Gene Wolfe at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 29/01/2008

Gene Wolfe

Severian of the Guild

The Book of the New Sun: (Vol II)

The Book of the New Sun (Vol I)

Peace

The Fifth Head of Cerberus

About the Author

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Gollancz (2007)

Severian of the Guild
Severian of the Guild contains all four novels that make up The Book Of The New Sun: an extraordinary epic that has been voted, with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, one of the greatest fantasies of all time.
Severian is a lowly apprentice torturer, blessed and cursed with a photographic memory, who finds himself exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims. Armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est, he travels through the marvels of far-far-future Urth towards the distant city of Thrax. Gene Wolfe is a master storyteller, and in Severian of the Guild he has woven together all the classic ingredients - growing up, adventure, sex, betrayal, murder, exile, battle, monsters, and mysteries to be solved - to create a wondrous tapestry, a masterpiece that will live with you for ever.
‘Gene Wolfe is the smartest, most dangerous writer alive today’ Neil Gaiman
‘One of the great science-fantasy epics of all time’ George R.R. Martin
Outstanding . . . A major work of twentieth-century American literature’ The New York Times Book Review
‘Wonderfully vivid and inventive ... the most extraordinary hero in the history of the heroic epic’ Washington Post Book World
‘Almost heartbreakingly good, full of riches and subtleties that improve with each rereading. It is Gene Wolfe’s masterpiece’ David Langford
‘Magic stuff... a masterpiece’ Ursula Le Guin

Paperback - Gollancz Millenium (2001)

The Book of the New Sun: (Vol II)
Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time, after The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, in a time when our present culture is no longer even a memory.
Severian, the central character, is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est. This edition contains the final two volumes, of this four volume novel, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch.
‘The last two volumes of one of the greatest novels ever written’ Kim Stanley Robinson
‘A masterpiece. Totally original, new, incomparable’ Ursula Le Guin
‘One of the great science fantasy epics of all time’ George R.R. Martin

Paperback - Gollancz Millenium (2000)

The Book of the New Sun (Vol I)
Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time after The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wondrous ways.
Severian is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and now journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est. This edition contains The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, the first two volumes of this four volume novel.
'The first two volumes of one of the greatest novels ever written’ Kim Stanley Robinson
'The books are chests full of wonders; full of images like jewels, of words a reader can get drunk on, of people and incidents that will linger long in memory. For years and years to come, I think, we'll see inferior imitations of Wolfe's masterpiece decked out with the phrase "'In the tradition of Wolfe", for that is the tribute all great originals are inevitably paid' George R. R. Martin
'An accomplishment which must justify itself by nothing less than total success… What results is a… page-turningly tense and ominously dark narrative' Algis Budrys
'The first volume of a masterpiece. Gene Wolfe is a wizard, a torturer, frightening, delightful. Beware! This is magic stuff!… Totally original, new, incomparable’ Ursula K. Le Guin
'One expects any book from Gene Wolfe to be a classic and here it is ... Dark, daunting, and thoroughly believable.' Thomas M. Disch
'In fantasy, as in SF, Gene Wolfe's originality lies in the sense that - more thoroughly than almost any of his contemporaries - he is in the process of finishing the stories he tells. His work signals the late maturity of the genres he graces' The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
'One of the great science fantasy epics of all time' George R.R. Martin

Paperback - Gollancz Millenium (2002)

Peace
The memoir of Alden Dennis Weer, told as he apparently lives out his last years in the same Midwestern town he was born in, is a melancholy, amiable series of tales. But his story reveals that Weer has been around more than his fair share of death, and this may not be coincidental.
As the narrative unfolds, a miraculous dimension emerges. For Weer’s imagination can reshape reality, obliterate time, even transcend death itself . . . Peace is a seductive, powerful and affecting novel of rare resonance and depth; a brilliantly imaginative tour de force that ranks alongside the most memorable modern fantasies.
Fantasy Masterworks is a library of some of the greatest, most original, and most influential fantasy ever written. These are the books which, along with Tolkien, Peake and others, shaped modern fantasy.
`Eloquent and entertaining’ The Times Literary Supplement
`Peace is, more than most, a book that will benefit from a second reading; a panorama of shifting landscapes that only settle into patterns after the last page’ Mary Gentle
`Gene Wolfe is unique’ The Chicago Sun-Times
`It is not merely one of my favourite novels ...it is one of a tiny handful of modern novels of which I am in awe’ Neil Gaiman
`May be his finest’ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
`A tricky, deep and remarkable novel’ Neil Gaiman
`[Gene Wolfe’s] most intricate and personal work . . . it is central to any full attempt to understand his other novels’ The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Paperback - Gollancz Millenium (1999)

The Fifth Head of Cerberus
On the twin colony planets Sainte Anne and Sainte Croix, civilisation is a colourful mix of the archaic and the futuristic, with slavery and advanced science coexisting. The shapeshifting alien inhabitants of Sainte Anne were exterminated by the colonists - but some believe that instead they killed the humans and adopted their identity. In three interlocking tales, the secrets of this strange society are gradually unraveled.
The MASTERWORKS is a library of the greatest SF ever written, chosen with the help of today's leading SF writers and editors. These books show that genuinely innovative SF is as exciting today as when it was first written.
'An amazing list - genuinely the best novels from sixty years of SF' Iain M. Banks
'A truly extraordinary work ... a masterpiece' Science Fiction: The 100 Best novels
'SF for the thinking reader... The style is highly literate and the ideas are sophisticated and handled with sensitivity.' Amazing SF
'One of the most cunningly wrought narratives in the whole of modern SF, a masterpiece of misdirection, subtle clues, and apparently casual revelations.' David Pringle
'A subtle, ingenious, poetic, and picturesque book; the uncertainty principle embodied in brilliant fiction... Wolfe is so good he leaves me speechless.' Ursula K. Le Guin
'A richly imaginative exploration identity and individuality.' The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
'A subtle and complex writer who has, over the years, skilfully woven elements of both fantasy and SF into his work.' Waterstone's Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

About The Author
Gene Wolfe was born in 1931 in New York but raised in Texas. He Served in the Korean War and afterwards studied mechanical engineering. Apart from The Fifth Head of Cerberus, his major work is the four-volume Book of the New Sun. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes him as 'quite possible the most important author in the SF field today'.
In 1972 Gene Wolfe became editor of an engineering periodical. His first story ('The Dead Man') appeared in 1965, after he had already been writing for some time. During the 60s and the 70s Wolfe wrote a large number of short stories, many of which were published in Damon Knight's Orbit anthologies. In 1973 'The Death of Doctor Island', part of a quartet of stories later collected as The Wolfe Archipelago in 1983, won a Nebula award. His first novel (Operation Ares) was published in 1970, but was heavily cut by the publisher. His second novel was The Fifth Head of Cerberus, published in 1972. In 1980, he started to publish a long sequence of novels called The Book of The New Sun, beginning with The Shadow of the Torturer (1980). The final book in the sequence was The Citadel of the Autarch (1983), although there followed a sequel in 1987 (The Urth of the New Sun). Of these books, The Shadow of the Torturer won a World Fantasy Award and The Claw of the Conciliator (1981) won a Nebula. He wrote several more novels before starting on a new sequence in 1993 called The Book of The Long Sun.

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Severian of the Guild (Gollancz Pbk, 2007)

The Wizard ( 2005) Gollancz Pbk Dec 07

Return to the Whorl ( 2001)

In Green's Jungles ( 2001)

The Book of the New Sun: (Vol II) ( 2001) Gollancz Millenium Pbk Jan 01

The Book of the New Sun (Vol I) (Gollancz Millenium, 2000) Gollancz Millenium Pbk Mar 00

On Blue's Waters ( 1999)

Exodus from the Long Sun ( 1996)

Calde of the Long Sun ( 1994)

Lake of the Long Sun ( 1994)

Nightside the Long Sun ( 1993)

Castleview ( 1990)

Pandora by Holly Hollander ( 1990)

Soldier of Arete ( 1989)

There Are Doors ( 1988)

The Urth of the New Sun ( 1987)

Soldier of the Mist ( 1986)

Free Live Free ( 1985)

The Citadel of the Autarch ( 1982)

The Sword of the Lictor ( 1981)

The Claw of the Conciliator ( 1981)

The Shadow of the Torturer ( 1980)

The Devil in a Forest ( 1976)

Peace ( 1975) Gollancz Millenium Pbk Apr 02

The Fifth Head of Cerberus ( 1972) Gollancz Millenium Pbk May 99

Operation Ares ( 1970)