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Just finished The Book of the New Sun. It was definitely ambitious and unique and worth reading, but I was still bored for most of it. Severian's narration and the general style Wolfe employs throughout is absolutely fantastic for worldbuilding, and for dropping tantalising little glimpses of the world (i.e. in the first book when Severian is describing the Citadel and just casually mentions a room that was originally "the structure's propulsion chamber"), but it fails at actually telling a compelling and entertaining story (with a few exceptions; the alzabo at the mountain cabin was gripping.) There's a lot of deus ex machina and philiosphical metaphors and I never really shook the notion that Severian was a puppet being jerked about on a string. Overall it's the kind of book where I prefer reading about the subtext and implications and the background of the world from third party sources rather than from the book itself. I have no doubt it's the kind of series that would reward careful re-reading; the problem is I have no inclination to ever read it again. I am confused about Severian being an unreliable narrator, which I've heard everywhere but didn't notice much at all in the book. There's the aforementioned stuff about how he did/didn't have sex with Thecla, and I read that list floating around online which proves that he doesn't have a perfect memory because every single time he mentions that, he then recalls a memory imperfectly, but usually in an unimportant way (like the exact placement of the Claw on somebody's body.) My understanding was that an unreliable narrator lies to the reader to conceal what would otherwise be a dramatic twist in the plot, but I can't point to any lying or dishonesty on Severian's part that actually had an impact on the story.
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Mar 11, 2013 16:45
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Has anybody read Solar Labyrinth by Robert Borski? Is it worth reading for someone like me who found BOTNS puzzling and fascinating, yet hard going, and wouldn't mind reading some explanations of what's going on in it?
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Mar 14, 2013 01:44
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Haha, OK. Thanks.
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Mar 16, 2013 03:58
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