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Title: Epiphany of the Long Sun: Calde of the Long Sun and Exodus from the Long Sun (Book of the Long Sun, Books 3 and 4) by Gene Wolfe ISBN: 0-312-86072-2 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 04 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A little strange.
Comment: The Book of the Long Sun is original for its perspective on what is quintessentially a work of science fiction. It tells the story of Patera Silk, a priest figure for a religious chapter in a city aboard a tremendous spacecraft, who is so human by way of how he is changed from the frist novel to Epiphany. While the series lacks the same depth of The Book of the New Sun, it offers instead a broader focus on culture and society, where the "truths" are less annotated by the characters and more the reader. The ending segment wherein the narrator offers defense for his manner of presentating events and biases does lend to some rereadability, and I suspect it may be just another work of Wolfe's that manages to be just as good or better the second time around.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not as good as "The Book of the New Sun"
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed "The Book of the New Sun", Wolfe's earlier epic. I bought both the "Litany" and the "Epiphany" volumes of the Long Sun, and read them together over a couple of weeks. While Wolfe can often write amazing prose, and has fascinating characters, his plot development often leaves the reader feeling confused. The "Long Sun" is more grating in this respect than was the "New Sun". Wolfe constantly brings chapters to a close with the characters in a moment of crisis. He begins the subsequent chapter by leaping forward in time, and the characters are engaged in completely different activities from where the previous chapter left them. There is eventually an explanation as to how they got out of their predicament, but we only come to know this through their intermittant discussions of what occurred. This technique was used right up to the end of the work, where vast chunks of story seem to have been excised. The reader is left only with a confused glimpse of what happened, since we are forced to interpret events through the ignorant eyes of the inhabitants of the whorl.
I don't mind having to work to get through a book, if the reward is sufficient. The "New Sun" was not an easy read, either. However, it is not a compliment to the author to say that one must re-read his work several times to understand it. If that is the case, it simply means that the author is not writing clearly. And that is most definitely the case in "The Book of the Long Sun."
Rating: 5
Summary: More than just "science fiction"
Comment: I started reading The Book of The Long Sun series after a professional re4viewer called Gene Wolfe "the best science fiction writer you've never heard of". I was drawn into the first book (Nightside The Long Sun) by the first line, and I have never enjoyed reading any novel more than these.
The Long Sun storyline is epic -- It's essentially about the end of a world and the struggle for a new beginning, told in the most intimate "ground level" way possible. It's about religion, power, intrigue, and even romance. The lead character, Silk, is a young man who posseses wisdom and power he does not know he has, and it's wonderful to watch him develop. One must read these books in order, as each volume of the four picks up where the previous one left off.
Wolfe creates a world (he calls it the "whorl") slowly and carefully, starting with wonderful human (and animal) characters, allowing the reader to learn by observation rather than by description. The story is intensly human, and the technology which makes this "science" fiction is revealed bit by bit. One starts by thinking the "whorl" is almost medieval, but Wolfe's misdirection here is masterful.
Truly, the Long Sun series is among the best fiction -- not just science fiction -- I have ever read. It's up there with Tolkien, Bradbury, and Asimov for sure.
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Title: The Urth of the New Sun : The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun' by Gene Wolfe ISBN: 0312863942 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Return to the Whorl : The Final Volume of 'The Book of the Short Sun' by Gene Wolfe ISBN: 0312873646 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 06 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: On Blue's Waters : Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun' by Gene Wolfe ISBN: 0312872577 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 02 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: In Green's Jungles (Book of the Short Sun, Book 2) by Gene Wolfe ISBN: 0312873638 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 04 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Sword & Citadel : The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' by Gene Wolfe ISBN: 0312890184 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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