foreign yet familiar feel.

The main character is Severian, a member of the torturer's guild until he gets kicked out, who tells us how he came to be "backed into the throne." (He mentions this at the end of the first chapter.) Well, that's an interesting premise. He is seemingly unaffected by his line of work, but there are conversations that lead me to think he's just not telling us how it does affect him. Those, however, are few and far between. There's that unreliable narrator for you. He also doesn't seem to understand what love means, as he claims to be in love with pretty much every woman he meets. And for some reason, they're all drawn to sleep with him. Ooo-kay. That annoyed me.

In addition to the crazy vocabulary, there's just a lot going on in the prose. Nothing is straightforward. There's a lot that Severian doesn't understand or doesn't for his own reason tell us. There are also contradictions in his story - but you have to be paying attention to find them. Yay, unreliability! (Unfortunately?) it also means you probably have to read the books a few times to actually understand what's going on.

I also had some science-y problems with the premise of the world and the conversation with Father Inire, but I guess I'll wait until I read the whole series. Oh, the day I find a sci-fi novel with which I have no science-y problems will be a glorious day! (Maybe Ender's Game, but I read that before I was a scientist, and anyway that does have the (view spoiler).)

However, I am continuing on with the following two books in Sword and Citadel. ...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Marisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This book is very engaging. It uses the trope of an earth so old that all the things man looks to from the future now are in the past. There is nothing to discover, only rediscover. In this sense it counts as science fiction, but the feel, due to the characters poor understanding of the science, is more like fantasy. Severian is a compelling narrator though in the end you realize he says a lot but his actions are much less interesting. He seems to passively float through the story. Partially thi ...more

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