The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

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I’ve heard a lot about Gene Wolfe over the years, but I’ve never read anything from him. I’ve heard several modern writers (including Neil Gaiman) praise Wolfe as being one of their favorite writers as well as their inspiration for becoming authors. So, I decided to start reading Wolfe with his best known work, The Shadow of the Torturer (Book one of The Book of the New Sun). The book split into four volumes, but currently is collected in two books (each collecting two volumes). Now, one thing to realize before starting, the books are very linked together and when you finish The Shadow of the Torturer, the story abruptly ends, waiting to be picked up in Volume 2, The Claw of the Conciliator. So who is the titular torturer?

Our hero is Severian, an apprentice in the Torturer’s Guild. While out running around with his fellow apprentice’s they decide to go into a necropolis. In the cemetery, Severian saves the life of a Vodalus (a revolutionary) and is rewarded with a coin (which Severian keeps as a secret). After being promoted from apprentice to journeyman, Severian is assigned to keep a political prisoner company, Thecla, before her execution. Severian starts falling in love with Thecla, whose sister is the lover of Voldalus,. After she is tortured for the first time, Severian  gives her a knife with which to take her life. He is then expelled from the Guild and sent to be a torturer in a distant land.

Severian then embarks on a journey where he encounters a traveling play group who get him to join their play. While trying to leave he goes into a store to buy a cover for his torturer’s cloak and ends up challenged to a duel. Agia (a co-owner with her brother of the store) goes with Severian to get his weapon (a special plant that is used for dueling). Along the way they meet Dorcas, a woman who comes up from a lake of the dead to help save Severian, and she joins the journey for a weapon. The book wraps up with the duel, its aftermath and the traveling group’s play. The book then abruptly ends.

Overall I would have to rate the book as an incomplete because it isn’t a full story. But what I’ve read so far is wonderful. The characters are well written and the setting is wonderful. Severian is a great character and is journey is believable and exciting. The plot is well executed. The best part is Wolfe’s writing. He manages to convey character and setting with ease as he moves the plot along. I’m eagerly waiting to start the next book and see what happens with Severian. Recommended

2 thoughts on “The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe”

  1. I was lucky enough to get volumes 1 & 2 in one volume, and if you read them together it reads as a complete-ish story.

    It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember it being very dense, and with lots of fun, made up words, that were just close enough to something in English that I could perfectly understand what was going on.

    Wolfe is squirrely, i’ve noticed. He’s more interested in enveloping the reader in the story than in actually finishing it sometimes.

  2. I have them both in a single volume, but realized halfway through that I had a deadline to finish another book (due back at library and can’t renew), so I split my reading of the book.

    I’ll be finishing volume 2 early next week (hopefully).

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