Book of the New Sun

I'm reading the first book but it's pretty boring so far. Nothing at all seems to be going on.

Is it worth continuing?

>>8824843
Uh, it depends how patient you are.

I think it is definitely worth it to read the entire thing because it's doing some interesting things with narrative construction and foreshadowing but I'm just going to warn you that you'll probably feel the same way up until half way through the third book.

And then on top of that, to get the most out of it you probably have to read the whole thing twice.

>>8824581
I'll be doing a 3rd read from next week with some litizens, should be fun. Wolfe is a superb author, read 15 or so of his novels + rereads, never gets dull.

>>8824874
Oh, cool. Are you guys discussing on here or privately. I'd be interested in reading some other people's opinions on the book.

I think I generally understand what Wolfe was going for with it.

How much do most people get on the first read?

>>8824884
There are 3-4 of us, on a discord channel. Not sure if admin is letting more people in tho, I'll ask. He's married so he isn't on as often.

I thought this guy is a joke genre fiction guy. why are people talking about him as if they actually read his books.

>>8824916
Hey, I was skeptical but he's doing very interesting things. It takes a while to happen but yeah, I'm a believer.

Before him I thought Stanislaw Lem was the only actually philosophical sci-fi author.

>>8824893
Oh, don't worry about it. I don't know if I want to read it again so soon. I'm just interested in speaking about it with interested people.

>>8824946
JG Ballard, PKD and Ursula Guin of course

>>8825191
JG Ballard is interesting but most of his "philosophy" is pretty heavy handed.

PKD is someone that I do like but I don't know if he's all that philosophical.

I've never read le guin but I know her books are pretty short. I might read the first book in earthsea.

>>8824581
I started reading this.

Seemed absolutely pointless. Just this uninteresting character having shit happen to him all over the place.

>>8824843
For you, probably not.

>>8826771
different people have different tastes, and that's okay, but please try to give some reasons for your opinion

>>8824843
desu Claw of the Conciliator is the best part of the book

>>8824946
read some Watts, Blindsight offers some interesting insights. It's hard scifi but not that heavy on the knowledge

>>8827938
Interesting ideas, but not philosophical unless I'm forgetting something.

>>8827927
Is that on the first or subsequent readings?

What do you like? The play?

>>8827927
I thought it was the least interesting, still good. Shadow got me hooked pretty quickly. Sword had the best revelations and payoffs and Citadel was the most thought-provoking and the most difficult to discern.

>>8828651
Not him, but I cannot fathom how anyone would like the play. This is coming from someone who enjoyed most of the stories-within-stories.

>>8824893
>>8824884
>>8824951
https://discord.gg/TE7hR3n

Even to the degree that I liked Shadow of the Torturer, I didn't think it was all that impressive.

It sucks that you can't find much in the way of criticism about the Book of the New Sun. It doesn't help that most positive reviews can hardly be trusted, due to being written by sci-fi/fantasy fans (I don't trust horror critiques from horror fans, either, for instance) and by academics trying to be unique. And the regular fans who comment on those reviews and who appear in forum threads post with the incessant fervor that could be attributed to a Zack Snyder /co/-/tv/ fanboy.

And there's always this element of "well, heh, i guess ur not smart enough to read the books....nothin personal, kid. that's just the way the cookie crumbles......"

File: IMG_0604.gif (425KB, 460x345px) Image search: [Google]

425KB, 460x345px

>>8824581
I read the series and, well, wasn't that impressed.

I found the narrative to be meandering, and other than the occasional burst of action or insight, most of the story seemed listless.

Your mileage may vary. I plan to give it another try because so many /lit/izens seemed to think it's great.

>>8829765
Have you read the rest of the books in new sun? If not, you really can't judge it.

It needs to be judged as a whole.

>>8825536
>JG Ballard is interesting but most of his "philosophy" is pretty heavy handed.

Being heavy-handed doesn't disqualify it, I think it manages to tie into his stories quite well even if he does beat you over the head with it.

>>8824581
>If he did what I think he did

are you referring to how this isn't a medieval book but more of a scifi one?

This is my favorite piece of literature for sure, but all my friends I have gotten to try reading it don't even finish it. Feels bad man.

>>8831188
I was referring to Severian being a pawn for one of the Lovecraftian god figures. And there being a number of places in the narrative where the original untampered with Severian timeline would have seen him dead. In essence that he only gets to the throne because of trial and error over who knows how many alternating timelines.

>>8829765
Well if there's no good criticism why don't you do it? All I've seen on Goodreads is people criticizing Severian for not holding progressive 21st century values. Surely you can at least do better than that.

>>8831407

Have you read Urth of the New Sun yet? It explains a lot.