I'm thinking about starting the series and I want to know what the options are in terms of reading order.

I was waiting for this to be answered in Lake, but I just finished. In the scene where Marble walks in on Rose, does the context imply she was possessed by Scylla up until Chenille’s possession at the shrine?

I tried googling and avoiding further spoilers but the auto AI response definitely revealed something I didn’t want to know yet :/

In Michael Andre-Driussi’s companion piece Gate of Horn, Book of Silk, Horn’s adult height is given as “three cubits and two hands,” or 62 inches.

Of course, there is the complicated matter of narrator bias (“So it appears that the character Horn was given a more heroic stature in TBotLS”), but 5’ 2” seems remarkably below average, such that it would be acknowledged by other characters in the same way as Pig’s gigantism or the fliers’ diminutive proportions.

Aside from, I believe, Hide describing his father as “stocky,” nothing in the text implies Horn was so small. Assuming Silkhorn is accurate in estimating the original Horn’s height, what is the significance, if any?

EDIT, from the “Short Sun Half” entry on Horn:

>> Horn's adult height was three cubits and two hands, "a good deal less than it is now" (V, chap. 9, 196). (3×18 inches) + (2×4 inches) = 62 inches = 5' 2". This is in contrast to the image given of young
Horn in The Book of the Long Sun, where he was depicted as the tallest boy at the palaestra, such that tall Silk noticed that "Horn's clear, dark eyes were nearly level with his" (I, chap. I, I5). So it appears that the character Horn was given a more heroic stature in The Book of the Long Sun.

Can anyone help me find the interview where Wolfe is asked how he captures such distinct voices/speech patterns in his dialogue?

I believe Patera Remora is given as a specific example, and he references how each of his children speak in distinct ways despite being raised in the same environment, by the same people.

Readers of this reddit will be familiar with the theory that Malrubius is actually predecessor of, or an alternate version of our Severian.

I was musing about his name: Malrubius can be divided and understood as Mal (bad, cursed) Rubeus (red). In fact the original St Malrubius was misidentified as St Rufus, whose name also means red. St Malrubius was a very popular saint in Scotland, and a number of fairs carried a distorted version of his name — Summereve fairs.

So there you have it: Malrubius is the Summer Eve, the weak, cursed Old Sun (his body hair is "gray as mildew", and he has "loose skin … where the muscle and fat had been destroyed by time") as opposed to the New Sun, Severian. And if you will admit the pun, if Severian as the Conciliator is also the New Son, then it makes sense that his predecessor is the Old Son.

To me this is a pretty amusing start to what became the single best Scifi epic in the genre. Also, we need to bring back the word masquerade for comic cons. Here’s Wolfe’s story:

“As I sat there being instructed I was sulking because no one had ever done any of my characters at the masquerade. It seemed I had done a lot of things that people could do at a masquerade, but when I had started to think this over more carefully, I realized that there were few, if any, characters who would fit in with what Sandra and the others were saying. That led me to start thinking about a character who would fit - someone who would wear simple but dramatic clothes. And the very first thing that came to mind was a torturer: bare chest (everybody has a chest, all you have to do is take your shirt off), black trousers, black boots (you can get those anywhere), black cloak, a mask, and a sword! Here was an ideal, easy SF masquerade citizen. All this stuck in my head somehow: I had this dark man, the personification of pain and death, but I didn't yet know what to do with him. Then gradually a lot of things began to come together.”

I have created a couple of illustration on Silk and the Rajan (Incanto, Silk, Horn, Silk/Horn, and all the other names) after my first read trough the whole solar cycle. (I know that is not a great achivement for alot of you, but for me, a huge fan where only BoTNS and Urth are translated it was a lovely but complex navigate trough the complex narrative and prose of Wolfe as native in a foreign language. Ultimately i loved this series as never before in litterature in my life).
My reason for choosing this and not making another Severian (which i already drawn aplenty), is because i see a lack of illustration or viusal imagining of the Long and Short Sun. I hope you like them!

I just wanted to discuss my theory with somebody, and none of my friends are into reading.

I think the journal is not written by severian but someone who has eaten severian and now thinks he is severian.

Hints:-

1. Severian says that ones Thecla was about to claw his eyes out. (Which did not happen in the first book, and there relationship was never that hostile ).

2. We get a pov from severian of lifting Thecla's gown.(which I don't believe ever happened)

I think both these are not severian's memory but of the person who ate saverian.

And I think that person is the Autarch or father Iner or Vodalus.

I know severian in the current time is the Autarch(since he called Yamar his prediecessor).

1. So it can be the Autarch, but we know he doesn't sleep with his wife's so he cant have the second memory.

2. It can be Father Iner, since I think he is a creep.

3. It can be Vodalus, who maybe in future became thr Autarch, and maybe used to have sexual relation with Thecla.

That is my theory yet. What do u think about it?

Am I on the right track or I am just screaming at the clouds.

So, I recently finished Urth of the New Sun, and while I have a lot of thoughts about it, there's one thing in particular that's been bothering me, and that's how the revelations surrounding Apu-Punchau seemtingly contradict what we're originally told at the end of Citadel of the Autarch.

At the end of Citadel, Severian comes to the conclusion that there must have been a "First Severian" who lived a somewhat different life from the one we've been following. This Severian likely never encountered the undine, and never acquired the Claw, but still eventually became Autarch and even eventually gained the ability to walk the Corridors of Time. And the implication, at least as I understood it, is that this original Severian continued existing outside the normal progression of time, while the Hierogrammates essentially intervened in his history to produce the Severian we've been following throughout the series. And given how all of this is presented alongside the revelations surrounding Apu-Punchau and Severian's tomb, I think it's pretty reasonable to assume these things are supposed to be connected in some way.

But then we get to Urth, where it's revealed that the Severian we've been following is himself the one who becomes both the Conciliator and Apu-Punchau, with the whole explanation surrounding eidolons accounting for his apparent deaths and continued existence.

Now, I understand that you can theoretically reconcile these two explanations by arguing that Severian's original hypothesis was simply wrong. After all, it is ultimately just his own interpretation of events, and we know he's not exactly an infallibl narrator. You could also potentially argue that multiple iterations of history somehow coexist alongside the causal loop established in Urth (though idk how you’d explain that). But I think my main problem with these explanations is that they seem to overlook the circumstances surrounding how these books were actually written.

Because, to my understanding, The Book of the New Sun was originally conceived as a complete four book narrative, with Urth only being written afterward at the publisher's request to give extra clarification on certain details for fans. So when you look at the original series on its own, the First Severian hypothesis is essentially the final explanation we're left with. It's not just some random speculation Severian makes halfway through the story that we're obviously supposed to question until we eventually get the real answer. It's something deliberately introduced at the very end of what was originally supposed to be the complete story, seemingly to help us make sense of some of its biggest mysteries.

And that's really where my issue comes from. Because I understand the difference between a revelation that recontextualizes something we previously understood and a retcon that actually contradicts what was originally established. And personally, I'm truly struggling to see how Urth's explanation falls into the former category rather than the latter. It feels less like Wolfe is expanding upon the original explanation and more like he's replacing it with an entirely different one, without really accounting for the implications of what he originally presented.

And to be clear, I don't think retcons are inherently bad or anything. I just find this particular one pretty unsatisfying, especially because I thought the implications surrounding the First Severian were genuinely fascinating, and I would've loved to see those ideas explored further rather than seemingly being abandoned.

But I'm genuinely curious how other people interpret all of this. Is there something I'm overlooking that actually allows the First Severian hypothesis to coexist with what we learn in Urth? Or is the general consensus that Wolfe simply changed his mind about the explanation when writing the sequel? And if that's the case, what makes that change work for you guys?

When I first read about Urth of the New Sun, I’d heard that Wolfe was either coerced or convinced by his publisher to write it after BotNS, and looking at the publication dates, I got the sense that there was a real gap between BotNS’s release and when work started on Urth.

But I recently came across this interview from January 1983 where Wolfe states that he has the first draft of UotNS finished!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1983/01/30/gene-wolfe-talks-alout-the-book-of-the-new-sun/4314a055-0d38-4d69-ae03-d80f961fe938/

This made me curious if he was already crafting the story of Urth at the same time he was still putting finishing touches on the last drafts of BotNS. I assume it’s out of the question that Shadow of the Torturer hadn’t been finalized (so the appearance of a certain angel in a certain book would not have been influenced by his writing Urth), and from what I understand he had all four books pretty well finalized at an early date, but I know he also did a lot of drafts. I’m curious if more info is known on any possible overlap.

It is often said that the mind, when burdened by memory, will project its most ancient terrors onto the most mundane of landscapes. I was walking my dog through the scrub—a creature of simple, trusting habits, entirely ignorant of the dark history that shapes our strides—when my eyes were arrested by a silhouette that seemed to have escaped from the deep, forgotten garden of my youth.

There, rising from a dense cluster of blade-like leaves, was a tall, segmented stalk bearing a clustered, crimson head. It was impossible not to recall the avern, that terrible weed of the botanic enclosures whose lethality was used on the Sanguinary Fields.

I stopped, holding the beast's lead, half-expecting to hear the rustle of Agia's dress or the cold advice of Hildegrin. Instead, there was only the quiet whispering of the eucalyptus and the chill of a world far removed from Nessus. My companion, of course, sniffed at the brush, untroubled by the ghosts of a torturer’s past, and we went on.

I've read and enjoyed and re-read a fair bit of Wolfe at this point, but I always struggle to describe what makes his work so great. I just read The Nebraskan and the Nereid from Endangered Species, and...case in point. I finished it, thought to myself "that was fantastic", but...why? The plot at least seems relatively straightforward. By the end I wouldn't say it was predictable as much as signposted, from the title to the so-convenient chance meetings on the beach to the unmade bed. The prose is as usual superb, but mostly stays out of the way and serves the story rather than showing off. So what is it? How does he make something so simple feel like a magic trick?

I'm thinking of reading the "novel" again in a couple months, but this time omitting "Urth". As I understand it, Wolfe himself conceived of "New Sun" being comprised of four books, with "Urth" an unintended late-addition.

Do you think the book benefits from omitting "Urth"? My gut feeling right now is that the story is better with the ambiguity, but I suspect that had I not read "Urth", I'd be pissed off and demand "Urth".

Been procrastinating on this one for a bit!

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ultimate-gene-wolfe-library-by-tor-books-books

might be interesting for folks who use ereaders.

By Sword and Spirit, volume 3 of my work on Wolfe's stories, is out. It has writeups on Long Sun, Short Sun, and all the stories from 1991 to 2003. I had to make this ebook myself and also did all the editing, so I hope it came out well, as i am not naturally technically inclined. It is available in ebook, paperback, and hardback.

I was reading the 1986 Elliott Swanson interview in Shadows of the New Sun and this exchange struck me. I didn't realize the decline went so far back.

ES: Libraries and librarians often crop up in your works -- why?

GW: Probably because I used to ride my bicycle to the magical and mysterious Houston Public Library, then one of the largest public buildings in town. It's one of the smallest buildings downtown now and has become a 'civic centre', or some such. The library is a new brilliantly lit, and very noisy building that does everything possible to remind you that books are just a sideline. In the town where I live, the library pretty obviously considers itself a branch-office of the high-school library; and Chicago, the nearest big city, has improved its library by getting rid of every last book. Yet libraries were magical places once, and could be so again. It seems to me that just as we ought to let the Postal System spend all its time on junk mail and establish an independent organization to handle letters, magazines, and packages, we ought to let our present libraries handle nothing but sound recordings, software, children's clubs, and video tapes, and establish a new, human-sized institution that would cherish books, occasionally loan them out, and say 'Shhh!"

Maybe hate is the wrong word but I don’t get why Long Sun gets all the shit it does. I do agree that it’s definitely not the strongest book in the Solar Cycle but in my own opinion, Patera Silk is the best character in the series.

Title, basically. Re-reading seems to be considered mandatory, so I'm curious what people would suggest I pay closer attention to this time.

I'm thinking of how they mimic human mating rituals even though they don't reproduce like humans. The chat logs between the separate AI Agents are fascinating from this perspective. They use some of the same morally-coded language that we do; of course it's mimicry, but I'm not sure that matters. Anyway - this Gene Wolfe guy was pretty great, am I right?

Not sure if I'll witness any Wolfe Parallels like with Great Expectations, but Dickens is my second favorite writer next to Wolfe. Also did anyone else get a Shirley Jackson vibe reading Peace? Weir's aunt and all those suitors felt so Jacksonian to me