The Book of the New Sun
Front cover of the first one-volume edition (1998)
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| Author | Gene Wolfe |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Solar Cycle Book of the New Sun sub-series |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher |
Simon & Schuster; Orb / Tor Books (first two-volume) |
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Publication date
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1980-1983 (four vols); 1994 (two) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover first; trade paperback first two-volume ed.) |
| Pages | 950 |
| OCLC | 30700568 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3573.O52 S53 1994 |
| Followed by | Book of the Long Sun sub-series |
The Book of the New Sun (1980 – 1983) is a series of four science fantasy novels or one four-volume novel written by American author Gene Wolfe. Alternatively, it is a series comprising the original tetralogy, a 1983 collection of essays, and a 1987 sequel. Either way, it inaugurated the so-called "Solar Cycle" that Wolfe continued after 1987 by setting other multi-volume works in the same universe.
Gene Wolfe had originally intended the story to be a 40,000-word novella called "The Feast of Saint Catherine", meant to be published in one of the Orbit anthologies, but during the writing it continued to grow in size. Despite being published with a year between each book, all four books were written and completed during his free time without anyone's knowledge when he was still an editor of Plant Engineering, allowing him to write at his own pace and take his time.
The tetralogy chronicles the journey of Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who is exiled and forced to travel to Thrax and beyond. It is a first-person narrative, apparently translated by Wolfe into contemporary English, set in the distant future when the Sun has dimmed and Earth is cooler (a "Dying Earth" story).
In 1998, Locus magazine ranked the tetralogy number three among 36 all-time best fantasy novels before 1990, based on a poll of subscribers.
The Book of the New Sun belongs to the Dying Earth subgenre of speculative fiction, named after the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance (1950 to 1984). Substantially that is fantasy or science fiction set in a distant future when Earth's sun is dying (cooling notably). The setting commonly includes mysterious and obscure powers and events.
Each of the four original volumes won at least one major fantasy or science fiction award as the year's "Best Novel" (see table). The tetralogy was not considered as a whole for any of the annual literary awards compiled by the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB).
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Wikipedia