Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun
    Unavailable
    Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun
    Unavailable
    Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun
    Ebook692 pages12 hours

    Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun

    By Gene Wolfe

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly.

    Sword & Citadel brings together the final two books of the tetralogy in one volume:

    The Sword of the Lictor is the third volume in Wolfe's remarkable epic, chronicling the odyssey of the wandering pilgrim called Severian, driven by a powerful and unfathomable destiny, as he carries out a dark mission far from his home.

    The Citadel of the Autarch brings The Book of the New Sun to its harrowing conclusion, as Severian clashes in a final reckoning with the dread Autarch, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that will forever alter the realm known as Urth.

    "Brilliant . . . terrific . . . a fantasy so epic it beggars the mind. An extraordinary work of art!"-Philadelphia Inquirer

    "The Book of the New Sun establishes [Wolfe's] preeminence, pure and simple. . . . The Book of the New Sun contains elements of Spenserian allegory, Swiftian satire, Dickensian social consciousness and Wagnerian mythology. Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within . . . once into it, there is no stopping."--The New York Times Book Review

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 15, 1994
    ISBN9781429966313
    Unavailable
    Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of The Book of the New Sun
    Author

    Gene Wolfe

    Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winners The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes as Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Best of Gene Wolfe. A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and six Locus Awards, among many other honors, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012.

    Read more from Gene Wolfe

    Related to Sword & Citadel

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Joe Abercrombie

      Sep 11, 2019

      It’s one of the hallmarks of a certain kind of fantasy that it appears to take place in an unchanging world of foundling princes, wizards and dark lords. Joe Abercrombie, for one, isn’t too keen on this idea. “I was always a bit frustrated by the san

      3 min read

    • Article

      Jay Kristoff

      Sep 8, 2021

      MOST NOVELISTS HAVE AT LEAST ONE book in a drawer that represents an early effort, a text that will never be offered up to a wider readership. In the case of Jay Kristoff, this book was a tale of bloodsuckers he wrote in 2008. “It was right at the ta

      3 min read

    • Article

      Walking On TheWild Side…

      Jul 17, 2023

      Walking On TheWild Side…
      3 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of Sanctuary

      Jan 5, 2024

      In Search Of Sanctuary
      16 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      Our Local Dead

      Sep 1, 2020

      IT SEEMS somehow very timely, so close to All Souls’ Day, the chance discovery of an ossuary in Calle de Arapiles in Madrid, near to where I still live—an ossuary that originally contained no fewer than three hundred corpses. Apparently, these mortal

      2 min read

    • Article

      Yara And The Witch Queen

      Oct 1, 2019

      I knew the dangers of witchcraft. My parents had told me about the time before I was born, when magic plagued our desert kingdom of Bahati. Untrained witch doctors trying to cure warts ended up paralyzing their patients or turning them into crocodile

      10 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Air You Breathe

      Aug 20, 2018

      The Air You Breathe
      23 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Escape Of Koravitch

      Sep 30, 2019

      The Escape Of Koravitch
      16 min read

    • Article

      John Ashbery

      Mar 15, 2019

      He could understand the things at home.—Wallace Stevens, “Things of August” Scribbled on the expansive mist, the desireof many dwindles to usand our “activities,” wholesomeor otherwise. Soon it becomes apparentthat neither they nor I have any prise o

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Close Encounter With A Lion

      May 25, 2023

      My Dear Baker Mrs Oswell and myself thoroughly enjoyed our stay with you and your charming wife in June. It was a true pleasure for us both to renew old times and friendship. We trust that your trip to India will be a pleasant one, and the ship you a

      6 min read

    • Article

      QUEEN Of The NILE

      Sep 26, 2019

      QUEEN Of The NILE
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Testament to Survival

      Sep 1, 2020

      A Testament to Survival
      7 min read

    • Article

      I, Spy

      Aug 7, 2018

      Many things happened to me for the first time on a night in April 1944. I rode in a Black Maria; I jumped from a bomber with a tangled parachute; and I began my mission in wartime France as a British secret agent. We drove in the Black Maria from Int

      17 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Michael Palin

      Sep 22, 2022

      Michael Palin
      7 min read

    • Article

      TALL, WIDE, and Piercing Eyes

      Mar 1, 2019

      TALL, WIDE, and Piercing Eyes
      7 min read

    Reviews for Sword & Citadel

    4.5/5

    614 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Heavy going, but arguably the greatest achievement in SF/fantasy literature since Lord of the Rings. This secured Wolfe's enduring reputation as a literary artist.
    • 2/5
      The continuation of the classic story of an unremarkable young man who finds himself rising to the leadership of his nation. Sword & Citadel by Gene Wolfe is the omnibus collection of the last two volumes of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch, following the travels of exiled torturer Severian.The Sword of the Lictor finds Severian arrived in Thrax performing his duties until he doesn’t kill someone for the city’s Archon and runs for the hills. He ultimately meets up and battles Dr. Talos and Baldanders in which his sword is destroyed. The Citadel of the Autarch finds Severian continuing his wanderings towards the war in the North when he stumbles upon it. Through his war experience he meets up with the Autarch and becomes his successor after eating him.The opening volume of the book, Sword, is the nadir of the entire series as I came to dislike Severian as a character and Wolfe as a writer because of awful everything was. What made it worse was that the concluding volume of the book, Citadel, began well and gave a false promise about redeeming the entire series then Severian meet up with the Autarch and it quickly went into the abyss. Wolfe wrote five “in-world” stories, one in Sword and four in Citadel as part of a storytelling contest, which were all better than either one of these volumes.I had high hopes for this classic series by Gene Wolfe, however Sword & Citadel concluded one of the most overrated series I’ve ever read.The Sword of the Lictor (1.5/5)The Citadel of the Autarch (2/5)
    • 5/5
      Complex, multi-layered work of a polymath genius. Absolutely a masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      I loved this tetralogy, though I'm not convinced I'm even close to understanding all that went on. This saga demands re-reading.
    • 5/5
      Reread Audiobook Oct 2011. Wonder upon wonder. The greatest work of the imagination I have ever encountered. A billion stars.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Holy. Crap. I don’t think I’ve ever read a science fiction or fantasy novel that came so close to the complexity of other great works of fiction. It reminds me of Candide, Moby-Dick, many others. I don’t say that type of thing often – I promise I’m not being hyperbolic. This is super-literary bildungsroman stuff, that just happens to occur in the the far, far future on an Earth whose sun is going out.After finishing this series of books, I immediately thought “Well, I’m going to have to reread these”. There’s no way I got it all the first time around. I really wish I had studied it in the context of a book group or class – I could’ve used some discussion, surely.Anyway, I’m pretty damn impressed, and will be reading some other stuff by Wolfe in the near future.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A series unlike anything else you have ever read in any genre. Reading Wolfe, especially in this series, is to me very much like reading a painting. He can be tough to follow so reading this book does require you to think, as he makes extensive use of metaphors to paint the picture/story for you and time lines are mixed together with little explanation. That said, I found it be a very rewarding read, unique all around and easily one of the best sci-fi/fantasy stories ever written.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      So, I read this book mostly out of a completionist impulse rather than any strong drive to actually read the thing. Clever, creating a 2-volume omnibus edition. I guess The Book of the New Sun is a classic. Do I see good things in it? Yes... there are dozens of wonderful ideas in this series. Interesting twists, fascinating mythos.... And the concept of the autarch (and who and what that is...)? Very cool.Yet this book never grabbed me. While there are riveting concepts here, the writing is so utterly flat to me. I am honestly bewildered how so much wonderfulness can be so, well... boring.Aside from a writing style I didn't exactly fall into, I struggled with the absence of plot. Like a roughly-connected series of DnD adventures featuring cool min/max characters, Severian just moves from adventure to adventure, gaining the occasional clue, an item here or there, and bits of experience. He gets progressively awesome with his sword (too much xp for each adventure!), and quickly seems immune to most human weaknesses (even when he's near death he's still pretty snappy). Bits of character development are still flat. A more emotive story-teller could have really put some zing in these books.Still, it gets 3 stars. It was okay. I'm glad to move on, though.
    • 5/5
      I found myself getting more and more drawn into this complex and strange book.
    • 3/5
      If you've read Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' and liked it, this, at 411 pages, is a modest investment in time compared to some other fantasy series. While I'm not sorry I read it, I'm not among the many who love this series, and I won't be continuing it.This second half follows our torturer hero Severian into the wilderness where he continues to be bedeviled by Agia, the woman trying to kill him. But he also meets a young namesake, finds the deadly ruins of a previous Autarch, gets embroiled in the war with the Ascians (a culture which only allows verbal expression using officially chosen proverbs and aphorisms), and reveals the answers to most of the mysteries of this world, the Autarch, and his old lover Dorca.Those revelations were interesting as were some of the scenes and philosophical asides. But just before most of those revelations, in the book's last fourth, I lost enough interest in the story to put the book aside awhile. It was Wolfe's intention to do something different with the cliches and templates of heroic fantasy of the Tolkien mold. And, to a certain extent, he did. Making our narrating hero an honest to goodness torturer is something different. Ultimately, though, the interruption of Severian's story for the nested tales and fables presented by other characters began to bore me. The novel's central mystery reminded me of the more concise and enjoyable ending to Charles L. Harness' The Paradox Men, and the ever increasing Christian imagery and allusions made me impatient too. They were enough to make me wish Wolfe had either never introduced them or gone all the way into truly allegorical territory a la a medieval romance. And, though a torturer, Severian turns out to fufill much the same cliched role as many a fantasy hero who are the saviors of their people.Yes, Severian does reveal all he promised, but the revelations turn out to not be all that interesting.
    • 5/5
      I read this book in two nights and I much regret that hastiness. The beauty and horror of Gene Wolfe is in his writing style. He has one of the most "true" to character writing styles that I have ever read. He writes his main character, Severian, so honestly that half of the prose blends into poetry and dreams, as they most likely do in most people's heads. So when you read it too quickly, it floats by like a good dream you once had.The content of the plot is pretty standard epic. Severian travels through the wilderness of the world and into plenty of different environs, unbelievably managing to meet up with every interesting person on the planet again and again. Not to say this is a bad thing, a story without a monomyth would be a boring thing indeed. And in this area, I think this book succeeds more greatly than it's prequel (or prequels technically). The only thing that is lacks in content, in my opinion, is romance. He doesn't develop any further romances and the longings he has for past romances are all bittersweet ones. More connections to humanity would have continued to enhance my own connection to Severian, I believe.The plot is also honest, which I've come to admire over time. People randomly die, there is often sadness, things are not wrapped up, and most tellingly, the main character will often exaggerate or lie. His speech and actions often deviate from his thought process greatly. This, especially combined with times when he's drugged or weary, leads to an interesting edge of not really being sure of what's going on. Like I said before, this is a double-edged sword. It's hard to really feel for a character who speaks in such a self-centered manner and relates his feelings and thoughts in such an indirect way.Because of this, I don't think I can ever say that Gene Wolfe's stories (if they are all similar to this style) will be my favorite, but I admired the amazing control of language and style found in this novel. It is of a level of quality rarely found in modern-day science fiction and fantasy and to be treasured. This novel is in my list of only a couple books that really demand a re-read.
    • 3/5
      I greatly enjoyed the first book of this set, but found this one a little bit of a letdown. Entertaining in many places, and engrossing in others, this book also felt like it was sleepwalking at times. Still worth reading, but it was much easier to put down than its companion.
    • 4/5
      Speaking strictly from a story perspective, this proved to be a bit more interesting than the previous volume - but that's not really the point of it. I finished this feeling like I'd missed most of what it was really about, and had to surf the net and read various reviews and essays on it to begin understanding the layers. I'm still not entirely clear on some of it.
    • 5/5
      Heavy going, but arguably the greatest achievement in SF/fantasy literature since Lord of the Rings. This secured Wolfe's enduring reputation as a literary artist.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the greates fiction books written ever. It is a true masterpiece. It works and suceeds on every level.