The Claw of the Conciliator
First edition
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| Author | Gene Wolfe |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Don Maitz |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Book of the New Sun |
| Genre | Science fiction, High fantasy |
| Publisher | Timescape Books |
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Publication date
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1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 303 pp |
| Award | Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1982) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 6649937 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3573.O52 C57 |
| Preceded by | The Shadow of the Torturer |
| Followed by | The Sword of the Lictor |
The Claw of the Conciliator is a science fantasy novel by Gene Wolfe, first released in 1981. It is the second volume in the four-volume series, The Book of the New Sun.
The book continues the story of Severian, a journeyman in the Seekers for Truth and Penitence (the guild of torturers), describing his travels north to the city of Thrax.
An independent tale in the book, "The Tale of the Student and his Son," was later published separately in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1981.
The book continues shortly after the previous installment left off, skipping Severian's journey from the gate of Nessus to the nearby town of Saltus. Having been separated from the rest of the group he was traveling with, Severian pauses his search for them here as he is given an opportunity to practice his art (in this case, execution) on two people. The first was accused of being a servant of Vodalus, a revolutionary leader. As the man is dragged out of his home by a mob, Severian glimpses Agia amidst the crowd, a woman who with her twin brother had formerly tried to swindle and then kill Severian to gain his valuable executioner's sword. (Severian executed the brother at the request of the local authorities.) Realizing she has been sighted, Agia flees and Severian, still in love with her, follows, searching for her at the town fair. Unable to find her, he ends up at a tent containing a man whose skin is green. The green man is held as a slave, and his master makes money off of him, claiming he can answer any question. In answer to Severian's queries as to how he could know everything, the green man tells Severian he is from the future. The green man does not know where Agia can be found, but Severian takes pity on him and gives him a piece of his whetstone so that he can free himself by grinding through his chains, thus recalling his mercy to Thecla, another prisoner, in the first book. Unable to find Agia, Severian returns to town where he later executes a woman accused of being a witch.
Eating dinner with his friend Jonas (whom he met at the gate at Nessus) that evening, he finds a letter he first thinks is from Thecla (but is actually from Agia) asking him to meet her at a nearby cave. In the cave, Severian encounters and barely escapes a group of man-apes. The light from the Claw (a relic he accidentally came into possession of, which had previously been held by a religious order) stops the man-apes' attack, but it also seems to wake a gargantuan unknown creature deep below in the cave, who is only heard and not seen. Severian has little time to ponder this as he escapes, only to be attacked by Agia and her assassins outside the cave. One of the attackers is killed by one of the man-apes, who had its hand cut off by Severian in the battle in the cave. The ape gestures its stump at Severian, wanting him to do something with it, but Severian does not know what. Severian prepares to execute Agia, but, still unable to hate her, lets her go and returns to Saltus, where he and Jonas are kidnapped by Vodalus' gang for having agreed to execute one of its members.
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